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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9265-8.txt b/9265-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b72eaf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/9265-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9453 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, +Aug., 1859, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9265] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 16, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, AUGUST 1859 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Sandra Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. IV.--AUGUST, 1859.--NO. XXII. + + + + + + + + +THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN THE BIBLE. + + +We say dramatic element _in_ the Bible, not dramatic element _of_ the +Bible, since that of which we speak is not essential, but incidental; it +is an aspect of the form of the book, not an attribute of its +inspiration. + +By the use of the term _dramatic_ in this connection, let us, in the +outset, be understood to have no reference whatever to the theatre and +stage-effect, or to the sundry devices whereby the playhouse is made at +once popular and intolerable. Nor shall we anticipate any charge of +irreverence; since we claim the opportunity and indulge only the license +of the painter, who, in the treatment of Scriptural themes, seeks both +to embellish the sacred page and to honor his art,--and of the sculptor, +and the poet, likewise, each of whom, ranging divine ground, remarks +upon the objects there presented according to the law of his profession. +As the picturesque, the statuesque, the poetical in the Bible are +legitimate studies, so also the dramatic. + +But in the premises, is not the term _dramatic_ interdicted,--since it +is that which is not the Bible, but which is foreign to the Bible, and +even directly contradistinguished therefrom? The drama is +representation,--the Bible is fact; the drama is imitation,--the Bible +narrative; the one is an embodiment,--the other a substance; the one +transcribes the actual by the personal,--the other is a return to the +simplest originality; the one exalts its subjects by poetic +freedom,--the other adheres to prosaic plainness. + +Yet are there not points in which they meet, or in which, for the +purposes of this essay, they may be considered as coming together,--that +is, admitting of an artistical juxtaposition? + +In the first place, to take Shakspeare for a type of the drama, what, we +ask, is the distinguishing merit of this great writer? It is his +fidelity to Nature. Is not the Bible also equally true to Nature? "It is +the praise of Shakspeare," says Dr. Johnson, "that his plays are the +mirror of life." Was there ever a more consummate mirror of life than +the Bible affords? "Shakspeare copied the manners of the world then +passing before him, and has more allusions than other poets to the +traditions and superstitions of the vulgar." The Bible, perhaps, excels +all other books in this sort of description. "Shakspeare was an exact +surveyor of the inanimate world." The Bible is full of similar sketches. +An excellence of Shakspeare is the individuality of his characters. +"They are real beings of flesh and blood," the critics tell us; "they +speak like men, not like authors." How truly this applies to the persons +mentioned in sacred writ! Goethe has compared the characters of +Shakspeare to "watches with crystalline cases and plates, which, while +they point out with perfect accuracy the course of the hours and +minutes, at the same time disclose the whole combination of springs and +wheels whereby they are moved." A similar transparency of motive and +purpose, of individual traits and spontaneous action, belongs to the +Bible. From the hand of Shakspeare, "the lord and the tinker, the hero +and the valet, come forth equally distinct and clear." In the Bible the +various sorts of men are never confounded, but have the advantage of +being exhibited by Nature herself, and are not a contrivance of the +imagination. "Shylock," observes a recent critic, "seems so much a man +of Nature's making, that we can scarce accord to Shakspeare the merit of +creating him." What will you say of Balak, Nabal, Jeroboam? "Macbeth is +rather guilty of tempting the Weird Sisters than of being tempted by +them, and is surprised and horrified at his own hell-begotten +conception." Saul is guilty of tampering with the Witch of Endor, and is +alarmed at the Ghost of Samuel, whose words distinctly embody and +vibrate the fears of his own heart, and he "falls straightway all along +on the earth." "The exquisite refinement of Viola triumphs over her +masculine attire." The exquisite refinement of Ruth triumphs in the +midst of men. + +We see there are points in which dramatic representation and Scriptural +delineation mutually touch. + +A distinguished divine of Connecticut said he wanted but two books in +his library, the Bible and Shakspeare,--the one for religion, the other +to be his instructor in human nature. In the same spirit, St. Chrysostom +kept a copy of Aristophanes under his pillow, that he might read it at +night before he slept and in the morning when he waked. The strong and +sprightly eloquence of this father, if we may trust tradition, drew its +support from the vigorous and masculine Atticism of the old comedian. + +But human nature, in every stage of its development and every variety of +its operation, is as distinctly pronounced on the pages of Scripture as +in the scenes of the dramatist. Of Shakespeare it is said, "He turned +the globe round for his amusement, and surveyed the generations of men, +and the individuals as they passed, with their different concerns, +passions, follies, vices, virtues, actions, and motives." He has been +called the "thousand-minded," the "oceanic soul." The Bible creates the +world and peoples it, and gives us a profound and universal insight into +all its concerns. + +Another peculiarity of Shakspeare is his self-forgetfulness. In reading +what is written, you do not think of him, but of his productions. "The +perfect absence of himself from his own pages makes it difficult for us +to conceive of a human being having written them." This remark applies +with obvious force to the Bible. The authors of the several books do not +thrust themselves upon your notice, or interfere with your meditations +on what they have written; indeed, to such an extent is this +self-abeyance maintained, that it is impossible, at this period of time, +to determine who are the authors of some of the books. The narrative of +events proceeds, for the most part, as if the author had never existed. +How _naïvely_ and perspicuously everything is told, without the +colouring of prejudice, or an infusion of egotism on the part of the +writer! + +Coleridge says, Shakspeare gives us no moral highwaymen, no sentimental +thieves and rat-catchers, no interesting villains, no amiable +adulteresses. The Bible even goes farther than this, and is faithful to +the foibles and imperfections of its favorite characters, and describes +a rebellious Moses, a perjured David, a treacherous Peter. + +"In nothing does Shakspeare so deeply and divinely touch the heart of +humanity as in the representation of woman." We have the grandeur of +Portia, the sprightliness of Rosalind, the passion of Juliet, the +delicacy of Ophelia, the mournful dignity of Hermione, the filial +affection of Cordelia. How shall we describe the Pythian greatness of +Miriam, the cheerful hospitality of Sarah, the heroism of Rahab, the +industry of Dorcas, the devotion of Mary? And we might set off Lady +Macbeth with Jezebel, and Cleopatra with Delilah. + +But the Bible, it may be said, so far as the subject before us is +concerned, is chiefly historical, while Shakspeare is purely dramatic. +The one is description,--the other action; the one relates to +events,--the other to feelings; the department of the one is the general +course of human affairs,--that of the other, the narrower circle of +individual experience; the field of the one is that which the eye of +philosophy may embrace,--while that of the other is what the human frame +may portray. + +However this may apply to the average of history, it will be found that +the Bible, in its historical parts, is not so strictly historical as to +preclude associations of another sort. The Bible is remarkable for a +visual and embodied relief, a bold and vivid detail. We know of no book, +if we may except the compositions of professed dramatists, that contains +so much of personal feeling and incident. In simplicity and directness, +in freedom from exaggeration, and in the general unreserve of its +expression, it even exceeds the most of these. In it we may discover a +succession of little dramas of Nature that will affect us quite as +profoundly as those larger ones of Art. + +If the structure of the drama be dialogistic, we find the Bible formed +on the same model. If the writers of the former disappear under the +personages of their fancy, the writers of the latter disappear under the +personages of fact. As in the one, so in the other, strangers are +introduced to tell their own story, each in his own way. + +In the commencement of the Bible, after a brief prologue, the curtain +rises, and we, as spectators, look in upon a process of interlocution. +The scene is the green, sunny garden of Eden, that to which the memory +of humanity reverts as to its dim golden age, and which ever expresses +the bright dream of our youth, ere the rigor of misfortune or the +dulness of experience has spoilt it. The _dramatis personae_ are three +individuals, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. There are the mysterious tree, +with its wonderful fruit,--the beautiful, but inquisitive woman,--the +thoughtful, but too compliant man,--and the insinuating reptile. One +speaks, the other rejoins, and the third fills up the chasm of interest. +The plot thickens, the passions are displayed, and the tragedy hastens +to its end. Then is heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool +(the wind) of the garden, the impersonal presence of Jehovah is, as it +were, felt in the passing breeze, and a shadow falls upon the +earth,--but such a shadow as their own patient toil may dissipate, and +beyond the confines of which their hope, which has now taken the place +of enjoyment, is permitted ever to look. + +Without delaying on the moral of this passage, what we would remark upon +is the clearness and freedom of the dialogue,--a feature which we find +pervading the whole of the sacred writings. + +In the account of Cain, which immediately succeeds, the narrative is +inelaborate, casual, secondary; the dialogue is simple and touching. The +agony of the fratricide and his remorse are better expressed by his own +lips than could be done by any skill of the historian. + +In the deception which Abraham put upon the Egyptians, touching his +wife,--which it is no part of our present object to justify or to +condemn,--what a stroke of pathos, what a depth of conjugal sentiment, +is exhibited! "Thou art a fair woman to look upon, and the Egyptians, +when they see thee, will kill me and save thee alive. _Say, I pray thee, +thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my +soul shall live because of thee_." + +Viola appears very interesting and very innocent, when, in boy's +clothes, she wanders about in pursuit of a lover. Is not Sarah equally +interesting and equally innocent, when, under cover of an assumed name, +and that a sister's, she would preserve the love of one who has worthily +won it? + +Will it be said that the dialogue of the Bible lacks the charm of +poetry?--that its action and sentiment, its love and its sorrow, are not +heightened by those efforts of the fancy which delight us in dramatic +authors?--that its simplicity is bald, and its naturalness rough?--that +its excessive familiarity repels taste and disturbs culture? If we may +trust Wordsworth, simplicity is not inconsistent with the pleasures of +the imagination. The style of the Bible is not redundant,--there is +little extravagance in it, and it has no trickery of words. Yet this +does not prevent its being deep in sentiment, brilliant with intrinsic +thought or powerful effect. + +In the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Valentine thus utters himself touching +his betrothed:-- + + "What light is light, if Sylvia be not seen? + What joy is joy, if Sylvia be not by? + Except I see my Sylvia in the night, + There is no music in the nightingale. + Unless I look on Sylvia in the day, + There is no day for me to look upon. + She is my essence; and I cease to be, + If I be not by her fair influence + Fostered, illumined, cherished, kept alive." + +Compare with this the language of Abraham. "Thou art fair, my wife. Say, +I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy +sake, and my soul shall live because of thee." The first is an instance +of poetic amplification and _abandon_; we should contend, for the last, +that it expresses poetic tenderness and delicacy. In the one case, +passion is diffuse,--in the other, concentrated. Which is the more +natural, others must judge. + +"Euthanasy," "Theron and Aspasio," the "Phaedon" of Plato are dialogues, +but they are not dramatic. It may be, that, for a composition to claim +this distinction, it must embody great character or deep feeling,--that +it must express not only the individuality, but the strength of the +passions. + +Observing this criticism, we think we may find any quantity of dramatic +dialogue in Scripture. The story of Joseph, the march in the wilderness, +the history of David, are full of it. + +There are not only dramatic dialogue and movement, but dramatic +monologue and episode. For illustration, we might refer to Hagar in the +wilderness. Her tragic loneliness and shuddering despair alight upon the +page of Scripture with the interest that attends the introduction of the +veiled Niobe with her children into the Grecian theatre. + +There are those who say, that the truth of particular events, so far as +we are conscious of it, is a drawback on the pleasure as well as the +dignity of the drama,--in other words, that the Bible is too true to +afford what is called dramatic delight, while the semblance of truth in +Shakspeare is exactly graduated to this particular affection. Between +the advocates of this theory, and those who say that Shakspeare is true +as truth itself, we can safely leave the point. + +The subject has another aspect, which appears in the inquiry, What is +the true object of the drama? If, as has been asserted, the object of +the drama be the exhibition of the human character,--if, agreeably to +Aristotle, tragedy purifies the affections by terror and pity,--or if, +according to a recent writer, it interests us through the moral and +religious principles of our nature,--or even if, according to Dr. +Johnson, it be the province of comedy to bring into view the customs, +manners, vices, and the whole character of a people,--it is obvious that +the Bible and the drama have some correspondence. If, in the somewhat +heated language of Mrs. Jameson, "whatever in religion is holy and +sublime, in virtue amiable and grave, whatever hath passion or +admiration in the changes of fortune or the refluxes of feeling, +whatever is pitiful in the weakness, grand in the strength, or terrible +in the perversion of the human intellect," be the domain of tragedy, +this correspondence increases upon us. + +If, however, it be the object of the drama to divert, then it occupies a +wholly different ground from the Bible. If it merely gratifies curiosity +or enlivens pastime, if it awakens emotion without directing it to +useful ends, if it rallies the infirmities of human nature with no other +design than to provoke our derision or increase our conceit, it shoots +very, very wide of the object which the sacred writers propose. + +It is worthy to be remarked, that the Jews had no drama, or nothing that +answers to our idea of that term at the present time; they had no +theatres, no writers of tragedy or comedy. Neither are there any traces +of the dramatic art among the Egyptians, among whom the Jews sojourned +four hundred years, nor among the Arabs or the Persians, who are of +kindred stock with this people. On the other hand, by the Hindoos and +Chinese, the Greeks and Romans, histrionic representation was cultivated +with assiduity. + +How shall we explain this national peculiarity? Was it because the +religion of the Jews forbade creative imitation? Is it to be found in +the letter or the spirit of the second commandment, which interdicts the +making of graven images of any pattern in earth or heaven? We should +hardly think so, since the object of this prohibition is rather to +prevent idolatry than to discourage the gratification of taste. "Thou +shalt not bow down to them nor serve them." The Jews did have emblematic +observances, costume, and works of art. Yet, on the other hand, the Jews +possessed something resembling the drama, and that out of which the +dramatic institutions of all nations have sprung. The question, then, +why the Jews had no drama proper, and still preserved the semblance and +germ thereof, will be partially elucidated by a reference to the early +history of dramatic art. + +In its inception, the drama, among all nations, was a religious +observance. It came in with the chorus and the ode. The chorus, or, as +we now say, choir, was a company of persons who on stated occasions sang +sacred songs, accompanying their music with significant gesture, and an +harmonious pulsation of the feet, or the more deliberate march. The ode +or song they sang was of an elevated structure and impassioned tone, and +was commonly addressed to the Divinity. Instances of the ode are the +lyrics of Pindar and David. The chorus was also divided into parts, to +each of which was assigned a separate portion of the song, and which +answered one another in alternate measures. A good instance of the +chorus and its movement appears after the deliverance of the Jews from +the dangers of the Red Sea. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel +this song unto the Lord: 'I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously,'" etc. "And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel +in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with +dances; and Miriam answered them, 'Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously.'" At a later period, in Jewish as in Greek +history, choral exercises became a profession, and the choir constituted +a detached portion of men and women. + +"Those who have studied the history of Grecian antiquities," says +Archbishop Potter, "and collected the fragments which remain of the most +ancient authors, have all concurred in the opinion, that poetry was +first employed in celebrating the praises of the gods. The fragments of +the Orphic hymns, and those of Linus and Musaeus, show these poets +entertained sounder notions of the Supreme Being than many philosophers +of a later date. There are lyric fragments yet remaining that bear +striking resemblance to Scripture." + +So, says Bishop Horne, "The poetry of the Jews is clearly traceable to +the service of religion. To celebrate the praises of God, to decorate +his worship, and give force to devout sentiments, was the employment of +the Hebrew Muse." + +The choral song, that is, a sacred ode united with appropriate action, +distinguished the Jews and Greeks alike. At a later period of Jewish +history, the chorus became perfected, yet without receiving any organic +change. Among the Greeks, however, the chorus passed by degrees into the +drama. To simple singing and dancing they added a variety of imitative +action; from celebrating the praises of the Divinity, they proceeded to +represent the deeds of men, and their orchestras were enlarged to +theatres. They retained the chorus, but subordinated it to the action. +The Jews, on the other hand, did no more than dramatize the chorus. So, +Bishop Horsley says, the greater part of the Psalms are a sort of +dramatic ode, consisting of dialogues between certain persons sustaining +certain characters. In these psalms, the persons are the writer himself +and a band of Levites,--or sometimes the Supreme Being, or a personation +of the Messiah. + +We find, then, the Jews and the Greeks running parallel in respect of +the drama, or that out of which the drama sprung, the chorus, for a long +series of years. The practice of the two nations in this respect +exhibits a striking coincidence, indeed, Lowth conceives that the Song +of Solomon bears a strong resemblance to the Greek drama. "The chorus of +virgins," he says, "seems in every respect congenial to the tragic +chorus of the Greeks. They are constantly present, and prepared to +fulfil all the duties of advice and consolation; they converse +frequently with the different characters; they take part in the whole +business of the poem." They fulfilled, in a word, all the purpose of the +Greek chorus on the Greek stage. + +On certain occasions, the Greek chorus celebrated divine worship in the +vicinity of the great altar of their god. Clad in magnificent vestments, +they move to solemn measures about it; they ascend and descend the steps +that lead to it; they offer sacrifices upon it; they carry in their +hands lighted torches; they pour out lustral water; they burn incense; +they divide into antiphonal bands, and sing alternate stanzas of their +sacred songs. + +So, in their religious festivals, the Jewish chorus surrounded the high +altar of their worship, gorgeously dressed, and with an harmonious +tread; they mounted and remounted the steps; they offered sacrifices; +they bore branches of trees in their hands; they scattered the lustral +water; they burnt incense; they pealed the responsive anthem. + +But while we follow down the stream of resemblance to a certain point, +it divides at last: on the Greek side, it is diverted into the lighter +practice of the theatre; on the Jewish side, it seems to deepen itself +in the religious feeling of the nation. + +Aeschylus, the father of tragedy, seizing upon the chorus, elaborated it +into the drama. The religious idea, indeed, seems never to have deserted +the gentile drama; for, at a later period, we find the Romans appointing +theatrical performances with the special design of averting the anger of +the gods. A religious spirit, also, pervades all the writings of the +ancient dramatists; they bring the gods to view, and the terrors of the +next world, on their stage, are seen crowding upon the sins of this. + +On the other hand, David, who may be denominated the Alfred of the Jews, +seems to have contented himself with the chorus; he allotted its +members, disciplined its ranks, heightened its effect, and supplied new +lyrics for its use. + +Another exemplification of singular coincidence and diversity between +the two nations appears in this, that the goat was common in the +religious observances of both; a similar ritual required the sacrifice +of this animal: but with the Jews the creature was an emblem of +solemnity, while with the Greeks he was significant of joy; the Jews +sacrificed him on their fasts,--the Greeks in their feasts. And here we +may observe, that tragedy, the most dignified and the primitive form of +the drama, deduces its origin from the goat,--being, literally, the song +of the goat, that is, the song accompanying the sacrifice of the goat. + +Let us now endeavor to answer the question, Why, since the drama was +generally introduced among surrounding nations, and Jewish customs and +life comprised so many initial dramatic materials, this art was not +known among that people? + +It was owing to the earnestness and solemnity of their religious faith. +We find the cause in the simple, exalted, and comparatively spiritual +ideas they had of the Supreme Being; in a word, we shall state the whole +ground to be this,--that the Greeks were polytheists, and the Jews +monotheists. + +Let us bear in mind that the chorus, and the drama that was built upon +it, had a religious association, and were employed in religious +devotion. We may add, moreover, that the Greeks introduced their gods +upon the stage; this the Jews could not do. The Greeks, of course, had a +great deal of religious feeling, but they could not cherish that +profound reverence for the object of their worship which the Jews +entertained towards theirs. The Jews accompanied the Greeks in the use +of the chorus, but they could not go with them any farther. They both +united in employing music and the dance, and all the pomp of procession +and charm of ceremony, in divine worship; but when it came to displaying +the object of their adoration in personal form to the popular eye, and +making him an actor on the stage, however dignified that stage might be, +the Jews could not consent. + +This, we think, will explain, in part, why others of the ancient +nations, the Arabs and Persians, rich as they were in every species of +literature, had no theatre; they were monotheists. + +But there is the department of comedy, of a lighter sort, which does not +converse with serious subjects, or necessarily include reference to +Deity; why do we find no trace of this among the Jews? We may remember, +that all festivals, in very ancient time, of every description, the +grave and the gay, the penitential and the jubilant, had a religious +design, and were suggested by a religious feeling. We think the peculiar +cast of the Judaic faith would hardly embody itself in such a mode of +expression. Moreover, tragedy was the parent of comedy,--and since the +Jews had not the first, we should hardly expect them to produce the +last. It is not difficult to perceive how the Greeks could convert their +goat to dramatic, or even to comic purposes; but the Jews could not deal +so with theirs. + +We approach another observation, that there is no comedy in the Bible. +There is tragedy there,--not in the sense in which we have just denied +that the Jews had tragedy, but in the obvious sense of tragic elements, +tragic scenes, tragic feelings. In the same sense, we say, there are no +comic elements, or scenes, or feelings. There is that in the Bible to +make you weep, but nothing to move you to laughter. Why is this? Are +there not smiles as well as tears in life? Have we not a deep, joyous +nature, as well as aspiration, reverence, awe? Is there not a +free-and-easy side of existence, as well as vexation and sorrow? We +assent that these things are so. + +But comedy implies ridicule, sharp, corroding ridicule. The comedy of +the Greeks ridiculed everything,--persons, characters, opinions, +customs, and sometimes philosophy and religion. Comedy became, +therefore, a sort of consecrated slander, lyric spite, aesthetical +buffoonery. Comedy makes you laugh at somebody's expense; it brings +multitudes together to see it inflict death on some reputation; it +assails private feeling with all the publicity and powers of the stage. + +Now we doubt if the Jewish faith or taste would tolerate this. The Jews +were commanded to love their neighbor. We grant, their idea of neighbor +was excessively narrow and partial; but still it was their neighbor. +They were commanded not to bear false witness against their neighbor, +and he was pronounced accursed who should smite his neighbor secretly. +It might appear that comedy would violate each of these statutes. But +the Jews had their delights, their indulgences, their transports, +notwithstanding the imperfection of their benevolence, the meagreness of +their truth, and the cumbersomeness of their ceremonials. The Feast of +Tabernacles, for instance, was liberal and happy, bright and smiling; it +was the enthusiasm of pastime, the psalm of delectableness. They did not +laugh at the exposure of another's foibles, but out of their own merry +hearts. + +Will it be said, the Bible is not true to Nature, if it does not +represent the comical side of life, as well as Shakspeare does? We think +the comical parts of Shakspeare, his extreme comical parts, are rather +an exaggeration of individual qualities than a fair portraiture of the +whole species. There is no Falstaff in the Bible, yet the qualities of +Falstaff exist in the Bible and in Nature, but in combination, and this +combination modifies their aspect and effect. + +There is laughter in the Bible, but it is not uttered to make you laugh. +There are also events recorded, which, at the time, may have produced +effects analogous to comedy. The approach of the Gibeonites to the camp +of Israel in their mock-beggarly costume might be mentioned. Shimei's +cursing David has always seemed to us to border on the ludicrous. + +But to leave these matters and return to the general thread of thought. +Dramas have been formed on the Bible. We hardly need name "Paradise +Lost," or "Samson Agonistes," or the "Cain" of Byron, the "Hadad" of +Hillhouse, or Mrs. More's "David and Goliah." "Pilgrim's Progress" has a +Scriptural basis. + +Moreover, if we may trust the best critics, certain portions of the +sacred volume are conceived in a dramatic spirit, and are propounded to +a dramatic interpretation. These are the Book of Job, the Song of +Solomon, and, possibly, the Apocalypse of St. John. If we were disposed +to contend for this view, we need but mention such authorities as +Calmet, Carpzov, Bishops Warburton, Percy, Lowth, Bossuet. + +The Book of Job has a prose prologue and epilogue, the intermediate +portions being poetic dialogue. The characters are discriminated and +well supported. It does not preserve the unities of Aristotle, which, +indeed, are found neither in the Bible nor in Nature,--which Shakspeare +neglects, and which are to be met with only in the crystalline +artificialness of the French stage. "It has no plot, not even of the +simplest kind," says Dr. Lowth. It has a plot,--not an external and +visible one, but an internal and spiritual one; its incidents are its +feelings, its progress is the successive conditions of mind, and it +terminates with the triumph of virtue. If it be not a record of actual +conversation, it is an embodiment of a most wonderful ideality. The +eternity of God, the grandeur of Nature, the profundity of the soul, +move in silent panorama before you. The great and agitating problems of +human existence are depicted with astonishing energy and precision, and +marvellous is the conduct of the piece to us who behold it as a painting +away back on the dark canvas of antiquity. + +We said the Jews had no drama, no theatre, because they would not +introduce the Divinity upon the stage. Yet God appears speaking in the +Book of Job, not bodily, but ideally, and herein is all difference. This +drama addresses the imagination, not the eye. The Greeks brought their +divinities into sight, stood them on the stage,--or clothed a man with +an enormous mask, and raised him on a pedestal, giving him also +corresponding apparel, to represent their god. The Hebrew stage, if we +may share the ordinary indulgence of language in using that term, with +an awe and delicacy suitable to the dignity of the subject, permits the +Divinity to speak, but does not presume to employ his person; the +majesty of Infinitude utters itself, but no robe-maker undertakes to +dress it for the occasion. In the present instance, how exalted, how +inspiring, is the appearance of God! how free from offensive diminution +and costumal familiarity! "Then the Lord answered Job out of the +whirlwind, and said." Dim indeed is the representation, but very +distinct is the impression. The phenomenon conforms to the purity of +feeling, not to the grossness of sense. Devotion is kindled by the +sublime impalpableness; no applause is enforced by appropriate acting. +The Greeks, would have played the Book of Job,--the Jews were contented +to read it. + +And here we might remark a distinction between dramatic reading and +dramatic seeing; and in support of our theory we can call to aid so good +an authority as Charles Lamb. "I cannot help being of opinion," says +this essayist, "that the plays of Shakspeare are less calculated for +performance on a stage than those of almost any other dramatist +whatever." + +How are the love dialogues of Romeo and Juliet, by the inherent fault of +stage representation, sullied and turned from their very nature by being +exposed to a large assembly! How can the profound sorrows of Hamlet be +depicted by a gesticulating actor? So, to see Lear acted, to see an old +man tottering about the stage with a walking-stick, turned out of doors +by his daughters in a rainy night, has nothing in it but what is painful +and disgusting. The contemptible machinery by which they mimic the storm +in which he goes out is not more inadequate to represent the horrors of +the real elements than any actor can be to represent Lear. In the acted +Othello, the black visage of the Moor is obtruded upon you; in the +written Othello, his color disappears in his mind. When Hamlet compares +the two pictures of Gertrude's first and second husband, who wants to +see the pictures? But in the acting, a miniature must be lugged out. "The +truth is," he adds, "the characters of Shakspeare are more the objects +of meditation than of interest or curiosity as to their actions." + +All this applies with force to what we have been saying. The Jews, in +respect of their dramatic culture, seem more like one who enjoys +Shakspeare in the closet; the Greeks, like those who are tolled off to +the theatre to see him acted. The Greeks would have contrived a pair of +bellows to represent the whirlwind; mystic, vast, inaudible, it passes +before the imagination of the Jew, and its office is done. The Jew would +be shocked to see his God in a human form; such a thing pleased the +Greek. The source of the difference is to be sought in the theology of +the two nations. The theological development of the Jews was very +complete,--that of the Greeks unfinished. + +Yet the Jews were very deficient in art, and the Greeks perfect; both +failed in humanity. The Greeks had more ideality than the Jews; but +their ideality was very intense; it was continually, so to speak, +running aground; it must see its conceptions embodied; and more,--when +they were embodied, Pygmalion-like, it must seek to imbue them with +motion and sensibility. The conception of the Jews was more vague, +perhaps, but equally affecting; they were satisfied with carrying in +their minds the faint outline of the sublime, without seeking to chisel +it into dimension and tangibility. They cherished in their bosoms their +sacred ideal, and worshipped from far the greatness of the majesty that +shaded their imaginations. Hence we look to Athens for art, to Palestine +for ethics; the one produces rhetoricians,--the other, prophets. + +So, we see, the theologico-dramatic forms of the two nations--and there +were no other--are different. The one pleases the prurient eye,--the +other gratifies the longing soul; the one amuses,--the other inspires; +the one is a hollow pageant of divine things,--the other is a glad, +solemn intimation from the unutterable heart of the universe. + +The Song of Solomon, that stumbling-block of criticism and pill of +faith, a recent writer regards as a parable in the form of a drama, in +which the bride is considered as representing true religion, the royal +lover as the Jewish people, and the younger sister as the Gospel +dispensation. But it is evidently conceived in a very different spirit +from the Book of Job or the Psalms of David, and its theological +character is so obscured by other associations as to lead many to +inquire whether an enlightened religious sensibility dictated it. + +We cannot dismiss this part of our subject without allusion to a species +of drama that prevailed in the Middle Ages, called Mysteries, or +Moralities. These were a sort of scenical illustration of the Sacred +Scripture, and the subjects were events taken sometimes from the New +Testament and sometimes from the Old. It is said they were designed to +supply the place of the Greek and Roman theatre, which had been banished +from the Church. The plays were written and performed by the clergy. +They seem to have first been employed to wile away the dulness of the +cloister, but were very soon introduced to the public. Adam and Eve in +Paradise, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection were theatrized. The effect +could hardly be salutary. The different persons of the Trinity appeared +on the stage; on one side of the scene stretched the yawning throat of +an immense wooden dragon; masked devils ran howling in and out. + +"In the year 1437,"--we follow the literal history, as we find it quoted +in D'Israeli,--"when the Bishop of Metz caused the Mystery of the +Passion to be represented near that city, God was an old gentleman, a +curate of the place, and who was very near expiring on the cross, had he +not been timely assisted. He was so enfeebled that another priest +finished his part. At the same time this curate undertook to perform the +Resurrection, which being a less difficult task, he did it admirably +well. Another priest, personating Judas, had like to have been stifled +while he hung on the tree, for his neck slipped. This being at length +luckily perceived, he was cut down, and recovered." In another instance, +a man who assumed the Supreme Being becoming nearly suffocated by the +paint applied to his face, it was wisely announced that for the future +the Deity should be covered by a cloud. These plays, carried about the +country, taken up by the baser sort of people, descended through all +degrees of farce to obscenity, and, in England, becoming entangled in +politics, at length disappeared. It is said they linger in Italy, and +are annually reproduced in Spain. + +The Bible is incapable of representation. For a man to act the Supreme +Being would be as revolting in idea as profane in practice. One may in +words portray the divine character, give utterance to the divine will. +This every preacher does. But to what is the effect owing? Not to +proprieties of attitude or arrangement of muscle, but to the spirit of +the man magnified and flooding with the great theme, and to the thought +of God that surrounds and subdues all; in other words, the imagination +is addressed, not the sight,--the sentiments and affections are engaged, +not the senses. As Lamb says of the Lear of Shakspeare, it cannot be +acted; so, with greater force, we may say of the Bible, it cannot be +acted. When we read or hear of the Passion of the Saviour, it is the +thought, the emotion, burning and seething within it, at which by +invisible contact our own thought and emotion catch fire; and the +capabilities of impersonation and manufacture are mocked by such a +subject. + +But the Bible abounds in dramatic situation, action, and feeling. This +has already been intimated; it only remains that we indicate some +examples. The history of David fulfils all the demands of dramatic +composition. It has the severe grandeur of Aeschylus, the moving +tenderness of Euripides, and the individual fidelity of Shakspeare. +Could this last-named writer, who, while he counterfeited Nature with +such success, was equally commended for his historical integrity,--could +Shakspeare have performed that service on this history, which Milton, +More, and others have undertaken on other portions of the sacred +volume,--could he have digested it into a regular dramatic form,--he +would have accomplished a work of rare interest. It would include the +characters of Samuel and Saul; it would describe the magnanimous +Jonathan and the rebellious Absalom; Nathan, Nabal, Goliah, Shimei, +would impart their respective features; it would be enriched with all +that is beautiful in woman's love or enduring in parental affection. It +is full of incident, and full of pathos. It verges towards the terrible, +it is shaken with the passionate, it rises into the heroic. Pursued in +the true spirit of Jewish theology, the awful presence of God would +overhang and pervade it, while the agency of his providence should +attend on the evolutions of events. + +There is one effect which, in the present arrangement of the canon, is +entirely lost to view, and which could be revived only by the +synchronizing of the Psalms with their proper epochs. For instance, the +eighth Psalm is referable to the youth of David, when he was yet leading +a shepherd life. The dramatic form of his history would detach this from +its present place, and insert it amid the occasions and in the years to +which it belongs. What a scene we should then have! The youthful David, +ruddy he was, and, withal, of a beautiful countenance, (marginal +reading, fair of eyes,) and goodly to look to; and he was a cunning +player on the harp. There is the glow of poetic enthusiasm in his eyes, +and the fervor of religious feeling in all his moods; as he tends his +flock amid the quietness and beauty of his native hills, he joins to the +aspirations of his soul the melodies of music. So the night overtakes +him, the labors of the day are past, his meditations withdraw him from +the society of men, he is alone with Nature and with God;--at such a +moment the spirit of composition and utterance is upon him, and he hymns +himself in those lofty and touching stanzas,-- + + "O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth! + When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, + The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, + What is man that thou art mindful of him, + And the son of man that thou carest for him? + Yet thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, + Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor; + Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hand, + Thou hast put all things under his feet,-- + All sheep and oxen, + Yea, and the beasts of the forest, + The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, + And whatsoever passes through the deep. + O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth!" + +Again, the fifty-seventh Psalm is assigned, in respect of place, to the +cave of En-gedi, into which David fled from the vengeance of Saul. Here, +surrounded by lofty rocks, whose promontories screen a wide extent of +vale, he breaks forth,-- + + "Have pity upon me, O God, have pity upon me, + For in thee doth my soul seek refuge! + Yea, in the shadow of thy wings do I take shelter, + Until these calamities be overpast!" + +Dramatically touched, and disposed according to the natural unities of +the subject, these sublime and affecting songs would appear on their +motive occasions, and be surrounded by their actual accompaniments. + +The present effect may be compared to that which would be felt, if we +should detach the songs of the artificial drama from their original +impulse and feeling, (for instance, the willow dirge of Desdemona, and +the fantastic moans of Ophelia,) and produce them in a parlor. Not but +that these lyrics have a universal fitness, and a value which no time +can change or circumstance diminish; but as we are looking at them +simply in a dramatic view, we claim the right to suggest their dramatic +force and pertinency. This effect, we might remark, is particularly and +most truthfully regarded in the Lament of David over Saul and Jonathan. +That monody would be shorn of its interest, if it were inserted anywhere +else. The Psalms are more impersonal and more strictly religious than +that, and hence their universal application; only we say, we can easily +conceive that the revival of them in the order of their history, and in +all the purity of their native pathos, would render them more +attractive. + +In connection with what we would further observe of the Psalms of David, +let us again call attention to the ancient chorus,--how it was a species +of melodrama, how it sang its parts, and comprised distinct vocalists +and musicians, who pursued the piece in alternate rejoinder. What we +would observe is, that many of the Psalms were written for the chorus, +and, so to speak, were performed by it. There are some of them which it +is impossible to understand without attention to this dramatic method of +rehearsal. Psalm cxviii., for instance, includes several speakers. Psalm +xxiv. was composed on the occasion of the transfer of the ark to the +tabernacle on Mount Zion. And David, we read, and all the house of +Israel, brought up the ark with shouting and with the sound of the +trumpet. In the midst of the congregated nation, supported by a varied +instrumental accompaniment, with the smoke of the well-fed altar surging +into the skies, the chorus took up the song which had been prepared to +their hand,--one group calling out, "Who shall ascend into the hill of +the Lord?"--the other pealing their answer, "He that hath clean hands +and a pure heart." Meanwhile, they dance before the Lord,--that is, we +suppose, preserving with their feet the unities of the music. + +It was during a melodrama like this, in the midst of its exciting +grandeur and all-pervading transport, executed at the Feast of +Tabernacles, in the open area of the Temple, when the Jews were wont to +pour upon the altar water taken from the pool of Siloam, chanting at the +same time the twelfth chapter of Isaiah, and one division of the chorus +had just sung the words,-- + + "With joy we draw water from the wells of salvation," + +and before the other had replied,--it was at this moment, that Christ, +as Dr. Furness very reasonably conjectures, took up the response in his +own person, and overwhelmed attention by that memorable declaration, "If +any man thirst, let him come to me and drink; and from within him shall +flow rivers of living water." + +It is what we may term the dramatic proprieties that give to many of the +Psalms, in the language of a recent commentator, "a greater degree of +fitness, spirit, and grandeur"; and they impart to the history of David +a certain decorousness of illustration and perspicuity of feature which +it would not otherwise possess. They would produce upon it the same +result as is achieved by the sister arts on this and other portions of +the sacred volume, without marring the text or doing violence to truth. +Not, let us repeat, that the Bible can be theatrized. Neither church nor +playhouse can revive the forms of Judaism, without recalling its lost +spirit. And that must be a bold hand, indeed, that shall undertake to +mend again the shivered vail of the Temple, or collect from its ruins a +ritual which He that was greater than Solomon typically denounced in +foretelling the overthrow of that gorgeous pile. The Bible, as to its +important verities and solemn doctrine, is transparent to the +imagination and affections, and does not require the mediation of dumb +show or scenic travesty. + +It is not difficult to trace many familiar dramatic resemblances in the +Old Testament. Shakspeare, who was certainly well read in the Bible and +frequently quotes it, in the composition of Lear may have had David and +Absalom in mind; the feigned madness of Hamlet has its prototype in that +of David; Macbeth and the Weird Sisters have many traits in common with +Saul and the Witch of Endor. Jezebel is certainly a suggestive study for +Lady Macbeth. The whole story has its key in that verse where we read, +"There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work +wickedness in the sight of the Lord, _whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred +up_." As in the play, so in this Scripture, we have the unrestrained and +ferocious ambition of the wife conspiring with the equally cruel, but +less hardy ambition of the husband. When Macbeth had murdered sleep, +when he could not screw his courage to the sticking-point, when his +purpose looked green and pale, his wife stings him with taunts, scathes +him with sarcasm, and by her own energy of intellect and storm of will +arouses him to action. So Ahab came in heavy and displeased, and laid +him down on his bed, and turned away his face, and so his wife inflames +him with the sharpness of her rebuke. "Why art thou sad?" she asks. +"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, eat bread, and be +merry!" The lust of regal and conjugal pride, intermixed, works in both. +Jezebel, whose husband was a king, would crown him with kingly deeds. +Lady Macbeth, whose husband was a prince, would see him crowned a king. +Jezebel would aggrandize empire, which her unlawful marriage thereto had +jeoparded. Lady Macbeth will run the risk of an unlawful marriage with +empire, if she may thereby aggrandize it. Jezebel is insensible to +patriotic feelings,--Lady Macbeth to civil and hospitable duties. The +Zidonian woman braves the vengeance of Jehovah,--the Scotch woman dares +the Powers of Darkness; the one is incited by the oracles of Baal,--the +other by the predictions of witches. Lady Macbeth has more intellectual +force,--Jezebel more moral decision; Lady Macbeth exhibits great +imagination,--Jezebel a stronger will. As the character of Lady Macbeth +is said to be relieved by the affection she shows for her husband, so is +that of Jezebel by her tenderness for Ahab. The grandness of the +audacity with which Jezebel sends after the prophet Elisha, saying, "So +let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life +of one of them by to-morrow about this time," has its counterpart in the +lofty terror of the invocation which Lady Macbeth makes to the "spirits +that wait on mortal thoughts,"-- + + "Fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full + Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, + Stop up the access and the passage of remorse! + . . . . Come to my woman's breasts, + And take my milk for gall, ye murdering ministers!" + +But the last moments of these excessive characters are singularly +contrasted. Jezebel scoffs at approaching retribution, and, shining with +paint and dripping with jewels, is pitched to the dogs; Lady Macbeth +goes like a coward to her grave, and, curdled with remorse, receives the +stroke of doom. + +If Shakspeare and the Old Testament are a just manifestation of human +nature, the New is so different, its representation would seem to be +almost fanciful or fallacious; or if the latter be accepted, the former +would seem to be discarded. But both are faithful to the different ages +and phases of man. The one is a dispensation of force,--the other of +love; the one could make nothing perfect,--but the bringing in of a +better covenant makes all things perfect. Through the tempest and storm, +the brutality and lust of the Greek tragedians, and even of the +barbarous times on which Shakspeare builds many of his plays, through +the night of Judaical back-slidings, idolatry, and carnal commandments, +we patiently wait, and gladly hail the morning of the Sun of +Righteousness. The New Testament is a green, calm, island, in this +heaving, fearful ocean of dramatic interest. How delightful is +everything there, and how elevated! how glad, and how solemn! how +energetic, and how tranquil! What characters, what incident, what +feeling! Yet how different! So different, indeed, from what elsewhere +appears, that we are compelled to ask, Can this be that same old +humanity whose passions, they tell us, are alike in all ages, and the +emphatic turbulence of which constitutes so large a portion of history? + +But how shall we describe what is before us? The events open, if we may +draw a term from our subject, with a prologue spoken by angels,-- + + "Peace on earth, and good-will towards men." + +There had been Jezebels and Lady Macbeths enough; the memory of David +still smelt of blood; the Roman eagles were gorging their beaks on human +flesh; and the Samaritan everywhere felt the gnawing, shuddering sense +of hatred and scorn. No chorus appears answering to chorus, praising the +god of battles, or exulting in the achievements of arms; but the +sympathies of Him who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities +answer to the wants and woes of the race, and every thoughtful mind +ecstatically encores. The inexorable Fate of the Greeks does not appear, +but a good Providence interferes, and Heaven smiles graciously upon the +scene. There is passion, indeed, grief and sorrow, sin and +suffering,--but the tempest-stiller is here, who breathes tranquillity +upon the waters, and pours serenity into the turbid deep. The Niobe of +humanity, stiff and speechless, with her enmarbled children, that used +sometimes to be introduced on the Athenian stage for purposes of terror +or pity, is here restored to life, and she renders thanks for her +deliverance and participates in the general joy to which the piece gives +birth. No murderers of the prophets are hewn in pieces before the Lord; +but from the agonies of the cross and the depths of a preternatural +darkness, the tender cry is heard, on behalf of the murderers of the Son +of God, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" No +Alcestis is exhibited, doomed to destruction to save the life of her +husband,--but One appears, moving cheerfully, voluntarily, forwards, to +what may be termed the funeral pile of the world, from which, +phoenix-like, he rises, and gloriously ascends, drawing after him the +hearts, the love, the worship of millions of spectators. The key of the +whole piece is Redemption, the spirit that actuates is Love. The chief +actors, indeed, are Christ and Man; but innumerable subsidiary +personages are the Charities. The elements of a spiritualized existence +act their part. Humanity is not changed in its substance, but in its +tendencies; the sensibilities exist, but under a divine culture. Stephen +is as heroic as Agamemnon, Mary as energetic as Medea. Little children +are no longer dashed in pieces,--they are embraced and blessed. + +But let us select for attention, and for a conclusion to these remarks, +a particular scene. It shall be from Luke. This evangelist has been +fabled a painter, and in the apotheosis of the old Church he was made +the tutelar patron of that class of artists. If the individuality of his +conceptions, the skill of his groupings, and the graphicness gave rise +to such an idea, it would seem to have its foundation as well in Nature +as in superstition. Matthew has more detail, more thought; Luke is more +picturesque, more descriptive. John has more deep feeling; Luke more +action, more life. The Annunciation, the Widow of Nain, the Prodigal Son, +the Good Samaritan, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the incident to which +we shall presently advert, are found in Luke alone. + +The incident in question is the dining of Christ at the house of Simon +the Pharisee, and, while they were reclining at meat, the entrance of a +woman which was a sinner, who bathes the feet of Jesus with tears, and +wipes them with the hair of her head. The place is the city of Nain; the +hour noon. The _dramatis personae_ are three,--Jesus, Simon, and the +Woman,--and, if we choose to add them, the other guests, who are silent +spectators of what transpires. + +Let, us consider, first, the Woman. She "was a sinner." This is all, in +fact, that we know of her; but this is enough. The term "sinner," in +this instance, as in many others, does not refer to the general apostasy +in Adam; it is distinctive of race and habit. She was probably of +heathen extraction, as she was certainly of a dissolute life. The poetry +of sin and shame calls her the Magdalen, and there may be a convenience +in permitting this name to stand. The depth of her depravity Christ +clearly intimates in his allusion to the debtor who owed five hundred +pence, and the language of Simon teaches that the infamy of her life was +well understood among the inhabitants of the city. If a foreigner, she +had probably been brought into the country by the Roman soldiers and +deserted. If a native, she had fallen beneath the ban of respectability, +and was an outcast alike from hope and from good society. She was +condemned to wear a dress different from that of other people; she was +liable at any moment to be stoned for her conduct; she was one whom it +was a ritual impurity to touch. She was wretched beyond measure; but +while so corrupt, she was not utterly hardened. Incapable of virtue, she +was not incapable of gratitude. Weltering in grossness, she could still +be touched by the sight of purity. Plunged into extremest vice, she +retained the damning horror of her situation. If she had ever striven to +recover her lost position, there were none to assist her; the bigotry of +patriotism rejected her for her birth,--the scrupulousness of modesty, +for her history. The night, that consecrated so many homes and gathered +together so many families in innocence and repose, was to her blacker +than its own blackness in misery and turpitude; the morning, that +radiated gladness over the face of the world, revealed the extent and +exaggerated the sense of her own degradation. But the vision of Jesus +had alighted upon her; she had seen him speeding on his errands of +mercy; she hung about the crowd that followed his steps; his tender look +of pity may have sometimes gleamed into her soul. Stricken, smitten, +confounded, her yearnings for peace gush forth afresh. It was as if +Hell, moved by contrition, had given up its prey,--as if Remorse, tired +of its gnawing, felt within itself the stimulus of hope. But how shall +she see Jesus? Wherewithal shall she approach him? She has "nothing to +pay." She has tears enough, and sorrows enough,--but these are derided +by the vain, and suspected by the wise. She has an alabaster box of +ointment, which, shut out as she is from honorable gain, must be the +product and the concomitant of her guilt. But with these she must go. We +see her threading her lonely way through the streets, learning by hints, +since she would not dare to learn by questions, where Jesus is, and +stops before the vestibule of the elegant mansion of Simon the Pharisee. + +Who is Simon the Pharisee? Not necessarily a bad man. We associate +whatever is odious in hypocrisy or base in craft with the name Pharisee, +while really it was the most distinguished title among the Jews. Many of +the Pharisees were hypocrites; not all of them. The name is significant +of profession, not of character. He could not have been an unprincipled, +villanous man, or he would never have tendered to Jesus the +hospitalities of his house. Indeed, Christ allows him, in the sense of +moral indebtedness, to owe but fifty pence. He was probably a rich man, +which might appear from the generous entertainment he made. He was a +respectable man. The sect to which he belonged was the most celebrated +and influential among the Jews; and when not debased by positive crime, +a Pharisee was always esteemed for his learning and his piety. He had +some interest in Christ, either in his mission or his character,--an +interest beyond mere curiosity, or he would not have invited him to dine +with him. He betrays a sincere friendliness, also, in his apprehension +lest Christ should suffer any religious contamination. + +The third person in the scene is Christ, who, to speak of him not as +theology has interpreted him to us, but as he appeared to the eyes of +his contemporaries, was the reputed son of Joseph and Mary, the +Bethlehemites; who by his words and deeds had attracted much attention +and made some converts; now accused of breaking the Jewish Sabbath, now +of plotting against the Roman sovereignty; one who in his own person had +felt the full power of temptation, and who had been raised to the +grandeur of a transfiguration; so tender he would not bruise the broken +reed, so gentle his yoke was rest; raying out with compassion and love +wherever he went; healing alike the pangs of grief and the languor of +disease; whom some believed to be the Messiah, and others thought a +prophet; whom the masses followed, and the priests feared;--this is the +third member of the company. + +The two last, with the other guests, are engaged at their meal, and in +conversation. The door is darkened by a strange figure; all eyes are +riveted on the apparition; the Magdalen enters, faded, distressed, with +long dishevelled hair. She has no introduction; she says nothing; +indeed, in all this remarkable scene she never speaks; her silence is as +significant as it is profound. She goes behind the couch where Jesus, +according to Oriental custom, is reclined. She drops at his feet; there +her tears stream; there the speechless agony of her soul bursts. Observe +the workings of the moment. See how those people are affected. Surprise +on the part of Simon and his friends turns to scorn, and this shades +into indignation. Jesus is calm, collected, and intently thoughtful. The +woman is overwhelmed by her situation. The lip of Simon curls, his eye +flashes with fire of outraged virtue. Jesus meets his gaze with equal +fire, but it is all of pure heavenly feeling. Simon moves to have the +vagabond expelled; Christ interrupts the attempt. But the honor of the +house is insulted. Yes, but the undying interests of the soul are at +stake. But the breath of the woman is ritual poison, and her touch will +bring down the curses of the law. But the look of Christ indicates that +depth of spirituality before which the institutions of Moses flee away +as chaff before the wind. Simon has some esteem for Jesus, and in this +juncture his sensations take a turn of pity, spiced, perhaps, with a +little contempt, and he says with himself,--"Surely, this man cannot be +a prophet, as is pretended, or he would know who and what sort of woman +it is that touches him; for she is a sinner; she is unclean and +reprobate." + +"Simon!" says Jesus, with a tone that pierced to the worthy host's +heart, and arrested the force of his pious alarm,--"Simon!" + +"Sir, say on," is the reply of the Pharisee, who is awed by this appeal +into an humble listener. + +Whereupon Jesus relates the story of the two debtors, and, with +irresistible strength of illustration and delicacy of application, +breaks the prejudice and wins the composure of the Jew. "If, then," he +continues, "he loves much to whom much is forgiven, what shall we say of +one who loves so much?" + +"See," he goes on, pointing to the woman, "See this woman,--this wretch. +I entered thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she has +washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She kisses +my feet; she anoints them with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her +sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." + +This scene, however inadequately it may be set forth, contains all that +is sublime in tragedy, terrible in guilt, or intense in pathos. The +woman represents humanity, or the soul of human nature; Simon, the +world, or worldly wisdom; Christ, divinity, or the divine purposes of +good to us ward. Simon is an incarnation of what St. Paul calls the +beggarly elements; Christ, of spirituality; the woman, of sin. It is not +the woman alone,--but in her there cluster upon the stage all want and +woe, all calamity and disappointment, all shame and guilt. In Christ +there come forward to meet her, love, hope, truth, light, salvation. In +Simon are acted out doting conservatism, mean expediency, purblind +calculation, carnal insensibility. Generosity in this scene is +confronted with meanness, in the attempt to shelter misfortune. The +woman is a tragedy herself, such as Aeschylus never dreamed of. The +scourging Furies, dread Fate, and burning Hell unite in her, and, borne +on by the new impulse of the new dispensation, they come towards the +light, they ask for peace, they throng to the heaven that opens in +Jesus. Simon embodies that vast array of influences that stand between +humanity and its redemption. He is a very excellent, a very estimable +man,--but he is not shocked at intemperance, he would not have slavery +disturbed, he sees a necessity for war. Does Christ know who and what +sort of a woman it is that touches him? Will he defile himself by such a +contact? Can he expect to accomplish anything by familiarity with such +matters? Why is he not satisfied with a good dinner? "Simon!" "Simon!" + +The silence of the woman is wonderful, it is awful. What is most +profound, most agitating, most intense cannot speak; words are too +little for the greatness of feeling. So Job sat himself upon the ground +seven days and seven nights, speechless. Not in this case, as is said of +Schiller's Robbers, did the pent volcano find vent in power-words; not +in strong and terrible accents was uttered the hoarded wrath of long +centuries of misrule and oppression. The volcano, raging, aching, threw +itself in silence into the arms of one who could soothe and allay it. +The thunder is noisy and harmless. The lightning is silent,--and the +lightning splits, kills, consumes. Humanity had muttered its thunder for +ages. Its lightning, the condensed, fiery, fatal force of things, leaped +from the blackness of sin, threaded with terrific glare the vision of +man, and, in the person of the woman, fell hot and blasting at the feet +of Jesus, who quenched its fire, and of that destructive bolt made a +trophy of grace and a fair image of hope. She could not speak, and so +she wept,--like the raw, chilling, hard atmosphere, which is relieved +only by a shower of snow. How could she speak, guilty, remorseful +wretch, without excuse, without extenuation? In the presence of divine +virtue, at the tribunal of judgment, she could only weep, she could only +love. But, blessed be Jesus, he could forgive her, he can forgive all. +The woman departs in peace; Simon is satisfied; Jesus triumphs; we +almost hear the applauses with which the ages and generations of earth +greet the closing scene. From the serene celestial immensity that opens +above the spot we can distinguish a voice, saying, "This is my beloved +Son; hear ye him!" + +We speak of these things dramatically, but, after all, they are the only +great realities. Everything else is mimetic, phantasmal, tinkling. +Deeply do the masters of the drama move us; but the Gospel cleaves, +inworks, regenerates. In the theatre, the leading characters go off in +death and despair, or with empty conceits and a forced frivolity; in the +Gospel, tranquilly, grandly, they are dismissed to a serener life and a +nobler probation. Who has not pitied the ravings of Lear and the agonies +of Othello? The Gospel pities, but, by a magnificence of plot altogether +its own, by preserving, if we may so say, the unities of heaven and +earth, it also saves. + +Of all common tragedy, we may exclaim, in the words of the old play,-- + + "How like a silent stream shaded with night, + And gliding softly, with our windy sighs, + Moves the whole frame of this solemnity!" + +The Gospel moves by, as a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, +from the throne of God and the Lamb; on its surface play the sunbeams of +hope; in its valleys rise the trees of life, beneath the shadows of +which the weary years of human passion repose, and from the leaves of +the branches of which is exhaled to the passing breeze healing for the +nations. + + + + +THE RING FETTER. + + +A NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDY. + + +There are long stretches in the course of the Connecticut River, where +its tranquil current assumes the aspect of a lake, its sudden bends cut +off the lovely reach of water, and its heavily wooded banks lie silent +and green, undisturbed, except by the shriek of the passing steamer, +casting golden-green reflections into the stream at twilight, and +shadows of deepest blackness, star-pierced, at remoter depths of night. +Here, now and then, a stray gull from the sea sends a flying throb of +white light across the mirror below, or the sweeping wings of a hawk +paint their moth-like image on the blue surface, or a little flaw of +wind shudders across the water in a black ripple; but except for these +casual stirs of Nature, all is still, oppressive, and beautiful, as +earth seems to the trance-sleeper on the brink of his grave. + +In one of these reaches, though on either side the heavy woods sweep +down to the shore and hang over it as if deliberating whether to plunge +in, on the eastern bank there is a tiny meadow just behind the +tree-fringe of the river, completely hedged in by the deep woods, and +altogether hidden from any inland road; nor would the traveller on the +river discover it, except for the chimney of a house that peers above +the yellow willows and seems in that desolate seclusion as startling as +a daylight ghost. But this dwelling was built and deserted and +weather-beaten long before the date of our story. It had been erected +and inhabited during the Revolution, by an old Tory, who, foreseeing the +result of the war better than some of his contemporaries, and being +unwilling to expose his person to the chances of battle or his effects +to confiscation, maintained a strict neutrality, and a secret trade with +both parties; thereby welcoming peace and independence, fully stocked +with the dislike and suspicion of his neighbors, and a large quantity of +Continental "fairy-money." So, when Abner Dimock died, all he had to +leave to his only son was the red house on "Dimock's Meadow," and a +ten-acre lot of woodland behind and around the green plateau where the +house stood. These possessions he strictly entailed on his heirs +forever, and nobody being sufficiently interested in its alienation to +inquire into the State laws concerning the validity of such an entail, +the house remained in the possession of the direct line, and in the year +18-- belonged to another Abner Dimock, who kept tavern in Greenfield, a +town of Western Massachusetts, and, like his father and grandfather +before him, had one only son. In the mean time, the old house in Haddam +township had fallen into a ruinous condition, and, as the farm was very +small, and unprofitable chestnut-woodland at that, the whole was leased +to an old negro and his wife, who lived there in the most utter +solitude, scratching the soil for a few beans and potatoes, and in the +autumn gathering nuts, or in the spring roots for beer, with which Old +Jake paddled up to Middletown, to bring home a return freight of salt +pork and rum. + +The town of Greenfield, small though it was, and at the very top of a +high hill, was yet the county town, subject to annual incursions of +lawyers, and such "thrilling incidents" as arise from the location of a +jail and a court-room within the limits of any village. The scenery had +a certain summer charm of utter quiet that did it good service with some +healthy people of well-regulated and insensitive tastes. From Greenfield +Hill one looked away over a wide stretch of rolling country; low hills, +in long, desolate waves of pasturage and grain, relieved here and there +by a mass of black woodland, or a red farm-house and barns clustered +against a hill-side, just over a wooden spire in the shallow valley, +about which were gathered a few white houses, giving signs of life +thrice a day in tiny threads of smoke rising from their prim chimneys; +and over all, the pallid skies of New England, where the sun wheeled his +shorn beams from east to west as coldly as if no tropic seas mirrored +his more fervid glow thousands of miles away, and the chilly moon beamed +with irreproachable whiteness across the round gray hills and the +straggling pond, beloved of frogs and mud-turtles, that Greenfield held +in honor under the name of Squam Lake. + +Perhaps it was the scenery, perhaps the air, possibly the cheapness of +the place as far as all the necessaries of life went, that tempted Judge +Hyde to pitch his tent there, in the house his fathers had built long +ago, instead of wearing his judicial honors publicly, in the city where +he attained them; but, whatever the motive might be, certain it is that +at the age of forty he married a delicate beauty from Baltimore, and +came to live on Greenfield Hill, in the great white house with a gambrel +roof and dormer windows, standing behind certain huge maples, where +Major Hyde and Parson Hyde and Deacon Hyde had all lived before him. + +A brief Northern summer bloomed gayly enough for Adelaide Howard Hyde +when she made her bridal tour to her new home; and cold as she found the +aspect of that house, with its formal mahogany chairs, high-backed, and +carved in grim festoons and ovals of incessant repetition,--its +penitential couch of a sofa, where only the iron spine of a +Revolutionary heroine could have found rest,--its pinched, starved, and +double-starched portraits of defunct Hydes, Puritanic to the very ends +of toupet and periwig,--little Mrs. Hyde was deep enough in love with +her tall and handsome husband to overlook the upholstery of a home he +glorified, and to care little for comfort elsewhere, so long as she +could nestle on his knee and rest her curly head against his shoulder. +Besides, flowers grew, even in Greenfield; there were damask roses and +old-fashioned lilies enough in the square garden to have furnished a +whole century of poets with similes; and in the posy-bed under the front +windows were tulips of Chinese awkwardness and splendor, beds of pinks +spicy as all Arabia, blue hyacinths heavy with sweetness as well as +bells, "pi'nies" rubicund and rank, hearts-ease clustered against the +house, and sticky rose-acacias, pretty and impracticable, not to mention +the grenadier files of hollyhocks that contended with fennel-bushes and +scarlet-flowered beans for the precedence, and the hosts of wild flowers +that bloomed by wood-edges and pond-shores wherever corn or potatoes +spared a foot of soil for the lovely weeds. So in Judge Hyde's frequent +absences, at court or conclave, hither and yon, (for the Judge was a +political man,) it was his pretty wife's chief amusement, when her +delicate fingers ached with embroidery, or her head spun with efforts to +learn housekeeping from old Keery, the time-out-of-mind authority in the +Hyde family, a bad-humored, good-tempered old maid,--it was, indeed, the +little Southerner's only amusement,--to make the polish and mustiness of +those dreary front-parlors gay and fragrant with flowers; and though +Judge Hyde's sense of the ridiculous was not remarkably keen, it was too +much to expect of him that he should do otherwise than laugh long and +loud, when, suddenly returning from Taunton one summer day, he tracked +his wife by snatches of song into the "company rooms," and found her on +the floor, her hair about her ears, tying a thick garland of red +peonies, intended to decorate the picture of the original Hyde, a dreary +old fellow, in bands, and grasping a Bible in one wooden hand, while a +distant view of Plymouth Bay and the Mayflower tried to convince the +spectator that he was transported, among other antediluvians, by that +Noah's ark, to the New World. On either hand hung the little Flora's +great-grandmother-in-law, and her great-grandfather accordingly, Mrs. +Mehitable and Parson Job Hyde, peering out, one from a bushy ornament of +pink laurel-blossoms, and the other from an airy and delicate garland of +the wanton sweet-pea, each stony pair of eyes seeming to glare with +Medusan intent at this profaning of their state and dignity. "Isn't it +charming, dear?" said the innocent little beauty, with a satisfaction +half doubtful, as her husband's laugh went on. + +But for every butterfly there comes an end to summer. The flowers +dropped from the frames and died in the garden; a pitiless winter set +in; and day after day the mittened and mufflered schoolboy, dragging his +sled through drifts of heavy snow to school, eyed curiously the wan, +wistful face of Judge Hyde's wife pressed up to the pane of the south +window, its great restless eyes and shadowy hair bringing to mind some +captive bird that pines and beats against the cage. Her husband absent +from home long and often, full of affairs of "court and state,"--her +delicate organization, that lost its flickering vitality by every +exposure to cold,--her lonely days and nights,--the interminable sewing, +that now, for her own reasons, she would trust to no hands but her +own,--conscious incapacity to be what all the women about her were, +stirring, active, hardy housekeepers,--a vague sense of shame, and a +great dread of the future,--her comfortless and motherless +condition,--slowly, but surely, like frost, and wind, and rain, and +snow, beat on this frail blossom, and it went with the rest. June roses +were laid against her dark hair and in her fair hands, when she was +carried to the lonely graveyard of Greenfield, where mulleins and +asters, golden-rod, blackberry-vines, and stunted yellow-pines adorned +the last sleep of the weary wife and mother; for she left behind her a +week-old baby,--a girl,--wailing prophetically in the square bedroom +where its mother died. + +Judge Hyde did not marry again, and he named his baby Mehitable. She +grew up as a half-orphaned child with an elderly and undemonstrative +father would naturally grow,--shy, sensitive, timid, and extremely +grave. Her dress, thanks to Aunt Keery and the minister's wife, (who +looked after her for her mother's sake,) was always well provided and +neat, but no way calculated to cultivate her taste or to gratify the +beholder. A district school provided her with such education as it could +give; and the library, that was her resort at all hours of the day, +furthered her knowledge in a singular and varied way, since its lightest +contents were histories of all kinds and sorts, unless one may call the +English Classics lighter reading than Hume or Gibbon. + +But at length the district-schoolma'am could teach Mehitable Hyde no +more, and the Judge suddenly discovered that he had a pretty daughter of +fourteen, ignorant enough to shock his sense of propriety, and delicate +enough to make it useless to think of sending her away from home to be +buffeted in a boarding-school. Nothing was left for him but to undertake +her education himself; and having a theory that a thorough course of +classics, both Greek and Latin, was the foundation of all knowledge, +half a score of dusty grammars were brought from the garret, and for two +hours every morning and afternoon little Miss Hitty worried her innocent +soul over conjugations and declensions and particles, as perseveringly +as any professor could have desired. But the dreadful part of the +lessons to Hitty was the recitation after tea; no matter how well she +knew every inflection of a verb, every termination of a noun, her +father's cold, gray eye, fixed on her for an answer, dispelled all kinds +of knowledge, and, for at least a week, every lesson ended in tears. +However, there are alleviations to everything in life; and when the +child was sent to the garret after her school-books, she discovered +another set, more effectual teachers to her than Sallust or the "Graeca +Minora," even the twelve volumes of "Sir Charles Grandison," and the +fewer but no less absorbing tomes of "Clarissa Harlowe"; and every hour +she could contrive not to be missed by Keery or her father was spent in +that old garret, fragrant as it was with sheaves of all the herbs that +grow in field or forest, poring over those old novels, that were her +society, her friends, her world. + +So two years passed by. Mehitable grew tall and learned, but knew little +more of the outside world than ever; her father had learned to love her, +and taught her to adore him; still shy and timid, the village offered no +temptation to her, so far as society went; and Judge Hyde was beginning +to feel that for his child's mental health some freer atmosphere was +fast becoming necessary, when a relentless writ was served upon the +Judge himself, and one that no man could evade; paralysis smote him, and +the strong man lay prostrate,--became bedridden. + +Now the question of life seemed settled for Hitty; her father admitted +no nursing but hers. Month after month rolled away, and the numb grasp +gradually loosed its hold on flesh and sense, but still Judge Hyde was +bedridden. Year after year passed by, and no change for better or worse +ensued. Hitty's life was spent between the two parlors and the kitchen; +for the room her dead mother had so decorated was now furnished as a +bedroom for her father's use; and her own possessions had been removed +into the sitting-room next it, that, sleeping or waking, she might be +within call. All the family portraits held a conclave in the other +front-parlor, and its north and east windows were shut all the year, +save on some sultry summer day when Keery flung them open to dispel damp +and must, and the school-children stared in reverentially, and wondered +why old Madam Hyde's eyes followed them as far as they could see. +Visitors came now and then to the kitchen-door, and usurped Keery's +flag-bottomed chair, while they gossiped with her about village affairs; +now and then a friendly spinster with a budget of good advice called +Hitty away from her post, and, after an hour's vain effort to get any +news worth retailing about the Judge from those pale lips, retired full +of disappointed curiosity to tell how stiff that Mehitable Hyde was, and +how hard it was to make her speak a word to one! Friends were what Hitty +read of in the "Spectator," and longed to have; but she knew none of the +Greenfield girls since she left school, and the only companion she had +was Keery, rough as the east wind, but genuine and kind-hearted,--better +at counsel than consolation, and no way adapted to fill the vacant place +in Hitty's heart. + +So the years wore away, and Miss Hyde's early beauty went with them. She +had been a blooming, delicate girl,--the slight grace of a daisy in her +figure, wild-rose tints on her fair cheek, and golden reflections in her +light brown hair, that shone in its waves and curls like lost sunshine; +but ten years of such service told their story plainly. When Hitty Hyde +was twenty-six, her blue eyes were full of sorrow and patience, when the +shy lids let their legend be read; the little mouth had become pale, and +the corners drooped; her cheek, too, was tintless, though yet round; +nothing but the beautiful hair lasted; even grace was gone, so long had +she stooped over her father. Sometimes the unwakened heart within her +dreamed, as a girl's heart will. Stately visions of Sir Charles +Grandison bowing before her,--shuddering fascinations over the image of +that dreadful Lovelace,--nothing more real haunted Hitty's imagination. +She knew what she had to do in life,--that it was not to be a happy wife +or mother, but to waste by a bedridden old man, the only creature on +earth she loved as she could love. Light and air were denied the plant, +but it grew in darkness,--blanched and unblooming, it is true, but still +a growth upward, toward light. + +Ten years more of monotonous patience, and Miss Hyde was thirty-six. Her +hair had thinned, and was full of silver threads; a wrinkle invaded +either cheek, and she was angular and bony; but something painfully +sweet lingered in her face, and a certain childlike innocence of +expression gave her the air of a nun; the world had never touched nor +taught her. + +But now Judge Hyde was dead; nineteen years of petulant, helpless, +hopeless wretchedness were at last over, and all that his daughter cared +to live for was gone; she was an orphan, without near relatives, without +friends, old, and tired out. Do not despise me that I say "old," you +plump and rosy ladies whose life is in its prime of joy and use at +thirty-six. Age is not counted by years, nor calculated from one's +birth; it is a fact of wear and work, altogether unconnected with the +calendar. I have seen a girl of sixteen older than you are at forty. I +have known others disgrace themselves at sixty-five by liking to play +with children and eat sugar-plums! + +One kind of youth still remained to Hitty Hyde,--the freshness of +inexperience. Her soul was as guileless and as ignorant as a child's; +and she was stranded on life, with a large fortune, like a helmless +ship, heavily loaded, that breaks from its anchor, and drives headlong +upon a reef. + +Now it happened, that, within a year after Judge Hyde's death, Abner +Dimock, the tavern-keeper's son, returned to Greenfield, after years of +absence, a bold-faced, handsome man, well-dressed and "free-handed," as +the Greenfield vernacular hath it. Nobody knew where Abner Dimock had +spent the last fifteen years; neither did anybody know anything against +him; yet he had no good reputation in Greenfield. Everybody looked wise +and grave when his name was spoken, and no Greenfield girl cared to own +him for an acquaintance. His father welcomed him home with more surprise +than pleasure; and the whole household of the Greenfield Hotel, as +Dimock's Inn was new-named, learned to get out of Abner Dimock's way, +and obey his eye, as if he were more their master than his father. + +Left quite alone, without occupation or amusement, Miss Hyde naturally +grasped at anything that came in her way to do or to see to; the lawyer +who had been executor of her father's will had settled the estate and +gone back to his home, and Miss Hyde went with him, the first journey of +her life, that she might select a monument for her father's grave. It +was now near a year since Judge Hyde's death, and the monument was on +its way from Boston; the elder Dimock monopolized the cartage of freight +as well as passengers to the next town, and to him Miss Hyde intrusted +the care of the great granite pillar she had purchased; and it was for +his father that Abner Dimock called on the young lady for directions as +to the disposal of the tombstone just arrived. Hitty was in the garden; +her white morning-dress shone among the roses, and the morning air had +flushed her pale cheek; she looked fair and delicate and gracious; but +her helpless ignorance of the world's ways and usages attracted the +world-hardened man more than her face. He had not spent a _roué_ life in +a great city for nothing; he had lived enough with gentlemen, +broken-down and lost, it is true, but well-bred, to be able to ape their +manners; and the devil's instinct that such people possess warned him of +Hitty Hyde's weakest points. So, too, he contrived to make that first +errand lead to another, and still another,--to make the solitary woman +depend on his help, and expect his coming; fifty thousand dollars, with +no more incumbrance than such a woman, was worth scheming for, and the +prey was easily snared. + +It is not to be expected that any country village of two streets, much +less Greenfield, could long remain ignorant of such a new and amazing +phase as the devotion of any man to any woman therein; but, as nobody +liked to interfere too soon in what might only be, after all, a mere +business arrangement, Greenfield contented itself with using its eyes, +its ears, and its tongues, with one exception to the latter organ's +clatter, in favor of Hitty Hyde; _to_ her no one dared as yet approach +with gossip or advice. + +In the mean time Hitty went on her way, all regardless of the seraphs at +the gate. Abner Dimock was handsome, agreeable, gentlemanly to a certain +lackered extent;--who had cared for Hitty, in all her life, enough to +aid and counsel her as he had already done? At first she was half afraid +of him; then she liked him; then he was "so good to me!" and then--she +pitied him! for he told her, sitting on that hard old sofa, in the June +twilight, how he had no mother, how he had been cast upon the charities +of a cruel and evil world from his infancy; reminded her of the old red +school-house where they had been to school together, and the tyranny of +the big boys over him,--a little curly, motherless boy. So he enlarged +upon his life; talked a mildly bitter misanthropy; informed Miss Hyde by +gradual insinuations that she was an angel sent on earth to console and +reform a poor sinner like him; and before the last September rose had +droped, so far had Abner Dimock succeeded in his engineering, that his +angel was astounded one night by the undeniably terrestrial visitation +of an embrace and a respectfully fervid kiss. + +Perhaps it would have been funny, perhaps pathetic, to analyze the mixed +consternation and delight of Mehitable Hyde at such _bonâ-fide_ evidence +of a lover. Poor woman's heart!--altogether solitary and +desolate,--starved of its youth and its joy,--given over to the chilly +reign of patience and resignation,--afraid of life,--without strength, +or hope, or pleasure,--and all at once Paradise dawns!--her cold, +innocent life bursts into fiery and odorous bloom; she has found her +fate, and its face is keen with splendor, like a young angel's. Poor, +deluded, blessed, rapture-smitten woman! + +Blame her as you will, indignant maidens of Greenfield, Miss Flint, and +Miss Sharp, and Miss Skinner! You may have had ten lovers and twenty +flirtations apiece, and refused half-a-dozen good matches for the best +of reasons; you, no doubt, would have known better than to marry a man +who was a villain from his very physiognomy; but my heart must needs +grow tender toward Miss Hyde; a great joy is as pathetic as a sorrow. +Did you never cry over a doting old man? + +But when Mrs. Smith's son John, a youth of ten, saw, by the light of an +incautious lamp that illuminated a part of the south parlor, a +good-night kiss bestowed upon the departing Abner by Miss Hitty Hyde and +absolutely returned by said Abner, and when John told his mother, and +his mother revealed it to Miss Flint, Miss Flint to Miss Skinner, and so +forth, and so on, till it reached the minister's wife, great was the +uproar in Greenfield; and the Reverend Mrs. Perkins put on her gray +bonnet and went over to remonstrate with Hitty on the spot. + +Whether people will ever learn the uselessness of such efforts is yet a +matter for prophecy. Miss Hyde heard all that was said, and replied very +quietly, "I don't believe it." And as Mrs. Perkins had no tangible +proofs of Abner Dimock's unfitness to marry Judge Hyde's daughter, the +lady in question got the better of her adviser, so far as any argument +was concerned, and effectually put an end to remonstrance by declaring +with extreme quiet and unblushing front,-- + +"I am going to marry him next week. Will you be so good as to notify Mr. +Perkins?" + +Mrs. Perkins held up both hands and cried. Words might have hardened +Hitty; but what woman that was not half tigress ever withstood another +woman's tears? + +Hitty's heart melted directly; she sat down by Mrs. Perkins, and cried, +too. + +"Please, don't be vexed with me," sobbed she. "I love him, Mrs. Perkins, +and I haven't got anybody else to love,--and--and--I never shall have. +He's very good to love me,--I am so old and homely." + +"Very good!" exclaimed Mrs. Perkins, in great wrath, "_good_! to marry +Judge Hyde's daughter, and--fifty thousand dollars," Mrs. Perkins bit +off. She would not put such thoughts into Hitty's head, since her +marriage was inevitable. + +"At any rate," sighed Hitty, on the breath of a long-drawn sob, "nobody +else ever loved me, if I am Judge Hyde's daughter." + +So Mrs. Perkins went away, and declared that things had gone too far to +be prevented; and Abner Dimock came on her retreating steps, and Hitty +forgot everything but that he loved her; and the next week they were +married. + +Here, by every law of custom, ought my weary pen to fall flat and refuse +its office; for it is here that the fate of every heroine culminates. +For what are women born but to be married? Old maids are excrescences in +the social system,--disagreeable utilities,--persons who have failed to +fulfil their destiny,--and of whom it should have been said, rather than +of ghosts, that they are always in the wrong. But life, with +pertinacious facts, is too apt to transcend custom and the usage of +novel-writers; and though the one brings a woman's legal existence to an +end when she merges her independence in that of a man, and the other +curtails her historic existence at the same point, because the +novelist's catechism hath for its preface this creed,--"The chief end of +woman is to get married"; still, neither law nor novelists altogether +displace this same persistent fact, and a woman lives, in all capacities +of suffering and happiness, not only her wonted, but a double life, when +legally and religiously she binds herself with bond and vow to another +soul. + +Happy would it have been for Hitty Hyde, if with the legal fiction had +chimed the actual existent fact!--happy indeed for Abner Dimock's wife +to have laid her new joy down at the altar, and been carried to sleep by +her mother under the mulleins and golden-rods on Greenfield Hill! Scarce +was the allotted period of rapture past half its term, scarce had she +learned to phrase the tender words aloud that her heart beat and choked +with, before Abner Dimock began to tire of his incumbrance, and to +invent plans and excuses for absence; for he dared not openly declare as +yet that he left his patient, innocent wife for such scenes of vice and +reckless dissipation as she had not even dreamed could exist. + +Yet for week after week he lingered away from Greenfield; even months +rolled by, and, except for rare and brief visits home, Hitty saw no more +of her husband than if he were not hers. She lapsed into her old +solitude, varied only by the mutterings and grumblings of old Keery, who +had lifted up her voice against Hitty's marriage with more noise and +less effect than Mrs. Perkins, and, though she still staid by her old +home and haunts, revenged herself on fate in general and her mistress in +particular by a continual course of sulking, all the time hiding under +this general quarrel with life a heart that ached with the purest +tenderness and pity. So some people are made, like chestnuts; one gets +so scratched and wounded in the mere attempt to get at the kernel +within, that it becomes matter of question whether one does not suffer +less from wanting their affection than from trying to obtain it. Yet +Hitty Dimock had too little love given her to throw away even Keery's +habit of kindness to her, and bore with her snaps and snarls as meekly +as a saint,--sustained, it is true, by a hope that now began to solace +and to occupy her, and to raise in her oppressed soul some glimmer of a +bright possibility, a faint expectation that she might yet regain her +husband's love, a passion which she began in her secret heart to fear +had found its limit and died out. Still, Hitty, out of her meek, +self-distrusting spirit, never blamed Abner Dimock for his absence or +his coldness; rather, with the divine unselfishness that such women +manifest, did she blame herself for having linked his handsome and +athletic prime with her faded age, and struggle daily with the morbid +conscience that accused her of having forgotten his best good in the +indulgence of her own selfish ends of happiness. She still thought, "He +is so good to me!" still idealized the villain to a hero, and, like her +kind, predestined to be the prey and the accusing angel of such men, +prayed for and adored her husband as if he had been the best and +tenderest of gentlemen. Providence has its mysteries; but if there be +one that taxes faith and staggers patience more than another, it is the +long misery that makes a good woman cringe and writhe and agonize in +silence under the utter rule and life-long sovereignty of a bad man. +Perhaps such women do not suffer as we fancy; for after much trial every +woman learns that it is possible to love where neither respect nor +admiration can find foothold,--that it even becomes necessary to love +some men, as the angels love us all, from an untroubled height of pity +and tenderness, that, while it sees and condemns the sin and folly and +uncleanness of its object, yet broods over it with an all-shielding +devotion, laboring and beseeching and waiting for its regeneration, +upheld above the depths of suffering and regret by the immortal power of +a love so fervent, so pure, so self-forgetting, that it will be a +millstone about the necks that disregard its tender clasping now, to +sink them into a bottomless abyss in the day of the Lord. + +Now had one long and not unhappy autumn, a lingering winter, a desolate +spring, a weary summer, passed away, and from an all-unconscious and +protracted wrestling with death Hitty Dimock awoke to find her hope +fulfilled,--a fair baby nestled on her arm, and her husband, not +all-insensible, smiling beside her. + +It is true, that, had she died then, Abner Dimock would have regretted +her death; for, by certain provisions of her father's will, in case of +her death, the real estate, otherwise at her own disposal, became a +trust for her child or children, and such a contingency ill suited Mr. +Dimock's plans. So long as Hitty held a rood of land or a coin of silver +at her own disposal, it was also at his; but trustees are not women, +happily for the world at large, and the contemplation of that fact +brought Hitty Hyde's husband into a state of mind well fitted to give +him real joy at her recovery. + +So, for a little while, the sun shone on this bare New England +hill-side, into this grim old house. Care and kindness were lavished on +the delicate woman, who would scarce have needed either in her present +delight; every luxury that could add to her slowly increasing strength, +every attention that could quiet her fluttering and unstrung nerves, was +showered on her, and for a time her brightest hopes seemed all to have +found fruition. + +As she recovered and was restored to strength, of course these cares +ceased. But now the new instincts of motherhood absorbed her, and, +brooding over the rosy child that was her own, caressing its waking, or +hanging above its sleep, she scarce noted that her husband's absences +from home grew more and more frequent, that strange visitors asked for +him, that he came home at midnight oftener than at dusk. Nor was it till +her child was near a year old that Hitty discovered her husband's old +and rewakened propensity,--that Abner Dimock came home drunk,--not drunk +as many men are, foolish and helpless, mere beasts of the field, who +know nothing and care for nothing but the filling of their insatiable +appetite;--this man's nature was too hard, too iron in its moulding, to +give way to temporary imbecility; liquor made him savage, fierce, +brutal, excited his fiendish temper to its height, nerved his muscular +system, inflamed his brain, and gave him the aspect of a devil; and in +such guise he entered his wife's peaceful Eden, where she brooded and +cooed over her child's slumbers, with one gripe of his hard hand lifted +her from her chair, kicked the cradle before him, and, with an awful +though muttered oath, thrust mother and child into the entry, locked the +door upon them, and fell upon the bed to sleep away his carouse. + +Here was an undeniable fact before Hitty Dimock, one she could no way +evade or gloss over; no gradual lesson, no shadow of foreboding, +preluded the revelation; her husband was unmistakably, savagely drunk. +She did not sit down and cry;--drearily she gathered her baby in her +arms, hushed it to sleep with kisses, passed down into the kitchen, woke +up the brands of the ash-hidden fire to a flame, laid on more wood, and, +dragging old Keery's rush-bottomed chair in front of the blaze, held her +baby in her arms till morning broke, careless of anything without or +within but her child's sleep and her husband's drunkenness. Long and +sadly in that desolate night did she revolve this new misery in her +mind; the fact was face to face, and must be provided for,--but how to +do it? What could she do, poor weak woman, even to conceal this +disgrace, much more to check it? Long since she had discovered that +between her and her husband there was no community of tastes or +interests; he never talked to her, he never read to her, she did not +know that he read at all; the garden he disliked as a useless trouble; +he would not drive, except such a gay horse that Hitty dared not risk +her neck behind it, and felt a shudder of fear assail her whenever his +gig left the door; neither did he care for his child. Nothing at home +could keep him from his pursuits; that she well knew; and, hopeful as +she tried to be, the future spread out far away in misty horror and +dread. What might not, become of her boy, with such a father's +influence? was her first thought;--nay, who could tell but in some fury +of drink he might kill or maim him? A chill of horror crept over Hitty +at the thought,--and then, what had not she to dread? Oh, for some +loophole of escape, some way to fly, some refuge for her baby's innocent +life! No,--no,--no! She was his wife; she had married him; she had vowed +to love and honor and obey,--vow of fearful import now, though uttered +in all pureness and truth, as to a man who owned her whole heart! Love +him!--that was not the dread; love was as much her life as her breath +was; she knew no interval of loving for the brute fiend who mocked her +with the name of husband; no change or chance could alienate her divine +tenderness,--even as the pitiful blue sky above hangs stainless over +reeking battle-fields and pest-smitten cities, piercing with its sad and +holy star-eyes down into the hellish orgies of men, untouched and +unchanged by just or unjust, forever shining and forever pure. But honor +him! could that be done? What respect or trust was it possible to keep +for a self-degraded man like that? And where honor goes down, obedience +is sucked into the vortex, and the wreck flies far over the lonely sea, +historic and prophetic to ship and shore. + +No! there was nothing to do! her vow was taken, past the power of man to +break; nothing now remained but endurance. Perhaps another woman, with a +strong will and vivid intellect, might have set herself to work, backed +by that very vow that defied poor Hitty, and, by sheer resolution, have +dragged her husband up from the gulf and saved him, though as by fire; +or a more buoyant and younger wife might have passed it by as a first +offence, hopeful of its being also the only one. But an instinctive +knowledge of the man bereft Hitty of any such hope; she knew it was not +the first time; from his own revelations and penitent confessions while +she was yet free, she knew he had sinned as well as suffered, and the +past augured the future. Nothing was left her, she could not escape, she +must shut her eyes and her mouth, and only keep out of his way as far as +she could. So she clasped her child more tightly, and, closing her heavy +eyes, rocked back and forth till the half-waked boy slept again; and +there old Keery found her mistress, in the morning, white as the cold +drifts without, and a depth of settled agony in her quiet eyes that +dimmed the old woman's only to look at. + +Neither spoke; nor when her husband strode into the breakfast-room and +took his usual place, sober enough, but scarcely regretful of the +over-night development, did any word of reproach or allusion pass the +wife's white lips. A stranger would have thought her careless and cold. +Abner Dimock knew that she was heartbroken; but what was that to him? +Women live for years without that organ; and while she lived, so long as +a cent remained of the Hyde estate, what was it to him if she pined +away? She could not leave him; she was utterly in his power; she was +his,--like his boots, his gun, his dog; and till he should tire of her +and fling her into some lonely chamber to waste and die, she was bound +to serve him; he was safe. + +And she offered no sort of barrier to his full indulgence of his will to +drink. Had she lifted one of her slender fingers in warning, or given +him a look of reproachful meaning, or uttered one cry of entreaty, at +least the conscience within him might have visited him with a temporary +shame, and restrained the raging propensity for a longer interval; but +seeing her apparent apathy, knowing how timid and unresisting was her +nature,--that nothing on earth will lie still and be trodden on but a +woman,--Abner Dimock rioted and revelled to his full pleasure, while all +his pale and speechless wife could do was to watch with fearful eyes and +straining ears for his coming, and slink out of the way with her child, +lest both should be beaten as well as cursed; for faithful old Keery, +once daring to face him with a volley of reproaches from her shrill +tongue, was levelled to the floor by a blow from his rapid hand, and +bore bruises for weeks that warned her from interference. Not long, +however, was there danger of her meddling. When the baby was a year and +a half old. Keery, in her out-door labors,--now grown burdensome enough, +since Mr. Dimock neither worked himself nor allowed a man on the +premises,--Keery took a heavy cold, and, worn out with a life of hard +work, sank into rest quickly, her last act of life being to draw Hitty's +face down to her own, wrinkled and wan as it was, scarce so old in +expression as her mistress's, and with one long kiss and sob speak the +foreboding and anxious farewell she could not utter. + +"Only you now!" whispered Hitty to her child, as Keery's peaceful, +shrouded face was hidden under the coffin-lid and carried away to +Greenfield Hill. Pitiful whisper! happily all-unmeaning to the child, +but full of desolation to the mother, floating with but one tiny plank +amid the wild wrecks of a midnight ocean, and clinging as only the +desperate can cling to this vague chance of life. + +A rough, half-crazed girl, brought from the alms-house, now did the +drudgery of the family. Abner Dimock had grown penurious, and not one +cent of money was given for comfort in that house, scarce for need. The +girl was stupid and rude, but she worked for her board,--recommendation +enough in Mr. Dimock's eyes; and so hard work was added to the other +burdens loaded upon his silent wife. And soon came another, +all-mysterious, but from its very mystery a deeper fear. Abner Dimock +began to stay at home, to be visited at late hours by one or two men +whose faces were full of evil and daring; and when, in the dead of the +long nights, Hitty woke from her broken and feverish sleep, it was to +hear muffled sounds from the cellar below, never heard there before; and +once, wrapping a shawl about her, she stole down the stairways with bare +feet, and saw streams of red light through the chinks of the +cellar-door, and heard the ring of metal, and muttered oaths, all +carefully dulled by such devices as kept the sounds from chance passers +in the street, though vain as far as the inhabitants of the house itself +were concerned. Trembling and cold, she stole back to her bed, full of +doubts and fears, neither of which she dared whisper to any one, or +would have dared, had she possessed a single friend to whom she could +speak. Troubles thickened fast over Hitty; her husband was always at +home now, and rarely sober; the relief his absences had been was denied +her entirely; and in some sunny corner of the uninhabited rooms +up-stairs she spent her days, toiling at such sewing as was needful, and +silent as the dead, save as her life appealed to God from the ground, +and called down the curse of Cain upon a head she would have shielded +from evil with her own life. + +Keen human legislation! sightless justice of men!--one drunken wretch +smites another in a midnight brawl, and sends a soul to its account with +one sharp shudder of passion and despair, and the maddened creature that +remains on earth suffers the penalty of the law. Every sense sobered +from its reeling fury, weeks of terribly expectation heaped upon the +cringing soul, and, in full consciousness, that murderer is strangled +before men and angels, because he was drunk!--necessary enough, one +perceives, to the good of society, which thereby loses two worse than +useless members; but what, in the name of God's justice, should His +vicegerent, law, visit upon the man who wrings another life away by slow +tortures, and torments heart and soul and flesh for lingering years, +where the victim is passive and tenacious, and dies only after +long-drawn anguish that might fill the cup of a hundred sudden deaths? +Yet what escapes the vicegerent shall the King himself visit and judge. +"For He cometh! He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall +he judge the world, and the people with equity." + +Six months passed after Keery's death, and now from the heights of +Greenfield and her sunny window Hitty Dimock's white face looked out +upon a landscape of sudden glory; for October, the gold-bringer, had +come, pouring splendor over the earth, and far and wide the forests +blazed; scarlet and green maples, with erect heads, sentinelled the +street, gay lifeguards of autumn; through dark green cedars the crimson +creeper threaded its sprays of blood-red; birches, gilded to their tops, +swayed to every wind, and drooped their graceful boughs earthward to +shower the mossy sward with glittering leaves; heavy oaks turned +purple-crimson through their wide-spread boughs; and the stately +chestnuts, with foliage of tawny yellow, opened wide their stinging +husks to let the nuts fall for squirrel and blue-jay. Splendid sadness +clothed all the world, opal-hued mists wandered up and down the valleys +or lingered about the undefined horizon, and the leaf-scented south wind +sighed in the still noon with foreboding gentleness. + +One day, Abner Dimock was gone, and Hitty stole down to the garden-door +with her little child, now just trying to walk, that he might have a +little play on the green turf, and she cool her hot eyes and lips in the +air. As she sat there watching the pretty clumsiness of her boy, and +springing forward to intercept his falls, the influence of sun and air, +the playful joy of the child, the soothing stillness of all Nature, +stole into her heart till it dreamed a dream of hope. Perhaps the +budding blossom of promise might become floral and fruitful; perhaps her +child might yet atone for the agony of the past;--a time might come when +she should sit in that door, white-haired and trembling with age, but as +peaceful as the autumn day, watching the sports of his children, while +his strong arm sustained her into the valley of shadow, and his tender +eyes lit the way. + +As she sat dreaming, suddenly a figure intercepted the sunshine, and, +looking up, she saw Abner Dimock's father, the elder Abner, entering the +little wicket-gate of the garden. A strange, tottering old figure, his +nose and chin grimacing at each other, his bleared eyes telling +unmistakable truths of cider-brandy and New England rum, his scant locks +of white lying in confusion over his wrinkled forehead and cheeks, his +whole air squalid, hopeless, and degraded,--not so much by the poverty +of vice as by its demoralizing stamp penetrating from the inner to the +outer man, and levelling it even below the plane of brutes that perish. + +"Good-day! good-day!" said he to his son's wife, in a squeaking, +tremulous tone, that drove the child to his mother's arms,--"Abner to +home?" + +"No, Sir," said Hitty, with an involuntary shudder, that did not escape +the bleared blue eye that fixed its watery gaze upon her. + +"Cold, a'n't ye? Better go in, better go in! Come, come along! How d'e +do, little feller? don't know yer grandper, hey?" + +The child met his advances with an ominous scream, and Hitty hurried +into the house to give him to the servant's charge, while she returned +to the sitting-room, where the old man had seated himself in the +rocking-chair, and was taking a mental inventory of the goods and +chattels with a momentary keenness in his look that no way reassured +Hitty's apprehensive heart. + +"So, Abner a'n't to home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't know where he's gone, do ye?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't never know where he goes, I expect?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he comes home,--know when he's a-comin' home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he doos, you tell him 't some folks come to the tavern last +night, 'n' talked pretty loud, 'n' I heerd--Guess 'ta'n't best, though, +to tell what I heerd. Only you tell Abner 't I come here, and I said +he'd better be a-joggin'. He'll know, he'll know,--h'm, yes," said the +old man, passing his hand across his thin blue lips, as if to drive away +other words better left unsaid,--and then rising from his seat, by the +aid of either arm, gained his balance, and went on, while he fumbled for +his stick:-- + +"I'd ha' writ, but black and white's a hangin' matter sometimes, 'n' +words a'n't; 'n' I hadn't nobody to send, so I crawled along. Don't ye +forget now! don't ye! It's a pretty consider'ble piece o' business; 'n' +you'll be dreffully on't, ef you do forget. Now _don't_ ye forget!" + +"No, I won't," said Hitty, trembling as she spoke; for the old man's +words had showed her a depth of dreadful possibility, and an old +acquaintance with crime and its manoeuvres, that chilled the blood in +her veins. She watched him out of the gate with a sickening sense of +terror at her heart, and turned slowly into the house, revolving all +kinds of plans in her head for her husband's escape, should her fears +prove true. Of herself she did not think; no law could harm her child; +but, even after years of brutality and neglect, her faithful affection +turned with all its provident thoughtfulness and care at once to her +husband; all her wrongs were forgotten, all her sorrows obliterated by +this one fear. Well did St. Augustine say, "God is patient because He is +eternal": but better and truer would the saying have been, had it run, +"God is patient because He is love": a gospel that He publishes in the +lives of saints on earth, in their daily and hourly "anguish of +patience," preaching to the fearful souls that dare not trust His +long-suffering by the tenacious love of those who bear His image, +saying, in resistless human tones, "Shall one creature endure and love +and continually forgive another, and shall I, who am not loving, but +Love, be weary of thy transgressions, O sinner?" And so does the silent +and despairing life of many a woman weave unconsciously its golden +garland of reward in the heavens above, and do the Lord's work in a +strange land where it cannot sing His songs. + +The day crept toward sunset, and Hitty sat with her wan face pressed to +the window-pane, hushing her child in his cradle with one of those low, +monotoned murmurs that mothers know; but still her husband did not come. +The level sun-rays pierced the woods into more vivid splendor, burnished +gold fringed the heavy purple clouds in the west, and warm crimson +lights turned the purple into more triumphant glory; the sun set, +unstained with mist or tempest, behind those blue and lonely hills that +guard old Berkshire with their rolling summits, and night came fast, +steel-blue and thick with stars; but yet he did not come, the untouched +meal on the table was untouched still. Hour after hour of starry +darkness crept by, and she sat watching at the window-pane; overhead, +constellations marched across the heavens in relentless splendor, +careless of man or sorrow; Orion glittered in the east, and climbed +toward the zenith; the Pleiades clustered and sparkled as if they missed +their lost sister no more; the Hyades marked the celestial pastures of +Taurus, and Lyra strung her chords with fire. Hitty rested her weary +head against the window-frame and sent her wearier thoughts upward to +the stars; there were the points of light that the Chaldeans watched +upon their plains by night, and named with mystic syllables of their +weird Oriental tongue,--names that in her girlhood she had delighted to +learn, charmed by that nameless spell that language holds, wherewith it +plants itself ineradicably in the human mind, and binds it with fetters +of vague association that time and chance are all-powerless to +break,--Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgunebi, Bellatrix and Betelguese, +sonorous of Rome and Asia both, full of old echoes and the dry resonant +air of Eastern plains,--names wherein sounded the clash of Bellona's +armor, and the harsh stir of palm-boughs rustled by a hot wind of the +desert, and vibrant with the dying clangor of gongs, and shouts of +worshipping crowds reverberating through horrid temples of grinning and +ghastly idols, wet with children's blood. + +Far, far away, the heavenly procession and their well-remembered names +had led poor Hitty's thoughts; worn out with anxiety, and faint for want +of the food she had forgotten to take, sleep crept upon her, and her +first consciousness of its presence was the awakening grasp of a rough +hand and the hoarse whisper of her husband. + +"Get up!" said he. "Pick up your brat, get your shawl, and come!" + +Hitty rose quickly to her feet. One faculty wretchedness gives, the +power of sudden self-possession,--and Hitty was broad awake in the very +instant she was called. Her husband stood beside her, holding a lantern; +her boy slept in the cradle at her feet. + +"Have you seen your father?" said she, with quick instinct. + +"Yes, d--n you, be quick! do you want to hang me?" + +Quick as a spirit Hitty snatched her child, and wrapped him in the +blanket where he lay; her shawl was on the chair she had slept in, her +hood upon a nail by the door, and flinging both on, with the child in +her arms, she followed her husband down-stairs, across the back-yard, +hitting her feet against stones and logs in the darkness, stumbling +often, but never falling, till the shadow of the trees was past, and the +starlight showed her that they were traversing the open fields, now +crisp with frost, but even to the tread,--over two or three of these, +through a pine-wood that was a landmark to Hitty, for she well knew that +it lay between the turnpike-road and another, less frequented, that by +various windings went toward the Connecticut Hue,--then over a tiny +brook on its unsteady bridge of logs, and out into a lane, where a +rough-spoken man was waiting for them, at the head of a strong horse +harnessed to one of those wagons without springs that New-Englanders +like to make themselves uncomfortable in. Her husband turned to her +abruptly. + +"Get in," said he; "get in behind; there's hay enough; and don't breathe +loud, or I'll murder you!" + +She clambered into the wagon and seated herself on the hay, hushing her +child, who nestled and moaned in her arms, though she had carried him +with all possible care. A sharp cut of the whip sent the powerful horse +off at full speed, and soon this ill-matched party were fast traversing +the narrow road that wound about the country for the use of every farm +within a mile of its necessary course, a course tending toward the +Connecticut. + +Hour after hour crept by. Worn out with fatigue, poor Hitty dozed and +fell back on the soft hay; her child slept, too, and all her troubles +faded away in heavy unconsciousness, till she was again awakened by her +husband's grasp, to find that dawn was gathering its light roseate +fleeces in the east, and that their flight was for the present stayed at +the door of a tavern, lonely and rude enough, but welcome to Hitty as a +place of rest, if only for a moment. The sullen mistress of the house +asked no questions and offered no courtesy, but, after her guests had +eaten their breakfast, rapidly prepared, she led the way to a bedroom in +the loft, where Abner Dimock flung himself down upon the straw bed and +fell sound asleep, leaving Hitty to the undisturbed care of her child. +And occupation enough that proved; for the little fellow was fretful and +excited, so that no hour for thought was left to his anxious and timid +mother till the dinner-bell awoke her husband and took him downstairs. +She could not eat, but, begging some milk for her boy, tended, and fed, +and sung to him, till he slept; and then all the horrors of the present +and future thronged upon her, till her heart seemed to die in her +breast, and her limbs failed to support her when she would have dragged +herself out of doors for one breath of fresh air, one refreshing look at +a world untroubled and serene. + +So the afternoon crept away, and as soon as night drew on the journey +was resumed. But this night was chill with the breath of a sobbing east +wind, and the dim stars foreboded rain. Hitty shivered with bitter cold, +and the boy began to cry. With a fierce curse Abner bade her stop his +disturbance, and again the poor mother had hands and heart full to +silence the still recurring sobs of the child. At last, after the +midnight cocks had ceased to send their challenges from farm to farm, +after some remote church-clocks had clanged one stroke on the damp wind, +they began to pass through a large village; no lights burned in the +windows, but white fences gleamed through the darkness, and sharp gable +ends loomed up against the dull sky, one after another, and the horse's +hoofs flashed sparks from the paved street before the church, that +showed its white spire, spectre-like, directly in their path. Here, by +some evil chance, the child awoke, and, between cold and hunger and +fear, began one of those long and loud shrieks that no power can stop +this side of strangulation. In vain Hitty kissed, and coaxed, and +half-choked her boy, in hope to stop the uproar; still he screamed more +and more loudly. Abner turned round on his seat with an oath, snatched +the child from its mother's arms, and rolled it closely in the blanket. + +"Hold on a minute, Ben!" said he to his companion; "this yelp must be +stopped"; and stepping over to the back of the wagon, he grasped his +wife tightly with one arm, and with the other dropped his child into the +street. "Now drive, Ben," said he, in the same hoarse whisper,--"drive +like the Devil!"--for, as her child fell, Hitty shrieked with such a cry +as only the heart of a mother could send out over a newly-murdered +infant. Shriek on shriek, fast and loud and long, broke the slumbers of +the village; nothing Abner could do, neither threat nor force, short of +absolute murder, would avail,--and there was too much real estate +remaining of the Hyde property for Abner Dimock to spare his wife yet. +Ben drove fiend-fashion; but before they passed the last house in the +village, lights were glancing and windows grating as they were opened. +Years after, I heard the story of such a midnight cry borne past +sleeping houses with the quick rattle of wheels; but no one who heard it +could give the right clue to its explanation, and it dried into a +legend. + +Now Hitty Dimock became careless of good or evil, except one absorbing +desire to get away from her husband,--to search for her child, to know +if it had lived or died. For four nights more that journey was pursued +at the height of their horse's speed; every day they stopped to rest, +and every day Hitty's half-delirious brain laid plans of escape, only to +be balked by Abner Dimock's vigilance; for if he slept, it was with both +arms round her, and the slightest stir awoke him,--and while he woke, +not one propitious moment freed her from his watch. Her brain began to +reel with disappointment and anguish; she began to hate her husband; a +band of iron seemed strained about her forehead, and a ringing sound +filled her ears; her lips grew parched, and her eye glittered; the last +night of their journey Abner Dimock lifted her into the wagon, and she +fainted on the hay. + +"What in hell did you bring her for, Dimock?" growled his companion; +"women are d----d plagues always." + +"She'll get up in a minute," coolly returned the husband; "can't afford +to leave a goose that lays golden eggs behind; hold on till I lift her +up. Here, Hitty! drink, I tell you! drink!" + +A swallow of raw spirit certainly drove away the faintness, but it +brought fresh fire to the fever that burned in her veins, and she was +muttering in delirium before the end of that night's journey brought +them to a small village just above the old house on the river that +figured in the beginning of this history, and which we trust the patient +reader has not forgotten. Abner Dimock left his wife in charge of the +old woman who kept the hovel of a tavern where they stopped, and, giving +Ben the horse to dispose of to some safe purchaser, after he had driven +him down to the old house, returned at night in the boat that belonged +to his negro tenant, and, taking his unconscious wife from her bed, +rowed down the river and landed her safely, to be carried from the skiff +into an upper chamber of the old house, where Jake's wife, Aunt Judy, as +Mr. Dimock styled her, nursed the wretched woman through three weeks of +fever, and "doctored" her with herbs and roots. + +The tenacious Hyde constitution, that was a proverb in Greenfield, +conquered at last, and Hitty became conscious, to find herself in a +chamber whose plastered walls were crumbling away with dampness and +festooned with cobwebs, while the uncarpeted floor was checkered with +green stains of mildew, and the very old four-post bedstead on which she +lay was fringed around the rickety tester with rags of green moreen, +mould-rotted. + +Hitty sank back on her pillow with a sigh; she did not even question the +old negress who sat crooning over the fire, as to where she was, or what +had befallen her; but accepted this new place as only another misty +delirium, and in her secret heart prayed, for the hundredth time, to +die. + +Slowly she recovered; for prayers to die are the last prayers ever +answered; we live against our will, and tempt living deaths year after +year, when soul and body cry out for the grave's repose, and beat +themselves against the inscrutable will of God only to fall down before +it in bruised and bleeding acquiescence. So she lived to find herself +immured in this damp and crumbling house, with no society but a drinking +and crime-haunted husband, and the ignorant negroes who served +him,--society varied now and then by one or two men revolting enough in +speech and aspect to drive Hitty to her own room, where, in a creaking +chair, she rocked monotonously back and forth, watching the snapping +fire, and dreaming dreams of a past that seemed now but a visionary +paradise. + +For now it was winter, and the heavy drifts of snow that lay on Dimock's +meadow forbade any explorations which the one idea of finding her child +might have driven her to make; and the frozen surface of the river no +white-sailed ship could traverse now, nor the hissing paddle-wheels of a +steamer break the silence with intimations of life, active and salient, +far beyond the lonely precinct of Abner Dimock's home. + +So the winter passed by. The noises and lights that had awoke Hitty at +midnight in the house at Greenfield had become so far an institution in +this lonely dwelling that now they disturbed her sleep no more; for it +was a received custom, that, whenever Abner Dimock's two visitors should +appear, the cellar should resound all night with heavy blows and +clinking of metal, and red light as from a forge streamed up through the +doorway; but it disturbed Hitty no more; apathy settled down in black +mist on her soul, and she seemed to think, to care, for nothing. + +But spring awoke the dead earth, and sleeping roots aroused with fresh +forces from their torpor, and sent up green signals to the birds above. +A spark of light awoke in Hitty's eye; she planned to get away, to steal +the boat from its hidden cove in the bushes and push off down the +friendly current of the river,--anywhere away from him! anywhere! though +it should be to wreck on the great ocean, but still away from him! Night +after night she rose from her bed to hazard the attempt, but her heart +failed, and her trembling limbs refused their aid. At length moonlight +came to her aid, and when all the house slept she stole downstairs with +bare, noiseless feet, and sped like a ghost across the meadow to the +river-bank. Poor weak hands! vainly they fumbled with the knotted rope +that bound the skiff to a crooked elm over-hanging the water,--all in +vain for many lingering minutes; but presently the obdurate knot gave +way, and, turning to gather up her shawl, there, close behind her, so +close that his hot breath seemed to sear her cheek, stood her husband, +clear in the moonlight, with a sneer on his face, and the lurid glow of +drunkenness, that made a savage brute of a bad man, gleaming in his +deep-set eyes. Hitty neither shrieked nor ran; despair nerved +her,--despair turned her rigid before his face. + +"Well," said he, "where are you going?" + +"I am going away,--away from you,--anywhere in the world away from you!" +answered she, with the boldness of desperation. + +"Ha, ha! going away from me!--that's a d--d good joke, a'n't it? Away +from your husband! You fool! you can't get away from me! you're mine, +soul and body,--this world and the next! Don't you know that? Where's +your promise, eh?--'for better, for worse!'--and a'n't I worse, you +cursed fool, you? You didn't put on the handcuffs for nothing; heaven +and hell can't get you away from me as long as you've got on that little +shiny fetter on your finger,--don't you know that?" + +The maddened woman made a quick wrench to pull away from him her left +hand, which he held in his, taunting her with the ring that symbolized +their eternal bonds; but he was too quick for her. + +"Hollo!" laughed he; "want to get rid of it, don't you? No, no! that +won't do,--that won't do! I'll make it safe!" + +And lifting her like a child in his arms, he carried her across the +meadow, back to the house, and down a flight of crazy steps into the +cellar, where a little forge was all ablaze with white-hot coal, and the +two ill-visaged men she well knew by sight were busy with sets of odd +tools and fragments of metal, while on a bench near by, and in the seat +of an old chair, lay piles of fresh coin. They were a gang of +counterfeiters. + +Abner Dimock thrust his wife into the chair, sweeping the gilt eagles to +the floor as one of the men angrily started up, demanding, with an oath, +what he brought that woman there for to hang them all. + +"Be quiet, Bill, can't you?" interposed the other man. "Don't you see +he's drunk? you'll have the Devil to pay, if you cross a drunk Dimock!" + +But Abner had not heard the first speaker; he was too much occupied with +tying his wife's arms to the chair,--a proceeding she could nowise +interfere with, since his heavy foot was set upon her dress so as to +hold her own feet in helpless fixedness. He proceeded to take the ring +from her finger, and, searching through a box of various contents that +stood in one corner, extracted from it a delicate steel chain, finely +wrought, but strong as steel can be; then, at the forge, with sundry +tools, carefully chosen and skilfully used, he soldered one end of the +chain to the ring, and, returning to his wife, placed it again upon her +finger. + +"Here, Bill," growled he, "where's that padlock off the tool-chest, eh? +give it here! This woman's a fool,--ha, ha, ha!--she wanted to get away +from me, and she's my wife!" + +Another peal of dissonant laughter interrupted the words. + +"What a d----d good joke! I swear I haven't laughed before, this dog's +age! And then she was goin' to rid herself of the ring! as if that would +help it! Why, there's the promise in black and white,--'love, honor, and +obey,'--'I take thee, Abner,'--ha, ha! that's good! But fast bind, fast +find; she a'n't going to get rid of the ring. I'll make it as tight as +the promise; both of 'em 'll last to doomsday. Give me the padlock, you +scoundrel!" + +Bill, the man he addressed, knew too much to hesitate after the savage +look that sent home the last words,--and, drawing from a bag of tools +and dies a tiny padlock and key, he handed them to Dimock, who passed +the chain about Hitty's thin white wrist, and, fastening it with the +padlock, turned the key, and, withdrawing it from the lock, dropped it +into the silvery heat of the forge, and burst into a fit of laughter, so +savage and so inhuman that the bearded lips of his two comrades grew +white with horror to hear the devil within so exult in his possession of +a man. + +Hitty sat, statue-like, in her chair; stooping, the man unbound her, and +she rose slowly and steadily to her feet, looking him in the face. + +"Look!" said she, raising her shackled arm high in air,--"I shall carry +it to God!"--and so fled, up the broken stairway, out into the +moonlight, across the meadow,--the three men following fast,--over the +fallen boughs that winter had strewn along the shore, out under the +crooked elm, swift as light, poising on the stern of the boat, that had +swung out toward the channel,--and once more lifting her hand high into +the white light, with one spring she dropped into the river, and its +black waters rolled down to the sea. + + + + +THE END OF ALL. + + + Wandering along a waste + Where once a city stood, + I saw a ruined tomb, + And in that tomb an urn,-- + + A sacred funeral-urn, + Without a name or date, + And in its hollow depths + A little human dust! + + Whose dust is this, I asked, + In this forgotten urn? + And where this waste now lies + What city rose of old? + + None knows; its name is lost; + It was, and is no more: + Gone like a wind that blew + A thousand years ago! + + Its melancholy end + Will be the end of all; + For, as it passed away, + The universe will pass! + + Its sole memorial + Some ruined world, like ours; + A solitary urn, + Full of the dust of men! + + + + +BIRDS OF THE NIGHT. + + +There are numerous swarms of insects and many small quadrupeds, +requiring partial darkness for their security, that come abroad only +during the night or twilight. These would multiply almost without check, +but that certain birds are formed with the power of seeing in the dark, +and, on account of their partial blindness in the daytime, are forced by +necessity to seek their food by night. Many species of insects are most +active after dewfall,--such, especially, as spend a great portion of +their lifetime in the air. Hence the very late hour at which Swallows +retire to rest, the hour succeeding sunset providing them with a fuller +repast than any other part of the day. No sooner has the Swallow +disappeared, than the Whippoorwill and the Night-Jar come forth, to prey +upon the larger kinds of aerial insects. The Bat, an animal of an +antediluvian type, comes out at the same time, and assists in lessening +these multitudinous swarms. The little Owls, though they pursue the +larger beetles and moths, direct their efforts chiefly at the small +quadrupeds that steal out in the early evening to nibble the tender +herbs and grasses. Thus the night, except the hours of total darkness, +is with many species of animals, though they pursue their objects with +comparative stillness and silence, a period of general activity. + +In this sketch, I shall treat of the Birds of the Night under two heads, +including, beside the true nocturnal birds that go abroad in the night +to seek their subsistence, those diurnal birds that continue their songs +during a considerable portion of the night. Some species of birds are +partly nocturnal in their habits. Such is the Chimney Swallow. This bird +is seldom out at noonday, which it employs in sleep, after excessive +activity from the earliest morning dawn. It is seen afterwards circling +about in the decline of day, and is sometimes abroad in fine weather the +greater part of the night, when the young broods require almost +unremitted exertions, on the part of the old birds, to procure their +subsistence. + +The true nocturnal birds, of which the Owl and the Whippoorwill are +conspicuous examples, are distinguished by a peculiar sensibility of the +eye, that enables them to see clearly by twilight and in cloudy weather, +while they are dazzled by the broad light of day. Their organs of +hearing are proportionally delicate and acute. Their wing-feathers also +have a peculiar downy softness, so that they fly without the usual +fluttering sounds that attend the flight of other birds, and are able to +steal unawares upon their prey, and make their predal excursions without +disturbing the general silence of the hour. This noiseless flight is +very remarkable in the Owl, as may be observed, if a tame one be allowed +to fly about a room, when we can perceive his motions only by our sight. +It is a fact worthy of our attention, that this peculiar structure of +the wing-feathers does not exist in the Woodcock. Nature makes no +useless provisions for her creatures; and hence this nocturnal bird, +which obtains his food by digging into the soil, and gets no part of it +while on the wing, has no need of this contrivance. Neither stillness +nor stealth would assist him in securing his helpless prey. + +Among the nocturnal birds, the most notorious is the Owl, of which there +are many species, varying from the size of an Eagle down to the little +Acadian, which is no larger than a Robin. The resemblance of the Owl to +the feline quadrupeds has been a frequent subject of remark. Like the +cat, he sees most clearly by twilight or the light of the moon, seeks +his prey in the night, and spends the principal part of the day in +sleep. The likeness is made stronger by his tufts of feathers, that +correspond to the ears of the quadruped,--by his large head,--his round, +full, and glaring eyes, set widely apart,--by the extreme contractility +of the pupil,--and in his manners, by his lurking and stealthy habit of +surprising his victims. His eyes are partially encircled by a disk of +feathers that yields a peculiarly significant expression to his face. +His hooked bill turned downwards, so as to resemble the nose in a human +countenance, the general flatness of his features, and his upright +position, give him a grave and intelligent look; and it was this +expression that caused him to be selected by the ancients as the emblem +of wisdom, and consecrated to Minerva. + +The Owl is remarkable also for the acuteness of his hearing, having a +large ear-drum, and being provided with an apparatus by which he can +exalt this faculty, when under the necessity of listening with greater +attention. Hence, while he is silent in his own motions, he is able to +perceive the least sound from the motion of any other object, and +overtakes his prey by coming upon it in silence and darkness. The +stillness of his flight is one of the circumstances that add mystery to +his character, and which have assisted in rendering him an object of +superstitious dread. + +Aware of his defenceless condition in the bright daylight, when his +purblindness would prevent him from evading the attacks of his enemies, +he seeks some obscure retreat where he may pass the day without exposing +himself to observation. It is this necessity which has caused him to +make his abode in desolate and ruined buildings, in old towers and +belfries, and in the crevices of dilapidated walls. In these places he +hides himself from the sight of other birds, who regard him as their +common enemy, and who show him no mercy when he is discovered. Here also +he rears his offspring, and with these solitary haunts his image is +closely associated. In thinly settled and wooded countries, he selects +the hollows of old trees and the clefts of rocks for his retreats. All +the smaller Owls, however, seem to multiply with the increase of human +population, subsisting upon the minute animals that accumulate in +outhouses, orchards, and fallows. + +When the Owl is discovered in his hiding-place, the alarm is given, and +there is a general excitement among the small birds. They assemble in +great numbers, and with loud chattering commence assailing and annoying +him in various ways, and soon drive him out of his retreat. The Jay, +usually his first assailant, like a thief employed as a thief-taker, +attacks him with great zeal and animation; the Chickadee, the Nuthatch, +and the small Thrushes peck at his head and eyes; while other birds, +less bold, fly round him, and by their vociferation encourage his +assailants and help to terrify their victim. + +It is while sitting on the branch of a tree or on a fence, after his +misfortune and his escape, that he is most frequently seen in the +daytime; and here he has formed a subject for painters, who have +commonly introduced him into their pictures as he appears in one of +these open situations. He is likewise represented ensconced in his own +select retreats, apparently peeping out of his hiding-place while +half-concealed; and the fact of his being seen in these lonely places +has caused many superstitions to be attached to his image. His voice is +supposed to bode misfortune, and his spectral visits are regarded as the +forewarnings of death. His connection with deserted houses and ruins has +invested him with a peculiarly romantic character; while the poets, by +introducing him to deepen the force of their gloomy and pathetic +descriptions, have enlivened these associations; and he deserves, +therefore, in a special degree, to be named among those animals which we +call picturesque. + +The gravity of the Owl's general appearance, combined with a sort of +human expression in his countenance, undoubtedly caused him to be +selected by the ancients as the emblem of wisdom. The moderns have +practically renounced this idea, which had no foundation in the real +character of the bird, who possesses only the sly and sinister traits +that mark the feline race. A very different train of associations and a +new series of picturesque images are now suggested by the figure of the +Owl, who has been portrayed more correctly by modern poetry than by +ancient mythology. He is now universally regarded as the emblem of ruin +and desolation, true to his character and habits, which are intimately +allied to this description of scenery. + +I will not enter into a speculation concerning the nature and origin of +those agreeable emotions which are so generally produced by the sight of +objects that suggest the ideas of decay and desolation. It is happy for +us, that, by the alchemy of poetry, we are able to turn some of our +misfortunes into sources of melancholy pleasure, after the poignancy of +grief has been assuaged by time. Nature has beneficently provided, also, +that many an object, which is capable of communicating no direct +pleasure to our senses, shall affect us agreeably through the medium of +sentiment. The image of the Owl is calculated to awaken the sentiment of +ruin, and to this feeling of the human soul we may trace the pleasure we +derive from the sight of this bird in his appropriate scenery. Two Doves +upon the mossy branch of a tree in a wild and beautiful sylvan retreat +are the pleasing emblems of innocent love and constancy; but they are +not more suggestive of poetic fancies than an Owl sitting upon an old +gate-post near a deserted house. + +I have alluded, in another page, to the faint sounds we hear when the +Night Birds, on a still summer evening, are flying over short distances +in a neighboring wood. There is a feeling of mystery excited by these +sounds, that exalts the pleasure we derive from the delightful influence +of the hour and the season. But the emotions thus produced are of a +cheerful kind, and not equal in intensity to the effects of the scarcely +perceptible sound occasioned by the flight of the Owl, as he glides by +in the dusk of the evening or in the dim light of the moon. Similar in +its influence is the dismal voice of this bird, which is harmonized with +darkness, and, though in some cases not unmusical, is tuned, as it were, +to the terrors of that hour when he makes secret warfare upon the +sleeping inhabitants of the wood. + +One of the most interesting of this tribe of birds is the little Acadian +Owl, (_Strix Acadica_,) whose note has formerly excited a great deal of +curiosity. In "The Canadian Naturalist," an account is given of a rural +excursion in April, in the course of which the attention of one of the +party is called by his companion, just after sunset, to a peculiar sound +proceeding from a cedar swamp. It was compared to the measured tinkling +of a cow-bell, or regular strokes upon a piece of iron, quickly +repeated. The one appealed to is able to give no satisfactory +information about it, but remarks, that, "during the months of April and +May, and in the former part of June, we frequently hear, after +nightfall, the sound just described. From its regularity, it is thought +to resemble the whetting of a saw, and hence the bird from which it +proceeds is called the Saw-Whetter." The author could not identify the +bird that uttered this note, but conjectured that it might be a Heron or +a Bittern. It has since been ascertained that this singular note +proceeds from the Acadian Owl. It is like the sound produced by the +filing of a mill-saw, and is said to be the amatory note of the male, +being heard only during the season of incubation. + +Mr. S.P. Fowler, of Danvers, informs me that "the Acadian Owl has +another note, which we frequently hear in the autumn, after the breeding +season is over. The parent birds, then accompanied by their young, while +hunting their prey during a bright moonlight night, utter a peculiar +note, resembling a suppressed moan or a low whistle. The little Acadian, +to avoid the annoyance of the birds he would meet by day, and the +blinding light of the sun, retires in the morning, his feathers wet with +dew and rumpled by the hard struggles he has encountered in seizing his +prey, to the gloom of the forest or the thick swamp, where, perched on a +bough, near the trunk of the tree, he sleeps through a summer's day, the +perfect picture of a _used-up_ little fellow, suffering from the sad +effects of a night's carouse. But he is an honest bird, notwithstanding +his late hours and his idle sleeping days; he is also domestic in his +habits, and the father of an interesting family, close at hand, in a +hollow white-birch, and he is ever ready to give them his support and +protection." + +The Mottled Owl, (_Strix Asio_) or Screech Owl, is somewhat larger than +the Acadian or Whetsaw, and not so familiar as the Barn Owl of Europe, +though resembling it in general habits. He commonly builds in the hollow +of an old tree, also in deserted buildings, whither he resorts in the +daytime to find repose and to escape annoyance. His voice is heard most +frequently in the latter part of summer, when the young Owlets are +abroad, and use their cries for purposes of mutual salutation and +recognition. This wailing note is singularly wild, and not unmusical. It +is not properly a screech or a scream, like that of the Hawk or the +Peacock, but rather a sort of moaning melody, half music and half +bewailment. This wailing song is far from disagreeable, though it has a +cadence which is expressive of dreariness and melancholy. It might be +performed on a small flute, by commencing with D octave and running down +by semitones to a fifth below, and frequently repeating the notes, for +the space of a minute, with occasional pauses and slight variations, +sometimes ascending as well as descending the scale. The bird does not +slur the passages, but utters them with a sort of trembling _staccato_. +The separate notes may be distinctly perceived, with intervals of about +a semitone. + +The Owl is not properly regarded as a useful bird. The generality of the +tribe deserve to be considered only as mischievous birds of prey, and no +more entitled to mercy and protection than the Falcons, to which they +are allied. All the little Owls, however, though guilty of destroying +small birds, are very serviceable in ridding our fields and premises of +mischievous animals. They likewise destroy multitudes of large nocturnal +insects, flying above the summits of the trees in pursuit of them, while +at other times their flight is low, when watching for the small animals +that run upon the ground. It is probably on account of its low flight +that the Owl is seldom seen on the wing. Bats, which are employed by +Nature for the same kind of services, fall victims in large numbers to +the Owls of different species, who are the principal means of preventing +their multiplication. + +I should wander from my present purpose, were I to attempt a sketch of +the large Owls, as I design only to treat of those birds which +contribute, either as poetic or picturesque objects, to improve the +charms of Nature. I shall say but a passing word, therefore, of the +Great Snowy Owl, almost exclusively an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, +where he frightens both man and beast with his dismal hootings,--or of +the Cat Owl, the prince of these monsters, who should be consecrated to +Pluto,--or of his brother monster, the Gray Owl, that will carry off a +full-grown rabbit. There are several other species, more or less +interesting, ridiculous, or frightful. I will leave them, to speak of +birds of more pleasing habits and a more innocent character. + +The next remarkable family of nocturnal birds comprises the +_Moth-Hunters_, including, in New England, only two species,--the +Whippoorwill and the Night-Hawk, or Piramidig. These birds resemble the +Owls in some of their habits; but in their structure, in their mode of +subsistence, and in their general traits of character, they are like +Swallows. They are shy and solitary, take their food while on the wing, +abide chiefly in deep woods, and come abroad only at twilight or in +cloudy weather. They remain, like the Dove, permanently paired, lay +their eggs on the bare ground, and, when perched upon the branch of a +tree, sit upon it lengthwise, unlike other birds. They are remarkable +for their singular voices, of which that of only one species, the +Whippoorwill, can be considered musical. They are known in all parts of +the world, but are particularly numerous in the warmer parts of America. + +The Whippoorwill (_Caprimulgus vociferus_) is well known to the +inhabitants of this part of the world, on account of his nocturnal song. +This is heard only in densely wooded and retired situations, and is +associated with the solitude of the forest, as well as the silence of +night. The Whippoorwill is, therefore, emblematic of the rudeness of +primitive Nature, and his voice always reminds us of seclusion and +retirement. Sometimes he wanders away from the wood into the precincts +of the town, and sings near some dwelling-house. Such an incident was +formerly the occasion of superstitious alarm, being regarded as an omen +of some evil to the inmates of the dwelling. The true cause of these +irregular visits is probably the accidental abundance of a particular +kind of insects, which the bird has followed from his retirement. + +I believe the Whippoorwill, in this part of the country, is first heard +in May, and continues vocal until the middle of July. He begins to sing +at dusk, and we usually hear his note soon after the Veery, the Philomel +of our summer evenings, has become silent. His song consists of three +notes, in a sort of triple or waltz time, with a slight pause after the +first note in the bar, as given below:-- + +[Illustration: SONG OF THE WHIPPOORWILL. Whip-poor-Will Whip-p'r-Will +Whip-p'r-Will Whip-] + +I should remark, that the bird usually commences his song with the +second syllable of his name, or the second note in the bar. Some birds +fall short of these intervals; but there seems to be an endeavor, on the +part of each individual, to reach the notes as they are written on the +scale. A few sliding notes are occasionally introduced, and an +occasional preluding cluck is heard when we are near the singer. + +The note of the Quail so closely resembles that of the Whippoorwill, +that I have thought it might be interesting to compare the two. + +[Illustration: NOTE OF THE QUAIL. Bob White. More Wet.] + +So great is the general similarity of the notes of these two birds, that +those of the Quail need only to be repeated several times in succession, +without pause, to be mistaken for those of the Whippoorwill. They are +uttered with similar intonations; but the voice of the nocturnal bird is +more harsh, and his song consists of three notes instead of two. + +The song of the Whippoorwill, though wanting in mellowness of tone, as +may be perceived when he is only a short distance from us, is to most +people very agreeable, notwithstanding the superstitions associated with +it. Some persons are not disposed to rank the Whippoorwill among +singing-birds, regarding him as more vociferous than musical. But it +would be difficult to determine in what respect his notes differ from +the songs of other birds, except that they approach more nearly to the +precision of artificial music. Yet it will be admitted that considerable +distance is required to "lend enchantment" to the sound of his voice. In +some retired and solitary districts, the Whippoorwills are often so +numerous as to be annoying by their vociferations; but in those places +where only two or three individuals are heard during the season, their +music is the source of a great deal of pleasure, and is a kind of +recommendation to the place. + +I was witness of this, some time since, in one of my botanical rambles +in the town of Beverly, which is, for the most part, too densely +populated to suit the habits of these solitary birds. On one of these +excursions, after walking several hours over a rather unattractive +region, I arrived at a very romantic spot, known by the unpoetical name +of Black Swamp. Nature uses her most ordinary materials to form her most +delightful landscapes, and often keeps in reserve prospects of +enchanting beauty, and causes them to rise up, as it were, by magic, +where we should least expect them. Here I suddenly found myself +encompassed by a charming amphitheatre of hills and woods, and in a +valley so beautiful that I could not have imagined anything equal to it. +A neat cottage stood alone in this spot, without a single architectural +decoration, which I am confident would have dissolved the spell that +made the whole scene so attractive. It was occupied by a shoemaker, whom +I recognized as an old acquaintance and a worthy man, who resided here +with his wife and children. I asked them if they could live contented so +far from other families. The wife of the cottager replied, that they +suffered in the winter from their solitude, but in the spring and summer +they preferred it to the town,--"for in this place we hear all the +singing-birds, early and late, and the Whippoorwill sings here every +night during May and June." It was the usual practice of these birds, +they told me, to sing both in the morning and the evening twilight; but +if the moon rose late in the evening, after they had become silent, they +would begin to sing anew, as if to welcome her rising. May the birds +continue to sing to this happy family, and may the voice of the +Whippoorwill never bode them any misfortune! + +The Night-Hawk, or Piramidig, (_Caprimulgus Americanus_,) is similar in +many points to the Whippoorwill, and the two species were formerly +considered identical. The former, however, is a smaller bird; he has no +song, and exhibits more of the ways of the Swallow. He is marked by a +white spot on his wings, which is very apparent during his flight. He +takes his prey in a higher part of the atmosphere,--being frequently +seen, at twilight and in cloudy weather, soaring above the house-tops in +quest of insects. The Whippoorwill finds his subsistence chiefly in the +woods, and takes a part of it from the branches of trees, while poising +himself on the wing, like a Humming-Bird. I believe he is never seen +circling aloft like the Night-Hawk. + +The movements of the Night-Hawk, during this flight, are performed, for +the most part, in circles, and are very picturesque. The birds are +usually seen in pairs, at such times, but occasionally there are numbers +assembled together; and one might suppose they were engaged in a sort of +aërial dance, or that they were emulating each other in their attempts +at soaring to a great height. It is evident that these evolutions +proceed in part from the pleasure of motion; but they are also connected +with their courtship. While they are soaring and circling in the air, +they occasionally utter the shrill and broken note which has been +supposed to resemble the word Piramidig, whence the name is +derived,--and now and then they dart suddenly aside, to seize a passing +insect. + +While performing these circumvolutions, the male frequently dives almost +perpendicularly downwards, a distance of forty feet or more, uttering, +when he turns at the bottom of his descent, a singular note, resembling +the twang of a viol-string. This sound has been supposed to proceed from +the action of the air, as the bird dives swiftly through it with open +mouth; but this supposition is rendered improbable by the fact that the +European species makes a similar sound while sitting on its perch. It +has also been alleged that the diving motion of this bird is an act +designed to intimidate those who seem to be approaching his nest; but +this cannot be true, because the bird performs the manoeuvre when he has +no nest to defend. This habit is peculiar to the male, and it is +probably one of those fantastic motions which are noticeable among the +males of the gallinaceous birds, and are evidently their artifices to +attract the attention of the female; very many of these motions may be +observed in the manners of tame Pigeons. + +The twanging note produced during the precipitate descent of the +Night-Hawk is one of the picturesque sounds of Nature, and is heard most +frequently in the morning twilight, when the birds are busy collecting +their repast of insects. During an early morning walk, while they are +circling about, we may hear their cry frequently repeated, and +occasionally the booming sound, which, if one is not accustomed to it, +and is not acquainted with this habit of the bird, affects him with a +sensation of mystery, and excites his curiosity in an extraordinary +degree. + +The sound produced by the European species is a sort of drumming or +whizzing note, like the hum of a spinning-wheel. The male commences this +performance about dusk, and continues it at intervals during a great +part of the night. It is effected while the breast is inflated with air, +like that of a cooing Dove. The Piramidig has the power of inflating +himself in the same manner, and he utters this whizzing note when one +approaches his nest. + +The American Woodcock (_Scolopax minor_) is a more interesting bird than +we should infer from his general appearance and physiognomy. He is +mainly nocturnal in his habits, and his ways are worthy of study and +observation. He obtains his food by scratching up the leaves and rubbish +that lie upon the surface of the ground in damp and wooded places, and +by boring into the earth for worms. He remains concealed in the wood +during the day, and comes out to feed at twilight, choosing the open +ploughed lands where worms are abundant; though it is probable that in +the shade of the wood he is more or less busy in scratching among the +leaves in the daytime. + +The Woodcock does not commonly venture abroad in the open day, unless he +be disturbed and driven from his retreats. He makes his first appearance +here in the latter part of April, and at this season we may observe that +soaring habit which renders him one of the picturesque objects of +Nature. This soaring takes place soon after sunset, continues during +twilight, and is repeated at the corresponding hour in the morning. If +you listen at this time near the places of his resort, he will soon +reveal himself by a lively peep, frequently uttered, from the ground. +While repeating this note, he may be seen strutting about, like a +turkey-cock, with fantastic jerkings of the tail and a frequent bowing +of the head; and his mate, I believe, is at this time not far off. +Suddenly he springs upward, and with a wide circular sweep, uttering at +the same time a rapid whistling note, he rises in a spiral course to a +great height in the air. At the summit of his ascent, he hovers about +with irregular motions, chirping a medley of broken notes, like +imperfect warbling. This continues about ten or fifteen seconds, when it +ceases, and he descends rapidly to the ground. We seldom hear him while +in his descent, but receive the first intimation of it by hearing a +repetition of his peep, resembling the sound produced by those minute +wooden trumpets sold at the German toy-shops. + +No person could watch this playful flight of the Woodcock without +interest; and it is remarkable that a bird with short wings and +difficult flight should be capable of mounting to so great an altitude. +It affords me a vivid conception of the pleasure with which I should +witness the soaring and singing of the Skylark, known to me only by +description. I have but to imagine the chirruping of the Woodcock to be +a melodious series of notes, to feel that I am listening to that bird, +which is so familiarized to our imaginations by English poetry that in +our early days we always expect his greetings with a summer sunrise. It +is with sadness that we first learn in our youth that the Skylark is not +an inhabitant of the New World; and our mornings seem divested of a +great portion of their charms, for the want of this poetical +accompaniment. + +There is another circumstance connected with the habits of the Woodcock +which increases his importance as an actor in the melodrame of Nature. +When we stroll away from the noise and din of the town, where the +stillness permits us to hear distinctly all those faint sounds which are +turned by the silence of night into music, we may hear at frequent +intervals the hum produced by the irregular flights of the Woodcock, as +he passes over short distances in the wood, where he is collecting his +repast. It resembles the sound of the wings of Doves, rendered distinct +by the stillness of all other things, and melodious by the distance. +There is a feeling of mystery attached to these musical nights that +yields a savor of romance to the quiet voluptuousness of a summer +evening. + +It is on such occasions, if we are in a moralizing mood, that we may be +keenly impressed with the truth of the saying, that the secret of +happiness consists in keeping alive our susceptibilities by frugal +indulgences, rather than by seeking a multitude of pleasures, that pall +in exact proportion to their abundance. The stillness and darkness of a +quiet night produce this enlivening effect upon our minds. Our +susceptibility is then awakened to such a degree, that slight sounds and +feeble sparks of light convey to our souls an amount of pleasure which +we seldom experience in the daytime from sights and sounds of the most +pleasing description. Thus the player in an orchestra can enjoy such +music only as would deafen common ears by its crash of sounds, in which +they perceive no connection or harmony; while the simple rustic listens +to the rude notes of a flageolet in the hands of a clown with feelings +of ineffable delight. Nature, if the seekers after luxurious and +exciting pleasures could but understand her language, would say to them, +"Except ye become as this simple rustic, ye cannot enter into my +paradise." + +The American Snipe has some of the nocturnal habits of the Woodcock, and +the same habit of soaring at twilight, when he performs a sort of +musical medley, which Audubon has very graphically described in the +following passage:--"The birds are met with in meadows and low grounds, +and, by being on the spot before sunrise, you may see both (male and +female) mount high, in a spiral manner, now with continuous beats of the +wings, now in short sailings, until more than a hundred yards high, when +they whirl round each other with extreme velocity, and dance, as it +were, to their own music; for, at this juncture, and during the space of +five or six minutes, you hear rolling notes mingled together, each more +or less distinct, perhaps, according to the state of the atmosphere. The +sounds produced are extremely pleasing, though they fall faintly on the +ear. I know not how to describe them; but I am well assured that they +are not produced simply by the beatings of their wings, as at this time +the wings are not flapped, but are used in sailing swiftly in a circle, +not many feet in diameter. A person might cause a sound somewhat similar +by blowing rapidly and alternately, from one end to another, across a +set of small pipes, consisting of two or three modulations. This +performance is kept up till incubation terminates; but I have never +observed it at any other period." + +Among the Heron family we discover a few nocturnal birds, which, though +not very well known, have some ways that are singular and interesting. +Goldsmith considered one of these birds worthy of introduction into his +"Deserted Village," as contributing to the poetic conception of +desolation. Thus, in his description of the grounds which were the +ancient site of the village, we read,-- + + "Along its glades, a solitary guest, + The hollow-sounding Bittern guards its nest." + +"The Bittern is a shy and solitary bird; it is never seen on the wing in +the daytime, but sits, generally with the head erect, hid among the +reeds and rushes of extensive marshes, from whence it will not stir, +unless disturbed by the sportsman. When it changes its haunts, it +removes in the dusk of the evening, and then, rising in a spiral +direction, soars to a vast height. It flies in the same heavy manner as +the Heron, and might be mistaken for that bird, were it not for the +singularly resounding cry which it utters, from time to time, while on +the wing: but this cry is feeble when compared with the hollow booming +noise which it makes during the night, in the breeding season, from its +swampy retreats. From the loudness and solemnity of its note, an +erroneous notion prevails with the vulgar, that it either thrusts its +head into a reed, which serves as a pipe for swelling its note beyond +its natural pitch, or that it immerges its head in water, and then +produces its boomings by blowing with all its might." + +The American Bittern is a smaller bird, but is probably a variety of the +European species. It exhibits the same nocturnal habits, and has +received at the South the name of _Dunkadoo_, from the resemblance of +its common note to these syllables. This is a hollow-sounding noise, but +not so loud as the voice of the Bittern to which Goldsmith alludes. I +have heard it by day proceeding from the wooded swamps, and am at a loss +to explain how so small a bird can produce so low and hollow a note. +Among this family of birds are one or two other nocturnal species, +including the Qua-Bird, which is common to both continents; but there is +little to be said of it that would be interesting in this connection. +The Herons, however, and their allied species, are birds of remarkable +habits, the enumeration and account of which would occupy a considerable +space. In an essay on the flight of birds in particular, the Herons +would furnish a multitude of very interesting facts. + + +Let us now turn our attention to those diurnal birds that sing in the +night as well as in the day, and which might be comprehended under the +general appellation of Nightingales. These birds do not confine their +singing to the night, like the true nocturnal birds, and are most vocal +when inspired by the light of the moon. Europe has several of these +minstrels of the night. Beside the true Philomel of poetry and romance, +the Reed-Thrush and the Woodcock are of this character. In the United +States, the Mocking-Bird enjoys the greatest reputation; the +Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the New York Thrush are also nocturnal +songsters. + +The Mocking-Bird (_Turdus polyglottus_) is well known in the Middle and +Southern States, but seldom passes a season in New England, except in +the southern part of Rhode Island and Connecticut, which seem to be the +northern limit of its migrations. Probably, like the Rose-breasted +Grosbeak, which is constantly extending its limits in an eastern +direction, the Mocking-Bird may be gradually making progress +northwardly, so that fifty years hence both of these birds may be common +in Massachusetts. The Mocking-Bird is familiar in his habits, +frequenting gardens and orchards, and perching on the roofs of houses +when singing, like the common Robin. Like the Robin, too, who sings at +all hours excepting those of darkness, he is a persevering songster, and +seems to be inspired by living in the vicinity of man. In his manners, +however, he bears more resemblance to the Red Thrush, being +distinguished by his vivacity, and the courage with which he repels the +attacks of his enemies. + +The Mocking-Bird is celebrated throughout the world for his musical +powers; but it is difficult to ascertain precisely the character and +quality of his original notes. Hence some naturalists have contended +that he has no song of his own, but confines himself to imitations. That +this is an error, all persons who have listened to him in his native +wild-wood can testify. I should say, from my own observations, not only +that he has a distinct song, peculiarly his own, but that his imitations +are far from being equal to his original notes. Yet it is seldom we hear +him except when he is engaged in mimicry. In his native woods, and +especially at an early hour in the morning, when he is not provoked to +imitation by the voices of other birds and animals, he sometimes pours +forth his own wild notes with full fervor. Yet I have often listened +vainly for hours to hear him utter anything but a few idle repetitions +of monotonous sounds, interspersed with some ludicrous varieties. Why he +should neglect his own pleasing notes, to tease the listener with his +imitations of all imaginable discords, is not easily explained. + +Though his imitations are the cause of his notoriety, they are not the +utterances upon which his true merit is based. He would be infinitely +more valuable as a songster, if he were incapable of imitating a single +sound. I would add, that as an imitator of the songs of other birds he +is very imperfect, and in this respect has been greatly overrated by our +ornithologists, who seem to vie with one another in their exaggerations +of his powers. He cannot utter the notes of the rapid singers; he is +successful only in his imitations of those birds whose notes are simple +and moderately delivered. He is, indeed, more remarkable for his +indefatigable propensity than for his powers. Single sounds, from +whatever source they may come, from birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, or +machines, he gives very accurately; but I have heard numbers of +Mocking-Birds in confinement attempt to imitate the Canary, and always +without success. There is a common saying, that the Mocking-Bird will +die of chagrin, if placed in a cage by the side of a caged Bobolink, +mortified because he cannot give utterance to his rapid notes. If this +were the cause of his death, he would also die when caged in a room with +a Canary, a Goldfinch, or any of the rapidly singing Finches. It is also +an error to say of his imitations, as the generality of writers assert, +that they are improvements upon the originals. When he utters the notes +of the Red-Bird, the Golden Robin, or the Common Robin, he does not +improve them; and when he gives us the screaming of the Jay or the +mewing of the Cat, he does not change them into music. + +As an original songster, judging him by what he is capable of +performing, however unfrequently he may exercise his powers to the best +advantage, the Mocking-Bird is probably equalled only by two or three of +our singing-birds. His notes are loud, varied, melodious, and of great +compass. They may be compared to those of the Red Thrush, more rapidly +delivered, and having more flute notes and fewer guttural notes and +sudden transitions. He also sings on the wing and with fervor, like the +Linnet, while the other Thrushes sing only from their perch. But his +song has less variety than that of the Red Thrush, and falls short of it +in as many respects as it surpasses it. For the greater part of the +time, the only notes of the Mocking-Bird, when he is not engaged in +mimicry, are a sort of melodious whistle, consisting of two notes about +a fourth apart, uttered in quick, but not rapid, succession, and hardly +to be distinguished from those of the Red-Bird of Virginia. + +I heard the notes of the Mocking-Bird the first time in his native +wilds, during a railroad journey by night, through the Pine Barrens of +North Carolina, in the month of June. The journey was very tiresome and +unpleasant, nothing being seen, when looking out upon the landscape, but +a gloomy stretch of level forest, consisting of tall pines, thinly +scattered, without any branches, except at their tops. The dusky forms +of these trees, pictured against the half-luminous sky, seemed like so +many giant spectres watching the progress of our journey, and increased +the loneliness of the hour. Before daylight, when the sky was faintly +crimsoned around the place where the sun was to come forth, the train +made a pause of half an hour, at one of the stations, and the passengers +alighted. While I was looking at the dreary prospect of desert, tired of +my journey and longing for day, suddenly the notes of the Mocking-Bird +came to my ear, and changed all my gloomy feelings into delight. + +It is seldom I have felt so vividly the power of one little incident to +change the tone of one's feelings and the humor of the occasion. As a +few drops of oil, cast upon the surface of the waters, will quiet the +troubled waves, so did the glad voice of this merry bird suddenly dispel +all those sombre feelings which had been fostered by dismal scenes and a +lonely journey. Nature never seemed so lovely as when the rising dawn, +with its tearful beams and purple radiance, was greeted by this warbling +salutation, as from some messenger of light, who came to announce that +Morning was soon to step forth from her throne, and extend over all +things her smiles and her beneficence. + +Of the other American birds that sing in the night I can say nothing +from my own observation. The most important of these is the New York +Thrush, (_Turdus aquaticus_,) which is said to resemble the River +Nightingale of Europe. This bird, which is common in the Western States, +is said to sing melodiously night and day. Wilson remarks of this +species, "They are eminently distinguished by the loudness, sweetness, +and expressive vivacity of their notes, which begin very high and clear, +falling with an almost imperceptible gradation, till they are scarcely +articulated. At these times the musician is perched on the middle +branches of a tree, over a brook or river-bank, pouring out his charming +melody, that may be distinctly heard for nearly half a mile. The voice +of this little bird appeared to me so exquisitely sweet and expressive, +that I was never tired listening to it." This description is exactly +applicable to the song of the Veery, supposed to be silent by Wilson, +who could not have fallen into such an error, except by having confined +his researches chiefly to the Middle and Southern States. + +The Rose-breasted Grosbeak (_Loxia rosea_) is said to be an excellent +songster, passing the greater part of the night in singing, and +continuing vocal in confinement. This bird is common in the Western +States, but until lately has seldom been seen in New England. I learn, +however, from Mr. Fowler, that "the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is found in +Essex County, and, though formerly seldom seen, is becoming every year +more common. Like the Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager, it is retiring in +its habits, and is usually found in the most sheltered part of the wood, +where, perched about midway on a tree, in fancied concealment, it +warbles its soft, clear, and melodious notes." He thinks this bird is +not heard so frequently by night as by day, though it often sings in the +light of the moon. + +In connection with this theme, we cannot help feeling a sense of regret, +almost like melancholy, when we reflect that the true Nightingale and +the Skylark, the classical birds of European literature, are strangers +to our fields and woods. In May and June there is no want of sylvan +minstrels to wake the morn and to sing the vespers of a sweet summer +evening. A flood of song wakes us at the earliest daylight; and the shy +and solitary Veery, after the Vesper-Bird has concluded his evening +hymn, pours his few pensive notes into the very bosom of twilight, and +makes the hour sacred by his melody. But after twilight is sped, and the +moon rises to shed her meek radiance over the sleeping earth, the +Nightingale is not here to greet her rising, and to turn her melancholy +beams into the cheerfulness of daylight. And when the Queen Moon is on +her throne, + + "Clustered around by all her starry Fays," + +the Whippoorwill alone brings her the tribute of his monotonous song, +and soothes the dull ear of Night with sounds which, however delightful, +are not of heaven. We have become so familiar with the Lark and the +Nightingale, by the perusal of the romance of rural life, that "neither +breath of Morn, when she ascends" without the charm of this her earliest +harbinger, "nor silent Night" without her "solemn bird," seems holy, as +when we contemplate them in the works of pastoral song. Poetry has +hallowed to our minds the pleasing objects of the Old World; those of +the New have to be cherished in song yet many more years, before they +will be equally sacred to our imaginations. + +By some of our writers the Mocking-Bird is put forward as equal in song +to the Nightingale. This assumption might be worthy of consideration, if +the American bird were not a mimic. But his mocking habits almost +annihilate his value as a songster,--as the effect of a good concert +would be spoiled, if the players were constantly introducing, in the +midst of their serious performances, snatches of ridiculous tunes and +uncouth sounds. I have never heard the Nightingale; but if I may judge +from descriptions of its song, and from the notes of those Canaries +which are said to give us perfect imitations of it, we have no bird in +America that equals this classical songster. The following description, +by Pliny, which is said to be superior to any other, may afford us some +idea of the extent of its powers:--"The Nightingale, that for fifteen +days and nights, hid in the thickest shades, continues her note without +intermission, deserves our attention and wonder. How surprising that so +great a voice can reside in so small a body! Such perseverance in so +minute an animal! With what musical propriety are the sounds it produces +modulated! The note at one time drawn out with a long breath, now +stealing off into a different cadence, now interrupted by a break, then +changing into a new note by an unexpected transition, now seeming to +renew the same strain, then deceiving expectation. She sometimes seems +to murmur within herself; full, deep, sharp, swift, drawling, trembling; +now at the top, the middle, and the bottom of the scale. In short, in +that little bill seems to reside all the melody which man has vainly +labored to bring from a variety of musical instruments. Some even seem +to be possessed of a different note from the rest, and contend with each +other with great ardor. The bird, overcome, is then seen to discontinue +its song only with its life." + +The cause of the nocturnal singing of birds that do not go abroad during +the night and are strictly diurnal in all their other habits has never +been satisfactorily explained. It is natural that the Whippoorwill, +which is a nocturnal bird, should sing during his hours of wakefulness +and activity. There is also no difficulty in explaining why Ducks and +Geese, and some other social birds, should utter their loud alarm-notes, +when they meet with any midnight disturbance. These birds usually have a +sentinel who keeps awake; and if he give an alarm, the others reply to +it. The crowing of the Cock bears more analogy to the song of a bird, +for it does not seem to be an alarm-note. This domestic bird may be +considered, therefore, a nocturnal songster, if his crowing can be +called a song; though it is remarkable that we seldom hear it during +evening twilight. The Cock sings his matins, but not his vespers; he +crows at the earliest dawn of day, and at midnight upon the rising of +the moon, and whenever he is awakened by artificial light. Many +singing-birds are accustomed to prolong their notes after sunset to a +late hour, and become silent only to commence again at the earliest +daybreak. But the habit of singing in the night is peculiar to a small +number of birds, and the cause of it forms a curious subject of inquiry. + +By what means are they enabled to sustain such constant watchfulness, +singing and providing subsistence for their offspring during the day, +and still continuing wakeful and musical while it is night? Why do they +take pleasure in singing, when no one will come in answer to their call? +Have they their worship, like religious beings, and are their midnight +lays but the outpouring of the fervency of their spirits? Do they +rejoice, like the clouds, in the presence of the moon, hailing her beams +as a pleasant relief from the darkness that has surrounded them? Or in +the silence of night, are their songs but responses to the sounds of the +trees, when they bow their heads and shake their rustling leaves in the +wind? When they listen to the streamlet, that makes audible melody only +in the hush of night, do they not answer to it from their leafy perch? +And when the moth flies hummingly through the recesses of the wood, and +the beetle sounds his horn, what are their notes but cheerful responses +to these sounds, that break sweetly upon the quiet of their slumbers? + +Wilson remarks, that the hunters in the Southern States, when setting +out on an excursion by night, as soon as they hear the Mocking-Bird +sing, know that the moon is rising. He quotes a writer who supposes that +it may be fear that operates upon the birds when they perceive the Owls +flitting among the trees, and that they sing, as a timid person whistles +in a lonely place, to quiet their fears. But the musical notes of birds +are never used by them to express their fears; they are the language of +love, sometimes animated by jealousy. It must be admitted that the +moonlight awakes these birds, and may be the most frequent exciting +cause of their nocturnal singing; but it is not true that they always +wait for the rising of the moon; and if this were the fact, the question +may still be asked, why these few species alone should be thus affected. + +Since Philosophy can give no explanation of this instinct, let Fancy +come to her aid, and assist us in our dilemma,--as when we have vainly +sought from Reason an explanation of the mysteries of Religion, we +humbly submit to the guidance of Faith. With Fancy for our interpreter, +we may suppose that Nature has adapted the works of creation to our +moral as well as our physical wants; and while she has instituted the +night as a time for general rest, she has provided means that shall +soften the gloomy effects of darkness. The birds, which are the +harbingers of all rural delights, are hence made to sing during +twilight; and when they cease, the nocturnal songsters become vocal, +bearing pleasant sensations to the sleepless, and by their lulling +melodies preparing us to be keenly susceptible of all agreeable +emotions. + + +TO THE MOCKING-BIRD. + + + Carolling bird, that merrily, night and day, + Tellest thy raptures from the rustling spray, + And wakest the morning with thy varied lay, + Singing thy matins,-- + When we have come to hear thy sweet oblation + Of love and joyance from thy sylvan station, + Why, in the place of musical cantation, + Balk us with pratings? + + We stroll by moonlight in the dusky forest, + Where the tall cypress shields thee, fervent chorist! + And sit in haunts of Echoes, when thou pourest + Thy woodland solo. + Hark! from the next green tree thy song commences: + Music and discord join to mock the senses, + Repeated from the tree-tops and the fences, + From hill and hollow. + + A hundred voices mingle with thy clamor; + Bird, beast, and reptile take part in thy drama; + Out-speak they all in turn without a stammer,-- + Brisk Polyglot! + Voices of Killdeer, Plover, Duck, and Dotterel; + Notes bubbling, hissing, mellow, sharp, and guttural; + Of Cat-Bird, Cat, or Cart-Wheel, thou canst utter all, + And all-untaught. + + The Raven's croak, the chirping of the Sparrow, + The scream of Jays, the creaking of Wheelbarrow, + And hoot of Owls,--all join the soul to harrow, + And grate the ear. + We listen to thy quaint soliloquizing, + As if all creatures thou wert catechizing, + Tuning their voices, and their notes revising, + From far and near. + + Sweet bird! that surely lovest the noise of folly; + Most musical, but never melancholy; + Disturber of the hour that should be holy, + With sound prodigious! + Fie on thee, O thou feathered Paganini! + To use thy little pipes to squawk and whinny, + And emulate the hinge and spinning-jenny, + Making night hideous! + + Provoking melodist! why canst thou breathe us + No thrilling harmony, no charming pathos, + No cheerful song of love without its bathos? + The Furies take thee,-- + Blast thy obstreperous mirth, thy foolish chatter,-- + Gag thee, exhaust thy breath, and stop thy clatter, + And change thee to a beast, thou senseless prater!-- + Nought else can check thee! + + A lengthened pause ensues:--but hark again! + From the new woodland, stealing o'er the plain, + Comes forth a sweeter and a holier strain!-- + Listening delighted, + The gales breathe softly, as they bear along + The warbled treasure,--the delicious throng + Of notes that swell accordant in the song, + As love is plighted. + + The Echoes, joyful from their vocal cell, + Leap with the wingèd sounds o'er hill and dell, + With kindling fervor, as the chimes they tell + To wakeful Even:-- + They melt upon the ear; they float away; + They rise, they sink, they hasten, they delay, + And hold the listener with bewitching sway, + Like sounds from heaven! + + + + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + + +HAVANA--THE JESUIT COLLEGE. + + +The gentlemen of our party go one day to visit the Jesuit College in +Havana, yclept "Universidad de Belen." The ladies, weary of dry goods, +manifest some disposition to accompany them. This is at once frowned +down by the unfairer sex, and Can Grande, appealed to by the other side, +shakes his shoulders, and replies, "No, you are only miserable women, +and cannot be admitted into any Jesuit establishment whatever." And so +the male deputation departs with elation, and returns with airs of +superior opportunity, and is more insufferable than ever at dinner, and +thereafter. + +They of the feminine faction, on the other hand, consult with more +direct authorities, and discover that the doors of Belen are in no wise +closed to them, and that everything within those doors is quite at their +disposition, saving and excepting the sleeping-apartments of the Jesuit +fathers,--to which, even in thought, they would on no account draw near. +And so they went and saw Belen, whereof one of them relates as follows. + +The building is spacious, inclosing a hollow square, and with numerous +galleries, like European cloisters, where the youth walk, study, and +play. We were shown up-stairs, into a pleasant reception-room, where two +priests soon waited on us. One of these, Padre Doyaguez, seemed to be +the decoy-duck of the establishment, and soon fastened upon one of our +party, whose Protestant tone of countenance had probably caught his +attention. Was she a Protestant? Oh, no!--not with that intelligent, +physiognomy!--not with that talent! What was her name? Julia (pronounced +_H_ulia). Hulia was a Roman name, a Catholic name; he had never heard of +a Hulia who was a Protestant;--very strange, it seemed to him, that a +Hulia could hold to such unreasonable ideas. The other priest, Padre +Lluc, meanwhile followed with sweet, quiet eyes, whose silent looks had +more persuasion in them than all the innocent cajoleries of the elder +man. Padre Doyaguez was a man eminently qualified to deal with the sex +in general,--a coaxing voice, a pair of vivacious eyes, whose cunning +was not unpleasing, tireless good-humor and perseverance, and a savor of +sincerity. Padre Lluc was the sort of man that one recalls in quiet +moments with a throb of sympathy,--the earnest eyes, the clear brow, the +sonorous voice. One thinks of him, and hopes that he is satisfied,--that +cruel longing and more cruel doubt shall never spring up in that +capacious heart, divorcing his affections and convictions from the +system to which his life is irrevocably wedded. No, keep still, Padre +Lluc I think ever as you think now, lest the faith that seems a fortress +should prove a prison, the mother a step-dame,--lest the high, +chivalrous spirit, incapable of a safe desertion, should immolate truth +or itself on the altar of consistency. + +Between those two advocates of Catholicity, Hulia Protestante walks +slowly through the halls of the University. She sees first a Cabinet of +Natural History, including minerals, shells, fossils, and insects, all +well-arranged, and constituting a very respectable beginning. Padre Lluc +says some good words on the importance of scientific education. Padre +Doyaguez laughs at the ladies' hoops, which he calls Malakoffs, as they +crowd through the doorways and among the glass cases; he repeats +occasionally, "_Hulia Protestante_?" in a tone of mock astonishment, and +receives for answer, "_Sí, Hulia Protestante_." Then comes a very +creditable array of scientific apparatus,--not of the order employed by +the judges of Galileo,--electric and galvanic batteries, an orrery, and +many things beside. The library interests us more, with some luxurious +classics, a superb Dante, and a prison-cage of forbidden works, of which +Padre Lluc certainly has the key. Among these were fine editions of +Rousseau and Voltaire, which appeared to be intended for use; and we +could imagine a solitary student, dark-eyed and pale, exploring their +depths at midnight with a stolen candle, and endeavoring, with +self-torment, to reconcile the intolerance of his doctrine with the +charities of his heart. We imagine such a one lost in the philosophy and +sentiment of the "Nouvelle Héloise," and suddenly summoned by the +convent-bell to the droning of the Mass, the mockery of Holy Water, the +fable of the Real Presence. Such contrasts might be strange and +dangerous. No, no, Padre Lluc! keep these unknown spells from your +heart,--let the forbidden books alone. Instead of the Confessions of +Jean Jacques, read the Confessions of St. Augustine,--read the new book, +in three volumes, on the Immaculate Conception, which you show me with +such ardor, telling me that Can Grande, which, in the vernacular, is +Parker, has spoken of it with respect. Beyond the Fathers you must not +get, for you have vowed to be a child all your life. Those clear eyes of +yours are never to look up into the face of the Eternal Father; the +show-box of the Church must content them, with Mary and the saints seen +through its dusty glass,--the august figure of the Son, who sometimes +reproved his mother, crowded quite out of sight behind the woman, whom +it is so much easier to dress up and exhibit. What is this other book +which Parker has read? Padre Doyaguez says, "Hulia, if you read this, +you must become a Catholic." Padre Lluc says, "If Parker has read this +book, I cannot conceive that he is not a Catholic." The quick Doyaguez +then remarks, "Parker is going to Rome to join the Romish Church." Padre +Lluc rejoins, "They say so." Hulia Protestante is inclined to cry out, +"The day that Parker becomes a Catholic, I, too, will become one"; but, +remembering the rashness of vows and the fallibility of men, she does +not adopt that form of expressing _Never_. Parker might, if it pleased +God, become a Catholic, and then the world would have two Popes instead +of one. + +We leave at last the disputed ground of the library and ascend to the +observatory, which commands a fine view of the city, and a good sweep of +the heavens for the telescope, in which Padre Lluc seemed especially to +delight. The observatory is commodious, and is chiefly directed by an +attenuated young priest, with a keen eye and hectic cheek; another was +occupied in working out mathematical tables;--for these Fathers observe +the stars, and are in scientific correspondence with astronomers in +Europe. This circumstance gave us real pleasure on their account,--for +science, in all its degrees, is a positive good, and a mental tonic of +the first importance. Earnestly did we, in thought, commend it to those +wearied minds which have undergone the dialectic dislocations, the +denaturalizations of truth and of thought, which enable rational men to +become first Catholics and then Jesuits. For let there be no illusions +about strength of mind, and so on,--this is effected by means of a vast +machinery. As, in the old story, the calves were put in at one end of +the cylinder and taken out leather breeches at the other, or as glass is +cut and wood carved, so does the raw human material, put into the +machine of the Catholic Church, become fashioned according to the will +of those who guide it. Hulia Protestante! you have a free step and a +clear head; but once go into the machine, and you will come out carved +and embossed according to the old traditional pattern,--you as well as +another. Where the material is hard, they put on more power,--where it +is soft, more care; wherefore I caution you here, as I would in a mill +at Lowell or Lawrence,--Don't meddle with the shafts,--don't go too near +the wheel,--in short, keep clear of the machinery. And Hulia does so; +for, at the last attack of Padre Doyaguez, she suddenly turns upon him +and says, "Sir, you are a Doctrinary and a Propagandist." And the good +Father suffers her to depart in peace. But first there is the chapel to +be seen, with its tawdry and poor ornamentation,--and the dormitories of +the scholars, with long double rows of beds and mosquito-nettings. There +are two of these, and each of them has at one end a raised platform, +with curtains and a bed, where rests and watches the shepherd of the +little sheep. Lastly, we have a view of the whole flock, assembled in +their play-ground, and one of them, looking up, sees his mother, who has +kindly accompanied our visit to the institution. Across the distance +that separates us, we see his blue eyes brighten, and, as soon as +permission is given, he bounds like a young roe to her arms, shy and +tender, his English blood showing through his Spanish skin,--for he is a +child of mixed race. We are all pleased and touched, and Padre Lluc +presently brings us a daguerreotype, and says, "It is my mother." To us +it is an indifferent portrait of an elderly Spanish woman,--but to him, +how much! With kindest mutual regard we take leave,--a little surprised, +perhaps, to see that Jesuit priests have mothers, and remember them. + + + + +SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BAÑOS. + + + "Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone!" + +However enchanting Havana may prove, when seen through the moonlight of +memory, it seems as good a place to go away from as any other, after a +stifling night in a net, the wooden shutters left open in the remote +hope of air, and admitting the music of a whole opera-troupe of dogs, +including bass, tenor, soprano, and chorus. Instead of bouquets, you +throw stones, if you are so fortunate as to have them,--if not, +boot-jacks, oranges, your only umbrella. You are last seen thrusting +frantic hands and feet through the iron bars, your wife holding you back +by the flannel night-gown which you will persist in wearing in this +doubtful climate. At last it is over,--the fifth act ends with a howl +which makes you hope that some one of the performers has come to grief. +But, alas! it is only a stage _dénouement_, whose hero will die again +every night while the season lasts. You fall asleep, but the welcome +cordial has scarcely been tasted when you are aroused by a knock at the +door. It is the night-porter, who wakes you at five by appointment, that +you may enjoy your early coffee, tumble into a hired _volante_, and +reach, half dead with sleep, the station in time for the train that goes +to San Antonio. + +Now, whether you are a partisan of early rising or not, you must allow +that sunrise and the hour after is the golden time of the day in Cuba. +So this hour of starting,--six o'clock,--so distasteful in our +latitudes, is a matter of course in tropical climates. Arriving at the +station, you encounter new tribulations in the registering and payment +of luggage, the transportation of which is not included in the charge +for your ticket. Your trunks are recorded in a book, and, having paid a +_real_ apiece for them, you receive a paper which entitles you to demand +them again at your journey's end. The Cuban railways are good, but +dear,--the charge being ten cents a mile; whereas in our more favored +land one goes for three cents, and has the chance of a collision and +surgeon's services without any extra payment. The cars have windows +which are always open, and blinds which are always closed, or nearly so. +The seats and backs of seats are of cane, for coolness,--hardness being +secured at the same time. One reaches San Antonio in an hour and a half, +and finds a pleasant village, with a river running through it, several +streets of good houses, several more of bad ones, a cathedral, a +cockpit, a _volante_, four soldiers on horseback, two on foot, a market, +dogs, a bad smell, and, lastly, the American Hotel,--a house built in a +hollow square, as usual,--kept by a strong-minded woman from the States, +whose Yankee thrift is unmistakable, though she has been long absent +from the great centres of domestic economy. + +Mrs. L----, always on the watch for arrivals, comes out to receive us. +We are very welcome, she hints, as far as we go; but why are there not +more of us? The smallest favors should be thankfully received, but she +hears that Havana is full of strangers, and she wonders, for her part, +why people will stay in that hot place, and roast, and stew, and have +the yellow fever, when she could make them so comfortable in San +Antonio. This want of custom she continues, during our whole visit, to +complain of. Would it be uncharitable for us to aver that we found other +wants in her establishment which caused us more astonishment, and which +went some way towards accounting for the deficiency complained of? wants +of breakfast, wants of dinner, wants of something good for tea, wants of +towels, wants of candles, wants of ice, or, at least, of the cooling +jars used in the country. Charges exorbitant,--the same as in Havana, +where rents are an ounce a week, and upwards; _volantes_ +difficult,--Mrs. L. having made an agreement with the one livery-stable +that they shall always be furnished at most unreasonable prices, of +which she, supposably, pockets half. On the other hand, the village is +really cool, healthy, and pretty; there are pleasant drives over +dreadful roads, if one makes up one's mind to the _volante_, and +delightful river-baths, shaded by roofs of palm-tree thatch. One of the +best of these is at the foot of Mrs. L.'s inclosure, and its use is +included in the privileges of the house. The water is nearly tepid, +clear, and green, and the little fish float hither and thither in +it,--though men of active minds are sometimes reduced to angle for them, +with crooked pins, for amusement. At the hour of one, daily, the ladies +of the house betake themselves to this refreshment; and there is +laughing, and splashing, and holding of hands, and simulation of all the +Venuses that ever were, from the crouching one of the bath, to the +triumphant Cytherea, springing for the first time from the wave. + +Such are the resources of the house. Those of the neighborhood are +various. Foremost among them is the _cafetal_, or coffee-plantation, of +Don Juan Torres, distant a league from the village, over which league of +stone, sand, and rut you rumble in a _volante_ dragged by three horses. +You know that the _volante_ cannot upset; nevertheless you experience +some anxious moments when it leans at an obtuse angle, one wheel in air, +one sticking in a hole, the horses balking and kicking, and the +postilion swearing his best. But it is written, the _volante_ shall not +upset,--and so it does not. Long before you see the entrance to the +plantation, you watch the tall palms, planted in a line, that shield, +its borders. An avenue of like growth leads you to the house, where +barking dogs announce you, and Don Juan, an elderly gentleman in +slippers and a Panama hat, his hair, face, and eyes all faded to one hue +of grayness, comes out to accost us. Here, again, Hulia Protestante +becomes the subject of a series of attacks, in a new kind. Don Juan +first exhausts his flower-garden upon her, and explains all that is new +to her. Then she must see his blind Chino, a sightless Samson of a +Cooly, who is working resolutely in a mill. "_Canta!_" says the master, +and the poor slave gives tongue like a hound on the scent. "_Baila!_" +and, a stick being handed him, he performs the gymnastics of his +country, a sort of war-dance without accompaniment. "_El can!_" and, +giving him a broom, they loose the dog upon him. A curious tussle then +ensues,--the dog attacking furiously, and the blind man, guided by his +barking, defending himself lustily. The Chino laughs, the master laughs, +but the visitor feels more inclined to cry, having been bred in those +Northern habits which respect infirmity. A _real_ dismisses the poor +soul with a smile, and then begins the journey round the _cafetal_. The +coffee-blossom is just in its perfection, and whole acres in sight are +white with its flower, which nearly resembles that of the small white +jasmine. Its fragrance is said to be delicious after a rain; but, the +season being dry, it is scarcely discernible. As shade is a great +object in growing coffee, the grounds are laid out in lines of fruit- +trees, and these are the ministers of Hulia's tribulation; for Don +Juan, whether in kindness or in mischief, insists that she shall taste +every unknown fruit,--and as he cuts them and hands them to her, she +is forced to obey. First, a little negro shins up a cocoa-nut-tree, +and flings down the nut, whose water she must drink. One cocoa-nut she +endures,--two,--but three? no, she must rebel, and cry out,--"_No mi +gusta!_" Then she must try a bitter orange, then a sour bitter one, then +a sweet lemon, then a huge fruit of triple verjuice flavor. "What is it +good for?" she asks, after a shuddering plunge into its acrid depths. +"Oh," says the Don, "they eat it in the castors instead of vinegar." +Then come _sapotas, mamey_, Otaheite gooseberries. "Does she like +bananas?" he cuts a tree down with his own hand, and sends the bunch of +fruit to her _volante_;--"Sugar-cane?" he bestows a huge bundle of +sticks for her leisurely rodentation;--he fills her pocket with coral +beans for her children. Having, at last, exhausted every polite +attention, and vainly offered gin, rum, and coffee, as a parting +demonstration, Hulia and her partner escape, bearing with them many +strange flavors, and an agonizing headache, the combined result of sun +and acids. Really, if there exist anywhere on earth a society for the +promotion and encouragement of good manners, it should send a diploma to +Don Juan, admonishing him only to omit the vinegar-fruit in his further +walks of hospitality. + +We take the Sunday to visit the nearest sugar-plantation, belonging to +Don Jacinto Gonzales. Sun, not shade, being the desideratum in +sugar-planting, there are few trees or shrubs bordering the +sugar-fields, which resemble at a distance our own fields of Indian +corn, the green of the leaves being lighter, and a pale blue blossom +appearing here and there. The points of interest here are the machinery, +the negroes, and the work. Entering the sugar-house, we find the +_maquinista_ (engineer) superintending some repairs in the machinery, +aided by another white man, a Cooly, and an imp of a black boy, who +begged of all the party, and revenged himself with clever impertinence +on those who refused him. The _maquinista_ was a fine-looking man, from +the Pyrenees, very kind and obliging. He told us that Don Jacinto was +very old, and came rarely to the plantation. We asked him how the +extreme heat of his occupation suited him, and for an answer he opened +the bosom of his shirt, and showed us the marks of innumerable leeches. +The machinery is not very complicated. It consists of a wheel and band, +to throw the canes under the powerful rollers which crush them, and +these rollers, three in number, all moved by the steam-engine. The juice +flows into large copper caldrons, where it is boiled and skimmed. As +they were not at work, we did not see the actual process. Leaving the +sugar-house, we went in pursuit of the _mayoral_, or overseer, who +seemed to inhabit comfortable quarters, in a long, low house, shielded +from the sun by a thick screen of matting. We found him a powerful, +thick-set man, of surly and uncivil manners, girded with a sword, and +further armed with a pistol, a dagger, and a stout whip. He was much too +important a person to waste his words upon us, but signified that the +major-domo would wait on us, which he presently did. We now entered the +negro quarter, a solid range of low buildings, formed around a hollow +square, whose strong entrance is closed at nightfall, and its inmates +kept in strict confinement till the morning hour of work comes round. +Just within the doorway we encountered the trader, who visits the +plantations every Sunday, to tempt the stray cash of the negroes by +various commodities, of which the chief seemed to be white bread, +calicoes, muslins, and bright cotton handkerchiefs. He told us that +their usual weekly expenditure amounted to about twenty-five dollars. +Bargaining with him stood the negro-driver, a tattooed African, armed +with a whip. All within the court swarmed the black bees of the +hive,--the men with little clothing, the small children naked, the women +decent. All had their little charcoal fires, with pots boiling over +them; the rooms within looked dismally dark, close, and dirty; there are +no windows, no air and light save through the ever-open door. The beds +are sometimes partitioned off by a screen of dried palm-leaf, but I saw +no better sleeping-privilege than a board with a blanket or coverlet. +From this we turned to the nursery, where all the children incapable of +work are kept; the babies are quite naked, and sometimes very handsome +in their way, black and shining, with bright eyes and well-formed limbs. +No great provision is made for their amusement, but the little girls +nurse them tenderly enough, and now and then the elders fling them a bit +of orange or _chaimito_, for which they scramble like so many monkeys. +Appeals are constantly made to the pockets of visitors, by open hands +stretched out in all directions. To these "_Nada_"--"Nothing"--is the +safe reply; for, if you give to one, the others close about you with +frantic gesticulation, and you have to break your way through them with +some violence, which hurts your own feelings more than it does theirs. +On _strict_ plantations this is not allowed; but Don Jacinto, like Lord +Ashburton at the time of the Maine treaty, is an old man,--a very old +man; and where discipline cannot be maintained, peace must be secured on +any terms. We visit next the sugar-house, where we find the desired +condiment in various stages of color and refinement. It is whitened with +clay, in large funnel-shaped vessels, open at the bottom, to allow the +molasses to run off. Above are hogsheads of coarse, dark sugar; below is +a huge pit of fermenting molasses, in which rats and small negroes +occasionally commit involuntary suicide, and from which rum is made.--N. +B. Rum is not a wicked word in Cuba; in Boston everybody is shocked when +it is named, and in Cuba nobody is shocked when it is drunk. + +And here endeth the description of our visit to the sugar-plantation of +Don Jacinto, and in good time, too,--for by this it had grown so hot, +that we made a feeble rush for the _volante_, and lay back in it, +panting for breath. Encountering a negress with a load of oranges on her +head, we bought and ate the fruit with eagerness, though the oranges +were bitter. The jolting over three miles of stone and rut did not +improve the condition of our aching heads. Arriving at San Antonio, we +thankfully went to bed for the rest of the morning, and dreamed, only +dreamed, that the saucy black boy in the boiling-house had run after us, +had lifted the curtain of the _volante_, screeched a last impertinence +after us, and kissed his hand for a good-bye, which, luckily for him, is +likely to prove eternal. + + + + +THE MORRO FORTRESS--THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA--THE BENEFICENZA. + + +The Spanish government experiences an unwillingness to admit foreigners +into the Morro, their great stronghold, the causes of which may not be +altogether mysterious. Americans have been of late especially excluded +from it, and it was only by a fortunate chance that we were allowed to +visit it. A friend of a friend of ours happened to have a friend in the +garrison, and, after some delays and negotiations, an early morning hour +was fixed upon for the expedition. + +The fort is finely placed at the entrance of the harbor, and is in +itself a picturesque object. It is built of a light, yellowish stone, +which is seen, as you draw near, in strong contrast with the vivid green +of the tropical waters. We approached it by water, taking a rowboat from +the Alameda. As we passed, we had a good view of a daily Havana +spectacle, the washing of the horses. This being by far the easiest and +most expeditious way of cleaning the animals, they are driven daily to +the sea in great numbers, those of one party being tied together; they +disport themselves in the surge and their wet backs glisten in the sun. +Their drivers, nearly naked, plunge in with them, and bring them safely +back to the shore. + +But for the Morro. We entered without difficulty, and began at once a +somewhat steep ascent, which the heat, even at that early hour, made +laborious. After some climbing, we reached the top of the parapet, and +looked out from the back of the fortress. On this side, if ever on any, +it will be taken,--for, standing with one's back to the harbor, one +sees, nearly on the right hand, a point where trenches could be opened +with advantage. The fort is heavily gunned and garrisoned, and seems to +be in fighting order. The outer wall is separated from the inner by a +paved space some forty feet in width. The height of both walls makes +this point a formidable one; but scaling-ladders could be thrown across, +if one had possession of the outer wall. The material is the coralline +rock common in this part of the island. It is a soft stone, and would +prove, it is feared, something like the cotton-bag defence of New +Orleans memory,--as the balls thrown from without would sink in, and not +splinter the stone, which for the murderous work were to be wished. A +little perseverance, with much perspiration, brought us to a high point, +called the Lantern, which is merely a small room, where the telescope, +signal-books, and signals are kept. Here we were received by an official +in blue spectacles and with a hole in his boot, but still with that air +of being the chiefest thing on God's earth common to all Spaniards. The +best of all was that we brought a sack of oranges with us, and that the +time was now come for their employment. With no other artillery than +these did we take the very heart of the Morro citadel,--for, on offering +them to the official with the hole, he surrendered at once, smiled, gave +us seats, and sitting down with us, indeed, was soon in the midst of his +half-dozenth orange. Having refreshed ourselves, examined the flags of +all nations, and made all the remarks which our limited Spanish allowed, +we took leave, redescended, and reëmbarked. One of our party, an old +soldier, had meanwhile been busily scanning the points and angles of the +fortress, pacing off distances, etc., etc. The result of his +observations would, no doubt, be valuable to men of military minds. But +the writer of this, to be candid, was especially engaged with the heat, +the prospect, the oranges, and the soldiers' wives and children, who +peeped out from windows here and there. Such trifling creatures do come +into such massive surroundings, and trifle still! + +Our ladies, being still in a furious mood of sight-seeing, desired to +visit the University of Havana, and, having made appointment with an +accomplished Cuban, betook themselves to the College buildings with all +proper escort. Their arrival in the peristyle occasioned some +excitement. One of the students came up, and said, in good English, +"What do you want?" Others, not so polite, stared and whispered in +corners. A message to one of the professors was attended with some +delay, and our Cuban friend, having gone to consult with him, returned +to say, with some embarrassment, that the professor would be happy to +show the establishment to the ladies on Sunday, at two, P.M., when every +male creature but himself would be out of it; but as for their going +through the rooms while the undergraduates were about, that was not to +be thought of. "Why not?" asked the ladies. "For your own sake," said +the messenger, and proceeded to explain that the appearance of the +_skirted_ in these halls of learning would be followed by such +ill-conduct and indignity of impertinence on the part of the _shirted_ +as might be intolerable to the one and disadvantageous to the other. Now +there be women, we know, whose horrid fronts could have awed these saucy +little Cubans into decency and good behavior, and some that we know, +whether possessing that power or not, would have delighted in the +fancied exercise of it. What strong-minded company, under these +circumstances, would have turned back? What bolting, tramping, and +rushing would they not have made through the ranks of the astonished +professors and students? The Anniversary set, for example, who sweep the +pews of men, or, coming upon one forlorn, crush him as a boa does a +sheep. Our silly little flock only laughed, colored, and retreated to +the _volantes_, where they held a council of war, and decided to go +visit some establishment where possibly better manners might prevail. + +Returning on the Sunday, at the hour appointed, they walked through the +deserted building, and found spacious rooms, the pulpits of the +professors, the benches of the students, the Queen's portrait, a very +limited library, and, for all consolation, some pleasant Latin sentences +over the doors of the various departments, celebrating the solace and +delights of learning. This was seeing the College, literally; but it was +a good deal like seeing the lion's den, the lion himself being absent on +leave,--or like visiting the hippopotamus in Regent's Park on those days +in which he remains steadfastly buried in his tank, and will show only +the tip of a nostril for your entrance-fee. Still, it was a pleasure to +know that learning was so handsomely housed; and as for the little +rabble who could not be trusted in the presence of the sex, we forgave +them heartily, knowing that soberer manners would one day come upon +them, as inevitably as baldness and paternity. + +Let me here say, that a few days in Havana make clear to one the +seclusion of women in the East, and its causes. Wherever the animal +vigor of men is so large in proportion to their moral power, as in those +countries, women must be glad to forego their liberties for the +protection of the strong arm. One master is better for them than many. +Whatever tyranny may grow out of such barbarous manners, the institution +springs from a veritable necessity and an original good intention. The +Christian religion should change this, which is justifiable only in a +Mohammedan country. But where that religion is so loosely administered +as in Cuba, where its teachers themselves frequent the cock-pit and the +gaming-table, one must not look for too much of its power in the manners +and morals of men. + +The Beneficenza was our next station. It is, as its name signifies, an +institution with a benevolent purpose, an orphan asylum and foundling +hospital in one. The State here charitably considers that infants who +are abandoned by their parents are as much orphaned as they can become +by the interposition of death,--nay, more. The death of parents oftenest +leaves a child with some friend or relative; but the foundling is cut +off from all human relationship,--he belongs only to the hand that takes +him up, when he has been left to die. Despite the kind cruelty of modern +theories, which will not allow of suitable provision for the sufferer, +for fear of increasing the frequency of the crime by which he suffers, +our hearts revolt at the miserable condition of those little creatures +in our great cities, confounded with hopeless pauperism in its desolate +asylums, or farmed out to starve and die. They belong to the State, and +the State should nobly retrieve the world's offence against them. Their +broken galaxy shows many a bright star here and there. Such a little +wailing creature has been found who has commanded great actions and done +good service among men. Let us, then, cherish the race of foundlings, of +whom Moses was the first and the greatest. The princess who reared him +saw not the glorious destiny which lay hid, as a birth-jewel, in his +little basket of reeds. She saw only, as some of us have seen, a +helpless, friendless babe. When he dedicated to her his first edition of +the Pentateuch--But, nay, he did not; for neither gratitude nor +dedications were in fashion among the Jews. + +We found the Beneficenza spacious, well-ventilated, and administered +with great order. It stands near the sea, with a fine prospect in view, +and must command a cool breeze, if there be any. The children enjoy +sea-bathing in summer. The superintendent received us most kindly, and +presented us to the sisters who have charge of the children, who were +good specimens of their class. We walked with them through the neat +dormitories, and observed that they were much more airy than those of +the Jesuit College, lately described. They all slept on the sackings of +the cots, beds being provided only in the infirmary. In the latter place +we found but two inmates,--one suffering from ordinary Cuban fever, the +other with ophthalmia.--N.B. Disease of the eyes does not seem to be +common in Cuba, in spite of the tropical glare of the sun; nor do people +nurse and complain of their eyes there, as with us. We found a separate +small kitchen for the sick, which was neat and convenient. The larger +kitchen, too, was handsomely endowed with apparatus, and the +superintendent told us, with a twinkle in his eye, that the children +lived well. Coffee at six, a good breakfast at nine, dinner at the usual +hour, bread and coffee before bed-time;--this seemed very suitable as to +quantity, though differing from our ideas of children's food; but it +must be remembered that the nervous stimulus of coffee is not found to +be excessive in hot climates; it seems to be only what Nature +demands,--no more. The kind nun who accompanied us now showed us, with +some pride, various large presses, set in the wall, and piled to the top +with clean and comfortable children's clothing. We came presently to +where the boys were reciting their catechism. An ecclesiastic was +hearing them;--they seemed ready enough with their answers, but were +allowed to gabble off the holy words in a manner almost unintelligible, +and quite indecorous. They were bright, healthy-looking little fellows, +ranging apparently from eight to twelve in age. They had good +play-ground set off for them, and shady galleries to walk up and down +in. Coming from their quarter, the girls' department seemed quiet +enough. Here was going on the eternal task of needlework, to which the +sex has been condemned ever since Adam's discovery of his want of +wardrobe. Oh, ye wretched, foolish women! why will ye forever sew? "We +must not only sew, but be thankful to sew; that little needle being, as +the sentimental Curtis has said, the only thing between us and the worst +that may befall." + +These incipient women were engaged in various forms of sewing,--the most +skilful in a sort of embroidery, like that which forms the border of +_piña_ handkerchiefs. A few were reading and spelling. One poor blind +girl sat amongst them, with melancholy arms folded, and learned +nothing,--they told us, nothing; for the instruction of the blind is not +thought of in these parts. This seemed piteous to us, and made us +reflect how happy are _our_ blinds, to say nothing of our deafs and +dumbs. Idiocy is not uncommon here, and is the result of continual +intermarriage between near relations; but it will be long before they +will provide it with a separate asylum and suitable instruction. + +But now came the saddest part of the whole exhibition,--a sight common +enough in Europe, but, by some accident, hitherto unseen by us. Here is +a sort of receptacle, with three or four compartments, which turns on a +pivot. One side of it is open to the street, and in it the wretched +parent lays the more wretched baby,--ringing a small bell, at the same +time, for the new admittance; the parent vanishes, the receptacle turns +on its pivot,--the baby is within, and, we are willing to believe, in +merciful hands. + +The sight of this made, for the first time, the crime real to me. I saw, +at a flash, the whole tragedy of desertion,--the cautious approach, the +frightened countenance, the furtive act, and the great avenging pang of +Nature after its consummation. What was Hester Prynne's pillory, +compared to the heart of any of those mothers? I thought, too, of +Rousseau, bringing to such a place as this children who had the right to +inherit divine genius, and deserting them for the sordid reason that he +did not choose to earn their bread,--the helpless mother weeping at +home, and begging, through long years, to be allowed to seek and reclaim +them. + +Well, here were the little creatures kindly cared for; yet what a +piteous place was their nursery! Some of the recent arrivals looked as +if ill-usage had been exhausted upon them before they were brought +hither. Blows and drugs and starvation had been tried upon them, but, +with the tenacity of infancy, they clung to life. They would not +die;--well, then, they should live to regret it. Some of them lay on the +floor, deformed and helpless; the older ones formed a little class, and +were going through some elementary exercise when we passed. The babies +had a large room allotted to them, and I found the wet-nurses +apportioned one to each child. This appeared a very generous provision, +as, in such establishments elsewhere, three and even four children are +given to one nurse. They had comfortable cribs, on each of which was +pinned the name of its little inmate, and the date of its +entrance;--generally, the name and age of the child are found written on +a slip of paper attached to its clothing, when it is left in the +receptacle. I saw on one, "Cecilio, three weeks old." He had been but a +few days in the establishment. + +Of course, I lingered longest in the babies' room, and longest of all +near the crib of the little Cecilio. He was a pretty baby, and seemed to +me the most ill-used of all, because the youngest. "Could they not bear +with you three weeks, little fellow?" I said. "I know those at whose +firesides such as you would have been welcome guests. That New York +woman whom I met lately, young, rich, and childless,--I could commend +you to her in place of the snarling little spaniel fiend who was her +constant care and companion." + +But here the superintendent made a polite bow, saying,--"And now your +Worships have seen all; for the chapel is undergoing repairs, and cannot +be visited." And so we thanked, and departed. + + + + +DANIEL GRAY. + + + If I shall ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray, + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + I knew him well; in fact, few knew him better; + For my young eyes oft read for him the Word, + And saw how meekly from the crystal letter + He drank the life of his beloved Lord. + + Old Daniel Gray was not a man who lifted + On ready words his freight of gratitude, + And was not called upon among the gifted, + In the prayer-meetings of his neighborhood. + + He had a few old-fashioned words and phrases, + Linked in with sacred texts and Sunday rhymes; + And I suppose, that, in his prayers and graces, + I've heard them all at least a thousand times. + + I see him now,--his form, and face, and motions, + His homespun habit, and his silver hair,-- + And hear the language of his trite devotions + Rising behind the straight-backed kitchen-chair. + + I can remember how the sentence sounded,-- + "Help us, O Lord, to pray, and not to faint!" + And how the "conquering-and-to-conquer" rounded + The loftier aspirations of the saint. + + He had some notions that did not improve him: + He never kissed his children,--so they say; + And finest scenes and fairest flowers would move him + Less than a horseshoe picked up in the way. + + He could see nought but vanity in beauty, + And nought but weakness in a fond caress, + And pitied men whose views of Christian duty + Allowed indulgence in such foolishness. + + Yet there were love and tenderness within him; + And I am told, that, when his Charley died, + Nor Nature's need nor gentle words could win him + From his fond vigils at the sleeper's side. + + And when they came to bury little Charley, + They found fresh dew-drops sprinkled in his hair, + And on his breast a rose-bud, gathered early,-- + And guessed, but did not know, who placed it there. + + My good old friend was very hard on fashion, + And held its votaries in lofty scorn, + And often burst into a holy passion + While the gay crowds went by, on Sunday morn. + + Yet he was vain, old Gray, and did not know it! + He wore his hair unparted, long, and plain, + To hide the handsome brow that slept below it, + For fear the world would think that he was vain! + + He had a hearty hatred of oppression, + And righteous words for sin of every kind; + Alas, that the transgressor and transgression + Were linked so closely in his honest mind! + + Yet that sweet tale of gift without repentance, + Told of the Master, touched him to the core, + And tearless he could never read the sentence: + "Neither do I condemn thee: sin no more." + + Honest and faithful, constant in his calling, + Strictly attendant on the means of grace, + Instant in prayer, and fearful most of falling, + Old Daniel Gray was always in his place. + + A practical old man, and yet a dreamer, + He thought that in some strange, unlooked-for way, + His mighty Friend in heaven, the great Redeemer, + Would honor him with wealth some golden day. + + This dream he carried in a hopeful spirit + Until in death his patient eye grew dim, + And his Redeemer called him to inherit + The heaven of wealth long garnered up for him. + + So, if I ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The Doctor sat at his study-table. It was evening, and the slant beams +of the setting sun shot their golden arrows through the healthy purple +clusters of lilacs that veiled the windows. There had been a shower that +filled them with drops of rain, which every now and then tattooed, with +a slender rat-tat, on the window-sill, as a breeze would shake the +leaves and bear in perfume on its wings. Sweet, fragrance-laden airs +tripped stirringly to and fro about the study-table, making gentle +confusions, fluttering papers on moral ability, agitating treatises on +the great end of creation, mixing up subtile distinctions between +amiable instincts and true holiness, and, in short, conducting +themselves like very unappreciative and unphilosophical little breezes. + +The Doctor patiently smoothed back and rearranged, while opposite to him +sat Mary, bending over some copying she was doing for him. One stray +sunbeam fell on her light brown hair, tinging it to gold; her long, +drooping lashes lay over the wax-like pink of her cheeks, as she wrote +on. + +"Mary," said the Doctor, pushing the papers from him. + +"Sir," she answered, looking up, the blood just perceptibly rising in +her cheeks. + +"Do you ever have any periods in which your evidences seem not +altogether clear?" + +Nothing could show more forcibly the grave, earnest character of thought +in New England at this time than the fact that this use of the term +"evidences" had become universally significant and understood as +relating to one's right of citizenship in a celestial, invisible +commonwealth. + +So Mary understood it, and it was with a deepening flush she answered +gently, "No, Sir." + +"What! never any doubts?" said the Doctor. + +"I am sorry," said Mary, apologetically; "but I do not see how I _can_ +have; I never could." + +"Ah!" said the Doctor, musingly, "would I could say so! There are times, +indeed, when I hope I have an interest in the precious Redeemer, and +behold an infinite loveliness and beauty in Him, apart from anything I +expect or hope. But even then how deceitful is the human heart! how +insensibly might a mere selfish love take the place of that +disinterested complacency which regards Him for what He is in Himself, +apart from what He is to us! Say, my dear friend, does not this thought +sometimes make you tremble?" + +Poor Mary was truth itself, and this question distressed her; she must +answer the truth. The fact was, that it had never come into her blessed +little heart to tremble, for she was one of those children of the +bride-chamber who cannot mourn, because the bridegroom is ever with +them; but then, when she saw the man for whom her reverence was almost +like that for her God thus distrustful, thus lowly, she could not but +feel that her too calm repose might, after all, be the shallow, +treacherous calm of an ignorant, ill-grounded spirit, and therefore, +with a deep blush and a faltering voice, she said,-- + +"Indeed, I am afraid something must be wrong with me. I _cannot_ have +any fears,--I never could; I try sometimes, but the thought of God's +goodness comes all around me, and I am so happy before I think of it!" + +"Such exercises, my dear friend, I have also had," said the Doctor; "but +before I rest on them as evidences, I feel constrained to make the +following inquiries:--Is this gratitude that swells my bosom the result +of a mere natural sensibility? Does it arise in a particular manner +because God has done me good? or do I love God for what He is, as well +as for what He has done? and for what He has done for others, as well as +for what He has done for me? Love to God which is built on nothing but +good received is not incompatible with a disposition so horrid as even +to curse God to His face. If God is not to be loved except when He does +good, then in affliction we are free. If doing _us_ good is all that +renders God lovely to us, then not doing us good divests Him of His +glory, and dispenses us from obligation to love Him. But there must be, +undoubtedly, some permanent reason why God is to be loved by all; and if +not doing us good divests Him of His glory so as to free _us_ from our +obligation to love, it equally frees the universe; so that, in fact, the +universe of happiness, if ours be not included, reflects no glory on its +Author." + +The Doctor had practised his subtile mental analysis till his +instruments were so fine-pointed and keen-edged that he scarce ever +allowed a flower of sacred emotion to spring in his soul without picking +it to pieces to see if its genera and species were correct. Love, +gratitude, reverence, benevolence,--which all moved in mighty tides in +his soul,--were all compelled to pause midway while he rubbed up his +optical instruments to see whether they were rising in right order. +Mary, on the contrary, had the blessed gift of womanhood,--that vivid +life in the soul and sentiment which resists the chills of analysis, as +a healthful human heart resists cold; yet still, all humbly, she thought +this perhaps was a defect in herself, and therefore, having confessed, +in a depreciating tone, her habits of unanalyzed faith and love, she +added,-- + +"But, my dear Sir, you are my best friend. I trust you will be faithful +to me. If I am deceiving myself, undeceive me; you cannot be too severe +with me." + +"Alas!" said the Doctor, "I fear that I may be only a blind leader of +the blind. What, after all, if I be only a miserable self-deceiver? What +if some thought of self has come in to poison all my prayers and +strivings? It is true, I think,--yes, I _think_," said the Doctor, +speaking very slowly and with intense earnestness,--"I think, that, if I +knew at this moment that my name never would be written among those of +the elect, I could still see God to be infinitely amiable and glorious, +and could feel sure that He _could_ not do me wrong, and that it was +infinitely becoming and right that He should dispose of me according to +His sovereign pleasure. I _think_ so;--but still my deceitful +heart!--after all, I might find it rising in rebellion. Say, my dear +friend, are you sure, that, should you discover yourself to be forever +condemned by His justice, you would not find your heart rising up +against Him?" + +"Against _Him_?" said Mary, with a tremulous, sorrowful expression on +her face,--"against my Heavenly Father?" + +Her face flushed, and faded; her eyes kindled eagerly, as if she had +something to say, and then grew misty with tears. At last she said,-- + +"Thank you, my dear, faithful friend! I will think about this; _perhaps_ +I may have been deceived. How very difficult it must be to know one's +self perfectly!" + +Mary went into her own little room, and sat leaning for a long time with +her elbow on the window-seat, watching the pale shells of the +apple-blossoms as they sailed and fluttered downward into the grass, and +listened to a chippering conversation in which the birds in the nest +above were settling up their small housekeeping accounts for the day. + +After a while, she took her pen and wrote the following, which the +Doctor found the next morning lying on his study-table:-- + +"MY DEAR, HONORED FRIEND,--How can I sufficiently thank you for your +faithfulness with me? All you say to me seems true and excellent; and +yet, my dear Sir, permit me to try to express to you some of the many +thoughts to which our conversation this evening has given rise. To love +God because He is good to me you seem to think is not a right kind of +love; and yet every moment of my life I have experienced His goodness. +When recollection brings back the past, where can I look that I see not +His goodness? What moment of my life presents not instances of merciful +kindness to me, as well as to every creature, more and greater than I +can express, than my mind is able to take in? How, then, can I help +loving God because He is good to me? Were I not an object of God's mercy +and goodness, I cannot have any conception what would be my feeling. +Imagination never yet placed me in a situation not to experience the +goodness of God in some way or other; and if I do love Him, how can it +be but because He is good, and to me good? Do not God's children love +Him because He first loved them? + +"If I called nothing goodness which did not happen to suit my +inclination, and could not believe the Deity to be gracious and merciful +except when the course of events was so ordered as to agree with my +humor, so far from imagining that I had any love to God, I must conclude +myself wholly destitute of anything good. A love founded on nothing but +good received is not, you say, incompatible with a disposition so horrid +as even to curse God. I am not sensible that I ever in my life imagined +anything _but_ good could come from the hand of God. From a Being +infinite in goodness everything _must_ be good, though we do not always +comprehend how it is so. Are not afflictions good? Does He not even in +judgment remember mercy? Sensible that 'afflictions are but blessings in +disguise,' I would bless the hand that, with infinite kindness, wounds +only to heal, and love and adore the goodness of God equally in +suffering as in rejoicing. + +"The disinterested love to God, which you think is alone the genuine +love, I see not how we can be certain we possess, when our love of +happiness and our love of God are so inseparably connected. The joys +arising from a consciousness that God is a benefactor to me and my +friends, (and when I think of God, every creature is my friend,) if +arising from a selfish motive, it does not seem to me possible could be +changed into hate, even supposing God my enemy, whilst I regarded Him as +a Being infinitely just as well as good. If God is my enemy, it must be +because I deserve He should be such; and it does not seem to me +_possible_ that I should hate Him, even if I knew He would always be so. + +"In what you say of willingness to suffer eternal punishment, I don't +know that I understand what the feeling is. Is it wickedness in me that +I do not feel a willingness to be left to eternal sin? Can any one +joyfully acquiesce in being thus left? When I pray for a new heart and a +right spirit, must I be willing to be denied, and rejoice that my prayer +is not heard? Could any real Christian rejoice in this? But he fears it +not,--he knows it will never be,--he therefore can cheerfully leave it +with God; and so can I. + +"Such, my dear friend, are my thoughts, poor and unworthy; yet they seem +to me as certain as my life, or as anything I see. Am I unduly +confident? I ask your prayers that I may be guided aright. + +"Your affectionate friend, + +"MARY." + +There are in this world two kinds of natures,--those that have wings, +and those that have feet,--the winged and the walking spirits. The +walking are the logicians: the winged are the instinctive and poetic. +Natures that must always walk find many a bog, many a thicket, many a +tangled brake, which God's happy little winged birds flit over by one +noiseless flight. Nay, when a man has toiled till his feet weigh too +heavily with the mud of earth to enable him to walk another step, these +little birds will often cleave the air in a right line towards the bosom +of God, and show the way where he could never have found it. + +The Doctor paused in his ponderous and heavy reasonings to read this +real woman's letter; and being a loving man, he felt as if he could have +kissed the hem of her garment who wrote it. He recorded it in his +journal, and after it this significant passage from Canticles:-- + +"I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the +hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake this lovely one till +she please." + +Mrs. Scudder's motherly eye noticed, with satisfaction, these quiet +communings. "Let it alone," she said to herself; "before she knows it, +she will find herself wholly under his influence." Mrs. Scudder was a +wise woman. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +In the course of a day or two, a handsome carriage drew up in front of +Mrs. Scudder's cottage, and a brilliant party alighted. They were +Colonel and Madame de Frontignac, the Abbé Léfon, and Colonel Burr. Mrs. +Scudder and her daughter, being prepared for the call, sat in afternoon +dignity and tranquillity, in the best room, with their knitting-work. + +Madame de Frontignac had divined, with the lightning-like tact which +belongs to women in the positive, and to French women in the superlative +degree, that there was something in the cottage-girl, whom she had +passingly seen at the party, which powerfully affected the man whom she +loved with all the jealous intensity of a strong nature, and hence she +embraced eagerly the opportunity to see her,--yes, to see her, to study +her, to dart her keen French wit through her, and detect the secret of +her charm, that she, too, might practise it. + +Madame de Frontignac was one of those women whose beauty is so striking +and imposing, that they seem to kindle up, even in the most prosaic +apartment, an atmosphere of enchantment. All the pomp and splendor of +high life, the wit, the refinements, the nameless graces and luxuries of +courts, seemed to breathe in invisible airs around her, and she made a +Faubourg St. Germain of the darkest room into which she entered. Mary +thought, when she came in, that she had never seen anything so splendid. +She was dressed in a black velvet riding-habit, buttoned to the throat +with coral; her riding-hat drooped with its long plumes so as to cast a +shadow over her animated face, out of which her dark eyes shone like +jewels, and her pomegranate cheeks glowed with the rich shaded radiance +of one of Rembrandt's pictures. Something quaint and foreign, something +poetic and strange, marked each turn of her figure, each article of her +dress, down to the sculptured hand on which glittered singular and +costly rings,--and the riding-glove, embroidered with seed-pearls, that +fell carelessly beside her on the floor. + +In Antwerp one sees a picture in which Rubens, who felt more than any +other artist the glory of the physical life, has embodied his conception +of the Madonna, in opposition to the faded, cold ideals of the Middle +Ages, from which he revolted with such a bound. _His_ Mary is a superb +Oriental sultana, with lustrous dark eyes, redundant form, jewelled +turban, standing leaning on the balustrade of a princely terrace, and +bearing on her hand, _not_ the silver dove, but a gorgeous paroquet. The +two styles, in this instance, were both in the same room; and as Burr +sat looking from one to the other, he felt, for a moment, as one would +who should put a sketch of Overbeck's beside a splendid painting of +Titian's. + +For a few moments, everything in the room seemed faded and cold, in +contrast with the tropical atmosphere of this regal beauty. Burr watched +Mary with a keen eye, to see if she were dazzled and overawed. He saw +nothing but the most innocent surprise and delight. All the slumbering +poetry within her seemed to awaken at the presence of her beautiful +neighbor,--as when one, for the first time, stands before the great +revelations of Art. Mary's cheek glowed, her eyes seemed to grow deep +with the enthusiasm of admiration, and, after a few moments, it seemed +as if her delicate face and figure reflected the glowing loveliness of +her visitor, just as the virgin snows of the Alps become incarnadine as +they stand opposite the glorious radiance of a sunset sky. + +Madame de Frontignac was accustomed to the effect of her charms; but +there was so much love in the admiration now directed towards her, that +her own warm, nature was touched, and she threw out the glow of her +feelings with a magnetic power. Mary never felt the cold, habitual +reserve of her education so suddenly melt, never felt herself so +naturally falling into language of confidence and endearment with a +stranger; and as her face, so delicate and spiritual, grew bright with +love, Madame de Frontignac thought she had never seen anything so +beautiful, and, stretching out her hands towards her, she exclaimed, in +her own language,-- + +"_Mais, mon Dieu! mon enfant, que tu es belle_!" + +Mary's deep blush, at her ignorance of the language in which her visitor +spoke, recalled her to herself;--she laughed a clear, silvery laugh, and +laid her jewelled little hand on Mary's with a caressing movement. + +"_He_ shall not teach you French, _ma toute belle_" she said, indicating +the Abbé, by a pretty, wilful gesture; "_I_ will teach you;--and you +shall teach me English. Oh, I shall try _so_ hard to learn!" she said. + +There was something inexpressibly pretty and quaint in the childish lisp +with which she pronounced English. Mary was completely won over. She +could have fallen into the arms of this wondrously beautiful fairy +princess, expecting to be carried away by her to Dream-land. + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Scudder was gravely discoursing with Colonel Burr and M. +de Frontignac; and the Abbé, a small and gentlemanly personage, with +clear black eye, delicately-cut features, and powdered hair, appeared to +be absorbed in his efforts to follow the current of a conversation +imperfectly understood. Burr, the while, though seeming to be entirely +and politely absorbed in the conversation he was conducting, lost not a +glimpse of the picturesque aside which was being enacted between the two +fair ones whom he had thus brought together. He smiled quietly when he +saw the effect Madame de Frontignac produced on Mary. + +"After all, the child has flesh and blood!" he thought, "and may feel +that there are more things in heaven and earth than she has dreamed of +yet. A few French ideas won't hurt her." + +The arrangements about lessons being completed, the party returned to +the carriage. Madame de Frontignac was enthusiastic in Mary's praise. + +"_Cependant_" she said, leaning back, thoughtfully, after having +exhausted herself in superlatives,--"_cependant elle est dévote,--et à +dix-neuf comment cela se peut il_?" + +"It is the effect of her austere education," said Burr. "It is not +possible for you to conceive how young people are trained in the +religious families of this country." + +"But yet," said Madame, "it gives her a grace altogether peculiar; +something in her looks went to my heart. I could find it very easy to +love her, because she is really good." + +"The Queen of Hearts should know all that is possible in loving," said +Burr. + +Somehow, of late, the compliments which fell so readily from those +graceful lips had brought with them an unsatisfying pain. Until a woman +really _loves_, flattery and compliment are often like her native air; +but when that deeper feeling has once awakened in her, her instincts +become marvellously acute to detect the false from the true. Madame de +Frontignac longed for one strong, unguarded, real, earnest word from the +man who had stolen from her her whole being. She was beginning to feel +in some dim wise what an untold treasure she was daily giving for tinsel +and dross. She leaned back in the carriage, with a restless, burning +cheek, and wondered why she was born to be so miserable. The thought of +Mary's saintly face and tender eyes rose before her as the moon rises on +the eyes of some hot and fevered invalid, inspiring vague yearnings +after an unknown, unattainable peace. + +Could some friendly power once have made her at that time clairvoyant +and shown her the _reality_ of the man whom she was seeing through the +prismatic glass of her own enkindled ideality! Could she have seen the +calculating quietness in which, during the intervals of a restless and +sleepless ambition, he played upon her heart-strings, as one uses a +musical instrument to beguile a passing hour,--how his only +embarrassment was the fear that the feelings he was pleased to excite +might become too warm and too strong, while as yet his relations to her +husband were such as to make it dangerous to arouse his jealousy! And if +he could have seen that pure ideal conception of himself which alone +gave him power in the heart of this woman,--that spotless, glorified +image of a hero without fear, without reproach,--would he have felt a +moment's shame and abasement at its utter falsehood? + +The poet says that the Evil Spirit stood abashed when he saw virtue in +an angel form! How would a man, then, stand, who meets face to face his +own glorified, spotless ideal, made living by the boundless faith of +some believing heart? The best must needs lay his hand on his mouth at +this apparition; but woe to him who feels no redeeming power in the +sacredness of this believing dream,--who with calculating shrewdness +_uses_ this most touching miracle of love only to corrupt and destroy +the loving! For him there is no sacrifice for sin, no place for +repentance. His very mother might shrink in her grave to have him laid +beside her. + +Madame de Frontignac had the high, honorable nature of the old blood of +France, and a touch of its romance. She was strung heroically, and +educated according to the notions of her caste and church, purely and +religiously. True it is, that one can scarcely call _that_ education +which teaches woman everything except herself,--_except_ the things that +relate to her own peculiar womanly destiny, and, on plea of the holiness +of ignorance, sends her without one word of just counsel into the +temptations of life. Incredible as it may seem, Virginie de Frontignac +had never read a romance or work of fiction of which love was the +staple; the _régime_ of the convent in this regard was inexorable; at +eighteen she was more thoroughly a child than most American girls at +thirteen. On entrance into life, she was at first so dazzled and +bewildered by the mere contrast of fashionable excitement with the +quietness of the scenes in which she had hitherto grown up, that she had +no time for reading or thought,--all was one intoxicating frolic of +existence, one dazzling, bewildering dream. + +He whose eye had measured her for his victim verified, if ever man did, +the proverbial expression of the iron hand under the velvet glove. Under +all his gentle suavities there was a fixed, inflexible will, a calm +self-restraint, and a composed philosophical measurement of others, that +fitted him to bear despotic rule over an impulsive, unguarded nature. +The position, at once accorded to him, of her instructor in the English +language and literature, gave him a thousand daily opportunities to +touch and stimulate all that class of finer faculties, so restless and +so perilous, and which a good man approaches always with certain awe. It +is said that he once asserted that he never beguiled a woman who did not +come half-way to meet him,--an observation much the same as a serpent +might make in regard to his birds. + +The visit of the morning was followed by several others. Madame de +Frontignac seemed to conceive for Mary one of those passionate +attachments which women often conceive for anything fair and +sympathizing, at those periods when their whole inner being is made +vital by the approaches of a grand passion. It took only a few visits to +make her as familiar as a child at the cottage; and the whole air of the +Faubourg St. Germain seemed to melt away from her, as, with the +pliability peculiar to her nation, she blended herself with the quiet +pursuits of the family. Sometimes, in simple straw hat and white +wrapper, she would lie down in the grass under the apple-trees, or join +Mary in an expedition to the barn for hen's eggs, or a run along the +sea-beach for shells; and her childish eagerness and delight on these +occasions used to arouse the unqualified astonishment of Mrs. Katy +Scudder. + +The Doctor she regarded with a _naïve_ astonishment, slightly tinctured +with apprehension. She knew he was very religious, and stretched her +comprehension to imagine what he might be like. She thought of Bossuet's +sermons walking about under a Protestant coat, and felt vaguely alarmed +and sinful in his presence, as she used to when entering under the +shadows of a cathedral. In her the religious sentiment, though vague, +was strong. Nothing in the character of Burr had ever awakened so much +disapprobation as his occasional sneers at religion. On such occasions +she always reproved him with warmth, but excused him in her heart, +because he was brought up a heretic. She held a special theological +conversation with the Abbé, whether salvation were possible to one +outside of the True Church,--and had added to her daily prayer a +particular invocation to the Virgin for him. + +The French lessons, with her assistance, proceeded prosperously. She +became an inmate in Mrs. Marvyn's family also. The brown-eyed, sensitive +woman loved her as a new poem; she felt enchanted by her; and the +prosaic details of her household seemed touched to poetic life by her +innocent interest and admiration. The young Madame insisted on being +taught to spin at the great wheel; and a very pretty picture she made of +it, too, with her earnest gravity of endeavor, her deepening cheek, her +graceful form, with some strange foreign scarf or jewelry waving and +flashing in odd contrast with her work. + +"Do you know," she said, one day, while thus employed in the north room +at Mrs. Marvyn's,--"do you know Burr told me that princesses used to +spin? He read me a beautiful story from the 'Odyssey,' about how +Penelope cheated her lovers with her spinning, while she was waiting for +her husband to come home;--_he_ was gone to sea, Mary,--her _true_ +love,--you understand." + +She turned on Mary a wicked glance, so full of intelligence that the +snowdrop grew red as the inside of a sea-shell. + +"_Mon enfant_! thou hast a thought _deep in here_!" she said to Mary, +one day, as they sat together in the grass under the apple-trees. + +"Why, what?" said Mary, with a startled and guilty look. + +"Why, what? _petite_!" said the fairy princess, whimsically mimicking +her accent. "_Ah! ah! ma belle_! you think I have no eyes;--Virginie +sees deep in here!" she said, laying her hand playfully on Mary's heart. +"_Ah, petite_!" she said, gravely, and almost sorrowfully, "if you love +him, wait for him,--_don't marry another_. It is dreadful not to have +one's heart go with one's duty." + +"I shall never marry anybody," said Mary. + +"Nevare marrie anybodie!" said the lady, imitating her accents in tones +much like those of a bobolink. "Ah! ah! my little saint, you cannot +always live on nothing but the prayers, though prayers are verie good. +But, _ma chère_," she added, in a low tone, "don't you ever marry that +good man in there; priests should not marry." + +"Ours are not priests,--they are ministers," said Mary. "But why do you +speak of him?--he is like my father." + +"Virginie sees something!" said the lady, shaking her head gravely; "she +sees he loves little Mary." + +"Of course he does!" + +"Of-course-he-does?--ah, yes; and by-and-by comes the mamma, and she +takes this little hand, and she says, 'Come, Mary!' and then she gives +it to him; and then the poor _jeune homme_, when he comes back, finds +not a bird in his poor little nest. _Oh, c'est ennuyeux cela_!" she +said, throwing herself back in the grass till the clover-heads and +buttercups closed over her. + +"I do assure you, dear Madame!"-- + +"I do assure you, dear Mary, _Virginie knows_. So lock up her words in +your little heart; you will want them some day." + +There was a pause of some moments, while the lady was watching the +course of a cricket through the clover. At last, lifting her head, she +spoke very gravely,-- + +"My little cat! it is _dreadful_ to be married to a good man, and want +to be good, and want to love him, and yet never like to have him take +your hand, and be more glad when he is away than when he is at home; and +then to think how different it would all be, if it was only somebody +else. That will be the way with you, if you let them lead you into this; +so don't you do it, _mon enfant_." + +A thought seemed to cross Mary's mind, as she turned to Madame de +Frontignac, and said, earnestly,-- + +"If a good man were my husband, I would never think of another,--I +wouldn't let myself." + +"How could you help it, _mignonne_? Can you stop your thinking?" + +Mary said, after a moment's blush,-- + +"I can _try_!" + +"Ah, yes! But to try all one's life,--oh, Mary, that is too hard! Never +do it, darling!" + +And then Madame de Frontignac broke out into a carolling little French +song, which started all the birds around into a general orchestral +accompaniment. + +This conversation occurred just before Madame de Frontignac started for +Philadelphia, whither her husband had been summoned as an agent in some +of the ambitious intrigues of Burr. + +It was with a sigh of regret that she parted from her friends at the +cottage. She made them a hasty good-bye call,--alighting from a splendid +barouche with two white horses, and filling their simple best-room with +the light of her presence for a last half-hour. When she bade good-bye +to Mary, she folded her warmly to her heart, and her long lashes drooped +heavily with tears. + +After her absence, the lessons were still pursued with the gentle, quiet +little Abbé, who seemed the most patient and assiduous of teachers; but, +in both houses, there was that vague _ennui_, that sense of want, which +follows the fading of one of life's beautiful dreams! We bid her adieu +for a season;--we may see her again. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The summer passed over the cottage, noiselessly, as our summers pass. +There were white clouds walking in saintly troops over blue mirrors of +sea,--there were purple mornings, choral with bird-singing,--there were +golden evenings, with long, eastward shadows. Apple-blossoms died +quietly in the deep orchard grass, and tiny apples waxed and rounded and +ripened and gained stripes of gold and carmine; and the blue eggs broke +into young robins, that grew from gaping, yellow-mouthed youth to +fledged and outflying maturity. Came autumn, with its long Indian +summer, and winter, with its flinty, sparkling snows, under which all +Nature lay a sealed and beautiful corpse. Came once more the spring +winds, the lengthening days, the opening flowers, and the ever-renewing +miracle of buds and blossoms on the apple-trees around the cottage. A +year had passed since the June afternoon when first we showed you Mary +standing under the spotty shadows of the tree, with the white dove on +her hand--a year in which not many outward changes have been made in the +relations of the actors of our story. + +Mary calmly spun and read and thought; now and then composing with care +very English-French letters, to be sent to Philadelphia to Madame de +Frontignac, and receiving short missives of very French-English in +return. + +The cautions of Madame, in regard to the Doctor, had not rippled the +current of their calm, confiding intercourse; and the Doctor, so very +satisfied and happy in her constant society and affection, scarcely as +yet meditated distinctly that he needed to draw her more closely to +himself. If he had a passage to read, a page to be copied, a thought to +express, was she not ever there, gentle, patient, unselfish? and scarce +by the absence of a day did she let him perceive that his need of her +was becoming so absolute that his hold on her must needs be made +permanent. + +As to his salary and temporal concerns, they had suffered somewhat for +his unpopular warfare with reigning sins,--a fact which had rather +reconciled Mrs. Scudder to the dilatory movement of her cherished hopes. +Since James was gone, what need to press imprudently to new +arrangements? Better give the little heart time to grow over before +starting a subject which a certain womanly instinct told her might be +met with a struggle. Somehow she never thought without a certain +heart-sinking of Mary's look and tone the night she spoke with her about +James; she had an awful presentiment that that tone of voice belonged to +the things that cannot be shaken. But yet, Mary seemed so even, so +quiet, her delicate form filled out and rounded so beautifully, and she +sang so cheerfully at her work, and, above all, she was so entirely +silent about James, that Mrs. Scudder had hope. + +Ah, that silence! Do not listen to hear whom a woman praises, to know +where her heart is! do not ask for whom she expresses the most earnest +enthusiasm! but if there be one she once knew well, whose name she never +speaks,--if she seem to have an instinct to avoid every occasion of its +mention,--if, when you speak, she drops into silence and changes the +subject,--why, look there for something! just as, when going through +deep meadow-grass, a bird flies ostentatiously up before you, you may +know her nest is not there, but far off, under distant tufts of fern and +buttercup, through which she has crept with a silent flutter in her +spotted breast, to act her pretty little falsehood before you. + +Poor Mary's little nest was along the sedgy margin of the sea-shore, +where grow the tufts of golden-rod, where wave the reeds, where crimson, +green, and purple sea-weeds float up, like torn fringes of Nereid +vestures, and gold and silver shells lie on the wet wrinkles of the +sands. + +The sea had become to her like a friend, with its ever-varying monotony. +Somehow she loved this old, fresh, blue, babbling, restless giant, who +had carried away her heart's love to hide him in some far-off palmy +island, such as she had often heard him tell of in his sea-romances. +Sometimes she would wander out for an afternoon's stroll on the rocks, +and pause by the great spouting cave, now famous to Newport +_dilettanti_, but then a sacred and impressive solitude. There the +rising tide bursts with deafening strokes through a narrow opening into +some inner cavern, which, with a deep thunder-boom, like the voice of an +angry lion, casts it back in a high jet of foam into the sea. + +Mary often sat and listened to this hollow noise, and watched the +ever-rising columns of spray as they reddened with the transpiercing +beams of the afternoon sun; and thence her eye travelled far, far off +over the shimmering starry blue, where sails looked no bigger than +miller's wings; and it seemed sometimes as if a door were opening by +which her soul might go out into some eternity,--some abyss, so wide and +deep, that fathomless lines of thought could not sound it. She was no +longer a girl in a mortal body, but an infinite spirit, the adoring +companion of Infinite Beauty and Infinite Love. + +As there was an hour when the fishermen of Galilee saw their Master +transfigured, his raiment white and glistening, and his face like the +light, so are there hours when our whole mortal life stands forth in a +celestial radiance. From our daily lot falls off every weed of +care,--from our heart-friends every speck and stain of earthly +infirmity. Our horizon widens, and blue, and amethyst, and gold touch +every object. Absent friends and friends gone on the last long journey +stand once more together, bright with an immortal glow, and, like the +disciples who saw their Master floating in the clouds above them, we +say, "Lord, it is good to be here!" How fair the wife, the husband, the +absent mother, the gray-haired father, the manly son, the bright-eyed +daughter! Seen in the actual present, all have some fault, some flaw; +but absent, we see them in their permanent and better selves. Of our +distant home we remember not one dark day, not one servile care, nothing +but the echo of its holy hymns and the radiance of its brightest +days,--of our father, not one hasty word, but only the fulness of his +manly vigor and noble tenderness,--of our mother, nothing of mortal +weakness, but a glorified form of love,--of our brother, not one +teasing, provoking word of brotherly freedom, but the proud beauty of +his noblest hours,--of our sister, our child, only what is fairest and +sweetest. + +This is to life the true ideal, the calm glass, wherein looking, we +shall see, that, whatever defects cling to us, they are not, after all, +permanent, and that we are tending to something nobler than we yet +are;--it is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the +purchased possession." In the resurrection we shall see our friends +forever as we see them in these clairvoyant hours. + +We are writing thus on and on, linking image and thought and feeling, +and lingering over every flower, and listening to every bird, because +just before us there lies a dark valley, and we shrink and tremble to +enter it. + +But it _must_ come, and why do we delay? + + +Towards evening, one afternoon in the latter part of June, Mary returned +from one of these lonely walks by the sea, and entered the kitchen. It +was still in its calm and sober cleanness;--the tall clock ticked with a +startling distinctness. From the half-closed door of her mother's +bedroom, which stood ajar, she heard the chipper of Miss Prissy's voice. +She stayed her light footsteps, and the words that fell on her ear were +these:-- + +"Miss Marvyn fainted dead away;--she stood it till he came to _that_; +but then she just clapped both hands together, as if she'd been shot, +and fell right forward on the floor in a faint!" + +What could this be? There was a quick, intense whirl of thoughts in +Mary's mind, and then came one of those awful moments when the powers of +life seem to make a dead pause and all things stand still; and then all +seemed to fail under her, and the life to sink down, down, down, till +nothing was but one dim, vague, miserable consciousness. + +Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy were sitting, talking earnestly, on the +foot of the bed, when the door opened noiselessly, and Mary glided to +them like a spirit,--no color in check or lip,--her blue eyes wide with +calm horror; and laying her little hand, with a nervous grasp, on Miss +Prissy's arm, she said,-- + +"Tell me,--what is it?--is it?--is he--dead?" + +The two women looked at each other, and then Mrs. Scudder opened her +arms. + +"My daughter!" + +"Oh! mother! mother!" + +Then fell that long, hopeless silence, broken only by hysteric sobs from +Miss Prissy, and answering ones from the mother; but _she_ lay still and +quiet, her blue eyes wide and clear, making an inarticulate moan. + +"Oh! are they _sure_?--_can_ it be?--_is_ he dead?" at last she gasped. + +"My child, it is too true; all we can say is, 'Be still, and know that I +am God!'" + +"I shall _try_ to be still, mother," said Mary, with a piteous, hopeless +voice, like the bleat of a dying lamb; "but I did not think he _could_ +die! I never thought of that!--I never _thought_ of it!--Oh! mother! +mother! mother! oh! what shall I do?" + +They laid her on her mother's bed,--the first and last resting-place of +broken hearts,--and the mother sat down by her in silence. Miss Prissy +stole away into the Doctor's study, and told him all that had happened. + +"It's the same to her," said Miss Prissy, with womanly reserve, "as if +he'd been an own brother." + +"What was his spiritual state?" said the Doctor, musingly. + +Miss Prissy looked blank, and answered mournfully,-- + +"I don't know." + +The Doctor entered the room where Mary was lying with closed eyes. Those +few moments seemed to have done the work of years,--so pale, and faded, +and sunken she looked; nothing but the painful flutter of the eyelids +and lips showed that she yet breathed. At a sign from Mrs. Scudder, he +kneeled by the bed, and began to pray,--"Lord, thou hast been our +dwelling-place in all generations,"--prayer deep, mournful, upheaving +like the swell of the ocean, surging upward, under the pressure of +mighty sorrows, towards an Almighty heart. + +The truly good are of one language in prayer. Whatever lines or angles +of thought may separate them in other hours, _when they pray in +extremity_, all good men pray alike. The Emperor Charles V. and Martin +Luther, two great generals of opposite faiths, breathed out their dying +struggle in the self-same words. + +There be many tongues and many languages of men,--but the language of +prayer is one by itself, _in_ all and _above_ all. It is the inspiration +of that Spirit that is ever working with our spirit, and constantly +lifting us higher than we know, and, by our wants, by our woes, by our +tears, by our yearnings, by our poverty, urging us, with mightier and +mightier force, against those chains of sin which keep us from our God. +We speak not of _things_ conventionally called prayers,--vain mutterings +of unawakened spirits talking drowsily in sleep,--but of such prayers as +come when flesh and heart fail, in mighty straits;--_then_ he who prays +is a prophet, and a Mightier than he speaks in him; for the "_Spirit_ +helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we +ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings +which cannot be uttered." + +So the voice of supplication, upheaving from that great heart, so +childlike in its humility, rose with a wisdom and a pathos beyond what +he dreamed in his intellectual hours; it uprose even as a strong angel, +whose brow is solemnly calm, and whose wings shed healing dews of +paradise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The next day broke calm and fair. The robins sang remorselessly in the +apple-tree, and were answered by bobolink, oriole, and a whole tribe of +ignorant little bits of feathered happiness that danced among the +leaves. Golden and glorious unclosed those purple eyelids of the East, +and regally came up the sun; and the treacherous sea broke into ten +thousand smiles, laughing and dancing with every ripple, as +unconsciously as if no form dear to human hearts had gone down beneath +it. Oh! treacherous, deceiving beauty of outward things! beauty, wherein +throbs not one answering nerve to human pain! + +Mary rose early and was about her morning work. Her education was that +of the soldier, who must know himself no more, whom no personal pain +must swerve from the slightest minutiae of duty. So she was there, at +her usual hour, dressed with the same cool neatness, her brown hair +parted in satin bands, and only the colorless cheek and lip differing +from the Mary of yesterday. + +How strange this external habit of living! One thinks how to stick in a +pin, and how to tie a string,--one busies one's self with folding robes, +and putting away napkins, the day after some stroke that has cut the +inner life in two, with the heart's blood dropping quietly at every +step. + +Yet it is better so! Happy those whom stern principle or long habit or +hard necessity calls from the darkened room, the languid trance of pain, +in which the wearied heart longs to indulge, and gives this trite prose +of common life, at which our weak and wearied appetites so revolt! Mary +never thought of such a thing as self-indulgence;--this daughter of the +Puritans had her seed within her. Aërial in her delicacy, as the +blue-eyed flax-flower with which they sowed their fields, she had yet +its strong fibre, which no stroke of the flail could break; bruising and +hackling only made it fitter for uses of homely utility. Mary, +therefore, opened the kitchen-door at dawn, and, after standing one +moment to breathe the freshness, began spreading the cloth for an early +breakfast. Mrs. Scudder, the mean while, was kneading the bread that had +been set to rise over-night; and the oven was crackling and roaring with +a large-throated, honest garrulousness. + +But, ever and anon, as the mother worked, she followed the motions of +her child anxiously. + +"Mary, my dear," she said, "the eggs are giving out; hadn't you better +run to the barn and get a few?" + +Most mothers are instinctive philosophers. No treatise on the laws of +nervous fluids could have taught Mrs. Scudder a better _rôle_ for this +morning, than her tender gravity, and her constant expedients to break +and ripple, by changing employments, that deep, deadly under-current of +thoughts which she feared might undermine her child's life. + +Mary went into the barn, stopped a moment, and took out a handful of +corn to throw to her hens, who had a habit of running towards her and +cocking an expectant eye to her little hand, whenever she appeared. All +came at once flying towards her,--speckled, white, and gleamy with hues +between of tawny orange-gold,--the cocks, magnificent with the bladelike +waving of their tails,--and, as they chattered and cackled and pressed +and crowded about her, pecking the corn, even where it lodged in the +edge of her little shoes, she said, "Poor things, I am glad they enjoy +it!"--and even this one little act of love to the ignorant fellowship +below her carried away some of the choking pain which seemed all the +while suffocating her heart. Then, climbing into the hay, she sought the +nest and filled her little basket with eggs, warm, translucent, +pinky-white in their freshness. She felt, for a moment, the customary +animation in surveying her new treasures; but suddenly, like a vision +rising before her, came a remembrance of once when she and James were +children together and had been seeking eggs just there. He flashed +before her eyes, the bright boy with the long black lashes, the dimpled +cheeks, the merry eyes, just as he stood and threw the hay over her when +they tumbled and laughed together,--and she sat down with a sick +faintness, and then turned and walked wearily in. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER III. + + +BEGGARS IN ROME. + + +Directly above the Piazza di Spagna and opposite to the Via di Condotti, +rise the double towers of the Trinità de' Monti. The ascent to them is +over one hundred and thirty-five steps, planned with considerable skill, +so as to mask the steepness of the Pincian, and forming the chief +feature of the Piazza. Various landings and dividing walls break up +their monotony; and a red granite obelisk, found in the gardens of +Sallust, crowns the upper terrace in front of the church. All day long, +these steps are flooded with sunshine, in which, stretched at length, or +gathered in picturesque groups, models of every age and both sexes bask +away the hours when they are free from employment in the studios. Here, +in a rusty old coat and long white beard and hair, is the _Padre +Eterno_, so called from his constantly standing as model for the First +Person of the Trinity in religious pictures. Here is the ferocious +bandit, with his thick black beard and conical hat, now off duty, and +sitting with his legs wide apart, munching in alternate bites an onion, +which he holds in one hand, and a lump of bread, which he holds in the +other. Here is the _contadina_, who is always praying at a shrine with +upcast eyes, or lifting to the Virgin the little child, among whose dark +curls, now lying tangled in her lap, she is on a vigorous hunt for the +animal whose name denotes love. Here is the invariable pilgrim, with his +scallop-shell, who has been journeying to St. Peter's and reposing by +the way near aqueducts or broken columns so long that the memory of man +runneth not to the contrary, and who is now fast asleep on his back, +with his hat pulled over his eyes. When the _forestieri_ come along, the +little ones run up and thrust out their hands for _baiocchi_; and so +pretty are they, with their large, black, lustrous eyes, and their +quaint, gay dresses, that new comers always find something in their +pockets for them. Sometimes a group of artists, passing by, will pause +and steadily examine one of these models, turn him about, pose him, +point out his defects and excellences, give him a _baiocco_, and pass +on. It is, in fact, the model's exchange. [Footnote: During this last +winter, the government have prohibited the models, for I know not what +reason, from gathering upon these steps; and they now congregate at the +corner of the Via Sistina and Capo le Case, near the Pizzicheria, from +which they supply themselves with groceries.] + +All this is on the lower steps, close to the Piazza di Spagna; but as +one ascends to the last platform, before reaching the upper piazza in +front of the Trinità de' Monti, a curious squat figure, with two +withered and crumpled legs, spread out at right angles and clothed in +long stockings, comes shuffling along on his knees and hands, which are +protected by clogs. As it approaches, it turns suddenly up from its +quadrupedal position, takes off its hat, shows a broad, stout, legless +_torso_, with a vigorous chest and a ruddy face, as of a person who has +come half-way up from below the steps through a trap-door, and with a +smile whose breadth is equalled only by the cunning which lurks round +the corners of the eyes, says, in the blandest and most patronizing +tones, with a rising inflection, "_Buon giorno, Signore! Oggi fa bel +tempo_," or "_fa cattivo tempo_," as the case may be. This is no less a +person than Beppo, King of the Beggars, and permanent bore of the Scale +di Spagna. He is better known to travellers than the Belvedere Torso of +Hercules at the Vatican, and has all the advantage over that wonderful +work, of having an admirable head and a good digestion. Hans Christian +Andersen has celebrated him in "The Improvvisatore," and unfairly +attributed to him an infamous character and life; but this account is +purely fictitious, and is neither _vero_ nor _ben trovato_. Beppo, like +other distinguished personages, is not without a history. The Romans say +of him, "_Era un Signore in paese suo_"--"He was a gentleman in his own +country,"--and this belief is borne out by a certain courtesy and style +in his bearing which would not shame the first gentleman in the land. He +was undoubtedly of a good family in the provinces, and came to Rome, +while yet young, to seek his fortune. His crippled condition cut him off +from any active employment, and he adopted the profession of a +mendicant, as being the most lucrative and requiring the least exertion. +Remembering Belisarius, he probably thought it not beneath his own +dignity to ask for an _obolus_. Should he be above doing what a general +had done? However this may be, he certainly became a mendicant, after +changing his name,--and, steadily pursuing this profession for more than +a quarter of a century, by dint of his fair words, his bland smiles, and +his constant "_Fa buon tempo_" and "_Fa cattivo tempo_," which, together +with his withered legs, were his sole stock in starting, he has finally +amassed a very respectable little fortune. He is now about fifty-five +years of age, has a wife and several children; and a few years ago, on +the marriage of a daughter to a very respectable tradesman, he was able +to give her what was considered in Rome a more than respectable dowry. +The other day, a friend of mine met a tradesman of his acquaintance +running up the Spanish steps. + +"_Dove andate in una tanta affretta?_" he inquired. + +"_Al Banchiere mio._" + +"_Al Banchiere? Ma quale Banchiere sta in su le scale?_" + +"_Ma Beppo_," was the grave answer. "_Ho bisogna di sessanta scudi, e +lui mele presterà senza difficoltà._" + +"_Da vero?_" said my friend. + +"_Eh sicuro, come gli pare_," said the other, as he went on to his +banker. [Footnote: "Where are you going in such haste?"] + +"To my banker." + +"To your banker? But what banker is there above the steps?" + +"Only Beppo. I want sixty _scudi_, and he can lend them to ma without +difficulty." + +"Really?" + +"Of course." + +Beppo hires his bank--which is the upper platform of the steps--of the +government, at a small rent _per annum_; and woe to any poor devil of +his profession who dares to invade his premises! Hither, every fair day, +at about noon, he comes mounted on his donkey and accompanied by his +valet, a little boy, who, though not lame exactly, wears a couple of +crutches as a sort of livery,--and as soon as twilight begins to thicken +and the sun is gone, he closes his bank, (it is purely a bank of +deposit,) crawls up the steps, mounts a stone post, and there +majestically waits for his valet to bring the donkey. But he no more +solicits deposits. His day is done; his bank is closed; and from his +post he looks around, with a patronizing superiority, upon the poorer +members of his profession, who are soliciting, with small success, the +various passers by, as a king smiles down upon his subjects. The donkey +being brought, he shuffles on to its crupper and makes a joyous and +triumphant passage down through the streets of the city to his home. The +bland business smile is gone. The wheedling subserviency of the day is +over. The cunning eye opens largely. He is calm, dignified, and +self-possessed. He mentions no more the state of the weather. What's +Hecuba to him, at this free moment of his return? It is the large style +in which all this is done that convinces me that Beppo was a "_Signore +in paese suo_." He has a bank, and so has Sir Francis Baring. What of +that? He is a gentleman still. The robber knights and barons demanded +toll of those who passed their castles, with violence and threats, and +at the bloody point of their swords. Whoso passes Beppo's castle is +prayed in courtesy to leave a remembrance, and receives the blandest bow +and thanks in return. Shall we, then, say, the former are nobles and +gentlemen,--the other is a miserable beggar? Is it worse to ask than to +seize? Is it meaner to thank than to threaten? If he who is supported by +the public is a beggar, our kings are beggars, our pensions are charity. +Did not the Princess Royal hold out her hand, the other day, to the +House of Commons? and does any one think the worse of her for it? We are +all, in measure, beggars; but Beppo, in the large style of kings and +robber-barons, asks for his _baiocco_, and, like the merchant-princes, +keeps his bank. I see dukes and _guardie nobili_, in shining helmets, +spurs, and gigantic boots, ride daily through the streets on horseback, +and hurry to their palaces; but Beppo, erectly mounted on his donkey in +his short-jacket, (for he disdains the tailored skirts of a fashionable +coat, though at times over his broad shoulders a great blue cloak is +grandly thrown, after the manner of the ancient emperors,) is far more +impressive, far more princely, as he slowly and majestically moves at +nightfall towards his august abode. The shadows close around him as he +passes along; salutations greet him from the damp shops; and darkness at +last swallows up for a time the great square _torso_ of the "King of the +Beggars." + +Begging, in Rome, is as much a profession as praying and shop-keeping. +Happy is he who is born _stroppiato_, with a withered limb, or to whom +Fortune sends the present of a hideous accident or malady; it is a stock +to set up trade upon. St. Vitus's dance is worth its hundreds of _scudi_ +annually; epileptic fits are also a prize; and a distorted leg and +hare-lip have a considerable market value. Thenceforth the creature who +has the luck to have them is absolved from labor. He stands or lies in +the sun, or wanders through the Piazza, and sings his whining, +lamentable strophe of, "_Signore, povero stroppiato, datemi qualche cosa +per amor di Dio!_"--and when the _baiocco_ falls into his hat, like ripe +fruit from the tree of the stranger, he chants the antistrophe, "_Dio la +benedica, la Madonna e tutti santi!_" [Footnote: Signore, a poor +cripple; "give me something, for the love of God!--May God bless you, +the Madonna, and all the saints!"] No refusal but one does he recognize +as final,--and that is given, not by word of mouth, but by elevating the +fore-finger of the right hand, and slowly wagging it to and fro. When +this finger goes up he resigns all hope, as those who pass the gate of +the Inferno, replaces his hat and lapses into silence, or turns away to +some new group of sunny-haired foreigners. The recipe to avoid beggars +is, to be black-haired, to wear a full beard, to smoke in the streets, +speak only Italian, and shake the fore-finger of the right hand when +besieged for charity. Let it not be supposed from this that the Romans +give nothing to the beggars, but pass them by on the other side. This is +quite a mistake. On the contrary, they give more than the foreigners; +and the poorest class, out of their little, will always find something +to drop into their hats for charity. + +The ingenuity which the beggars sometimes display in asking for alms is +often humoristic and satirical. Many a woman on the cold side of thirty +is wheedled out of a _baiocco_ by being addressed as _Signorina._ Many a +half-suppressed exclamation of admiration, or a prefix of _Bella_, +softens the hearts of those to whom compliments on their beauty come +rarely. The other day, as I came out of the city gate of Siena, a ragged +wretch, sitting, with one stump of a leg thrust obtrusively forward, in +the dust of the road, called out, "_Una buona passeggiata, Signorino +mio!_" (and this although my little girl, of thirteen years, accompanied +me.) Seeing, however, that I was too old a bird for that chaff, he +immediately added, "_Ma prima pensi alia conservazione dell' anima +sua._" [Footnote: "A pleasant walk, young gentleman!"--"But first pay +heed to the salvation of your soul."] A great many _baiocchi_ are also +caught, from green travellers of the middle class, by the titles which +are lavishly squandered by these poor fellows. _Illustrissimo, +Eccellenza, Altezza_, will sometimes open the purse, when plain +"_Mosshoe_" will not. + +The profession of a beggar is by no means an unprofitable one. A great +many drops finally make a stream. The cost of living is almost nothing +to them, and they frequently lay up money enough to make themselves very +comfortable in their old age. A Roman friend of mine, Conte C., speaking +of them one day, told me this illustrative anecdote:-- + +"I had occasion," he said, "a few years ago, to reduce my family," (the +servants are called, in Rome, the family,) "and having no need of the +services of one under-servant, named Pietro, I dismissed him. About a +year after, as I was returning to my house, after nightfall, I was +solicited by a beggar, who whiningly asked me for charity. There was +something in the voice which struck me as familiar, and, turning round +to examine the man more closely, I found it was my old servant, Pietro. +'Is that you, Pietro?' I said; 'you begging here in the streets! what +has brought you to this wretched trade?' He gave me, however, no very +clear account of himself, but evidently desired to avoid me when he +recognized who I was. But, shocked to find him in so pitiable a +condition, I pressed my questions, and finally told him I could not bear +to see any one who had been in my service reduced to beggary; and though +I had no actual need of his services, yet, rather than see him thus, he +might return to his old position as servant in my house, and be paid the +same wages as he had before. He hesitated, was much embarrassed, and, +after a pause, said,--'A thousand thanks, your Excellency, for your +kindness; but I cannot accept your proposal, because, to tell you the +truth, I make more money by this trade of begging.'" + +But though the beggars often lay by considerable sums of money, so that +they might, if they chose, live with a certain degree of comfort, yet +they cannot leave off the habit of begging after having indulged it for +many years. They get to be avaricious, and cannot bring their minds to +spend the money they have. The other day, an old beggar, who used to +frequent the steps of the Gesù, when about to die, ordered the hem of +her garment to be ripped up, saying that there was money in it. In fact, +about a thousand _scudi_ were found there, three hundred of which she +ordered to be laid out upon her funeral, and the remainder to be +appropriated to masses for her soul. This was accordingly done, and her +squalid life ended in a pompous procession to the grave. + +The great holidays of the beggars are the country _festas_. Thronging +out of the city, they spread along the highways, and drag, drive, roll, +shuffle, hobble, as they can, towards the festive little town. +Everywhere along the road they are to be met,--perched on a rock, seated +on a bank, squatted beneath a wall or hedge, and screaming, with +outstretched hand, from the moment a carriage comes in sight until it is +utterly passed by. As one approaches the town where the _festa_ is held, +they grow thicker and thicker. They crop up along the road like +toadstools. They hold up every hideous kind of withered arm, distorted +leg, and unsightly stump. They glare at you out of horrible eyes, that +look like cranberries. You are requested to look at horrors, all without +a name, and too terrible to be seen. All their accomplishments are also +brought out. They fall into improvised fits; they shake with sudden +palsies; and all the while keep up a chorus, half whine, half scream, +which suffers you to listen to nothing else. It is hopeless to attempt +to buy them all off, for they are legion in number, and to pay one +doubles the chorus of the others. The clever scamps, too, show the +utmost skill in selecting their places of attack. Wherever there is a +sudden rise in the road, or any obstacle which will reduce the gait of +the horses to a walk, there is sure to be a beggar. But do not imagine +that he relies on his own powers of scream and hideousness alone,--not +he! He has a friend, an ambassador, to recommend him to your notice, and +to expatiate on his misfortunes. Though he himself can scarcely move, +his friend, who is often a little ragged boy or girl, light of weight +and made for a chase, pursues the carriage and prolongs the whine, +repeating, with a mechanical iteration, "_Signore! Signore! datemi +qualche cosa, Signore!_" until his legs, breath, and resolution give out +at last; or, what is still commoner, your patience is wearied out or +your sympathy touched, and you are glad to purchase the blessing of +silence for the small sum of a _baiocco_. When his whining fails, he +tries to amuse you; and often resorts to the oddest freaks to attract +your notice. Sometimes the little rascal flings himself heels over head +into the dust, and executes somersets without number, as if they had +some hidden influence on the sentiment of compassion. Then, running by +the side of the carriage, he will play upon his lips with both hands, +making a rattling noise, to excite your curiosity. If you laugh, you are +lost, and he knows it. + +As you reach the gates of the town, the row becomes furious. There are +scores of beggars on either side the road, screaming in chorus. No +matter how far the town be from the city, there is not a wretched, +maimed cripple of your acquaintance, not one of the old stumps who have +dodged you round a Roman corner, not a ragged baron who has levied toll +for passage through the public squares, a privileged robber who has shut +up for you a pleasant street or waylaid you at an interesting church, +but he is sure to be there. How they got there is as inexplicable as how +the apples got into the dumplings in Peter Pindar's poem. But at the +first ring of a _festa_-bell, they start up from under ground, (those +who are legless getting only half-way up,) like Roderick Dhu's men, and +level their crutches at you as the others did their arrows. An English +lady, a short time since, after wintering at Rome, went to take the +baths at Siena in the summer. On going out for a walk, on the first +morning after her arrival, whom should she meet but King Beppo, whom she +had just left in Rome! He had come with the rest of the nobility for +recreation and bathing, and of course had brought his profession with +him. + +Owing to a great variety of causes, the number of beggars in Rome is +very large. They grow here as noxious weeds in a hot-bed. The government +neither favors commerce nor stimulates industry. Its policy is averse to +change of any kind, even though it be for the development of its own +resources or of the energies of the people. The Church is Brahmanic, +contemplating only its own navel. Its influence is specially restrictive +in Rome, because it is also the State there. It restrains not only +trade, but education; it conserves exploded ideas and usages; it prefers +not to grow, and looks with abhorrence upon change. + +Literature may be said to be dead in Rome. There is not only no free +press there, but no press at all. The "Diario Romano" contains about as +much news as the "Acta Diurna" of the ancient Romans, and perhaps less. +I doubt whether at present such facts as those given by Petronius, in an +extract from the latter, would now be permitted to be published. +However, we know that Augustus prohibited the "Acta Diurna,"--and the +"Diario Romano" exists still; so that some progress has been made. And +it must be confessed that Tuscany is scarcely in advance of Rome in this +respect; and Naples is behind both. Even the introduction of foreign +works is so strictly watched and the censorship so severe, that few +liberal books pass the cordon. The arguments in favor of a censorship +are very plain, but not very conclusive. The more compressed the +energies and desires of a people, the more danger of their bursting into +revolution. There is no safety-valve to passions and desires like the +utterance of them,--no better corrective to false ideas than the free +expression of them. Freedom of thought can never be suppressed, and +ideas kept too long pent up in the bosom, when heated by some sudden +crisis of passion, will explode into license and fury. Let me put a +column from Milton here into my own weak plaster; the words are well +known, but cannot be too well known. "Though all the winds of doctrine," +he says, "were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the +field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her +strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the +worse in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest +suppressing." Here in Rome genius rots. The saddest words I almost ever +heard were from a young Italian of ability and _esprit_. + +"Why," said I, in conversation with him, one day, "do you not devote +your talents to some worthy object, instead of frittering them away in +dancing, chatting, fencing, and morning-calls?" + +"What would you have me do?" he answered. + +"Devote yourself to some course of study. Write something." + +"_Mio caro_" was his reply, "it is useless. How can I write what I +think? How can I publish what I write? I have now manuscript works begun +in my desk, which it would be better to burn. Our only way to be happy +is to be idle and ignorant. The more we know, the unhappier we must be. +There is but one avenue for ambition,--the Church. I was not made for +that." + +This restrictive policy of the Church makes itself felt everywhere, high +and low; and by long habit the people have become indolent and supine. +The splendid robes of ecclesiastical Rome have a draggled fringe of +beggary and vice. What a change there might be, if the energies of the +Italians, instead of rotting in idleness, could have a free scope! +Industry is the only purification of a nation; and as the fertile and +luxuriant Campagna stagnates into malaria, because of its want of +ventilation and movement, so does this grand and noble people. The +government makes what use it can, however, of the classes it exploits by +its system; but things go in a vicious circle. The people, kept at a +stand-still, become idle and poor; idleness and poverty engender vice +and crime; crime fills the prisons; and the prisons afford a body of +cheap slaves to the government. + +To-day, as I am writing, some hundreds of _forçats_, in their striped +brown uniforms, are tugging at their winches and ropes to drag the +column of the Immaculate Virgin to its pedestal on the Piazza di Spagna. +By the same system of compulsory labor, the government, despite its +limited financial resources, is enabled to carry out public projects +which, with well-paid workmen, would be too expensive to be feasible. In +this manner, for instance, for an incredibly small sum, was built the +magnificent viaduct which spans with its triple tier of arches the +beautiful Val di L'Arriccia. But, for my own part, I cannot look upon +this system as being other than very bad, in every respect. And when, +examining into the prisons themselves, I find that the support of these +poor criminal slaves is farmed out by the government to some responsible +person at the lowest rate that is offered, generally for five or six +_baiocchi_ apiece _per diem_, and often refarmed by him at a still lower +rate, until the poor wretches are reduced to the very minimum of +necessary food as to quantity and quality, I confess that I cannot look +with pleasure on the noble viaduct at L'Arriccia, or the rich column to +the Immaculate Virgin, erected by the labor of their hands. + +Within a few years the government seemed to become conscious of the +great number of beggars in Rome, and of the reproach they offered to the +wise and paternal regulations of the priestcraft. Accordingly, for a +short time, they carried on a move in the right direction, which had +been begun by the Triumvirate of 1849, during their short career. Some +hundreds of the beggars were hired at the rate of a few _baiocchi_ a day +to carry on excavations in the Forum and in the Baths of Caracalla. The +selection was most appropriate. Only the old, decrepit, and broken-down +were taken,--the younger and sturdier were left. Ruined men were in +harmony with the ruined temples. Such a set of laborers was never before +seen. Falstaff's ragged regiment was a joke to them. Each had a +wheelbarrow, a spade, or pick, and a cloak; but the last was the most +important part of their equipment. Some of them picked at the earth with +a gravity that was equalled only by the feebleness of the effort and the +poverty of the result. Three strokes so wearied them that they were +forced to pause and gather strength, while others carried away the +ant-hills which the first dug up. It seemed an endless task to fill the +wheelbarrows. Fill, did I say? They were never filled. After a bucketful +of earth had been slowly shovelled in, the laborer paused, laid down his +spade carefully on the little heap, sighed profoundly, looked as if to +receive congratulations on his enormous success, then, flinging, with a +grand sweep, the tattered old cloak over his left shoulder, lifted his +wheelbarrow-shafts with dignity, and marched slowly and measuredly +forward towards the heap of deposit, as Belisarius might have moved at a +funeral in the intervals of asking for _oboli_. But reduced gentlemen, +who have been accustomed to carry round the hat as an occupation, always +have a certain air of condescension when they work for pay, and, by +their dignity of deportment, make you sensible of their former superior +state. Occasionally, in case a _forestiere_ was near, the older, idler, +and more gentlemanlike profession would be resumed for a moment, (as by +parenthesis,) and if without success, a sadder dignity would be seen in +the subsequent march. Very properly for persons who had been reduced +from beggary to work, they seemed to be anxious both for their health +and their appearance in public, and accordingly a vast deal more time +was spent in the arrangement of the cloak than in any other part of the +business. It was grand in effect, to see these figures, incumbered in +their heavy draperies, guiding their wheelbarrows through the great +arches of Caracalla's Baths or along the Via Sacra. It often reminded me +of modern _bassi-rilievi_ and portrait statues, in which gentlemen +looking sideways with very modern faces, and both hands full of swords, +pens, or books, stand impotently swaddled up in ancient togas or the +folds of similar enormous cloaks. The antique treatment with the modern +subject was evident in both. If sometimes, with a foolish spirit of +innovation, one felt inclined to ask what purpose in either case these +heroic mantles subserved, and whether, in fact, they could not be +dispensed with to advantage, he was soon made to know that his inquiry +indicated ignorance, and a desire to debase in the one case Man, in the +other Art. + +It would, however, be a grievous mistake to suppose that all the beggars +in the streets of Rome are Romans. In point of fact, the greater number +are strangers, who congregate in Rome during the winter from every +quarter. Naples and Tuscany send them by thousands. Every little country +town of the Abruzzi Mountains yields its contribution. From north, +south, east, and west they flock here as to a centre where good pickings +may be had of the crumbs that fall from the rich men's tables. In the +summer season they return to their homes with their earnings, and not +one in five of those who haunted the churches and streets in the winter +is to be seen. + +It is but justice to the Roman government to say that its charities are +very large. If, on the one hand, it does not encourage commerce and +industry, on the other, it liberally provides for the poor. In +proportion to its means, no government does more, if so much. Every +church has its _Cassa dei Poveri_. Numerous societies, such as the +_Sacconi_, and other confraternities, employ themselves in accumulating +contributions for the relief of the poor and wretched. Well-endowed +hospitals exist for the care of the sick and unfortunate; and there are +various establishments for the charge and education of poor orphans. A +few figures will show how ample are these charities. The revenue of +these institutions is no less than eight hundred and forty thousand +_scudi_ annually, of which three hundred thousand are contributed by the +Papal treasury, forty thousand of which are a tax upon the Lottery. The +hospitals, altogether, accommodate about four thousand patients, the +average number annually received amounting to about twelve thousand; and +the foundling hospitals alone are capable of receiving upwards of three +thousand children annually. Besides the hospitals for the sick, there is +also a hospital for poor convalescents at Sta Trinità dei Pellegrini, a +lunatic asylum containing about four hundred patients, one for +incurables at San Giacomo, a lying-in hospital at San Rocco, and a +hospital of education and industry at San Michele. There are also +thirteen societies for bestowing dowries on poor young girls on their +marriage; and from the public purse, for the same object, are expended +every year no less than thirty-two thousand _scudi_. In addition to +these charities, are the sums collected and administered by the various +confraternities, as well as the sum of one hundred and seventy-two +thousand _scudi_ distributed to the poor by the commission of subsidies. +But though so much money is thus expended, it cannot be said that it is +well administered. The proportion of deaths at the hospitals is very +large; and among the foundlings, it amounted, between the years 1829 and +1833, to no less than seventy-two _per cent_. + +The arrangements at these institutions were very much improved during +the career of the Triumvirate, and, under the auspices of the Princess +Belgiojoso, cleanliness, order, and system were introduced. The heroism +of this noble-hearted woman during the trying days of the Roman siege +deserves a better record than I can give. She gave her whole heart and +body to the regeneration of the hospitals, and the personal care of the +sick and wounded. Her head-quarters were at the Hospital _dei +Pellegrini_. Day after day and night after night she was at her post, +never moving from her chair, except to visit the various wards, and to +comfort with tender words the sufferers in their beds. Their faces, +contorted with pain, smoothed at her approach; and her hand and voice +carried consolation wherever she went. Many a scene have I witnessed +there more affecting than any tragedy, in which I knew not which most to +admire, the heroism of the sufferers or the tender humanity of the +consoler and nurse. In all her arrangements she showed that masterly +administrative faculty in which women are far superior to men. When she +came to the Pellegrini, all was in disorder; but a few days sufficed to +reduce a chaotic confusion to exact and admirable system. Hers was the +brain that regulated all the hospitals. Always calm, she distributed her +orders with perfect tact and precision, and with a determination of +purpose and clearness of perception which commanded the minds of all +about her. The care, fatigue, and labor which she underwent would have +broken down a less determined spirit. Nothing moved except from her +touch. In a little damp cell, a pallet of straw was laid on the brick +floor, and there, when utterly overcome, she threw herself down to sleep +for a couple of hours,--no more; all the rest of the time she sat at her +desk, writing orders, giving directions, and supervising the new +machinery which owed its existence to her. + +With the return of the Papal government came the old system. Certain it +is that _that_ system does not work well. Despite the enormous sums +expended in charity, the people are poor, the mortality in the hospitals +is very large. "Something is rotten in the state of" Rome. + +There is one noble exception not to be forgotten. To the Hospital of San +Michele Cardinal Tosti has given a new life and vigor, and set an +example worthy of his elevated position in the Church. This foundation +was formerly an asylum for poor children and infirm and aged persons; +but of late years an industrial and educational system has been +ingrafted upon it, until it has become one of the most enlarged and +liberal institutions that can anywhere be found. It now embraces not +only an asylum for the aged, a house of correction for juvenile +offenders and women, and a house of industry for children of both sexes, +but also a school of arts, in which music, painting, drawing, +architecture, and sculpture are taught gratuitously to the poor, and a +considerable number of looms, at which from eight hundred to one +thousand persons are employed for the weaving of woollen fabrics for the +government. A stimulus has thus been given to education and to industry, +and particularly to improvements in machinery and manufacture. Once a +year, during the holy week, religious dramas and operas, founded on some +Biblical subject, are creditably performed by the pupils in a private +theatre connected with the establishment. I was never present but at one +of these representations, when the tragical story of Shadrach, Meshach, +and Ahednego was performed. Honor to Cardinal Tosti for his successful +efforts in this liberal direction! + +At many of the convents in Rome, it is the custom at noon to distribute, +gratis, at the door, a quantity of soup, and any poor person may receive +a bowlful on demand. Many of the beggars thus become pensioners of the +convents, and may be seen daily at the appointed hour gathering round +the door with their bowl and wooden spoon, in expectation of the _Frate_ +with the soup. This is generally made so thick with cabbage that it +might be called a cabbage-stew; but Soyer himself never made a dish more +acceptable to the palate of the guests than this. No nightingales' +tongues at a banquet of Tiberius, no edible birds-nests at a Chinese +feast, were ever relished with more gusto. The figures and actions of +these poor wretches, after they have obtained their soup, make one sigh +for human nature. Each, grasping his portion as if it were a treasure, +separates himself immediately from his brothers, flees selfishly to a +corner, if he can find one empty, or, if not, goes to a distance, turns +his back on his friends, and, glancing anxiously at intervals all +around, as if in fear of a surprise, gobbles up his cabbage, wipes out +his bowl, and then returns to companionship or disappears. The idea of +sharing his portion with those who are portionless occurs to him only as +the idea of a robber to the mind of a miser. + +Any account of the beggars of Rome without mention of the Capuchins and +Franciscans would be like performing the "Merchant of Venice" with no +Shylock; for these orders are founded in beggary and supported by +charity. The priests do not beg; but their ambassadors, the +lay-brothers, clad in their long, brown serge, a cord around their +waist, and a basket on their arm, may be seen shuffling along at any +hour and in every street, in dirty sandalled feet, to levy contributions +from shops and houses. Here they get a loaf of bread, there a pound of +flour or rice, in one place fruit or cheese, in another a bit of meat, +until their basket is filled. Sometimes money is given, but generally +they are paid in articles of food. There is another set of these +brothers who enter your studio or ring at your bell and present a little +tin box with a slit in it, into which you are requested to drop any sum +you please, for the holidays, for masses, for wax candles, etc. As a big +piece of copper makes more ring than gold, it is generally given, and +always gratefully received. Sometimes they will enter into conversation, +and are always pleased to have a little chat about the weather. They are +very poor, very good-natured, and very dirty. It is a pity they do not +baptize themselves a little more with the material water of this world. +But they seem to have a hydrophobia. Whatever the inside of the platter +may be, the outside is far from clean. They walk by day and they sleep +by night in the same old snuffy robe, which is not kept from contact +with the skin by any luxury of linen, until it is worn out. Dirt and +piety seem to them synonymous. Sometimes I have deemed, foolishly +perhaps, but after the manner of my nation, that their goodness would +not wash off with the soil of the skin,--that it was more than +skin-deep; but as this matter is above reason, in better moods I have +faith that it would. Still, in disbelieving moments, I cannot help +applying to them Charles Lamb's famous speech,--"If dirt were trumps, +what a hand they would have of it!" Yet, beggars as they are, they have +the reputation at Rome of being the most inoffensive of all the +conventual orders, and are looked upon by the common people with +kindliness, as being thoroughly sincere in their religious professions. +They are, at least, consistent in many respects in their professions and +practice. They really mortify the flesh by penance, fasting, and +wretched fare, as well as by dirt. They do not proclaim the virtues and +charms of poverty, while they roll about in gilded coaches dressed in +"purple and fine linen," or gloat over the luxuries of the table. Their +vices are not the cardinal ones, whatever their virtues may be. The +"Miracles of St. Peter," as the common people call the palaces of Rome, +are not wrought for them. Their table is mean and scantily provided with +the most ordinary food. Three days in the week they eat no meat; and +during the year they keep three _Quaresime_. But, good as they are, +their sour, thin wine, on empty, craving stomachs, sometimes does a mad +work; and these brothers in dirt and piety have occasionally violent +rows and disputes in their refectories over their earthen bottles. It is +only a short time since that my old friends the Capuchins got furious +together over their wine, and ended by knocking each other about the +ears with their earthen jars, after they had emptied them. Several were +wounded, and had time to repent and wash in their cells. But one should +not be too hard on them. The temper will not withstand too much fasting. +A good dinner puts one at peace with the world, but an empty stomach is +the habitation often of the Devil, who amuses himself there with pulling +all the nerve-wires that reach up into the brain. I doubt whether even +St. Simeon Stylites always kept his temper as well as he did his fast. + +As I see them walking up and down the alleys of their vegetable garden, +and under the sunny wall where oranges glow and roses bloom, without the +least asceticism, during the whole winter, I do not believe in their +doctrine, nor envy them their life. And I cannot but think that the one +hundred and fifty thousand _Frati_ who are in the Roman States would do +quite as good service to God and man, if they were an army of laborers +on the Campagna, or elsewhere, as in their present life of beggary and +self-contemplation. I often wonder, as I look at them, hearty and stout +as they are, despite their mode of life, what brought them to this pass, +what induced them to enter this order,--and recall, in this connection, +a little anecdote current here in Rome, to the following effect:--A +young fellow, from whom Fortune had withheld her gifts, having become +desperate, at last declared to a friend that he meant to throw himself +into the Tiber, and end a life which was worse than useless. "No, no," +said his friend, "don't do that. If your affairs are so desperate, +retire into a convent, become a Capuchin." _"Ah, non!_" was the +indignant answer; "I am desperate; but I have not yet arrived at such a +pitch of desperation." + +Though the Franciscans live upon charity, they have almost always a +garden connected with their convent, where they raise multitudes of +cabbages, cauliflowers, _finocchi_, peas, beans, artichokes, and +lettuce. Indeed, there is one kind of the latter which is named after +them,--_capuccini_. But their gardens they do not till themselves; they +hire gardeners, who work for them. Now I cannot but think that working +in a garden is just as pious an employment as begging about the streets, +though perhaps scarcely as profitable. The opinion, that, in some +respects, it would be better for them to attend to this work themselves, +was forced upon my mind by a little farce I happened to see enacted +among their cabbages, the other day, as I was looking down out of my +window. My attention was first attracted by hearing a window open from a +little three-story-high _loggia_, opposite, hanging over their garden. A +woman came forth, and, from amid the flower-pots which half-concealed +her, she dropped a long cord to the ground. "_Pst, Pst_," she cried to +the gardener at work below. He looked up, executed a curious pantomime, +shrugged his shoulders, shook his fore-finger, and motioned with his +head and elbow sideways to a figure, visible to me, but not to her, of a +brown Franciscan, who was amusing himself in gathering some _finocchi_, +just round the corner of the wall. The woman, who was fishing for the +cabbages, immediately understood the predicament, drew up her cord, +disappeared from the _loggia_, and the curtain fell upon the little +farce. The gardener, however, evidently had a little soliloquy after she +had gone. He ceased working, and gazed at the unconscious Franciscan for +some time, with a curious grimace, as if he were not quite satisfied at +thus losing his little perquisite. + +These brown-cowled gentlemen are not the only ones who carry the tin +box. Along the curbstones of the public walks, and on the steps of the +churches, sit blind old creatures, and shake at you a tin box, outside +of which is a figure of the Madonna, and inside of which are two or +three _baiocchi_, as a rattling accompaniment to an unending invocation +of aid. Their dismal chant is protracted for hours and hours, increasing +in loudness whenever the steps of a passer-by are heard. It is the old +strophe and antistrophe of begging and blessing, and the singers are so +wretched that one is often softened into charity. Those who are not +blind have often a new _Diario_ or _Lunario_ to sell towards the end of +the year, and at other times they vary the occupation of shaking the box +by selling lives of the saints, which are sometimes wonderful enough. +One sad old woman, who sits near the Quattro Fontane, and says her +prayers and rattles her box, always touches my heart, there is such an +air of forlornness and sweetness about her. As I was returning, last +night, from a mass at San Giovanni in Laterano, an old man glared at us +through great green goggles,--to which Jealousy's would have yielded in +size and color,--and shook his box for a _baiocco_. "And where does this +money go?" I asked. "To say masses for the souls of those who die over +opposite," said he, pointing to the Hospital of San Giovanni, through +the open doors of which we could see the patients lying in their beds. + +Nor are these the only friends of the box. Often in walking the streets +one is suddenly shaken in your ear, and, turning round, you are startled +to see a figure entirely clothed in white from head to foot, a rope +round his waist, and a white _capuccio_ drawn over his head and face, +and showing, through two round holes, a pair of sharp black eyes behind +them. He says nothing, but shakes his box at you, often threateningly, +and always with an air of mystery. This is a penitent _Saccone_; and as +this _confraternità_ is composed solely of noblemen, he may be one of +the first princes or cardinals in Rome, performing penance in expiation +of his sins; or, for all you can see, it may be one of your intimate +friends. The money thus collected goes to various charities. They always +go in couples,--one taking one side of the street, the other the +opposite,--never losing sight of each other, and never speaking. Clothed +thus in secresy, these _Sacconi_ can test the generosity of any one they +please with complete impunity, and they often amuse themselves with +startling foreigners. Many a group of English girls, convoyed by their +mother, and staring into some mosaic or cameo shop, is scared into a +scream by the sudden jingle of the box, and the apparition of the +spectre in white who shakes it. And many a simple old lady retains to +the end of her life a confused impression, derived therefrom, of +Inquisitions, stilettos, tortures, and banditti, from which it is vain +to attempt to dispossess her mind. The stout old gentleman, with a bald +forehead and an irascibly rosy face, takes it often in another +way,--confounds the fellows for their impertinence, has serious notions, +first, of knocking them down on the spot, and then of calling the +police, but finally concludes to take no notice of them, as they are +nothing but _Eye_-talians, who cannot be expected to know how to behave +themselves in a rational manner. Sometimes a _santa elemosina_ is +demanded after the oddest fashion. It was only yesterday that I met one +of the _confraternità_, dressed in a shabby red suit, coming up the +street, with the invariable oblong tin begging-box in his hand,--a +picture of Christ on one side, and of the Madonna on the other. He went +straight to a door, opening into a large, dark room, where there was a +full cistern of running water, at which several poor women were washing +clothes, and singing and chatting as they worked. My red acquaintance +suddenly opens the door, letting in a stream of light upon this +Rembrandtish interior, and, lifting his box with the most wheedling of +smiles, he says, with a rising inflection of voice, as if asking a +question,--"_Prezioso sangue di Gesù Christo?_"--( Precious blood of +Jesus Christ?) + +The last, but by no means the meanest, of the tribe of pensioners whom I +shall mention, is my old friend, "Beefsteak,"--now, alas! gone to the +shades of his fathers. He was a good dog,--a mongrel, a Pole by +birth,--who accompanied his master on a visit to Rome, where he became +so enamored of the place that he could not be persuaded to return to his +native home. Bravely he cast himself on the world, determined to live, +like many of his two-legged countrymen, upon his wits. He was a dog of +genius, and his confidence in the world was rewarded by its +appreciation. He had a sympathy for the arts. The crowd of artists who +daily and nightly flocked to the Lepre and the Caffè Greco attracted his +notice. He introduced himself to them, and visited them at their studios +and rooms. A friendship was struck between them and him, and he became +their constant visitor and their most attached ally. Every day, at the +hour of lunch, or at the more serious hour of dinner, he lounged into +the Lepre, seated himself in a chair, and awaited his friends, confident +of his reception. His presence was always hailed with a welcome, and to +every new comer he was formally presented. His bearing became, at last, +not only assured, but patronizing. He received the gift of a +chicken-bone or a delicate titbit as if he conferred a favor. He became +an epicure, a _gourmet_. He did not eat much; he ate well. With what a +calm superiority and gentle contempt he declined the refuse bits a +stranger offered from his plate! His glance, and upturned nose, and +quiet refusal, seemed to say,--"Ignoramus! know you not I am Beefsteak?" +His dinner finished, he descended gravely, and proceeded to the Caffè +Greco, there to listen to the discussions of the artists, and to partake +of a little coffee and sugar, of which he was very fond. At night, he +accompanied some one or other of his friends to his room, and slept upon +the rug. He knew his friends, and valued them; but perhaps his most +remarkable quality was his impartiality. He dispensed his favors with an +even hand. He had few favorites, and called no man master. He never +outstayed his welcome "and told the jest without the smile," never +remaining with one person for more than two or three days at most. A +calmer character, a more balanced judgment, a better temper, a more +admirable self-respect,--in a word, a profounder sense of what belongs +to a gentleman, was never known in any dog. But Beefsteak is now no +more. Just after the agitations of the Revolution of '48, with which he +had little sympathy,--he was a conservative by disposition,--he +disappeared. He had always been accustomed to make a _villegratura_ at +L'Arriccia during a portion of the summer months, returning only now and +then to look after his affairs in Rome. On such visits he would often +arrive towards midnight, and rap at the door of a friend to claim his +hospitality, barking a most intelligible answer to the universal Roman +inquiry of "_Chi è_?" "One morn we missed him at the accustomed" place, +and thenceforth he was never seen. Whether a sudden homesickness for his +native land overcame him, or a fatal accident befell him, is not known. +Peace to his manes! There "rests his head upon the lap of earth" no +better dog. + +In the Roman studio of one of his friends and admirers, Mr. Mason, I had +the pleasure, a few days since, to see, among several admirable and very +spirited pictures of Campagna life and incidents, a very striking +portrait of Beefsteak. He was sitting in a straw-bottomed chair, as we +have so often seen him in the Lepre, calm, dignified in his deportment, +and somewhat obese. The full brain, the narrow, fastidious nose, the +sagacious eye, were so perfectly given, that I seemed to feel the actual +presence of my old friend. So admirable a portrait of so distinguished a +person should not be lost to the world. It should be engraved, or at +least photographed. + + + + +ENCELADUS. + + + Under Mount Etna he lies; + It is slumber, it is not death; + For he struggles at times to arise, + And above him the lurid skies + Are hot with his fiery breath. + + The crags are piled on his breast, + The earth is heaped on his head; + But the groans of his wild unrest, + Though smothered and half suppressed, + Are heard, and he is not dead. + + And the nations far away + Are watching with eager eyes; + They talk together and say, + "To-morrow, perhaps to-day, + Enceladus will arise!" + + And the old gods, the austere + Oppressors in their strength, + Stand aghast and white with fear, + At the ominous sounds they hear, + And tremble, and mutter, "At length!" + + Ah, me! for the land that is sown + With the harvest of despair! + Where the burning cinders, blown + From the lips of the overthrown + Enceladus, fill the air! + + Where ashes are heaped in drifts + Over vineyard and field and town, + Whenever he starts and lifts + His head through the blackened rifts + Of the crags that keep him down! + + See, see! the red light shines! + 'Tis the glare of his awful eyes! + And the storm-wind shouts through the pines + Of Alps and of Apennines, + "Enceladus, arise!" + + + + +THE ZOUAVES. + + +The decree of October 1, 1830, approved by a royal ordinance, March 21, +1831, created two battalions of Zouaves. To perceive the necessity for +this body of troops, to understand the nature of the service required of +them, and to obtain a just notion of their important position in African +affairs, it will be necessary to glance, for a moment, at the previous +history of Algeria under the Deys, and especially at the history of that +Turkish militia which they were to replace,--a body of irresponsible +tyrants, which, since 1516, had exercised the greatest power in Africa, +and had rendered their name hated and feared by the most distant tribes. + +Algeria was settled in 1492, by Moors driven from Spain. They recognized +a kind of allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey, which was, however, only +nominal; he appointed their Emirs, but further than this there was no +restraint on their actions. Hard pressed by the Spaniards in 1509, the +Emirs sent in haste to Turkey for aid; and Barbarossa, a noted pirate, +sailed to their help, drove out the Christians, but fixed upon the Moors +the yoke of Turkish sovereignty. In 1516, he declared himself Sultan, or +Dey, of Algiers; and his brother succeeding him, the Ottoman power was +firmly established in the Northwest of Africa. Hated by the people of +this great territory, both Moors and Arabs, menaced not only by their +dissensions, but frequently attacked by the Christians from the North, +there was but one method by which the Dey could maintain his power. He +formed a large body of mercenary soldiers, drawn entirely from Turkey, +united with himself and each other by a feeling of mutual dependence and +common danger, and bound by no feeling of interest or affection to the +inhabitants of the soil. Brave they were, as they proved in 1541, +against Charles the Fifth, whose forces they defeated and nearly +destroyed at Haratsch,--in 1565, at the siege of Malta,--in 1572, in the +seafight of Lepanto,--in many smaller combats at different times, +defending their land triumphantly in 1775 against the Spaniards under +O'Reilly and Castejon. Hardy and ready they were, from the very +necessity of the case; for they were hated and dreaded beyond measure by +the Arabs, and theirs was a life of constant exertion. Other than united +they could not be; for they were in continual warfare of offence or of +defence; they suppressed rebellion and anarchy,--for without a leader +and union they had been cut off by the restless foe, whose piercing eyes +watched, and whose daggers waited only _for the time_. In constant +danger, they could not sink into that sloth that eats out the heart of +Eastern and Southern nations; for it was only in unrest that safety +lay;--he who slumbered on those burning plains, no less than the sleeper +on Siberian ice, was lost utterly and without remedy. + +This body of troops, called the _Odjack_, elected or deposed Deys at +pleasure; the Dey, nominally their ruler, was in reality their tool. In +one period of twenty years there were six Deys, of whom four were +decapitated, one abdicated through fear, and one died peacefully in the +exercise of his governing functions. [Footnote: _Voyage pour la +Rédemption des Captifs aux Royaumes d'Alger et de Tunis, fait en 1720._ +Paris, 1721.] In 1629, they declared the kingdom free from the +domination of Turkey; soon after, they expelled the Koulouglis, or +half-breed Turks, and enslaved the Moors. Admitting some of the latter +to service in the militia, they never allowed them to hope for +advancement in the State, or, what was the same thing, the army. Only +Turks, or in some instances renegade Christians, could lead the +soldiers, whom thus no feeling of local patriotism mollified in their +course of savage cruelty, grinding the face of the poor natives till +spirit and hope were lost and resistance ceased to be a settled idea in +their minds. + +Now when the French navy came up to the port of Algiers, June 12, 1830, +the unity between the soldiers and their master, Hussein Pacha, was +tottering on the verge of dissolution; a plot against his life had just +been discovered, he had punished the ringleaders with death, and many +who had been concerned in the conspiracy felt that there was no safety +for them with him. Beaten constantly in every skirmish or battle, they +conceived a high respect for the military genius of the invaders, and, +ere the close of the summer campaign, offered their services in a body +to General Clausel; this offer he promptly declined, and they thereupon +withdrew, carrying their swords to the aid of other powers less +scrupulous. + +The news, however, that the terrible Odjack had offered themselves to +serve under the French spread a lively terror through the Arab tribes, +who, believing themselves about to suffer an aggravation of their +already intolerable oppression, experienced a sensation of relief and an +elevation of spirit no less marked, on hearing that the newly formed +government had rejected their services. Perceiving the fear in which +these Algerine Praetorians were held by the tribes, Marshal Clausel +conceived the plan of replacing them by a corps of light infantry, +consisting of two battalions, to perform the services of household +troops, and to receive some name as significant as that held by their +predecessors under the old _régime_. Consequently, after some +consideration, the newly constituted body was called by the name of +_Zouaves_, from the Arabic word _Zouaoua_. + +The Zouaoua are a tribe, or rather a confederation of tribes, of the +Kabyles, who inhabit the gorges of the Jurjura Mountains, the boundary +of Algeria on the east, separating it from the province of Constantine. +They are a brave, fierce, laborious people, whose submission to the +Turks was never more than nominal; yet they were well known in the city +of Algiers, whither they came frequently to exchange the products of +their industry for the luxuries of comparative civilization. As they had +the reputation of being the best soldiers in the Regency, and had +occasionally lent their services to the Algerine princes, their name was +given to the new military force; while, to give it the character of a +French corps, the number of native soldiers received into its ranks was +limited, and all its officers, from the highest to the lowest grade, +were required to be native-born Frenchmen. The service in this corps was +altogether voluntary, none being appointed to the Zouaves who did not +seek the place; but there were found enough young and daring spirits who +embraced with enthusiasm this life, so harassing, so full of privation, +of rude labor, of constant peril. The first battalion was commanded by +Major Maumet; the second by Captain Duvivier, (since General,) who died +in Paris, 1848, of wounds received in the African service. Levaillant, +(since General of Division,) Verge, (now General of Brigade,) and +Mollière, who died Colonel, of wounds received at the siege of Rome, +were officers in these first two battalions. + +Scarcely six weeks had elapsed since their formation, when the Zouaves +took the field under Marshal Clausel, marching against Medeah, an +important station in the heart of Western Algeria. On the hill of +Mouzaïa they fought their first battle, in which they were completely +successful. They remained two months as a garrison in Medeah. Here they +showed proofs of a valor and patience most extraordinary. Left alone in +a frontier post, constantly in the vicinity of a savage foe, watching +and fighting night and day, leaving the gun only to take up the spade, +compelled to create everything they needed, reduced to the last +extremities for food, cut off from all communications,--it was a rough +trial for this little handful of new soldiers. The place was often +attacked; they were always at their posts; till in the last days of +April they were recalled, and the fortress yielded up to the feeble Bey +whom the French had decided to establish there. In June, troubles having +again arisen, General Berthezène conducted some troops of the regular +army to Medeah, to which was added the second battalion of Zouaves, +under its gallant captain, Duvivier. On his return, the troops were +attacked with fury on the hill of Mouzaïa, the spot where the Zouaves +had in February of the same year received their baptism of fire. Wearied +with the long night-march, borne down by insupportable heat, stretched +in a long straggling line through mountain-passes, the commander of the +van severely wounded at the first discharge, they themselves separated, +without chiefs, and surrounded by enemies, the French troops recoiled; +when Duvivier, seeing the peril that menaced the army, advanced with his +battalion. Shouting their war-cry, they rushed on the Kabyles, supported +by the Volunteers of the Chart, or French Zouaves, thundering forth the +Marseillaise; turning the pursuers into pursued, they covered the +retreat of their associates to the farm of Mouzaïa, where the army +rallied and proceeded without further loss to Algiers. This retreat, and +its attendant circumstances, made the Zouaves, before regarded, if not +with contempt, at least with dislike, _free of the camp_. + +But now the losses sustained by the two battalions began to be seriously +felt,--for the growing hostility of the Arabs rendered it difficult to +recruit from native sources; and an ordinance of the king, dated March +7,1833, united the two battalions into one, consisting of ten companies, +eight of which were to be exclusively European, and two to be _not_ +exclusively Algerine,--it being required that in each native company +there should be at least twelve Frenchmen. Duvivier was called to +Bougie; Maumet was compelled by his wounds to return to Paris; Captain +Lamoricière was, therefore, appointed chief of the united battalion, +having given proof of his capacity in every way,--whether as soldier, +linguist, or negotiator,--being a wise and prudent man. It is to the +training the Zouaves received under this remarkable man that much of +their subsequent success must be ascribed. In his dealings with the +Arabs he had shown himself the first who could treat with them by other +means than the rifle or bayonet. [Footnote: _Annales Algériennes_, Tom. +ii. p. 72.] In his capacity of Lieutenant-Colonel of Zouaves he showed +talents of a high order. He infused into them the spirit, the activity, +the boldness and impetuosity which he himself so remarkably possessed, +with a certain independence of character which demanded from those who +commanded them a resolute firmness on essential, and a dignified +indulgence on unessential points. [Footnote: _Conquête d'Alger_. Par A. +Nettement. p. 546.] To the course of discipline used by him, and still +maintained in this arm of the service, are due their tremendous working +power, their tirelessness, their self-dependence, and all their +qualities differing from those of other soldiers; so that by his means +one of the most irregular species of warfare has produced a body of +irresistible regular soldiers, and border combats have given rise to the +most rigid discipline in the world. + +The post of Dely Ibrahim was assigned to the Zouaves. At this place they +were obliged to work laboriously, making for themselves whatever was +needed; whether as masons, ditchers, blacksmiths, carpenters, or +farmers,--whatever business was to be performed, they were, or learned +to be, sufficient for it. No idlers in that camp,--each must earn his +daily bread. What time was not devoted to labor was given to the +practice of arms and the acquisition of instruction in all departments +of military science; so that many a soldier was there fitted for the +position he afterwards acquired, of officer, colonel, or general. To +fence with the mounted bayonet, to wrestle, to leap, to climb, to run +for miles, to swim, to make and to destroy temporary bridges, to throw +up earth-walls, to carry great weights, to do, in short, what Indians +learn to do, and much that they do not learn,--these served as the +relaxations of the unwearied Zouaves. To vary the monotony of such a +life, there was enough adventure to be found for the seeking,--now an +incursion into the Sahel, or into the plains of Mitidja, or a wild foray +through the northern gorges of the Atlas. Day by day progress appeared; +they learned to march rapidly and long, to sustain the extremes of +hunger, thirst, and weather, and to manoeuvre with intelligent +precision; diligently fitting themselves, in industry, discipline, and +warlike education, for the position they had to fill. Their costume and +equipment were brought near perfection; they wore the Turkish dress, +slightly modified,--a dress perfectly suited to the changes of that +climate, and without which their movements would have been cramped and +constrained. Only the officers retained the uniform of the hussars, +which is rich and easy to wear. The cost of a suitable Turkish uniform +would have been too heavy for them, besides that the dress of a Turk of +rank is somewhat ridiculous. Certain officers on the march used, +however, to wear the _fez_, or, as the Arabs called it, the _chechia_. +Lamoricière was known in Algeria as _Bou Chechia_, or _Papa with the +Cap_,--as he was known later in Oran as _Bou Araoua, Papa with the +Stick_. One finds, however, nothing of Orientalism in the regulations of +this body of troops; not the least negligence or slovenliness is allowed +in the most trifling detail. In fine, the care, and that descending to +note the smallest minutiae, which brought this race of soldiers to such +a pitch of perfection, leaving them their gayety and sprightliness, and, +notwithstanding the rigidness of the discipline, giving solidity and +precision to irregular troops, was rewarded by success unparalleled in +history. It was the best practical school for soldiers and officers; and +many of the best generals in the French army began their military career +in the wild guerrilla combats or the patient camp-life of this band of +heroes. + +Nearly two years had passed away in this training, when Marshal Clausel +returned to Africa, and led the Zouaves, whose fitness for the service +he well knew, into Oran. Here they added fresh laurels to those already +acquired. In the expedition of Mascara, where they fought under the eye +of the Duke of Orléans, they covered themselves with glory; insomuch +that on his return to Paris he procured a decree, 1835, constituting the +First Regiment of Zouaves, of two battalions, of six companies each, +and, should occasion justify the measure, of ten companies. Lamoricière +continued in command. + +In 1836 the Zouaves again took the hill of Mouzaïa. This time they razed +its fortifications even with the ground, and returned to Algiers, where +they remained during General Clausel's first and unfortunate expedition +into Constantine, the eastern province of French Africa. In 1837 the +second expedition was made, and in this the Zouaves took part. One of +the divisions of the army was under the command of the Duke of Némours. +In this division were the Zouaves under Lamoricière, who here showed +themselves worthy of their renown. Fighting by the side of the most +excellent soldiers in the regular army, they proved themselves bravest +where all were brave. They were placed at the head of the first column +of attack. Lamoricière was the first officer on the breach, and carried +all before him. The soldiers whom he had trained supported him nobly; +but when they had won the day, they found that many companies were +decimated, some nearly annihilated; numbers of their officers were dead +in the breach, "Those who are not mortally wounded rejoice at this great +success," said an officer to the Duke; and it was a significant +sentence. [Footnote: Verbal report of Colonel Combes to the Duke of +Némours,--conclusion.] + +To form some notion of those troops, among whom the Zouaves showed +themselves like the gods in the war of Troy, one anecdote will suffice, +chosen from many which prove the valor of the army my generally. The +rear-guard at Mansourah was under the command of Changarnier; it was +reduced to three hundred men; he halted this little troop and said, +"Come, my men, look these fellows in the face; they are six thousand, +you are three hundred; surely the match is even." This speech was +sufficient. The Frenchmen awaited the onset till the enemy was within +pistol-shot; then, after a murderous volley, they charged on the Arabs, +who broke and fled in dismay. During the remainder of the day they would +not approach this band nearer than long rifle range. [Footnote: +_Moniteur_, December 16, 1833; report of Marshal Clausel.] + +The siege of Constantine may properly be said to have ended the war of +occupation in Africa. Hitherto we have seen the Zouaves only in time of +active war, or in the defence of hill-forts, obliged to unity through +fear of an ever-menacing foe, and laboring for their own preservation or +comfort only; but now commenced a new training for them, no less severe +and dangerous, in which they showed themselves equally willing and +competent,--a war against stubborn Nature in all her most forbidding +aspects. Under the blazing suns of that tropical climate they +recommenced at Coleah the work already begun at Dely Ibrahim; ditches +were to be dug, works thrown up, roads made, draining accomplished, +farms tended, all that was necessary for the establishment of those +permanent colonies which France was so anxious to settle in Algeria was +to be done by the Zouaves; yet, despite that terrible labor, the danger +and hardship, the sickness and death, the ranks of the regiment filled +up rapidly; and, joined by the wrecks of the battalion of Mechouar, they +were kept full to overflowing. This battalion of Mechouar was a troop +left by Clausel in the _mechouar_, or citadel, of Tlemcen, in the West +of Oran, under the command of Captain Cavaignac; on the conclusion of +the war, in 1837, they, of course, returned to their regiment at Coleah. + +This deceitful peace lasted only till 1839. In this year the vigilant +colonel of Zouaves perceived in his native troops alarming symptoms of +mutiny, and learned, to his surprise, that they were in a ripe condition +for revolt. Wild Santons of the desert, emissaries, doubtless, of +Abd-el-Kader, held secret meetings near the camp; many soldiers attended +them, and were seduced by artfully prepared inflammatory harangues and +prophecies. In the month of December, 1839, at the raising of the +standard of Islam, the natives flocked in vast numbers to rid the land +of the Christians; and most of the native Zouaves deserted to join the +fortunes of the prince whom they reverenced as a prophet. Old soldiers, +trained in the French service to a thorough acquaintance with European +tactics, and gray with battling long for Lamoricière, suddenly left him, +and by their knowledge of the art of war gave great advantage to the +Arab force. In their combats with the Sultan, the Zouaves not +infrequently found that a sharp resistance or a masterly retreat on the +part of the enemy was executed under the direction of one of their +former comrades in arms. It was a critical moment for the Zouaves; but +at the announcement of the renewal of hostilities volunteers flowed in +on all sides, whether of young men full of ardor and excitement, or, as +in many instances, of old soldiers who had already served their time. +After a winter of petty skirmishing and reestablishing in Algeria the +semblance of security, the Duke of Orléans led the army, considerably +reinforced, in a raid against the Arabs under Abd-el-Kader in their own +territory. The Zouaves accompanied this expedition, and whether in their +charges against the mountaineers, who, with the aid of the Arab +regulars, defended each pass, or sustaining the shock of the provincial +cavalry, or even standing unmoved before the attack of Abd-el-Kader's +terrible "Reds," [Footnote: The mounted body-guard of Abd-el-Kader, so +called by the French from their complete red uniform.] they maintained +their character of rapid, intrepid, and successful soldiers. What names +we find in this regiment! Lamoricière, Regnault, Renault, (now General +of Division,) Cavaignac, Leflô, (now General of Brigade,) and St. +Arnaud, who died Marshal of France two days after the victory of the +Alma. + +A singular instance of the _handiness_ of the Zouaves is found in the +notice of their forced march on this campaign, undertaken May 20th, to +support the retreating Seventeenth Light Infantry. Their cartridges were +fired away, the regulars of Abd-el-Kader were upon them, and nothing +seemed to remain but an heroic death, when, "Comrades," cried one, "see, +here are stones!" Not a word more; each caught the hint, and, with +simultaneous volleys of stones, drove off the charging enemy, and broke +their way to where the remains of the Seventeenth rallied under Colonel +Bedeau, after a retreat more properly to be called a continual attack! + +Hard at work during the winter of 1840-41, General Bugeaud found these +indefatigable soldiers in perfect condition to take the field again, +when he landed in April. There had been sharp fighting during the past +year at Mouzaïa, in which the Zouaves always led the van, and were, as +in every engagement they ever fought, covered with honor. "The Second, +electrified by the example of its officers, and led by Colonel +Changarnier, flung itself on the intrenchments; the redoubts were +carried, etc. At the same time, in the other column, Lamoricière led the +way with his Zouaves, followed by the other troops. The Zouaves +surmounted the almost impassable cliffs, attacked and carried two lines +of intrenchment, and, in the teeth of a murderous fire, forced a third; +a few moments later the two columns joined, and, rushing up the +acclivity, planted the flag of France on the highest peak of the Atlas." +[Footnote: Report of Marshal Valée: _Moniteur_.] Little variation is +found in the reports of generals concerning the Zouaves at this time; +they say of these troops always, "The First," or "The Second, was +covered with glory." + +But now, with the arrival of Bugeaud, the war in Africa was changed; +hitherto it had been a mere war of occupation,--a holding of the ground +already French against the attacking Arabs; now it was to be a duel, a +war of devastation; thus only could France hope to tame the +indefatigable Abd-el-Kader, and permanently hold her own. The trouble +was not so much to fight him as to get near enough to fight him; for he +pursued a truly Fabian policy, and being lighter armed, was consequently +swifter than the invaders. Under Marshal Clausel, the French, drawing +with them the heavy wagons and munitions of European warfare, were +obliged to follow the high-roads, and the Arabs could never be taken by +surprise; scouts gave information of their numbers, and after harassing +marches they would find that the foe had either retreated to unknown +fastnesses or assembled on the spot in prodigious force. Now Lamoricière +proposed a plan, in the execution of which he was eminently successful. +Bugeaud's design was, to follow the Arabs into the desert, to climb the +steep mountains, to plunge into their chasms, to storm every hill-fort, +and to drive, step by step, the swift Abd-el-Kader far from the land +which his presence so troubled; but how? for swift troops are +light-armed, carry no luggage, and but little provision; and to follow +without food the Arabs who concealed food in _silos_, _caches_ in the +ground, seemed hopeless. Lamoricière required but his Zouaves, who +carried only four days' provisions, and no baggage of any sort; when +they drew near any of these _silos_, which were always, of course, in +the vicinity of the deserted villages, he spread out his troops in a +long crescent, and they advanced slowly, rooting up the ground with +their bayonets till some one struck on the stone or pebbles covering the +precious deposit. Thus, without wagons, trained to tireless activity, +they could follow the Arabs from _douar_ to _douar_ with little delay, +and with fatal effect. + +Great reinforcements were sent to Africa, and the Zouaves were not +forgotten; for, in the royal ordinance of September 8th, 1841, the +regiment was raised to three battalions of nine companies; only one of +the nine, however, could receive natives, so that but three native +companies now existed, and few Algerines were found even in these. The +reasons seem to have been threefold: first, the danger from mutiny; +second, the evils arising from the mixture of the two races, which had +augmented their vices, without a corresponding improvement in their good +qualities; third, and perhaps most important of all, the discontent very +properly felt by the French Zouaves, who were compelled to work at the +trenches, to dig, to plant, etc., while the Mussulmans utterly refused +to take part in this, to their mind, degrading toil. The Gordian knot +was cut, and all difficulty done away, by making the regiment, in +effect, exclusively European. Thus reorganized and reinforced, the +regiment, on receiving the standard sent it by the king, immediately +separated,--one battalion marching for Oran, one for Constantine, while +the other remained at Blidah, in Algeria. + +The year 1842 was full of great results; the new system worked well, +great numbers of tribes laid down their arms and swore fealty to France, +and the provinces were more than nominally in the hands of the French. +Still many of the more distant and powerful tribes held to their +allegiance to the Prophet Sultan. The war gradually took on itself the +form of a civil contest, and mutual animosities gave rise to many +occasions for sanguinary combats; one of these, in the valley of the +Cheliff, September, 1842, lasted unintermittingly for thirty-six hours! +In this battle, and that of Oued Foddah, and, in fact, in almost every +battle of those years, the Zouaves took an honorable part. In mountain +fights, long marches over burning sands, repulses of cavalry, at +Jurjura, Ouarsanis, among the Beni Menasser, at the Smalah, in the +struggles of Bedeau with the Moroccan cavalry, and in the memorable +battle of Isly, they did good service; their history was but a narrative +of brilliant exploits. In many of their hill fights, the deserters of +1839 gave much trouble. In a skirmish, 1844, on the south side of the +Aurès, in which Captain Espinasse (died General of Division, Magenta, +June 6th, 1859) was concerned, and wounded four times, an old native +Zouave commanded the Kabyles, and defended their principal position with +much skill. + +In fine, to recount the hundredth part of their deeds,--to make out a +list of their soldiers, sub-officers, or officers who have been since +promoted to high honors,--to trace minutely each step by which they +mounted to their present position, would be to write, not an article, +but a book. In 1842 the natives disappeared finally from their ranks; +the best and bravest soldiers of the African army eagerly sought their +places, attracted by the uniform, the manner of life, the constant +danger and no less constant excitement, the liberty allowed, the glory +ever open to all. As their numbers were decimated by the continual +warfare, the ranks were immediately filled by the descendants of those +brave Gauls who once said, "If the heavens fall, what care we? We will +support them on the points of our lances!" In 1848, the Zouaves received +a large accession from Paris; the _gamins_ of the Revolution were sent +to them in great numbers; out of this unpromising, rebellious material, +some of the finest of these admirable troops have been made. And now, +when the entry into this regiment was longed for by so many, as a +species of promotion, on the 13th of February, 1852, Louis Napoleon, +then President of the Republic, decreed that three regiments of Zouaves +be formed, each on one of the three battalions as a nucleus, taking the +number of the battalion as its own. Thus the first regiment was formed +at Blidah, in Algiers; the second at Oran, in Oran; the third at +Constantine, in the province of Constantine. Officers of the corps of +infantry were eligible to the new regiments, holding the same grade; the +men were to be drawn from any infantry corps in the army, on their own +application, if the Minister of War saw proper. None were accepted but +men physically and morally in excellent condition; the officers had, for +the most part, already served with credit; the under-officers and +soldiers had been many years in the service; and even many corporals, +and not a few ensigns and lieutenants, voluntarily relinquished their +positions to serve in the rank-and-file of the new corps. So, occupied +in pacificating and securing the three provinces, the regiments lost +nothing of their former renown; obedient to orders, and fearless of +danger, it was no idle compliment paid them by Louis Napoleon, when, in +the winter of 1853-4, be said, "If the war break out, we must show our +Zouaves to the Russians." They were a body trained in the school of a +terrible experience of twenty-four years; they had learned, like the +lion-hunter, Gerard, to take death by the mane, and look into his fiery +eyes without blenching; they were fit for this service, which demanded +the best nerve of the two most powerful nations of the world. What they +did there is known to all; at the battle of the Alma, Marshal St. Arnaud +was unable to repress his admiration, calling them "the bravest soldiers +in the world." All Europe, at first wondering at these strange troops, +with their wild dress, their half-savage manners, and strange method of +warfare, found speedy cause to admire their courage and success; France +was proud of their renown, and they became immensely popular in Paris, +sure proof of their remarkable qualities. Their oddities, their courage, +their imperfect knowledge of the distinctions of _meum_ and _tuum_, +their wondering, childlike simplicity, furnished themes for endless +songs and caricatures; the comedy of "Les Zouaves" met with great +success; and the cant name for them, "Zouzou," is to be heard at any +time in the streets. In 1855, the Fourth Zouaves was created, consisting +of but two battalions, and enrolled in the Imperial Guard; they are +distinguished from the others by wearing a white turban, while that of +the other regiments is green; since the formation of this regiment, no +new corps have been added. The peace with Russia, in 1856, was not peace +for the Zouaves, who returned, desiring nothing better, to Africa, +where, in the continued war, they found congenial employment till the +final submission of the last tribes, July 15, 1857, dissolved the army +of Kabylia, and made them, perforce, peaceful, till the 26th of April of +this year brought them to win fresh laurels on a new field. + +Vague reports, assertions without proof, have been not infrequently +made, to the effect that the Zouaves are in character cruel, dissolute, +and excessively given to hard drinking. That they are absolutely free +from the first charge I shall not attempt to deny; that they are more so +than other men, in like circumstances, there is no proof; there is even +good reason to state the contrary, if we may judge by instances, of +which, for want of space, one shall suffice here. The Zouaves were in +the van of the army, on their march toward the Tell; in their charge was +a large body of prisoners, wounded, and helpless women, old men, and +children, whom they were conducting to the Tell, to restore them to +their homes. The weather was intensely hot, even for Africa; the nearest +well was eleven leagues distant; and the sufferings of the poor people +must have been dreadful indeed. Mothers flung down their infants on the +burning sand, and pressed madly on to save themselves from the most +horrible of deaths; old men and boys sunk exhausted, panting, declaring +they could go no farther. "Then it was," says an eyewitness, "that the +Zouaves behaved like very Sisters of Charity, rather than rough bearded +soldiers; they divided their last morsel with these unfortunates, gave +them drink from their own scanty stores, and, putting their canteens to +the mouths of the dying, revived them with the precious draught. They +raised the screaming infants, overturned and held ewes, that they might +suckle the poor creatures, abandoned in despair by their mothers, and, +in many instances, carried them the whole distance in their arms. At +night they ate nothing, giving their food to the helpless prisoners, +whose lives they thus saved at the risk of their own." If in war they +"imitate the action of the tiger," we have every reason to believe that +in peace they are, to say the least, not less humane than others. + +The author of "Recollections of an Officer" [Footnote: _Souvenirs d'un +Officier du 2me de Zouaves_. Paris, 1859.] sums up the character of the +Zouaves in a few words which clear them from the other two charges, +those of dissoluteness and drunkenness. He says,--"Beside the condition +of success resulting from the first organization, it must be said, that, +somewhat later, the happy idea came to be adopted, of giving to the +Zouaves destined to fight in the light-armed troops the costume of +_Chasseurs-à-pied_. The recruitment added also not a little to the +reputation which the Zouaves so rapidly acquired; the soldiers are all +drawn, not from conscripts, but from applicants for the service. Many +are Parisians, or, at all events, inhabitants of the other great French +cities; most have already served,--are therefore inured to the +work,--accustomed to privations, which they undergo gayly,--to fatigues, +at which they joke,--to dangers in battle, which they treat as mere +play. They are proud of their uniform, which does not resemble that of +any other corps,--proud of that name, _Zouave_, of mysterious +origin,--proud of the splendid actions with which each succeeding day +enriches the history of their troops,--happy in the liberty they +experience, both in garrison and on expeditions. It is said that the +Zouaves love wine; it is true; but they are rarely seen intoxicated; +they seek the pleasures of conviviality, not the imbrutement of +drunkenness. These regiments count in their ranks officers, who, +_ennuied_ by a lazy life, have taken up the musket and the +_chechia_,--under-officers, who, having already served, brave, even +rash, seek to win their epaulettes anew in this hard service, and gain +either a glorious position or a glorious death,--old officers of the +_garde mobile_,--broad-shouldered marines, who have served their time on +shipboard, accustomed to cannon and the thunderings of the +tempest,--young men of family, desirous to replace with the red ribbon +of the Legion of Honor, bought and colored with their blood, the +dishonor of a life gaped wearily away on the pavements of Paris. + +"Composed of such elements, one can scarcely imagine the body of Zouaves +other than brilliant in the field of battle. The officers are generally +chosen from the regiments of the line, men remarkable for strength, +courage, and prudence; full of energy, pushing the love of their colors +to its last limit, always ready to confront death and to run up to meet +danger, they seek glory rather than promotion. To train up their +soldiers, to give them an example, in their own persons, of all the +military virtues,--such are their only cares. Our ancestors said, +'_Noblesse, oblige_'; these choose the same motto. _Their_ nobility is +not that of old family-titles, but the uniform in which they are +clothed, the title of officer of Zouaves. _Esprit de corps_, that +religion of the soldier, is carried by the Zouaves to its highest pitch; +the common soldiers would not consent to change their turban for the +epaulettes of an ensign in the other service; and many an ensign, and +not a few captains, have preferred to await their advancement in the +Zouaves rather than immediately obtain it by entering other regiments. +There exists, moreover, between the soldiers and officers, a military +fraternity, which, far from destroying discipline, tends rather to draw +more closely its bonds. The officer sees in his men rather companions in +danger and in glory than inferiors; he willingly attends to their +complaints, and strives to spare them all unnecessary privations. Where +they are exposed to difficulties, he does not hesitate to employ all the +means in his power to aid them. In return, the soldier professes for his +officer an affection, a devotion, a sort of filial respect. Discipline, +he knows, must be severe, and he does not grumble at its penalties. In +battle, he does not abandon his chief; he watches over him, will die for +his safety, will not let him fall into the hands of the enemy if +wounded. At the bivouac he makes the officer's fire, though his own +should die for want of fuel; cares for his horse, arranges his +furniture; if any delicacy in the way of food can be procured, he brings +it to the chief. Convinced of the desire of their master that the +soldiers shall be well fed, the Zouaves often insist that a part of +their pay be expended for procuring the provisions of the tribe. +[Footnote: In accordance with Arab customs, the Zouaves, who (to use the +ordinary expression) "live in common," compose a circle to which they +give the name of _tribe_. In the tribe, each one has his allotted task: +one attends to making the fires and procuring wood; another draws water +and does the cooking; another makes the coffee and arranges the camp, +etc.] The colonel is the man most venerated by these soldiers, who look +upon him as the father of the family. They are proud of the colonel's +success, and happy to have contributed to his honor or advancement. When +an order comes directly from him, be sure it will be religiously obeyed. +'When _papa_ says anything,' they repeat, one to another, 'it must be +done. Papa knows it is _already_ done; be wants us to be the best +children possible.' In critical moments, the colonel can use the +severest Draconian code, without having anything to fear from the +disapprobation of his men." + + + + +MY PSALM. + + + I mourn no more my vanished years: + Beneath a tender rain, + An April rain of smiles and tears, + My heart is young again. + + The west winds blow, and, singing low, + I hear the glad streams run; + The windows of my soul I throw + Wide open to the sun. + + No longer forward nor behind + I look in hope or fear; + But, grateful, take the good I find, + The best of now and here. + + I plough no more a desert land, + To harvest weed and tare; + The manna dropping from God's hand + Rebukes my painful care. + + I break my pilgrim staff, I lay + Aside the toiling oar; + The angel sought so far away + I welcome at my door. + + The airs of Spring may never play + Among the ripening corn, + Nor freshness of the flowers of May + Blow through the Autumn morn;-- + + Yet shall the blue-eyed gentian look + Through fringed lids to heaven, + And the pale aster in the brook + Shall see its image given;-- + + The woods shall wear their robes of praise, + The south wind softly sigh, + And sweet, calm days in golden haze + Melt down the amber sky. + + Not less shall manly deed and word + Rebuke an age of wrong; + The graven flowers that wreathe the sword + Make not the blade less strong. + + But smiting hands shall learn to heal, + To build as to destroy; + Nor less my heart for others feel + That I the more enjoy. + + All as God wills, who wisely heeds + To give or to withhold, + And knoweth more of all my needs + Than all my prayers have told! + + Enough that blessings undeserved + Have marked my erring track,-- + That, wheresoe'er my feet have swerved, + His chastening turned me back,-- + + That more and more a Providence + Of love is understood, + Making the springs of time and sense + Sweet with eternal good,-- + + That death seems but a covered way + Which opens into light, + Wherein no blinded child can stray + Beyond the Father's sight,-- + + That care and trial seem at last, + Through Memory's sunset air, + Like mountain-ranges overpast, + In purple distance fair,-- + + That all the jarring notes of life + Seem blending in a psalm, + And all the angles of its strife + Slow rounding into calm. + + And so the shadows fall apart, + And so the west winds play; + And all the windows of my heart + I open to the day! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +There has been a sort of stillness in the atmosphere of our +boarding-house since my last record, as if something or other were going +on. There is no particular change that I can think of in the aspect of +things; yet I have a feeling as if some game of life were quietly +playing and strange forces were at work, underneath this smooth surface +of every-day boarding-house life, which would show themselves some fine +morning or other in events, if not in catastrophes. I have been +watchful, as I said I should be, but have little to tell as yet. You may +laugh at me, and very likely think me foolishly fanciful to trouble +myself about what is going on in a middling-class household like ours. +Do as you like. But here is that terrible fact to begin with,--a +beautiful young girl, with the blood and the nerve-fibre that belong to +Nature's women, turned loose among live men. + +--_Terrible_ fact? + +Very terrible. Nothing more so. Do you forget the angels who lost heaven +for the daughters of men? Do you forget Helen, and the fair women who +made mischief and set nations by the ears before Helen was born? If +jealousies that gnaw men's hearts out of their bodies,--if pangs that +waste men to shadows and drive them into raving madness or moping +melancholy,--if assassination and suicide are dreadful possibilities, +then there is always something frightful about a lovely young woman.--I +love to look at this "Rainbow," as her father used sometimes to call +her, of ours. Handsome creature that she is in forms and colors,--the +very picture, as it seems to me, of that "golden blonde" my friend whose +book you read last year fell in love with when he was a boy, (as you +remember, no doubt,)--handsome as she is, fit for a sea-king's bride, it +is not her beauty alone that holds my eyes upon her. Let me tell you one +of my fancies, and then you will understand the strange sort of +fascination she has for me. + +It is in the hearts of many men and women--let me add children--that +there is a _Great Secret_ waiting for them,--a secret of which they get +hints now and then, perhaps oftener in early than in later years. These +hints come sometimes in dreams, sometimes in sudden startling +flashes,--second wakings, as it were,--a waking out of the waking state, +which last is very apt to be a half-sleep. I have many times stopped +short and held my breath, and felt the blood leaving my cheeks, in one +of these sudden clairvoyant flashes. Of course I cannot tell what kind +of a secret this is; but I think of it as a disclosure of certain +relations of our personal being to time and space, to other +intelligences, to the procession of events, and to their First Great +Cause. This secret seems to be broken up, as it were, into fragments, so +that we find here a word and there a syllable, and then again only a +letter of it; but it never is written out for most of us as a complete +sentence, in this life. I do not think it could be; for I am disposed to +consider our beliefs about such a possible disclosure rather as a kind +of premonition of an enlargement of our faculties in some future state +than as an expectation to be fulfilled for most of us in this life. +Persons, however, have fallen into trances,--as did the Reverend William +Tennent, among many others,--and learned some things which they could +not tell in our human words. + +Now among the visible objects which hint to us fragments of this +infinite secret for--which our souls are waiting, the faces of women are +those that carry the most legible hieroglyphics of the great mystery. +There are women's faces, some real, some ideal, which contain something +in them that becomes a positive element in our creed, so direct and +palpable a revelation is it of the infinite purity and love. I remember +two faces of women with wings, such as they call angels, of Fra +Angelico,--and I just now came across a print of Raphael's Santa +Apollina, with something of the same quality,--which I was sure had +their prototypes in the world above ours. No wonder the Catholics pay +their vows to the Queen of Heaven! The unpoetical side of Protestantism +is, that it has no women to be worshipped. + +But mind you, it is not every beautiful face that hints the Great Secret +to us, nor is it only in beautiful faces that we find traces of it. +Sometimes it looks out from a sweet sad eye, the only beauty of a plain +countenance; sometimes there is so much meaning in the lips of a woman, +not otherwise fascinating, that we know they have a message for us, and +wait almost with awe to hear their accents. But this young girl has at +once the beauty of feature and the unspoken mystery of expression. Can +she tell me anything? Is her life a complement of mine, with the missing +element in it which I have been groping after through so many +friendships that I have tired of, and through--Hush! Is the door fast? +Talking loud is a bad trick in these curious boarding-houses. + +You must have sometimes noted this fact that I am going to remind you of +and to use for a special illustration. Riding along over a rocky road, +suddenly the slow monotonous grinding of the crushing gravel changes to +a deep heavy rumble. There is a great hollow under your feet,--a huge +unsunned cavern. Deep, deep beneath you, in the core of the living rock, +it arches its awful vault, and far away it stretches its winding +galleries, their roofs dripping into streams where fishes have been +swimming and spawning in the dark until their scales are white as milk +and their eyes have withered out, obsolete and useless. + +So it is in life. We jog quietly along, meeting the same faces, grinding +over the same thoughts,--the gravel of the soul's highway,--now and then +jarred against an obstacle we cannot crush, but must ride over or round +as we best may, sometimes bringing short up against a disappointment, +but still working along with the creaking and rattling and grating and +jerking that belong to the journey of life, even in the +smoothest-rolling vehicle. Suddenly we hear the deep underground +reverberation that reveals the unsuspected depth of some abyss of +thought or passion beneath us.---- + +I wish the girl would go. I don't like to look at her so much, and yet I +cannot help it. Always that same expression of something that I ought to +know,--something that she was made to tell and I to hear,--lying there +ready to fall off from her lips, ready to leap out of her eyes and make +a saint of me, or a devil or a lunatic, or perhaps a prophet to tell the +truth and be hated of men, or a poet whose words shall flash upon the +dry stubble-field of worn-out thoughts and burn over an age of lies in +an hour of passion. + +It suddenly occurs to me that I may have put you on the wrong track. The +Great Secret that I refer to has nothing to do with the Three Words. Set +your mind at ease about that,--there are reasons I could give you which +settle all that matter. I don't wonder, however, that you confounded the +Great Secret with the Three Words. + +I LOVE YOU is all the secret that many, nay, most women have to tell. +When that is said, they are like China-crackers on the morning of the +fifth of July. And just as that little patriotic implement is made with +a slender train which leads to the magazine in its interior, so a sharp +eye can almost always see the train leading from a young girl's eye or +lip to the "I love you" in her heart. But the Three Words are not the +Great Secret I mean. No, women's faces are only one of the tablets on +which that is written in its partial, fragmentary symbols. It lies +deeper than Love, though very probably Love is a part of it. Some, I +think,--Wordsworth might be one of them,--spell out a portion of it from +certain beautiful natural objects, landscapes, flowers, and others. I +can mention several poems of his that have shadowy hints which seem to +me to come near the region where I think it lies. I have known two +persons who pursued it with the passion of the old alchemists,--all +wrong evidently, but infatuated, and never giving up the daily search +for it until they got tremulous and feeble, and their dreams changed to +visions of things that ran and crawled about their floor and ceilings, +and so they died. The vulgar called them drunkards. + +I told you that I would let you know the mystery of the effect this +young girl's face produces on me. It is akin to those influences a +friend of mine has described, you may remember, as coming from certain +voices. I cannot translate it into words,--only into feelings; and these +I have attempted to shadow by showing that her face hinted that +revelation of something we are close to knowing, which all imaginative +persons are looking for either in this world or on the very threshold of +the next. + +You shake your head at the vagueness and fanciful incomprehensibleness +of my description of the expression in a young girl's face. You forget +what a miserable surface-matter this language is in which we try to +reproduce our interior state of being. Articulation is a shallow trick. +From the light Poh! which we toss off from our lips as we fling a +nameless scribbler's impertinences into our waste-baskets, to the +gravest utterance which comes from our throats in our moments of deepest +need, is only a space of some three or four inches. Words, which are a +set of clickings, hissings, lispings, and so on, mean very little, +compared to tones and expression of the features. I give it up; I +thought I could shadow forth in some feeble way, by their aid, the +effect this young girl's face produces on my imagination; but it is of +no use. No doubt your head aches, trying to make something of my +description. If there is here and there one that can make anything +intelligible out of my talk about the Great Secret, and who has spelt +out a syllable or two of it on some woman's face, dead or living, that +is all I can expect. One should see the person with whom he converses +about such matters. There are dreamy-eyed people to whom I should say +all these things with a certainty of being understood;-- + + That moment that his face I see, + I know the man that must hear me: + To him my tale I teach. + +----I am afraid some of them have not got a spare quarter for this +August number, so that they will never see it. + +----Let us start again, just as if we had not made this ambitious +attempt, which may go for nothing, and you can have your money refunded, +if you will make the change. + +This young girl, about whom I have talked so unintelligibly, is the +unconscious centre of attraction to the whole solar system of our +breakfast-table. The little gentleman, leans towards her, and she again +seems to be swayed as by some invisible gentle force towards him. That +slight inclination of two persons with a strong affinity towards each +other, throwing them a little out of plumb when they sit side by side, +is a physical fact I have often noticed. Then there is a tendency in all +the men's eyes to converge on her; and I do firmly believe, that, if all +their chairs were examined, they would be found a little obliquely +placed, so as to favor the direction in which their occupants love to +look. + +That bland, quiet old gentleman, of whom I have spoken as sitting +opposite to me, is no exception to the rule. She brought down some +mignonette one morning, which she had grown in her chamber. She gave a +sprig to her little neighbor, and one to the landlady, and sent another +by the hand of Bridget to this old gentleman. + +----Sarvant, Ma'am! Much obleeged,--he said, and put it gallantly in his +button-hole.--After breakfast he must see some of her drawings. Very +fine performances,--very fine!--truly elegant productions,--truly +elegant!--Had seen Miss Linley's needle-work in London, in the year +(eighteen hundred and little or nothing, I think he said,)--patronized +by the nobility and gentry, and Her Majesty,--elegant, truly elegant +productions, very fine performances; these drawings reminded him of +them;--wonderful resemblance to Nature; an extraordinary art, painting; +Mr. Copley made some very fine pictures that he remembered seeing when +he was a boy. Used to remember some lines about a portrait written by +Mr. Cowper, beginning,-- + + "Oh that those lips had language! Life has past + With me but roughly since I saw thee last." + +And with this the old gentleman fell to thinking about a dead mother of +his that he remembered ever so much younger than he now was, and +looking, not as his mother, but as his daughter should look. The dead +young mother was looking at the old man, her child, as she used to look +at him so many, many years ago. He stood still as if cataleptic, his +eyes fixed on the drawings till their outlines grew indistinct and they +ran into each other, and a pale, sweet face shaped itself out of the +glimmering light through which he saw them.--What is there quite so +profoundly human as an old man's memory of a mother who died in his +earlier years? Mother she remains till manhood, and by-and-by she grows, +as it were, to be as a sister; and at last, when, wrinkled and bowed and +broken, he looks back upon her in her fair youth, he sees in the sweet +image he caresses, not his parent, but, as it were, his child. + +If I had not seen all this in the old gentleman's face, the words with +which he broke his silence would have betrayed his train of thought. + +----If they had only taken pictures then as they do now!--he said.--All +gone! all gone! nothing but her face as she leaned on the arms of her +great chair; and I would give a hundred pound for the poorest little +picture of her, such as you can buy for a shilling of anybody that you +don't want to see.--The old gentleman put his hand to his forehead so as +to shade his eyes. I saw he was looking at the dim photograph of memory, +and turned from him to Iris. + +How many drawing-books have you filled,--I said,--since you began to +take lessons?--This was the first,--she answered,--since she was here; +and it was not full, but there were many separate sheets of large size +she had covered with drawings. + +I turned over the leaves of the book before us. Academic studies, +principally of the human figure. Heads of sibyls, prophets, and so +forth. Limbs from statues. Hands and feet from Nature. What a superb +drawing of an arm! I don't remember it among the figures from Michel +Angelo, which seem to have been her patterns mainly. From Nature, I +think, or after a cast from Nature.--Oh!---- + +----Your smaller studies are in this, I suppose,--I said, taking up the +drawing-book with a lock on it.----Yes,--she said.--I should like to see +her style of working on a small scale.--There was nothing in it worth +showing,--she said; and presently I saw her try the lock, which proved +to be fast. We are all caricatured in it, I haven't the least doubt. I +think, though, I could tell by her way of dealing with us what her +fancies were about us boarders. Some of them act as if they were +bewitched with her, but she does not seem to notice it much. Her +thoughts seem to be on her little neighbor more than on anybody else. +The young fellow John appears to stand second in her good graces. I +think he has once or twice sent her what the landlady's daughter calls +bó-kays of flowers,--somebody has, at any rate.--I saw a book she had, +which must have come from the divinity-student. It had a dreary +title-page, which she had enlivened with a fancy portrait of the +author,--a face from memory, apparently,--one of those faces that small +children loathe without knowing why, and which give them that inward +disgust for heaven so many of the little wretches betray, when they hear +that these are "good men," and that heaven is full of such.--The +gentleman with the "diamond"--the Koh-i-noor, so called by us--was not +encouraged, I think, by the reception of his packet of perfumed soap. He +pulls his purple moustache and looks appreciatingly at Iris, who never +sees him, as it should seem. The young Marylander, who I thought would +have been in love with her before this time, sometimes looks from his +corner across the long diagonal of the table, as much as to say, I wish +you were up here by me, or I were down there by you,--which would, +perhaps, be a more natural arrangement than the present one. But nothing +comes of all this,--and nothing has come of my sagacious idea of finding +out the girl's fancies by looking into her locked drawing-book. + +Not to give up all the questions I was determined to solve, I made an +attempt also to work into the little gentleman's chamber. For this +purpose, I kept him in conversation, one morning, until he was just +ready to go up-stairs, and then, as if to continue the talk, followed +him as he toiled back to his room. He rested on the landing and faced +round toward me. There was something in his eye which said, Stop there! +So we finished our conversation on the landing. The next day, I mustered +assurance enough to knock at his door, having a pretext ready.--No +answer.--Knock again. A door, as if of a cabinet, was shut softly and +locked, and presently I heard the peculiar dead beat of his thick-soled, +misshapen boots. The bolts and the lock of the inner door were +unfastened,--with unnecessary noise, I thought,--and he came into the +passage. He pulled the inner door after him and opened the outer one at +which I stood. He had on a flowered silk dressing-gown, such as "Mr. +Copley" used to paint his old-fashioned merchant-princes in; and a +quaint-looking key in his hand. Our conversation was short, but long +enough to convince me that the little gentleman did not want my company +in his chamber, and did not mean to have it. + +I have been making a great fuss about what is no mystery at all,--a +schoolgirl's secrets and a whimsical man's habits. I mean to give up +such nonsense and mind my own business.--Hark! What the deuse is that +odd noise in his chamber? + +----I think I am a little superstitious. There were two things, when I +was a boy, that diabolized my imagination,--I mean, that gave me a +distinct apprehension of a formidable bodily shape which prowled round +the neighborhood where I was born and bred. The first was a series of +marks called the "Devil's footsteps." These were patches of sand in the +pastures, where no grass grew, where even the low-bush blackberry, the +"dewberry," as our Southern neighbors call it, in prettier and more +Shakspearian language, did not spread its clinging creepers,--where even +the pale, dry, sadly-sweet "everlasting" could not grow, but all was +bare and blasted. The second was a mark in one of the public buildings +near my home,--the college dormitory named after a Colonial Governor. I +do not think many persons are aware of the existence of this +mark,--little having been said about the story in print, as it was +considered very desirable, for the sake of the institution, to hush it +up. In the northwest corner, and on the level of the third or fourth +story, there are signs of a breach in the walls, mended pretty well, but +not to be mistaken. A considerable portion of that corner must have been +carried away, from within outward. It was an unpleasant story; and I do +not care to repeat the particulars; but some young men had been using +sacred things in a profane and unlawful way, when the occurrence, which +was variously explained, took place. The story of the Appearance in the +chamber was, I suppose, invented afterwards; but of the injury to the +building there could be no question; and the zig-zag line, where the +mortar is a little thicker than before, is still distinctly visible. The +queer burnt spots, called the "Devil's footsteps," had never attracted +attention before this time, though there is no evidence that they had +not existed previously, except that of the late Miss M., a "Goody," so +called, or sweeper, who was positive on the subject, but had a strange +horror of referring to an affair of which she was thought to know +something.--I tell you it was not so pleasant for a little boy of +impressible nature to go up to bed in an old gambrel-roofed house, with +untenanted, locked upper-chambers, and a most ghostly garret,--with the +"Devil's footsteps" in the fields behind the house, and in front of it +the patched dormitory where the unexplained occurrence had taken place +which startled those godless youths at their mock devotions, so that one +of them was an idiot from that day forward, and another, after a +dreadful season of mental conflict, took holy orders and became renowned +for his ascetic sanctity. + +There were other circumstances that kept up the impression produced by +these two singular facts I have just mentioned. There was a dark +storeroom, on looking through the keyhole of which, I could dimly see a +heap of chairs and tables, and other four-footed things, which seemed to +me to have rushed in there, frightened, and in their fright to have +huddled together and climbed up on each other's backs,--as the people +did in that awful crush where so many were killed, at the execution of +Holloway and Haggerty. Then the Lady's portrait, up-stairs, with the +sword-thrusts through it,--marks of the British officers' rapiers,--and +the tall mirror in which they used to look at their red coats,--confound +them for smashing its mate!--and the deep, cunningly wrought arm-chair +in which Lord Percy used to sit while his hair was dressing;--he was a +gentleman, and always had it covered with a large _peignoir_, to save +the silk covering my grandmother embroidered. Then the little room +down-stairs, from which went the orders to throw up a bank of earth on +the hill yonder, where you may now observe a granite obelisk,--"the +study," in my father's time, but in those days the council-chamber of +armed men,--sometimes filled with soldiers;--come with me, and I will +show you the "dents" left by the butts of their muskets all over the +floor.--With all these suggestive objects round me, aided by the wild +stories those awful country-boys that came to live in our service +brought with them,--of contracts written in blood and left out over +night, not to be found the next morning,--removed by the Evil One, who +takes his nightly round among our dwellings, and filed away for future +use,--of dreams coming true,--of death-signs,--of apparitions,--no +wonder that my imagination got excited, and I was liable to +superstitious fancies. + +Jeremy Bentham's logic, by which he proved that he couldn't possibly see +a ghost, is all very well--in the day-time. All the reason in the world +will never get those impressions of childhood, created by just such +circumstances as I have been telling, out of a man's head. That is the +only excuse I have to give for the nervous kind of curiosity with which +I watch my little neighbor, and the obstinacy with which I lie awake +whenever I hear anything going on in his chamber after midnight. + +But whatever further observations I may have made must be deferred for +the present. You will see in what way it happened that my thoughts were +turned from spiritual matters to bodily ones, and how I got my fancy +full of material images,--faces, heads, figures, muscles, and so +forth,--in such a way that I should have no chance in this number to +gratify any curiosity you may feel, if I had the means of so doing. + +Indeed, I have come pretty near omitting my periodical record this time. +It was all the work of a friend of mine, who would have it that I should +sit to him for my portrait. When a soul draws a body in the great +lottery of life, where every one is sure of a prize, such as it is, the +said soul inspects the said body with the same curious interest with +which one who has ventured into a "gift enterprise" examines the +"massive silver pencil-case" with the coppery smell and impressible +tube, or the "splendid gold ring" with the questionable specific +gravity, which it has been his fortune to obtain in addition to his +purchase. + +The soul, having studied the article of which it finds itself +proprietor, thinks, after a time, it knows it pretty well. But there is +this difference between its view and that of a person looking at us:--we +look from within, and see nothing but the mould formed by the elements +in which we are incased; other observers look from without, and see us +as living statues. To be sure, by the aid of mirrors, we get a few +glimpses of our outside aspect; but this occasional impression is always +modified by that look of the soul from within outward which none but +ourselves can take. A portrait is apt, therefore, to be a surprise to +us. The artist looks only from without. He sees us, too, with a hundred +aspects on our faces we are never likely to see. No genuine expression +can be studied by the subject of it in the looking-glass. + +More than this; he sees us in a way in which many of our friends or +acquaintances never see us. Without wearing any mask we are conscious +of, we have a special face for each friend. For, in the first place, +each puts a special reflection of himself upon us, on the principle of +assimilation referred to in my last record, if you happen to have read +that document. And secondly, each of our friends is capable of seeing +just so far, and no farther, into our face, and each sees in it the +particular thing that he looks for. Now the artist, if he is truly an +artist, does not take any one of these special views. Suppose he should +copy you as you appear to the man who wants your name to a +subscription-list, you could hardly expect a friend who entertains you +to recognize the likeness to the smiling face which sheds its radiance +at his board. Even within your own family, I am afraid there is a face +which the rich uncle knows, that is not so familiar to the poor +relation. The artist must take one or the other, or something compounded +of the two, or something different from either. What the daguerreotype +and photograph do is to give the features and one particular look, the +very look which kills all expression, that of self-consciousness. The +artist throws you off your guard, watches you in movement and in repose, +puts your face through its exercises, observes its transitions, and so +gets the whole range of its expression. Out of all this he forms an +ideal portrait, which is not a copy of your exact look at any one time +or to any particular person. Such a portrait cannot be to everybody what +the ungloved call "as nat'ral as life." Every good picture, therefore, +must be considered wanting in resemblance by many persons. + +There is one strange revelation which comes out, as the artist shapes +your features from his outline. It is that you resemble so many +relatives to whom you yourself never had noticed any particular likeness +in your countenance. + +He is at work at me now, when I catch some of these resemblances, +thus:-- + +There! that is just the look my father used to have sometimes; I never +thought I had a sign of it. The mother's eyebrow and grayish-blue eye, +those I knew I had. But there is a something which recalls a smile that +faded away from my sister's lips--how many years ago! I thought it so +pleasant in her, that I love myself better for having a trace of it. + +Are we not young? Are we not fresh and blooming? Wait a bit. The artist +takes a mean little brush and draws three fine lines, diverging outwards +from the eye over the temple. Five years.--The artist draws one +tolerably distinct and two faint lines, perpendicularly between the +eyebrows. Ten years.--The artist breaks up the contours round the mouth, +so that they look a little as a hat does that has been sat upon and +recovered itself, ready, as one would say, to crumple up again in the +same creases, on smiling or other change of feature.--Hold on! Stop +that! Give a young fellow a chance! Are we not whole years short of that +interesting period of life when Mr. Balzac says that a man, etc., etc., +etc.? + +There now! That is ourself, as we look after finishing an article, +getting a three-mile pull with the ten-foot sculls, redressing the +wrongs of the toilet, and standing with the light of hope in our eye and +the reflection of a red curtain on our cheek. Is he not a POET that +painted us? + + "Blest be the art that can immortalize!" + +COWPER + +----Young folks look on a face as a unit; children who go to school with +any given little John Smith see in his name a distinctive appellation, +and in his features as special and definite an expression of his sole +individuality as if he were the first created of his race. As soon as we +are old enough to get the range of three or four generations well in +hand, and to take in large family histories, we never see an individual +in a face of any stock we know, but a mosaic copy of a pattern, with +fragmentary tints from this and that ancestor. The analysis of a face +into its ancestral elements requires that it should be examined in the +very earliest infancy, before it has lost that ancient and solemn look +it brings with it out of the past eternity; and again in that brief +space when Life, the mighty sculptor, has done his work, and Death, his +silent servant, lifts the veil and lets us look at the marble lines he +has wrought so faithfully; and lastly, while a painter who can seize all +the traits of a countenance is building it up, feature after feature, +from the slight outline to the finished portrait. + +----I am satisfied, that, as we grow older, we learn to look upon our +bodies more and more as a temporary possession, and less and less as +identified with ourselves. In early years, while the child "feels its +life in every limb," it lives in the body and for the body to a very +great extent. It ought to be so. There have been many very interesting +children who have shown a wonderful indifference to the things of earth +and an extraordinary development of the spiritual nature. There is a +perfect literature of their biographies, all alike in their essentials; +the same "disinclination to the usual amusements of childhood"; the same +remarkable sensibility; the same docility; the same conscientiousness; +in short, an almost uniform character, marked by beautiful traits, which +we look at with a painful admiration. It will be found that most of +these children are the subjects of some constitutional unfitness for +living, the most frequent of which I need not mention. They are like the +beautiful, blushing, half-grown fruit that falls before its time because +its core is gnawed out. They have their meaning,--they do not live in +vain,--but they are windfalls. I am convinced that many healthy children +are injured morally by being forced to read too much about these little +meek sufferers and their spiritual exercises. Here is a boy that loves +to run, swim, kick football, turn somersets, make faces, whittle, fish, +tear his clothes, coast, skate, fire crackers, blow squash "tooters," +cut his name on fences, read about Robinson Crusoe and Sinbad the +Sailor, eat the widest-angled slices of pie and untold cakes and +candies, crack nuts with his back teeth and bite out the better part of +another boy's apple with his front ones, turn up coppers, "stick" +knives, call names, throw stones, knock off hats, set mousetraps, chalk +doorsteps, "cut behind" anything on wheels or runners, whistle through +his teeth, "holler" Fire! on slight evidence, run after soldiers, +patronize an engine-company, or, in his own words, "blow for tub No. +11," or whatever it may be;--isn't that a pretty nice sort of a boy, +though he has not got anything the matter with him that takes the taste +of this world out? Now, when you put into such a hot-blooded, +hard-fisted, round-cheeked little rogue's hand a sad-looking volume or +pamphlet, with the portrait of a thin, white-faced child, whose life is +really as much a training for death as the last month of a condemned +criminal's existence, what does he find in common between his own +overflowing and exulting sense of vitality and the experiences of the +doomed offspring of invalid parents? The time comes when we have learned +to understand the music of sorrow, the beauty of resigned suffering, the +holy light that plays over the pillow of those who die before their +time, in humble hope and trust. But it is not until he has worked his +way through the period of honest, hearty animal existence, which every +robust, child should make the most of,--not until he has learned the use +of his various faculties, which is his first duty,--that a boy of +courage and animal vigor is in a proper state to read these tearful +records of premature decay. I have no doubt that disgust is implanted in +the minds of many healthy children by early surfeits of pathological +piety. I do verily believe that He who took children in His arms and +blessed them loved the healthiest and most playful of them just as well +as those who were richest in the tuberculous virtues. I know what I am +talking about, and there are more parents in this country who will be +willing to listen to what I say than there are fools to pick a quarrel +with me. In the sensibility and the sanctity which often accompany +premature decay I see one of the most beautiful instances of the +principle of compensation which marks the Divine benevolence. But to get +the spiritual hygiene of robust natures out of the exceptional regimen +of invalids is just simply what we Professors call "bad practice"; and I +know by experience that there are worthy people who not only try it on +their own children, but actually force it on those of their neighbors. + +----Having been photographed, and stereographed, and chromatographed, or +done in colors, it only remained to be phrenologized. A polite note from +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane, requesting our attendance at their +Physiological Emporium, was too tempting to be resisted. We repaired to +that scientific Golgotha. + +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane are arranged on the plan of the man and the +woman in the toy called a "weather-house," both on the same wooden arm +suspended on a pivot,--so that when one comes to the door, the other +retires backwards, and _vice versâ_. The more particular speciality of +one is to lubricate your entrance and exit,--that of the other to polish +you off phrenologically in the recesses of the establishment. Suppose +yourself in a room full of casts and pictures, before a counter-full of +books with taking titles. I wonder if the picture of the brain is there, +"approved" by a noted Phrenologist, which was copied from _my_, the +Professor's, folio plate in the work of Gall and Spurzheim. An extra +convolution, No. 9, _Destructiveness_, according to the list beneath, +which was not to be seen in the plate, itself a copy of Nature, was very +liberally supplied by the artist, to meet the wants of the catalogue of +"organs." Professor Bumpus is seated in front of a row of +women,--horn-combers and gold-beaders, or somewhere about that range of +life,--looking so credulous, that, if any Second-Advent Miller or Joe +Smith should come along, he could string the whole lot of them on his +cheapest lie, as a boy strings a dozen "shiners" on a stripped twig of +willow. + +The Professor (meaning ourselves) is in a hurry, as usual; let the +horn-combers wait,--he shall be bumped without inspecting the +antechamber. + +Tape round the head,--22 inches. (Come on, old 23 inches, if you think +you are the better man!) + +Feels of thorax and arm, and nuzzles round among muscles as those horrid +old women poke their fingers into the salt-meat on the provision-stalls +at the Quincy Market. Vitality, No. 5 or 6, or something or other. +_Victuality_, (organ at epigastrium,) some other number equally +significant. + +Mild champooing of head now commences. Extraordinary revelations! +Cupidipbilous, 6! Hymeniphilous, 6+! Paediphilous, 5! Deipniphilous, 6! +Gelasmiphilous, 6! Muslkiphilous, 5! Uraniphilous, 5! Glossiphilous, 8!! +and so on. Meant for a linguist.--Invaluable information. Will invest in +grammars and dictionaries immediately.--I have nothing against the grand +total of my phrenological endowments. + +I never set great store by my head, and did not think Messrs. Bumpus and +Crane would give me so good a lot of organs as they did, especially +considering that I was a _dead_-head on that occasion. Much obliged to +them for their politeness. They have been useful in their way by calling +attention to important physiological facts. (This concession is due to +our immense bump of Candor.) + +_A short Lecture on Phrenology, read to the Boarders at our +Breakfast-Table._ + +I shall begin, my friends, with the definition of a _Pseudo-science_. A +Pseudo-science consists of _a nomenclature_, with a self-adjusting +arrangement, by which all positive evidence, or such as favors its +doctrines, is admitted, and all negative evidence, or such as tells +against it, is excluded. It is invariably connected with some lucrative +practical application. Its professors and practitioners are usually +shrewd people; they are very serious with the public, but wink and laugh +a good deal among themselves. The believing multitude consists of women +of both sexes, feeble-minded inquirers, poetical optimists, people who +always get cheated in buying horses, philanthropists who insist on +hurrying up the millennium, and others of this class, with here and +there a clergyman, less frequently a lawyer, very rarely a physician, +and almost never a horse-jockey or a member of the detective police.--I +did not say that Phrenology was one of the Pseudo-sciences. + +A Pseudo-science does not necessarily consist wholly of lies. It may +contain many truths, and even valuable ones. The rottenest bank starts +with a little specie. It puts out a thousand promises to pay on the +strength of a single dollar, but the dollar is very commonly a good one. +The practitioners of the Pseudo-sciences know that common minds, after +they have been baited with a real fact or two, will jump at the merest +rag of a lie, or even at the bare hook. When we have one fact found us, +we are very apt to supply the next out of our own imagination. (How many +persons can read Judges xv. 16 correctly the first time?) The +Pseudo-sciences take advantage of this.--I did not say that it was so +with Phrenology. + +I have rarely met a sensible man who would not allow that there was +_something_ in Phrenology. A broad, high forehead, it is commonly +agreed, promises intellect; one that is "villanous low" and has a huge +hind-head back of it, is wont to mark an animal nature. I have as rarely +met an unbiassed and sensible man who really believed in the bumps. It +is observed, however, that persons with what the Phrenologists call +"good heads" are more prone than others toward plenary belief in the +doctrine. + +It is so hard to prove a negative, that, if a man should assert that the +moon was in truth a green cheese, formed by the coagulable substance of +the Milky Way, and challenge me to prove the contrary, I might be +puzzled. But if he offer to sell me a ton of this lunar cheese, I call +on him to prove the truth of the caseous nature of our satellite, before +I purchase. + +It is not necessary to prove the falsity of the phrenological statement. +It is only necessary to show that its truth is not proved, and cannot +be, by the common course of argument. The walls of the head are double, +with a great air-chamber between them, over the smallest and most +closely crowded "organs." Can you tell how much money there is in a +safe, which also has thick double walls, by kneading its knobs with your +fingers? So when a man fumbles about my forehead, and talks about the +organs of _Individuality_, _Size_, etc., I trust him as much as I should +if he felt of the outside of my strong-box and told me that there was a +five-dollar- or a ten-dollar-bill under this or that particular rivet. +Perhaps there is; _only he doesn't know anything about it_. But this is +a point that I, the Professor, understand, my friends, or ought to, +certainly, better than you do. The next argument you will all +appreciate. + +I proceed, therefore, to explain the self-adjusting mechanism of +Phrenology, which is _very similar_ to that of the Pseudo-sciences. An +example will show it most conveniently. + +A. is a notorious thief. Messrs. Bumpus and Crane examine him and find a +good-sized organ of Acquisitiveness. Positive fact for Phrenology. Casts +and drawings of A. are multiplied, and the bump _does not lose_ in the +act of copying.--I did not Hay it gained.--What do you look so for? (to +the boarders.) + +Presently B. turns up, a bigger thief than A. But B. has no bump at all +over Acquisitiveness. Negative fact; goes against Phrenology.--Not a bit +of it. Don't you see how small Conscientiousness is? _That's_ the reason +B. stole. + +And then comes C., ten times as much a thief as either A. or B.,--used +to steal before he was weaned, and would pick one of his own pockets and +put its contents in another, if he could find no other way of committing +petty larceny. Unfortunately, C. has a _hollow_, instead of a bump, over +Acquisitiveness. Ah, but just look and see what a bump of +Alimentiveness! Did not C. buy nuts and ginger-bread, when a boy, with +the money he stole? Of course you see why he is a thief, and how his +example confirms our noble science. + +At last comes along a case which is apparently a _settler_, for there is +a little brain with vast and varied powers,--a case like that of Byron, +for instance. Then comes out the grand reserve-reason which covers +everything and renders it simply impossible ever to corner a +Phrenologist. "It is not the size alone, but the _quality_ of an organ, +which determines its degree of power." + +Oh! oh! I see.--The argument may be briefly stated thus by the +Phrenologist: "Heads I win, tails you lose." Well, that's convenient. + +It must be confessed that Phrenology has a certain resemblance to the +Pseudo-sciences. I did not say it was a Pseudo-science. + +I have often met persons who have been altogether struck up and amazed +at the accuracy with which some wandering Professor of Phrenology had +read their characters written upon their skulls. Of course the Professor +acquires his information solely through his cranial inspections and +manipulations.--What are you laughing at? (to the boarders).--But let us +just _suppose_, for a moment, that a tolerably cunning fellow, who did +not know or care anything about Phrenology, should open a shop and +undertake to read off people's characters at fifty cents or a dollar +apiece. Let us see how well he could get along without the "organs." + +I will suppose myself to set up such a shop. I would invest one hundred +dollars, more or less, in casts of brains, skulls, charts, and other +matters that would make the most show for the money. That would do to +begin with. I would then advertise myself as the celebrated Professor +Brainey, or whatever name I might choose, and wait for my first +customer. My first customer is a middle-aged man. I look at him,--ask +him a question or two, so as to hear him talk. When I have got the hang +of him, I ask him to sit down, and proceed to fumble his skull, +dictating as follows:-- + + + SCALE FROM I TO 10. + + LIST OF FACULTIES FOR CUSTOMER. PRIVATE NOTES FOR MY PUPIL: + _Each to be accompanied with a wink._ + + _Amativeness_, 7. Most men love the conflicting sex, and all + men love to be told they do. + + _Alimentiveness_, 8. Don't you see that he has burst off his + lowest waistcoat-button with feeding,--hay? + + _Acquisitiveness_, 8. Of course. A middle-aged Yankee. + + _Approbativeness_, 7+. Hat well brushed. Hair ditto. Mark the + effect of that _plus_ sign. + + _Self-esteem_, 6. His face shows that. + + _Benevolence_, 9. That'll please him + + _Conscientiousness_, 8-1/2. That fraction looks first-rate. + + _Mirthfulness_, 7. Has laughed twice since he came in. + + _Ideality_, 9. That sounds well. + + _Form, Size, Weight, Color, } + Locality, Eventuality, etc.,} 4 to 6. Average everything that + etc.,_ } can't be guessed. + + And so of the other faculties. + + +Of course, you know, that isn't the way the Phrenologists do. They go +only by the bumps.--What do you keep laughing so for? (to the boarders.) +I only said that is the way _I_ should practise "Phrenology" for a +living. + +_End of my Lecture._ + +----The Reformers have good heads generally. Their faces are commonly +serene enough, and they are lambs in private intercourse, even though +their voices may be like + + The wolf's long howl from Oonalaska's shore, + +when heard from platform. Their greatest spiritual danger is from the +perpetual _flattery of abuse_ to which they are exposed. These lines are +meant to caution them. + + + + +SAINT ANTHONY THE REFORMER. + + +HIS TEMPTATION. + + + No fear lest praise should make us proud! + We know how cheaply that is won; + The idle homage of the crowd + Is proof of tasks as idly done. + + A surface-smile may pay the toil + That follows still the conquering Right, + With soft, white hands to dress the spoil + That sunbrowned arms have clutched in fight. + + Sing the sweet song of other days, + Serenely placid, safely true, + And o'er the present's parching ways + Thy verse distils like evening dew. + + But speak in words of living power,-- + They fall like drops of scalding rain + That plashed before the burning shower + swept o'er the cities of the plain! + + Then scowling Hate turns deadly pale,-- + Then Passion's half-coiled adders spring, + And, smitten through their leprous mail, + Strike right and left in hope to sting. + + If thou, unmoved by poisoning wrath, + They feet on earth, they heart above, + Canst walk in peace they kingly path, + Unchanged in trust, unchilled in love,-- + + Too kind for bitter words to grieve, + Too firm for clamor to dismay, + When Faith forbids thee to believe, + And Meekness calls to disobey,-- + + Ah, then beware of mortal pride! + The smiling pride that calmly scorns + Those foolish fingers, crimson dyed + In laboring on thy crown of thorns! + + + + +THE ITALIAN WAR. + + +War has been pronounced the condition of humanity; and it is certain +that conflict of some kind rages everywhere and at all times. The most +combative people on earth are the advocates of universal and perpetual +peace. There is something essentially defiant in the action of men who +avowedly seek the abolition of a custom that has existed since the days +of Cain, and which was well known to those magnificent beasts that +ranged over the earth's face long before man began to dream or was +dreamed of. To fight seems a necessity of the animal nature, whether the +animal be called tiger, bull, or man. Those who have fought assure us +that there is a positive pleasure in battle. That clever young woman, +Miss Flora Mac-Ivor, who passed most of her life in the very highest +fighting society, assures us, that men, when confronted with each other, +have a certain instinct for strife, as we see in other male animals, +such as dogs, bulls, and so forth. It is even so; and, further, the +fondness that men have for accounts and details of battles is another +evidence of the popularity of war, and an absolute stumbling-block in +the way of the Peace Society, which has the hardest of combats to fight. + +The journals of the world are at this time full of the details of a war +such as that world has not witnessed since 1815, and in comparison with +which even the Russian War was but a second-rate contest. The old +quarrel between Austria and France, which has repeatedly caused the +peace of Europe to be broken since the days of Frederick III. and Louis +XI., has been renewed in our time with a fierceness and a vehemence and +on a scale that would have astonished Francis I., Charles V., Richelieu, +Turenne, Condé, Louis XIV., Eugène, and even Napoleon himself, the most +mighty of whose contests with Austria alone cannot be compared with that +which his nephew is now waging with the House of Lorraine. For, in 1805 +and in 1809, Napoleon was not merely the ruler of France, but had at his +control the resources of many other countries. Belgium and Holland were +then at the command of France, and now they are independent monarchies, +holding strictly the position of neutrals. In 1809, Napoleon had those +very German States for his active allies that now threaten Napoleon +III.; and some of the hardest fighting on the French side, in the first +days of the campaign, was the work of Bavarians and other German +soldiers. That part of Poland which then constituted the Grand Duchy of +Warsaw was among his dependent principalities; and Russia sent an army +to his aid. In 1805, Napoleon I. had far more of Italian assistance than +Napoleon III. has had at the time we write; and in 1809, the entire +Peninsula obeyed his decrees as implicitly as they were obeyed by +France. Napoleon III. entered upon the war with the hereditary rival of +his country with no other ally than Sardinia, though it is now evident +that there was an "understanding" between him and the Czar, not pointing +to an attack on England, but to prevent the intervention of the Germans +in behalf of Austria, by holding out the implied threat of an attack on +Germany by Russia, should its rulers or people move against the allies. + +Whatever may be thought of the motives of the French Emperor, and +however little most men may be disposed to believe in his generosity, it +is impossible to refrain from admiring the promptness and skill with +which he has acted, or to deny to him the merit of courage in daring to +pronounce so decidedly against the Austrians at a time when he could not +have reasonably reckoned upon a single ally beyond the limits of Italy, +when England, under Tory rule, was more disposed to act against him than +with him, and when the hostility of Germany, and its readiness to +support the Slavonic empire of Austria, were unequivocally expressed. So +great indeed, were the odds against him, that we find in that fact the +chief reason for the indisposition of the world to believe in the +possibility of war, and its extraordinary surprise when war actually +broke out. + +To those who had closely scanned the affairs of Europe, and who observed +them by the light of the history of nearly four centuries, the coming of +war was no surprise. They foresaw it, and predicted its occurrence some +time before that famous lecture which the Emperor of the French +administered to the Emperor of Austria in the person of Baron Hübner. +With them, the question was not, Shall there be a war?--but it was, When +will the war break out? They reasoned from the _cause_ of the quarrel +between the two empires; while those who so long clung to the belief +that peace would be preserved, and who so plausibly argued in support of +their theory as to impose upon wellnigh the whole world, concerned +themselves only with its _occasion_. The former referred to things that +lay beyond the range of temporary politics, and, while admitting that +the shock of actual conflict might be postponed even for a few years, +were certain that such conflict must come, even if in the interval there +should happen an entire change of government in France. France might be +imperial, or royal, or republican, she might be Bonapartean, or +Henriquist, or Orléansist, or democratic,--tri-color, white, blue or +red,--but the quarrel would come, and cause new campaigns. The latter +thinking that the dispute was on the Italian question only, and knowing +that that was susceptible of diplomatic settlement, and believing that +there would be a union of European powers to accomplish such settlement, +rather than allow peace to be disturbed, never could suppose that the +balance of probabilities would be found on the side of war. It is due to +them to say, that a variety of causes conduced not merely to make them +firm in their faith, but to win for their views the general approbation +on mankind. Prominent among these was the striking fact, that there had +been no European was, strictly so called, with the single exception of +the Russian contest,--and that was highly exceptional in its +character,--for four-and-forty years. The generation that is passing +away, and the generation that is most active in discharging the business +of the world, never had seen a grand conflict between Christian states, +in which mighty armies had operated on vast and various fields. Old men +recollected the wars of Napoleon, but the number of such men is not +large, and their influence on opinion is small. Of quarrels and threats +of war all had seen enough; but this only tended to make them slow to +believe that war was really at hand. If so many quarrels had taken +place, and had been settled without resort to arms, assuredly the new +quarrel might be settled, and Europe get on peaceably for a few years +more without warfare. Neither the invasion of Spain in 1823, nor the +revolution of 1830, nor the Eastern question of 1840, nor the universal +outbreaks of 1848-9, nor the threats of Russia against Turkey when she +sought to compel the Sultan to give up those who had eaten his salt to +the gallows of Arad, nor the repeated discussions of the practicability +of a French conquest of England had led to a general war. If so many and +so black clouds had been dispersed without storms, it was not reasonable +to believe that the cloud which rose in the beginning of 1859 might also +break, and leave again a serene sky. It may be added that we have all of +us come to the conclusion that this is the best age the world has ever +known, as in most respects it is; and it seemed scarcely compatible with +our estimate of the age's excellence to believe that it _could_ send a +couple of million of men into the field for the purpose of cutting one +another's throats, except clearly as an act of self-defence. Man is the +same war-making animal now that he was in the days of Marathon, but he +readily admits the evils of war, and is peremptory in demanding that +they shall not be incurred save for good and valid reasons. He is as +ready to fight as ever he was, but he must fight for some definite +cause,--for a cause that will bear examination: and it did not seem +possible that a mere dispute concerning the manner in which Austria +governed her Italian dominions was of sufficient moment to light up the +flames of war anew on a scale as gigantic as ever they were made to +blaze during the days of Napoleon. Then, so far as the Russian War threw +any light upon the policy of France, the fair inference was that she at +least was not disposed to fight. France made the peace by which that war +was brought to a sudden end. She dictated that peace, much to the +disgust of the English, who had just become thoroughly roused, and who, +little anticipating the Indian mutiny, were for carrying on the contest +until Russia should be thoroughly humiliated. Considering all these +things, it was not unreasonable to believe that peace could be +maintained, and that Austria, far from taking the initiative in the war, +would be found ready to make such concessions as should lead to the +indefinite postponement of hostilities. + +Those who reasoned from the mere occasion of the war were perfectly +right, from their point of view. Unfortunately for their reputation for +sagacity, their premises were entirely wrong, and hence the viciousness +of their conclusion. If we would know the cause of the war, we must +banish from our minds all that is said about the desire of Napoleon III +for vengeance on the conquerors of his uncle, all that we are told of +his sentimental wish for the elevation of the Italian people to a +national position, and all that is predicated of his ambitious longings +for the reconstruction of the First Empire. We must regard Napoleon III +in the light of what he really is, namely, one of the greatest statesmen +that ever lived, or we shall never be able to understand what are his +purposes. We have nothing to do with his morals, but have to regard him +only as the chief of France, pursuing the policy he believes best +calculated to advance that country's interests, and doing so in strict +accordance with her historical traditions, and in the same manner in +which it was pursued by the ablest of the Valois kings, by Henry IV. and +Sully, by Richelieu and Mazarin, by Louis XIV., by the chiefs of the +First Republic, and by Napoleon I. He may be a good man or a bad man, +but his character is entirely aside from the question, the nature and +merits of which have no necessary connection with the nature and merits +of the men engaged in effecting its solution. Let us examine the +subject, and see if we cannot find an intelligent, reasonable cause for +Napoleon's course of action, that shall harmonize with the duties, we +might almost say the instincts, of a great French statesman. The +examination will embrace nothing recondite, but we are confident it will +show that the French Emperor is no Quixote, and that he has been forced +into the war by the necessities of his situation, and by the very +natural desire he feels to prevent France from being compelled to +descend to a secondary place in the scale of European nations. + +Modern Europe, in the sense in which we understand the term, dates from +the last quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Then England ceased to +attempt permanent conquests on the continent. Then Spain assumed +European rank and definite position. But two powers then began +especially to show themselves, and to play parts which both have +maintained down to the present time. The one was France, which then +ceased to dread English invasions, from the effects of which she was +rapidly recovering, whereby she was left to employ her energies on +foreign fields. The other was the _House of Austria_, which, by a series +of fortunate marriages, became, in the short period of forty years, the +most powerful family the modern world has ever known. On the day when +Maximilian, son of Frederick III., Emperor of Germany, wedded Mary of +Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, the rivalry between France and +the Austrian family began. Philip, son of that marriage, married Juana, +daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; and their son, Charles I. of the +Spains, became Charles V. of Germany. Thus there centred in his person a +degree of power such as no other sovereign could boast, and which alone +would have sufficed to make him the rival of the King of France, Francis +I., had no personal feeling entered into the relations between them. But +such feeling existed, and grew out of their competition for the imperial +crown. The previous ill-will between the Valois and the Hapsburg was +greatly increased, and assumed such force as permanently to color the +course of European history from that day to this. The rivalry of Charles +and Francis was the cause of many contests, and the French monarch, +though he was "The Most Christian King," in the opinion of some, more +than once aided, or offered to aid, the German Protestants against the +Emperor. To Philip II. and Henry II. the rivalry of their fathers +descended as an inheritance. It was in their warfare that the Battle of +St. Quentin was fought. The progress of the Reformation led monarchs in +those days to take a view of affairs not much unlike that which monarchs +of this century took in the days of the Holy Alliance, and after the +revolution of 1830. The hatred of Protestantism led the two kings to +draw together, though Henry II. had had no mean part in that work which +had enabled the Protestant Maurice of Saxony to render abortive all the +plans of Charles V. for the full restoration of Catholicism in Germany. +During the thirty years that followed the death of Henry II., the +dissensions of France had rendered her unable to contend with the House +of Austria, then principally represented by the Spanish branch of that +family; and Philip II. at one time thought of obtaining the crown of +that country for a member of his own house. But no sooner had Henry IV. +ascended the French throne, and established himself firmly thereon, than +the rivalry of France and Austria became as clearly pronounced as it had +been in the reign of Francis I.; and at the time of his death that most +popular of the Bourbon kings was engaged on a plan having for its object +the subversion of the Austrian power. His assassination changed the +course of events for a few years; but Richelieu became the ally of the +Swedes and Protestant Germans in the Thirty Years' War, though he was a +Cardinal, had destroyed the political power of the Huguenots, and might +have aspired to the Papacy. Mazarin, another Cardinal, followed +Richelieu's policy. Louis XIV. was repeatedly at war with the House of +Austria, though he was the son of an Austrian princess, and was married +to another. His last war with that house was for the throne of Spain, +when the elder branch of the Hapsburgs died out, in 1700. Louis XV. had +two contests with Austria; but in 1756, under the lead of Count Kaunitz, +France and Austria were united, and acted together in the Seven Years' +War, the incidents and effects of which were by no means calculated to +reconcile the French to the departure of their government from its +ancient policy. One of the causes of the French Revolution was the +Austrian alliance, and one of its effects was the complete rupture of +that alliance. Austria was the most determined foe that the French +Republic and Empire ever encountered. Including the war of 1815, there +were six contests between Austria and republican and imperial France. In +all these wars Austria was the aggressor, and showed herself to be the +enemy of _France_ as well as of those _French principles_ which so +frightened the conservatives of the world in those days. In the first +war, she took possession of French places for herself, and not for the +House of Bourbon; and in the last she purposed a partition of France, +long after Louis XVIII. had been finally restored, and when Napoleon was +at or near St. Helena. She demanded that Alsace and Lorraine should be +made over to her, in the autumn of 1815. She sought to induce Prussia to +unite with her by offering to support any demand that she might make for +French territory; and, failing to move that power, endeavored to get the +smaller German States to act with her,--the same States, indeed, that +are now so hostile to France, and which talk of a march upon Paris, and +of a reduction of French territorial strength. Nothing prevented the +Austrian idea from being reduced to practice but the opposition of +Russia and England, neither of which had any interest in the spoliation +of France, while both had no desire to see Austria rendered stronger +than she was. It was to England that Austria owed her Italian +possessions, which, in 1814, she at first had the sense not to wish to +be cumbered with; and to make her still more powerful north of the Alps +was not to be thought of even by the Liverpools and Castlereaghs. The +Czar, too, had in his thoughts a closer connection with France than it +suited him then to avow, and for purposes of his own; and therefore he +could not desire the sensible diminution of the power of a country the +resources of which he expected to employ. Nicholas inherited his +brother's ideas and designs, and we are to attribute much of the +ill-feeling that he exhibited towards the Orléans dynasty to his +disappointment; for the revolution that elevated that dynasty to the +French throne destroyed the hope that he had entertained of having +French aid to effect the conquest of Turkey. There never would have been +a siege of Sebastopol, if the elder branch of the Bourbons had continued +to rule in France. It required even a series of revolutions to bring +France to that condition in which the Western Alliance was possible. But +there would have been something more than "an understanding" between +France and Russia concerning Austria, had the government of the +Restoration endured a few years beyond 1830. It suited the Austrian +government to show considerable coldness towards the Orléans dynasty; +but assuredly so wise a man as Prince Metternich, and who had such +excellent means of information, never could have believed otherwise than +that the establishment of that dynasty saved Austria from being assailed +by both Russia and France. + +The rivalry of France and Austria being understood, and that rivalry +leading to war whenever occasion therefor chances to arise, it remains +to inquire what is the occasion of the existing contest. When Napoleon +III. became head of France, as Prince-President, at the close of 1848, +Austria was the last power with which he could have engaged in war, +supposing that he had then been strong enough to control the policy of +France, and it had suited him to make an occasion for war. She was then +engaged in her death-and-life struggles with Hungarians, Italians, and +others of her subjects who that year threw off her yoke, while the +Sardinians had endeavored to obtain possession of Lombardy and Venice. +Francis Joseph became chief of the Austrian Empire at the same time that +Louis Napoleon ascended to the same point in France. Certainly, if the +object of France had been the mere weakening and spoliation of Austria, +then was the time to assail her, when one half her subjects were +fighting the other half, when the Germans outside of her empire were by +no means her friends, and when it was far from clear that she could rely +upon assistance from Russia. Austria was then in a condition of +helplessness apparently so complete, that many thought her hour had +come; but those who knew her history, and were aware how often she had +recovered from just such crises, held no belief of the kind. Yet if +France had assailed her at that time, Austria must have lost all her +Italian provinces; and it is now generally admitted, that, if Cavaignac +had sent a French army into Italy immediately after the victory won by +Radetzky over Charles Albert at Somma Campagna, (July 26th, 1848,) the +"Italian question" would then have been settled in a manner that would +have been satisfactory to the greater part of Europe, and have rendered +such a war as is now waging in Italy quite impossible. Russia could have +done nothing to prevent the success of the French arms, and it is +probable that Austria would have abandoned the contest without fighting +a battle. At an earlier period she had signified her readiness to allow +the incorporation of most of Lombardy with Sardinia, she to retain the +country beyond the Mincio, and to hold the two great fortresses of +Peschiera (at the southern extremity of the Lago di Garda, and at the +point where the river issues from the lake) and Mantua. She even asked +the aid of France and England to effect a peace on this basis, but +unsuccessfully. Cavoignac's anomalous political position prevented him +from aiding the Italians. He was a Liberal, but the actual head of the +reactionists in France of all colors, of men who looked upon the +Italians as ruffians wedded to disorder, while Austria, in their eyes, +was the champion of order. France did nothing, and in December Louis +Napoleon became President. An opportunity was soon afforded him to +interfere in Italian affairs. The armistice that had existed between the +Austrians and the Sardinians after the 9th of August, 1848, was +denounced on the 12th of March, 1849, by the latter; and Radetzky closed +the order of the day, issued immediately after this denunciation was +made, with the words,--"Forward, soldiers, to Turin!" The intentions of +the Sardinians must have been known to Louis Napoleon, but he took no +measures to aid them. He saw Piedmont conquered in a campaign of +"hours." He saw Brescia treated by Haynau as Tilly treated Magdeburg. He +saw the long and heroical defence of Venice against the Austrians, +during the dreary spring and summer of '49,--a defence as worthy of +immortality as the War of Chiozza, and indicating the presence of the +spirit of Zeno, and Contarini, and Pisani in the old home of those +patriots. But nothing moved him. He would not even mediate in behalf of +the Venetians; and it was by the advice of the French consul and the +French admiral on the station that Venice finally surrendered, but not +until she had exhausted the means of defence and life. At that time, few +men in America but were in the habit of denouncing the French President +for his indifference to the Italian cause. He was charged with having +been guilty of a blunder and a crime. His consent to the expedition to +Rome aggravated his offence, for it was an act of intervention on the +wrong side. But the passage of ten years enables us to be more just to +him than it was possible for us to be in 1849. He was not firm in his +seat. He was but a temporary chief of the State. He was surrounded by +enemies, political and personal, who were seeking his overthrow, without +any regard for the tenure of his office. He knew not his power. His +object was the restoration of internal peace to France, her recovery +from the weakness info which she had fallen or had been precipitated. He +dared not offend the Catholics, who saw then, as they see now, a +champion in Austria. He was the victim of circumstances, and he had to +bow before them, in order that he might finally become their master. +Then he had no occasion for a quarrel with Austria. She was at the +lowest ebb her fortunes had known since the day that the Turks appeared +for the second time before Vienna. She could not have maintained herself +in Italy, even after the successes of Radetzky, had not Nicholas sent +one hundred and fifty thousand men to her assistance in Hungary. What +had France to fear from her? No more than she had to fear from her on +the day after Austerlitz. + +Years rolled on, and brought with them great changes; and the greatest +of those changes was to be seen in Italy, in reference to the position +of Austria there, and its effect upon France. Austria rapidly +reëstablished her power in Italy, not only over Lombardy and Venice, but +over every part of the Peninsula, excepting Sardinia. Tuscany was +connected with her by various ties, and was ruled as she wished it to be +ruled. Parma and Modena were hers in every sense. She was the patron and +protector of the abominable Bomba, and her support alone enabled him to +defy the sentiment of the civilized world, and to indulge in cruelties +such as would have added new infamy to the name of Ezzelino. She upheld +the misgovernment of the Papal States, which has made Rome the scandal +of Europe. All the nominal rulers of the Italian States, with the +honorable exception of the King of Sardinia, were her vassal princes, +and were no more free to act without her consent than were the kings the +Roman Republic and Empire allowed to exist within their dominions free +to act without the consent of the proconsuls. What the proconsul of +Syria was to the little potentates mentioned in the New Testament, the +Austrian viceroy in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom was to the nominal +rulers of the various Italian States. It only remained to bring Sardinia +within this ring-fence of sea and mountains to convert all Italy into an +Austrian dependency. There is nothing like this in history, we verily +believe. In the short period of ten years after the capture of Milan by +Radetzky, (August 4, 1848,) the Austrians had established themselves +completely in nearly every part of Italy. Of the twenty-seven millions +of people that compose her population, twenty-two millions were as much +at the command of Austria as were the Hungarians and Bohemians. Had she +had the sense to use her power, not with mildness only, but beneficially +to this great mass of men, and had nothing occurred to disturb her +plans, she would have nearly doubled the number of her subjects, and +have more than doubled her resources. She would have become a great +maritime state, and have converted the Mediterranean into an Austrian +lake. Had they been well governed, the Italians might, and most probably +would, have accepted their condition, and have become loyal subjects of +the House of Lorraine. Foreign rule is no new thing to them, nor have +they ever been impatient under its existence, when it has existed for +their good. The people rarely are hostile to any government that is +conducted with ordinary fairness. There is no greater error than that +involved in the idea that revolutions or changes of any kind originate +from below, that they proceed from the people. Almost invariably they +come from above, from governmental action; and it is ever in the power +of a government to make itself perpetual. The term of its existence is +in its own hands. At the very worst for Austria, she might have +accomplished in Italy what was accomplished there three centuries ago by +Spain, then ruled by the elder branch of the Hapsburgs. She might have +commanded almost everything within its limits, with Sardinia to play +some such part as was then played by Venice. + +This is said on the supposition, first, that her government should have +been mild and conciliatory, active only for good, and that all her +interference with local rule should have been on the side of humanity; +and, second, that no foreign power should have interfered to prevent the +full development of her policy. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately +for other nations, and especially so for Italy, she not only did _not_ +govern well, but governed badly; and there was a great power which was +deeply, vitally interested--moved by the all-controlling principle of +self-preservation--in watching all her movements, and in finding +occasion to drive her out of Italy. She was not content with upholding +misgovernment in Naples, Rome, Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and elsewhere, +but she meant to subvert the constitutional polity established in the +Sub-Alpine Kingdom of Sardinia. The enemy of constitutionalism and +freedom everywhere, she was especially hostile to their existence in the +little state that bordered on a portion of her Italian possessions, +whence they always threatened Lombardy with a plague she detests far +more heartily than she detests cholera. No natural boundary or _cordon +militaire_ could suffice to stay the march of principles. Nothing would +answer but the subversion of the Sardinian constitution and the bringing +of that nation's government into harmony with the admirable rule that +existed, under the double-headed eagle's protection, in Naples and +Modena. Unless all Austrian history be false, Austria's object for years +has been a revolution in Sardinia, and Rome has aided her. This is the +necessity of her moral situation with reference to her little neighbor. +The world has smiled at Austria's late complaint that Sardinia menaced +her, it seemed so like the wolf's protestation that the lamb was doing +him an injury; but it was really well founded, though not entitled to +much respect. Sardinia _did_ menace Austria. She menaced her by the +force of her example,--as the honest man menaces the rogue, as the +peaceful man menaces the ruffian, as the charitable man menaces the +miser, as the Good Samaritan menaced the priest and Levite. In the sense +that virtue ever menaces vice, and right constantly menaces wrong, +Sardinia was a menace to Austria;--and as we often find the wrongdoer +denouncing the good as subverters of social order, we ought not to be +astonished at the plaintive whine of the master of thrice forty legions +at the conduct of the decorous, humane, and enlightened Victor Emanuel. + +The only foreign power that had a direct, immediate, positive interest +in preventing the establishment of Austrian power over Italy was France. +Several other powers had some interest adverse to the success of the +Austrian scheme, but it was so far below that which France felt, that it +is difficult to make any comparison between the several cases. England, +speaking generally, might not like the idea of a new naval power coming +into existence in the Mediterranean, which, with great fleets and +greater armies, might come to have a controlling influence in the East, +and prevent the establishment of her power in Egypt and Syria. She might +see with some jealousy the further development of Austrian commerce, +which has been so successfully pursued in the Mediterranean and the +Levant since 1815. But then England is not very remarkable for +forethought, and she has a just confidence in her own naval power. +Besides, would not Austria, in the event of her adding Italy virtually +to her dominions, become the ally of England in the business of +supporting Turkey against Russia, and in preventing the further +extension of Russian power to the South and the East? The old +traditionary policy of England pointed to an Austrian alliance, and +nations are tenacious of their traditions. The war in Italy was +unquestionably precipitated by Austria's belief that in the last resort +she could rely upon English support; and she made a fatal delay in her +military movements in deference to English interposition. Prussia could +not be expected to see the increase of the power of the House of Austria +with pleasure; but it was possible that the extension of its dominions +to the South, by giving it new objects of ambition, and forcing upon it +a leading part in Eastern affairs, might cause that house to pay less +regard to German matters, leaving them to be managed by the House of +Hohenzollern. Russia, under the system that Nicholas pursued, could not +have seen Austria absorb Italy without resisting the process at any +cost; but Alexander IV., [Footnote: I call the present czar Alexander +the _Fourth_, as there have been three other Alexanders _sovereigns_ of +Russia; but he is generally styled Alexander the _Second_.] a wiser man +than his father was, never would have gone to war to prevent it, his +views being directed to those internal reforms the success of which is +likely to create a _Russian People_, and to place his empire in a far +higher position than it has ever yet occupied. Yet Russia could not have +witnessed Austria's success with pleasure; and the readiness with which +she has agreed to aid France, should the Germans aid Austria, is proof +sufficient that she is desirous that Austria should not merely be +prevented from extending her territory, but actually reduced in extent +and in means. From no part of Europe have come more decided +condemnations of the course of Austria than from the Russian capital. +The language of the St. Petersburg journals touching the Treaties of +Vienna has been absolutely contemptuous; and that language is all the +more oracular and significant because we know that the editors of those +journals must have been inspired by the government. It has been justly +regarded as expressing the views of the Czar, and of the statesmen who +compose his cabinet. Though not disposed for war, and probably sincerely +desirous of the preservation of peace everywhere, the rulers of Russia +are quite ready to support France in all proper measures that she may +adopt to drive the Austrians from every part of the Italian Peninsula. +They are too sagacious not to see that France cannot hold a league of +Italian territory, and the reduction of Austrian power is just so much +gained towards the ultimate realization of their Oriental policy. + +Of the other European powers, and of their opinions respecting the +effect of Austrian supremacy, little need be said. Such countries as +Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal have little weight in +the European system, individually or collectively. Even Spain, though +she is not the feeble nation many of our countrymen are pleased to +represent her, when seeking to find a _reason_ for the seizure of +Cuba,--even Spain, we say, could not be much moved by the prospect of +Austria's reaching to that condition of vast strength which would +necessarily follow from her undisputed ascendency in Italy. The lesser +German States would probably have seen Austria's increase with pleasure, +partly because it would have helped to remove their fears of France and +Russia, and partly because it would have been flattering to their pride +of race, the House of Austria being Germanic in its character, though +ruling directly over but few Germans,--few, we mean, in comparison with +the Slaves, Magyars, Italians, and other races that compose the bulk of +its subjects. Turkey alone had a direct interest in Austria's success, +as promising her protection against all the other great European powers; +but Turkey is not, properly speaking, a member of the European +Commonwealth. + +But the case was very different with France. She is the first nation of +Continental Europe,--a position she has held for nearly four centuries, +though sometimes her fortunes have been reduced very low, as during the +closing days of the Valois dynasty, and in 1815; but even in 1815 she +had the melancholy consolation of knowing that it required the combined +exertions of all Europe to conquer her. Her wonderful elasticity in +rising superior to the severest visitations has often surprised the +world, and those who remember 1815 will be most astonished at her +present position in Europe, or rather in Christendom. Her position, +however, has always been the result of indefatigable exertions, and a +variety of circumstances have made those exertions necessary on several +occasions. Great as France is now, and great as she has been at several +periods of her history since the death of Mazarin, it may be doubted if +she is so great as she was at the date of the Treaty of Westphalia, the +work of her arms and her diplomacy (1648). At that time, and for many +years afterwards, several nations had no pronounced political existence +that now are powers of the first class. Russia had no weight in Europe +until the last years of Louis XIV., and her real importance commenced +fifty years after that monarch was placed in his grave. Prussia, though +she attained to a respectable position at the close of the seventeenth +century, the date of the creation of her monarchy, did not become a +first-class power until two generations later, and as the result of the +Seven Years' War. The United States count but eighty-three years of +national life; and they have had international influence less than half +of that time. England, which the restoration of the Stuarts caused to +sink so low in those very years during which Louis XIV. was at the +zenith of his greatness, has been for one hundred and seventy years the +equal of France. On the other hand, the two nations with which France +was formerly much connected, Turkey and Sweden, have ceased to influence +events. France allied herself with Turkey in the early years of her +struggle with the House of Austria, to the offence of Christian peoples; +and the relations between Paris and Constantinople were long maintained +on the basis of common interest, the only tie that has ever sufficed to +bind nations. Both countries were the enemies of Austria. The second +half of the Thirty Years' War was maintained, on the part of the enemies +of Austria, by the alliance of France and Sweden; and between these +countries a good understanding frequently prevailed in after-times, the +growth of Russia serving to force Sweden into the arms of France. Poland +has disappeared from the list of nations, and her territory has +augmented the resources of two countries that had no political weight in +the first century of the Bourbon kings, and those of France's rival. +Thus France has relatively fallen. That ancient international system of +which she was the centre for nearly one hundred and fifty years--say +from the middle of the reign of Henry IV. to the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle, (1599-1748)--has passed entirely away from the world, +and never can be restored. France has seldom seriously thought of +attempting its restoration, though some of her statesmen, and probably a +large majority of the more intelligent of her people, have from time to +time warmly favored the idea of the reconstruction of Poland; and of all +the errors of Napoleon I., his failure to realize that idea was +unquestionably the greatest. The turn that things took in the French +Revolution enabled France to establish an hegemony in Europe, which +might have been long preserved but for the disasters of 1812; but the +empire of Napoleon I. was never a political empire, being only of a +military character. France then led Europe, but she lost her ascendency +on the first reverse, like Sparta after Leuctra. History has no parallel +to the change that the France of 1814 presented to the France of 1812. +On the 1st of October, 1812, the French were at Moscow; on the 1st of +April, 1814, the allies were in Paris. Eighteen months had done work +that no man living at the first date had expected to see accomplished. +What happened in 1815 was but the complement of 1814. Then France was +struck down, trampled upon, spoiled, insulted, and mulcted in immense +sums of money; and finally forced to pay the cost of an armed police, +headed by Wellington himself, which held her chief fortresses for three +years, and saw that her chains were kept bright and strong. Never, since +Lysander demolished the Long Walls of Athens to the music of the Spartan +flute, had the world seen so bitter a spectacle of national humiliation, +so absolute a reversal of fortune,--the long-conquering legions +perishing by the sword, and him who had headed so many triumphal +processions perishing as it were in the Mamertine dungeon. + +It was from the nadir to which she had thus fallen, that the rulers of +France, acting as the agents of its people, have been laboring to raise +her ever since 1815. They have had a twofold object in view. They have +sought territory, in order that France might not be driven into the list +of second-class nations,--and military glory, to make men forget +Vittoria, and Leipzig, and Waterloo. All the governments of France have +been alike in this respect, no matter how much they have differed in +other respects. The legitimate Bourbons,--of whom an American is bound +to speak well, for they were our friends, and often evinced a feeling +towards us that exceeded largely anything that is required by the terms +or the spirit of a political alliance,--the solitary Orléans King, the +shadowy Republic of '48, and the imperial government, all have +endeavored to do something to elevate France, to win for her new +glories, and to regain for her her old position. The expedition into +Spain, in 1823, ostensibly made in the interest of Absolutism, was +really undertaken for the purpose of rebaptizing the white flag in fire. +Charles X. and M. de Polignac were engaged in a great scheme of foreign +policy when they fell, the chief object of which, on their side, was the +restoration to France of the provinces of the Rhine,--and which Russia +favored, because she knew, that, unless the Bourbons could do something +to satisfy their people, they must remain powerless, and it did not +answer her purpose that they should be otherwise than powerful. The +conquest of Algiers was made for the purpose of gratifying the French +people, and with the intention of spreading French dominion over +Northern Africa. It was a step towards the acquisition of Egypt, for +which land France has exhibited a strange longing. In this way the loss +of French India and French America, things of the old monarchy, were to +be compensated. The government of Louis Philippe expended mines of gold +and seas of blood in Africa, much to the astonishment of prudent men, +who had no idea of the end upon which its eyes were fixed. When the +Republic of 1848 was improvised, even Lamartine, not an unjust man, +could talk of the rights of France in Italy, and of her proper influence +there; and the wicked attack on the Romans, in 1849, was prompted by a +desire to make French influence felt in that country in a manner that +should be clear to the sense of mankind. + +When Louis Napoleon became President of France, it was impossible for +him to devote much attention to foreign affairs. His aim was to make +himself Emperor, to restore the Napoleon dynasty. This, after a hard +struggle, he effected in 1851-'52. It must be within the recollection of +all that the French invasion question was never more vehemently +discussed in England than during the ten or twelve months that followed +the _coup d'état_. This happened because it was assumed that the Emperor +_must_ do something to revenge the injuries his house and France had +suffered from that alliance of which England was the chief member and +the purse-holder. Whether he ever thought of assailing England, no man +can say; for he never yet communicated his thoughts on any important +subject to any human being. We may assume, however, that he would not +have attacked England without having made extensive preparations for +that purpose; and long before such preparations could have been +perfected, the Eastern question was forced upon the attention of Europe, +and the two nations which were expected to engage in war as foes united +their immense armaments to thwart the plans of Russia. Blinded by his +feelings, and altogether mistaking the character of the English people, +the Czar treated Napoleon III. contemptuously, and sought to bring about +the partition of Turkey by the aid of England alone. It will always +furnish material for the ingenious writers of the history of things that +might have been, whether the French Emperor would have accepted the +Czar's proposition, had it been made to him. Certainly it would have +enabled him to do great things for France, while by the same course of +action he could have struck heavy blows at both England and Austria. As +it was, he joined England to oppose Russia, and the English have borne +full and honorable testimony to his fidelity to his engagements. The war +concluded, his attention was directed to Italy, and he sought to +meliorate the condition of that country; but Austria would not hear even +of the discussion of Italian affairs. The events that marked the course +of things in Paris, in the spring of 1856, showed that nothing could be +hoped for Italy from Austria. She spoke, through Count Buol, as if she +regarded the whole Peninsula as peculiarly her property, meddling with +which on the part of other powers was sheer impertinence, and not to be +borne with good temper, or even the show of it. + +The twenty-second meeting of the Congress of Paris, held the 8th of +April, was long, exciting, and important; for then several European +questions were discussed, among them being the affairs of Italy. The +protocol of that day proves the sensitiveness of the Austrian +plenipotentiaries and the earnestness of those of Sardinia. Eight days +later, the Sardinian plenipotentiaries, Cavour and De Villa Marina, +addressed to the governments of France and England a Memorial relating +to the affairs of Italy, in the course of which occur expressions that +must have had a strong effect on the mind of Napoleon III. "Called by +the sovereigns of the small states of Italy, who are powerless to +repress the discontent of their subjects," says the Memorial, "Austria +occupies militarily the greater part of the Valley of the Po and of +Central Italy, and makes her influence felt in an irresistible manner, +_even in the countries where she has no soldiers_. Resting on one side +on Ferrara and Bologna, her troops extend themselves to Ancona, the +length of the Adriatic, which has become in a manner an Austrian lake; +on the other, mistress of Piacenza, which, contrary to the spirit, if +not to the letter, of the Treaties of Vienna, she labors to transform +into a first-class fortress, she has a garrison at Parma, and makes +dispositions to deploy her forces all along the Sardinian frontier, from +the Po to the summit of the Apennines. This permanent occupation by +Austria of territories which do not belong to her _renders her absolute +mistress of nearly all Italy_, destroys the equilibrium established by +the Treaties of Vienna, and is a continual menace to Piedmont." In +conclusion, the plenipotentiaries say,--"Sardinia is the only state in +Italy that has been able to raise an impassable barrier to the +revolutionary spirit, and at the same time remain independent of +Austria. It is the counterpoise to her invading influence. If Sardinia +succumbed, exhausted of power, abandoned by her allies,--if she also was +obliged to submit to Austrian domination, _then the conquest of Italy by +this power would be achieved_; and Austria, after having obtained, +without its costing her the least sacrifice, the immense benefit of the +free navigation of the Danube, and the neutralization of the Black Sea, +_would acquire a preponderating influence in the West_. This is what +France and England would never wish,--this they will never permit." + +These are grave and weighty words, and were well calculated to produce +an effect on the mind of Napoleon III.; and we are convinced that they +furnish a key to his conduct toward Austria, and set forth the occasion +of the Italian War. The supremacy of Austria once completely asserted +over Italy, France would necessarily sink in the European scale in +precisely the same proportion in which Austria should rise in it. The +subjects of Francis Joseph would number sixty millions, while those of +Napoleon III. would remain at thirty-six millions. The sinews of war +have never been much at the command of Austria, but possession of Italy +would render her wealthy, and enable her to command that gold which +moves armies and renders them effective. Her commerce would be increased +to an incalculable extent, and she would have naval populations from +which to conscribe the crews for fleets that she would be prompt to +build. Her voice would be potential in the East, and that of France +would there cease to be heard. She would become the first power of +Europe, and would exercise an hegemony far more decided than that which +Russia held for forty years after 1814. It was to be expected that the +Italians would cease fruitlessly to oppose her, and, their submission +leading to her abandonment of the repressive system, they might become a +bold and an adventurous people, helping to increase and to consolidate +her power. They might prove as useful to her as the Hungarians and +Bohemians have been, whom she had conquered and misruled, but whose +youth have filled her armies. All these things were not only possible, +but they were highly probable; and once having become facts, what +security would France have that she would not be attacked, conquered, +and partitioned? With sixty millions of people, and supported by the +sentiment and arms of Germany, Austria could seize upon Alsace and +Lorraine, and other parts of France, and thus reduce her strength +positively as well as relatively. All that was talked of in 1815, and +more than all that, might be accomplished in sixty years from that date, +and while Napoleon III. himself should still be on the throne he had so +strangely won. That degradation of France which the uncle's ambition had +brought about at the beginning of the century would be more than +equalled at the century's close through the nephew's forbearance. The +very names of Napoleon and Bonaparte would become odious in France, and +contemptible everywhere. On the other hand, should he interfere +successfully in behalf of Italian nationality, he would reduce the +strength of Austria, and prevent her from becoming an overshadowing +empire. Her population and her territory would be essentially lessened. +She would be cut off from all hope of making Italy her own, would be +compelled to abandon her plans of commercial and maritime greatness, +would be disregarded in the East, would not be courted by England, would +lose half her influence in Germany, and would not be in a condition to +menace France in any quarter. The glory of the French arms would be +increased, the weight of France would be doubled, new lustre would shine +from the name of Napoleon, the Treaties of Vienna would be torn up by +the nation against which they had been directed, the most determined foe +of the Bonaparte family would be punished, and that family's power would +be consolidated. + +Such, we verily believe, were the reasons that led Napoleon III. to plan +an attack on Austria, that attack which has been so brilliantly +commenced. That he has gone to war for the liberation of Italy, merely +as such, we do not suppose; but that must follow front his policy, +because in that way alone can his grand object be effected. The freedom +of the Peninsula will be brought about, because it is necessary for the +welfare of France, for the maintenance of her weight in Europe, that it +should be brought about. That the Emperor is insensible of the glory +that would come from the rehabilitation of Italy, we do not assert. We +think he is very sensible of it, and that he enjoys the satisfaction +that comes from the performance of a good deed as much as if he were not +a usurper and never had overthrown a nominal republic. But we cannot +agree with those who say that the liberation of Italy was the pure and +simple purpose of the war. He means that Austria shall not have Italy, +and his sobriety of judgment enables him to understand that France +cannot have it. That country is to belong to the children of the soil, +who, with ordinary wisdom and conduct, will be able to prevent it from +again relapsing under foreign rule. The Emperor understands his epoch, +and will attempt nothing that shall excite against himself and his +dynasty the indignation of mankind. If not a saint, he is not a +senseless sinner. + +Our article is so long, that we cannot discuss the questions, whether +Napoleon III. is not animated by the desire of vengeance, and whether, +having chastised Russia and Austria, he will not turn his arms against +Prussia and England. Our opinion is that he will do nothing of the kind. +Prussia is not likely to afford him any occasion for war; and if he +should make one, he would have to fight all the other German powers at +the same time, and perhaps Russia. The only chance that exists for a +Prussian war is to be found in the wrath of the Germans, who, at the +time we write, have assumed a very hostile attitude towards France, and +wish to be led from Berlin; but the government of Prussia is discreet, +and will not be easily induced to incur the positive loss and probable +disgrace that would follow from a Russian invasion, like that which took +place in 1759. As to England, the Emperor would be mad to attempt her +conquest; and he knows too well what is due to his fame to engage in a +piratical dash at London. An invasion of England can never be safely +undertaken except by some power that is master of the seas; and England +is not in the least disposed to abandon her maritime supremacy. There +would have to be a Battle of Actium before her shores could be in +danger, and she must have lost it; and no matter what is said concerning +the excellence of the French navy, that of England is as much ahead of +it in all the elements of real, enduring strength, as it has been at any +other period of the history of the two countries. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Iron-Manufacturer's Guide to the Furnaces, Forges, and +Rolling-Mills of the United States_. By J.P. LESLEY. New York: John +Wiley. 1859. + +This valuable book is published by the Secretary of the American +Iron-Association, and by authority of the same. This Association--now +four years old--is not a common trades-union, nor any impotent +combination to resist the law of supply and demand. Its general objects, +as stated in the constitution, are "to procure regularly the statistics +of the trade, both at home and abroad; to provide for the mutual +interchange of information and experience, both scientific and +practical; to collect and preserve all works relating to iron, and to +form a complete cabinet of ores, limestones, and coals; to encourage the +formation of such schools as are designed to give the young iron-master +a proper and thorough scientific training, preparatory to engaging in +practical operations." In pursuance of this wise and liberal policy, the +Association has now published this "Iron-Manufacturer's Guide," +containing, first, a descriptive catalogue of all the furnaces, forges, +and rolling-mills of the United States and Canada; secondly, a +discussion of the physical and chemical properties of iron, and its +combinations with other elements; thirdly, a complete survey of the +geological position, chemical, physical, or mechanical properties, and +geographical distribution of the ores of iron in the United States. + +The directory to the iron-works of the United States and Canada +enumerates 1545 works of various kinds, of which 386 are now abandoned; +560 blast-furnaces, 389 forges, and 210 rolling-mills are now in +operation; and the directory states the position, capacity, and +prominent characteristics of each furnace, forge, or mill, the names of +the owners or agents, and, in many cases, the date of the construction +of the works, and their annual production. The great importance of the +iron-manufacture, as a branch of industry, in this country, is clearly +demonstrated by this very complete catalogue. It shows that in the year +1856 there were nearly twelve hundred active iron-factories in the +United States, and that they produced about eight hundred and fifty +thousand tons of iron, worth fifty millions of dollars. When we consider +that the greater part of the iron thus produced is left in a rough and +crude state, merely extracted from its ores and made ready for the use +of the blacksmith, the machinist, and the engineer,--when we remember +that human labor multiplies by hundreds and by thousands the value of +the raw material, that a bar of iron which costs five dollars will make +three thousand dollars' worth of penknife-blades and two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars' worth of watch-springs, we begin to understand +the importance of the iron-manufacture, as an element of national +wealth, independence, and power. + +A fourth part of all the iron-works which have been constructed in this +country have been abandoned by their projectors, in despair of competing +with the cheap iron from abroad, which the low _ad-valorem_ tariffs have +admitted to the American market. The story which these ruined works +might tell, of hopes disappointed, capital sunk, and labor wasted, would +be long and dreary. From an excellent diagram, appended to the "Guide," +illustrating the duties on iron, the importations, and the price of the +metal, for each year since 1840, we learn that the average annual +importation of iron under the specific tariff of 1842 was 77,328 tons, +while under the _ad-valorem_ tariff of 1846 it was 373,864 tons. The +increase in the importation of foreign iron under the tariff of 1846 was +more than ten times the increase of the population, and more than +thirty-eight times the increase in the domestic production. The +iron-masters of this country have been compelled to struggle against a +host of formidable difficulties,--adverse legislation, the ruinous +competition of English iron, the dearness of labor, and the high rates +of interest on borrowed capital. These have all been met and, let us hope, +in good part overcome. Slowly, and with many hindrances and disasters, +the iron-business is gaining strength, and achieving independence +of foreign competition and the tender mercies of legislators. +Very conclusive evidence of this gradual growth is presented +in the unusually accurate statistics of the "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide." Of the 1,209,913 tons of iron consumed in the United States +in the year 1856, 856,235 tons, or seventy-one per cent, of the whole, +was of domestic manufacture. The catalogue of iron-works shows that +the country now possesses many extensive and well-constructed works, +of which some are still owned by the men who built them, but the +larger part have descended, at great sacrifices, to the hands of +more fortunate proprietors. Beside the accumulated stock of machinery, +knowledge of the ores and fuel has been gained, experience has +refuted many errors and pointed out the dangers and difficulties to +he overcome, the natural channels of communication throughout the +country have been opened, and a large body of skilled workmen has been +trained for the business and seeks steady employment. Whenever a rise in +the price of iron stimulates the manufacture, the domestic production of +iron suddenly expands, and increases with a rapidity which gives +evidence of wonderful elasticity and latent strength. Twice within +twenty years the production of American iron has nearly doubled in a +period of three years. Twelve years ago no railroad-iron was made in the +United States. In 1853 we imported 300,000 tons of rails, and in 1854 +280,000 tons; but in 1855 only 130,000 tons were imported, while 135,000 +tons were made at home, and in 1856, again, nearly one half of the +310,000 tons of rails consumed was of domestic production. The admitted +superiority of the American rails has undoubtedly contributed to this +result. + +In spite of these encouraging signs, these sure indications of the +success which at no distant day will reward this branch of American +industry, it must not be imagined that checks and reverses are hereafter +to be escaped. The production of the year 1857 promised in the summer to +be much larger than that of 1856; but the panic of September wrought the +same effect in the iron-business as in all the other manufactures of the +country, and in the spring of 1858 more than half of the iron-works of +the United States were standing idle. Mr. Lesley states that the returns +received in answer to the circular issued by the Iron-Association, July +1, 1858, were, almost without exception, unfavorable, and that these +replies are sufficient to prove a very serious diminution in the +production of iron for the year 1858. When the manufacture of iron, in +its various branches, has expanded to its true proportions, and has +reached a magnitude and importance second only to the agricultural +interest of the country, the iron-masters of that generation may read in +this first publication of the Iron-Association the record of the +struggles and trials of their more adventurous, but less fortunate +predecessors. + +The construction of the directory which constitutes the first part of +the "Guide" might be improved in several respects. An alphabetical +arrangement of the furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills, in each State, +would be much more convenient for reference than the obscure and +uncertain system which has been followed. If a State can be divided, +like Pennsylvania, into two or three sections, by strongly marked +geological features, it would, perhaps, be well to subdivide the list of +its iron-works into corresponding sections, and then to make the +arrangement of each section alphabetical. But convenience of reference +is the essential property of a directory; and to that convenience the +natural desire to follow a geological or geographical arrangement should +he sacrificed. Some important items of information, such as the means of +transportation, and the distance of each furnace or forge from its +market, are not given in all cases; the power by which the works are +driven, whether steam or water, is not uniformly stated; and the +pressure of the blast used, that very important condition of success in +the management of a furnace, is stated in only a very few instances. A +useful piece of information, seldom given in the descriptions of forges +and rolling-mills, is the source from which the iron used in the works +is obtained; and it is also desirable that the nature of the work done +in each forge or mill should be invariably stated. It would he +interesting to know the number of men employed in the iron-manufacture +throughout the country, and it would not seem difficult for the +Association to add this fact to the very valuable statistics which they +have already collected. The descriptions of abandoned works are not all +printed in small type. If this rule is adopted in the directory, it +should be uniformly adhered to. The maps accompanying the directory, +which were made by the photolithographic process, are all on too small a +scale, and consequently lack clearness. The colored lithographs, which +exhibit the anthracite furnaces of Pennsylvania and the iron works of +the region east of the Hudson River, are altogether the best +illustrations in the book. + +An elaborate discussion of iron as a chemical element occupies another +division of the book. Its purpose is to instruct the iron master in the +chemical properties and relations of the metal with which he deals; and +to this end it should be clear, concise, and definite, and, leaving all +disputed points, should explain the known and well-determined +characteristics of iron and its compounds with other elements. Mr. +Lesley, the compiler of the book, distinctly states in the Preface that +he is no chemist, and we are therefore prepared to meet the occasional +inaccuracies observable in this chemical portion of the "Guide." It +lacks condensation and system; matters of very little moment receive +disproportionate attention; and pages are filled with discussions of +nice points of chemical science still in dispute among professed +chemists, and wholly out of place in what should be a brief elementary +treatise on the known properties of iron. If these questions in dispute +were such as the practical experience of the iron-master might settle, +or, indeed, throw any light upon, there would be an obvious propriety in +stating the points at issue; but if the question concerns the best +chemical name for iron-rust, or the largest possible per cent. of carbon +in steel, the practical metallurgist should not be perplexed with +problems in analytical chemistry which the best chemists have not yet +solved. + +Valuable space is occasionally occupied by the too rhetorical statement +of matters which would have been better presented in a simpler way; +thus, the fervid description of oxygen, however appropriate in Faraday's +admirable lectures before the Royal Institution, is out of place in the +"Iron-Manufacturer's Guide." We must also enter an earnest protest +against the importation, upon any terms, of such words as +"ironoxydulcarbonate," "ironoxydhydrate," and the adjective "anhydrate." +Some descriptions of considerable imaginative power have found place +even in the directory of works. From the description of the Allentown +furnaces we learn, with some surprise, that "no finer object of art +invites the artist"; and again, "that the _repose_ of bygone _centuries_ +seems to sit upon its immense walls, while the roaring _energy_ of the +present day fills it with a truer and better life than the revelry of +Kenilworth or the chivalry of Heidelberg." The average age of the +Allentown works subsequently appears to be nine years. + +Another principal division of Mr. Lesley's book treats of the ores of +iron in the United States. This portion of the book contains much +valuable and interesting information, which has never been published +before in so complete and satisfactory a form. The geographical and +geological position of every ore-bank in the country, which has been +opened and worked, is fully described, with many details of the peculiar +properties, mineralogical associations, and history of each bed or mine. +The inexhaustible wealth of the country in ores of iron is clearly +shown, and the superiority of the American ores to the English needs no +other demonstration than can be found on the pages of this catalogue of +our ore-beds. Two or three geological maps, to illustrate the +distribution of the ores, would have been an instructive addition to the +book. In this section, as in the preceding one on the chemistry of iron, +much space is misapplied to the discussion of questions of structural +geology, of opposing theories of the formation of veins, and other +scientific problems with which the iron-master is not concerned, and +which he cannot be expected to understand, much less to solve. We regret +the more this unnecessary introduction of comparatively irrelevant +matters, when we find, at the close of the volume, that the unexpected +length of the discussion of the ores has prevented the publication of +several chapters on the machinery now in use, the hot-blast and +anthracite coal, the efforts to obtain malleable iron directly from the +ore, and the history and present condition of the iron-manufacture in +America. + +The American Iron-Association, by their Secretary, have accomplished a +very laborious and valuable work, in accumulating and digesting the mass +of facts and statistics embodied in this, the first "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide"; but the subject is as inexhaustible as the mineral wealth of the +country, and we shall look for the future publications of the society +with much interest. + + +_An Essay on Intuitive Morals_. Being an Attempt to Popularize Ethical +Science. Part I. Theory of Morals. First American Edition, with +Additions and Corrections by the Author. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. +1859. pp. 294. + +Four years ago last March this book appeared in England, published by +Longman; a thin octavo, exciting little attention there, and scarcely +more on this side the water, where the best English books have of late +years found their first appreciation. The first notice of it printed in +this country, so far as we know, appeared in the "Harvard Magazine" for +June, 1855,--a publication so obscure, that, to most readers of the +ATLANTIC, this will be their first knowledge of its existence. About two +years later, Part II appeared in England, and then both books were +reviewed in the "Christian Examiner"; yet, to all intents and purposes, +this new edition is a new book, and we shall treat it as such. We have +as yet a reprint of Part I. only, but we trust the publishers will soon +give us the other,--"The Practice of Morals,"--which, if less valuable +than this, is still so much better than most works of its kind as to +demand a republication. + +The author--a woman--(for, to the shame of our _virile secus_ be it +said, a woman has written the best popular treatise on Ethics in the +language)--divides her First Part into four chapters:-- + + I. What Is the Moral Law? + II. Where the Moral Law is found. + III. That the Moral Law can be obeyed. + IV. Why the Moral Law should be obeyed. + +This, as will be seen, is an exhaustive analysis. To the great question +of the first chapter, after a full discussion, she gives this answer:-- + +"The Moral Law is the resumption of the eternal necessary Obligation of +all Rational Free Agents to do and feel those Sentiments which are +Right. The identification of this law with His will constitutes the +Holiness of the Infinite God. Voluntary and disinterested obedience to +this law constitutes the Virtue of all finite creatures. Virtue is +capable of infinite growth, of endless approach to the Divine nature and +to perfect conformity with the law. God has made all rational free +agents for virtue, and all worlds for rational free agents. _The Moral +Law, therefore, not only reigns throughout His creation_, (all its +behests being enforced thereon by His omnipotence,) _but is itself the +reason why that creation exists_."--pp. 62-63. + +This is certainly good defining, and the passage we have Italicized has +the true Transcendental ring. Indeed, the book is a system of Kantian +Ethics, as the author herself says in her Preface; and the tough old +Königsberg professor has no reason to complain of his gentle expounder. +Unlike most British writers,--with the grand exception of Sir William +Hamilton, the greatest British metaphysician since Locke and Hume,--she +_understands_ Kant, admires and loves him, and so is worthy to develop +his knotty sublimities. This alone would be high praise; but we think +she earns a more original and personal esteem. + +The question of the second chapter she thus answers:-- + +"The Moral Law is found in the Intuitions of the Human Mind. These +Intuitions are natural; but they are also revealed. Our Creator wrought +them into the texture of our souls to form the groundwork of our +thoughts, and made it our duty first to examine and then to erect upon +them by reflection a Science of Morals. But He also continually aids us +in such study, and He increases this aid in the ratio of our obedience. +Thus Moral Intuitions are both Human and Divine, and the paradoxes in +their nature are thereby solved."--p. 136. + +This statement may, perhaps, be received without cavil by most readers; +but the reasoning on which it depends is the weakest part of the book, +and we shall be surprised if some hard-headed divine, who fears that +this doctrine of Intuition will pester his Church, does not find out the +flaws in the argument. It will be urged, for instance, that, in +confessing that the Science of Morals can never be as exact as that of +Mathematics, because we have no terminology for Ethics so exact as for +Geometry, she, in effect, yields the whole question, and leaves us in +the old slough of doubt where Pyrrho and Pascal delighted to thrust us, +and where the Church threatens to keep us, unless we will pay her tolls +and pick our way along her turnpike. But though her major and minor +premises may not be on the best terms with each other,--even though they +may remind us of that preacher of whom Pierrepont Edwards said, "If his +text had the smallpox, his sermon would not catch it,"--her conclusion +is sound, and as inspiring now as when the poet said,-- + + "Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo,"-- + +or when George Fox trudged hither and thither over Europe with the same +noble tune sounding in his ears. + +In the third chapter the old topics are treated, which, according to +Milton, the fallen angels discussed before Adam settled the debate by +sinning,-- + + "Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,"-- + +and it is concluded that the Moral Law can be obeyed:-- + +"1st. Because the Human Will is free. 2d. Because this freedom, though +involving present sin and suffering, is foreseen by God to result +eventually in the Virtue of every creature endowed therewith." + +In this chapter the history of the common doctrine of Predestination is +admirably sketched, (pp. 159-164, note.) and the grounds for our belief +in Free Will more clearly stated than we remember to have seen +elsewhere. Especially fine is her method of reducing Foreordination to +simple Ordination, by directing attention to the fact that with God +there is no Past and Future, but an Endless Now; as Tennyson sings in +"In Memoriam,"-- + + "Oh, if indeed that eye foresee, + Or see, (in Him is no before.)"-- + +and as Dante sang five centuries ago. + +But it is the last chapter which best shows the power of the author and +the pure and generous spirit with which the whole book is filled. Here +she shows why the Moral Law should be obeyed; and dividing the advocates +of Happiness as a motive into three classes, Euthumists, Public +Eudaimonists, and Private Eudaimonists, she refutes them all and +establishes her simple scheme, which she states in these words:-- + +"The law itself, the Eternal Right, for right's own sake, that alone +must be our motive, the spring of our resolution, the ground of our +obedience. Deep from our inmost souls comes forth the mandate, the bare +and simple law claiming the command of our whole existence merely by its +proper right, and disdaining alike to menace or to bribe." + +The terms _Euthumism_ and _Eudaimonism_ are, perhaps, peculiar to this +essay, and may need some explanation. The Euthumist is one who assumes +moral pleasure as a sufficient reason why virtue should be sought; the +Eudaimonist believes we should be virtuous for the sake of affectional, +intellectual, and sensual pleasure; if he means the pleasure of all +mankind, he is a Public Eudaimonist; but if he means the pleasure of the +individual, he is a Private Eudaimonist. Democritus is reckoned the +first among Euthumists; and in England this school has been represented, +among others, by Henry More and Cumberland, by Sharrock, [Footnote: +Sharrock is a name unfamiliar to most readers. His [Greek: Hypothesis +aethikae] published in 1660, contains the first clear statement of +Euthumism made by any Englishman. See p.223.] Hutcheson, and Shaftesbury. +Paley thrust himself among Public Eudaimonists, and our author well +exposes his grovelling morals, aiming to produce the "greatest happiness +of the greatest number," a system which has too long been taught among +the students of our colleges and high schools. But he properly belongs +to the Private Eudaimonists; for this interpreter of ethics to the +ingenuous youth of England and America says, "Virtue is the doing good +to mankind in obedience to the will of God, _and for the sake of +everlasting happiness_. According to which definition, the good of +mankind is the subject, the will of God the rule, _and everlasting +happiness the motive of virtue_." + +It is such heresies as this, and the still grosser pravities into which +the ethics of expediency run, that this book will do much to combat. +Nothing is more needed in our schools for both sexes than the systematic +teaching of the principles here set forth; and we have no doubt this +volume could be used as a text-book, at least with some slight omissions +and additions, such as a competent teacher could well furnish. Portions +of it, indeed, were some years since read by Mrs. Lowell to her classes, +and are now incorporated in her admirable book, "Seed Grain"; nor does +there seem to be any good reason why it should not be introduced at +Cambridge. With a short introduction containing the main principles of +metaphysics, and with the omission of some rhetorical passages unsuited +to a text-book, it might supplant the books of both intellectual and +moral philosophy now in use in our higher schools. + +But it is not as a school-book that this essay is to be considered; it +will find a large and increasing circle of readers among the mature and +the cultivated, and these will perceive that few have thought so +profoundly or written so clearly on these absorbing topics. Take, for +example, the classification of _possible_ beings, made in the first +chapter:-- + +"Proceeding on our premises, that the omnipotence of God is not to be +supposed to include self-contradictions, we observe at the outset, that +(so far as we can understand subjects so transcendent) there were only, +in a moral point of view, three orders of beings possible in the +universe:--1st. One Infinite Being. A Rational Free Agent, raised by the +infinitude of his nature above the possibility of temptation. He is the +only _Holy_ Being. 2d. Finite creatures who are Rational Free Agents, +but exposed by the finity of their natures to continual temptations. +These beings are either _Virtuous_ or _Vicious_. 3d. Finite creatures +who are not rational nor morally free. These beings are _Unmoral_, and +neither virtuous nor vicious."--pp. 24-25. + +Nothing can be shorter or more thorough than this statement, and, if +accepted, it settles many points in theology as well as in ethics. + +Then, too, the comparison, in the last chapter, of the Law of Honor, +considered as a system of morals, with the systems of Paley and Bentham, +shows a fine perception of the true relation of chivalry to ethics, and +gives occasion for one of the most eloquent passages in the book:-- + +"I envy not the moralist who could treat disdainfully of Chivalry. It +was a marvellous principle, that which could make of plighted faith a +law to the most lawless, of protection to weakness a pride to the most +ferocious. While the Church taught that personal duty consisted in +scourgings and fastings, and social duty in the slaughter of Moslems and +burning of Jews, Chivalry roused up a man to reverence himself through +his own courage and truth, and to treat the weakest of his +fellow-creatures with generosity and courtesy.... Recurring to its true +character, the Law of Honor, when duly enlarged and rectified, becomes +highly valuable. We perceive, that, amid all its imperfections and +aberrations, it has been the truest voice of intuition, amid the +lamentations of the believer in 'total depravity,' and the bargaining of +the expediency-seeking experimentalist. While the one represented Virtue +as a Nun and the other as a Shop-woman, the Law of Honor drew her as a +Queen,--faulty, perhaps, but free-born and royal. Much service has this +law done to the world; it has made popular modes of thinking and acting +far nobler than those inculcated from many a pulpit; and the result is +patent, that many a 'publican and sinner,' many an opera-frequenting, +betting, gambling man of the world, is a far safer person with whom to +transact business than the Pharisee who talks most feelingly of the +'frailties of our fallen nature.'"--pp. 267-270. + +The learning shown in the book, though not astonishing, like Sir William +Hamilton's, is sufficient and always at the author's service. The text +throughout, and especially the notes on Causation, Predestination, +Original Sin, and Necessary Truths, will amply support our opinion. But +better than either learning or logic is that noble and devout spirit +pervading every page, and convincing the reader, that, whether the +system advanced be true or false, it is the result of a genuine +experience, and the guide of a pure and generous life. + +The volume is neatly printed, but lacks an index sadly, and shows some +errors resulting from the distance between the author and the +proof-reader. Such is the misuse of the words "woof" and "warp" on page +56; evidently a slip of the pen, since the same terms are correctly used +elsewhere in the volume. + + +_Memoirs of the Empress Catharine II._ Written by herself. With a +Preface by A. HERZEN. Translated from the French. New York: D. Appleton +& Co. 12mo. pp. 309. + +It would seem, that, if any one of the women celebrated in history +should, more than all the others, have shrunk from writing her own +memoirs, that woman was the petty German princess whom opportunity and +her own crafty ambition made absolutest monarch of all the Russias under +the name of Catharine II. And of that abandoned and shameless personal +career which has made her name a reproach to her sex, and covered her +memory with an infamy that the administrative glories of her reign serve +only to cast into a blacker shadow, even she has shrunk from committing +the details to paper. Indeed, in these Memoirs, she alludes to but one +of her amours,--that with Sergius Soltikoff, which was the first, (if we +may be sure that she had a first,)--and which seems clearly to have been +elevated, if not purified, by a true and deep affection. That it was so +appears not by any protestation or even calm assertion of her own, which +in an autobiography might be reasonably doubted, but from the unstudied +tenderness of her allusions to him; from the fact, which indirectly +appears, that he first cooled towards her, and the pang--not of wounded +vanity--which this gave her; and yet more unmistakably from the +forgiveness which she, imperious and relentless as she was, extended, +manifestly, again and again, to her errant lover. + +The Memoirs are confined to events which occurred between 1744 and +1760,--the period of Catharine's girlhood and youthful womanhood; but +although she brings herself before us, a young creature of fifteen, +"with her hair dressed _à la Moise_," (which, in the benightment of our +bearded ignorance, we suppose to mean that astounding style in which the +excellent Mistress Hannah More is represented in the frontispiece to her +Memoirs, with each particular hair standing on end,--a crimped glory of +radiating powder,) she appears no less ambitious, crafty, designing, +selfish, and self-conscious then than when she drops her pen as she is +deepening the traits of the matured woman of thirty. She went to Russia +to be betrothed to the Grand Duke, afterwards Peter III., to whom she +was at first utterly indifferent, and whom she soon began to despise and +regard with personal aversion; and yet when there was a chance that she +might be released from this union, she seems not to have known the +slightest thrill of joy or felt the least sensation of relief, although +she was then not sixteen years old,--so entirely was her mind bent upon +the crown of Russia. Partly to attain her end, and partly because it +suited her intriguing, managing nature, she set herself immediately to +the acquirement of the favor of the Empress on the one hand, and +popularity on the other. The first she sought by an absolute submission +of her will to that of Elizabeth, giving her self-negation an air of +grateful deference; the latter she obtained, as most very popular people +obtain their popularity, by adroit flattery,--the subtlest form of which +was, in her case, as it ever is, the manifestation of an interest in the +affairs of persons utterly indifferent to the flatterer. This moral +emollient she applied, as popular people usually do, without +discrimination. She remarks that she was liked because she was "the same +to everybody"; and it is noteworthy that the same is said almost +invariably of very popular persons, and in way of eulogy, by the very +people into whose favor they have licked their way; the latter always +seeming to be blinded by the titillation of their own cuticles to the +fact that the most worthless and disagreeable individuals--those with +whom they would scorn to be put upon a level--have received the same +coveted evidences of personal regard. When will the world learn that the +man, of whom we sometimes hear and read, who is absolutely without an +enemy, must either be very unscrupulous or very weak? Catharine's +duplicity in this respect seems to have been as constant as it was +artful, during the years in which it was necessary for her purpose to +make friends; and it was rewarded, as it almost always is, when +skilfully practised, with entire success. + +Catharine seems to have written these Memoirs partly for her own +satisfaction and partly to justify her course to her son Paul and his +successors. Therefore they record much that is of little value or +interest to the general reader; and that, indeed, is unintelligible, +except to those who are intimately acquainted with the Russian Court +during the reign of Elizabeth. Such persons will find in these pages +much authentic matter which will confirm or unsettle their previous +belief as to the secret intrigues of that court, political and personal. +To the great mass of readers, the revelations of the internal economy of +the Court of Russia in the middle of the last century, and of the +manners and morals of the persons who composed it, which are freely made +by the author of these imperial confessions, will constitute their +principal, if not their only interest. In this respect they will well +repay the attentive perusal of every person who likes the study of human +nature. The picture which they present is striking, and its various +parts keep alive the attention which its first sight awakens. Yet it +cannot be regarded with pleasure by any reader of undepraved taste; and +a consideration of it is absolutely fatal to the faith which is +cherished by many deluded minds in the social, if not in the ethical +virtues of an ancient aristocracy. In this respect Catharine's "Memoirs" +are not peculiar. For it is remarkable, that in all the published +memoirs, journals, and confessions of members of royal households, +(there may be an exception, but we do not remember it,) court-life +within-doors has appeared devoid of every grace and beauty, and deformed +by all that is coarse, brutal, sordid, and grovelling. Even that grace, +almost a virtue, which has its name from courts, seems not to exist in +them in a genuine form; and instead of it we find only a hollow, +glittering sham, which has but an outward semblance to real courtesy, +and which itself even is produced only on occasions more or less public +and for purposes more or less selfish. + +Russia in its most civilized parts was half barbarous in the days of +Catharine's youth, and society at the Court of St. Petersburg seems to +have been distinguished from that in the other circles of the empire +only by an addition of the vices of civilization to those of barbarism. +The women blended the manners and tastes of Indian squaws and French +_marquises_ of the period; the men modelled themselves on Peter the +Great, and succeeded in imitating him in everything except his wisdom +and patriotism. The business of life was, first, to avoid being sent to +Siberia or Astracan,--next and last, to get other people sent thither; +its pleasure, an alternation of gambling and orgies. Catharine makes +some excuse for her unrestrained sexual license, which shows that she +wrote for posterity. For what need of extenuation in this regard for a +woman whose immediate predecessors were Catharine I., and. Anne and +Elizabeth, and who lived in a court where, on the simultaneous marriage +of three of its ladies, a bet was made between the Hetman Count +Rasoumowsky and the Minister of Denmark,--not which of the brides would +be false to her marriage vows,--that was taken for granted with regard +to all,--but which would be so first! It turned out that he who bet on +the Countess Anne Voronzoff, daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of the +Empire, and bride to Count Strogonoff, who was the plainest of the three +and at the time the most innocent and childlike, won the wager. The bet +was wisely laid; for she was likely to be soonest neglected by her +husband. + +What semblance of courtesy these highborn gamblers, adulterers, and +selfish intriguers showed in their daily life appears in their behavior +to a M. Brockdorf, against whom Catharine had ill feelings, more or less +justifiable. This M. Brockdorf, who was high in favor with the Grand +Duke, was unfortunately ugly--having a long neck, a broad, flat head, +red hair, small, dull, sunken eyes, and the corners of his mouth hanging +down to his chin. So, among those court-bred people, "whenever M. +Brockdorf passed through the apartments, every one called out after him +'Pelican,'" because "this bird was the most hideous we knew of." But +what regard for the feelings of a person of inferior rank could be +expected from his enemies, in a court where the dearest ties and the +tenderest sorrows were dashed aside with the formal brutality recorded +by Catharine in the following remarkable paragraph?-- + +"A few days afterwards, the death of my father was announced to me. It +greatly afflicted me. For a week I was allowed to weep as much as I +pleased; but at the end of that time, Madame Tchoglokoff came to tell me +that I had wept enough,--that the Empress ordered me to leave off,--that +my father was not a king. I told her, I knew that he was not a king; and +she replied, that it was not suitable for a Grand Duchess to mourn for a +longer period a father who had not been a king. In fine, it was arranged +that I should go out on the following Sunday, and wear mourning for six +weeks." + +It is worthy of especial note that these people, though they led this +sensual, selfish, heartless life, trampling on natural affection and +doing as they would not be done by, prided themselves very much on the +orthodoxy of their faith, were sorely afraid of going to hell, and were +consequently very regular and rigid in the performance of their +religious duties. Catharine was no whit behind the rest in this respect. +Though bred a Lutheran, she was most exemplary in her observance of all +the requirements of the Greek Church; and even carried her hypocrisy so +far, that, when, on occasion of a dangerous and probably fatal illness, +it was proposed that she should see a Lutheran clergyman, she replied by +asking for Simon Theodorsky, a prelate of the Greek Church, who came and +had an edifying interview with her. And all this was done, as she says, +for effect, chiefly with the soldiers and common people, among whom it +made a sensation and was much talked of. This, by the way, is the only +reference which occurs in the Memoirs to any interest below that of the +highest nobility. As for the people of Russia, the right to draw their +blood with the knout and make them sweat roubles into the royal treasury +was taken as much for granted as the light and the air, by those who, +either through fraud or force, could sit in the seat of Peter the Great. +They regarded it as no less an appanage or perquisite of that seat than +the jewels in the imperial diadem, and would as soon have thought of +defending a title to the one as to the other. And the possession of the +throne, with the necessary consent of the dominant party of the high +nobility, seems to have been, and still to be, the only requisite for +the unquestioned exercise of this power; for, as to legitimacy and +divine dynastic right, was not Catharine I. a Livoman peasant? Catharine +II. a German princess, who dethroned and put to death the grandson of +Peter the Great? and does she not confess in these Memoirs that her son, +the Emperor Paul, was not the son of Peter's grandson, but of Sergius +Soltikoff? so that in the reigning house of Russia there is not a drop +of the blood of Romanoff. And Catharine's confession, which M. Herzen +emphasizes so strongly, conveys to the Russian nobles no new knowledge +on this subject; for an eminent Russian publicist being asked, on the +appearance of this book, if it were generally known in Russia that Paul +was the son of Soltikoff, replied,--"No one who knew anything ever +doubted it." And perhaps the descendants of the Boiards are quite +content that their sovereign should have illegally sprung from the loins +of a member of one of the oldest and noblest of the purely Russian +families, rather than from those of a prince of the petty house of +Holstein Gottorp. But then what is this principle of Czarism, which is +not a submission to divine right, but which causes one man to sustain, +perhaps to place, another in a position which puts his own life at the +mercy of the other's mere caprice? + +Catharine tells many trifling, but interesting incidents, of various +nature, in these Memoirs: of how, after the birth of her first child, +she was left utterly alone and neglected, so that she famished with +thirst for the lack of some one to bring her water; how her child was +taken from her at its birth, and kept from her, she hardly being allowed +even to see it; how it was always wrapped in fox-skins and seal-skins, +till it lay in a continual bath of perspiration; how the members of the +royal family itself were so badly accommodated, that sometimes they were +made ill by walking through passages open to wind and rain, and +sometimes stifled by over-crowded rooms; how at the imperial +masquerades, during one season, the men were ordered to appear in +women's dresses, and the women in the _propria quae maribus,_--the +former hideous in large whaleboned petticoats and high feathered +head-dresses, the latter looking like scrubby little boys with very +thick legs,--and all that the Empress Elizabeth might show her tall and +graceful figure and what beautiful things she used to walk with, which +Catharine says were the handsomest that she ever saw; how in this court, +where marriage was the mere shadow of a bond, it was yet deemed a matter +of the first nuptial importance that a lady of the court should have her +head dressed for the wedding by the hands of the Empress herself, or, if +she were too ill, by those of the Grand Duchess; how Catharine used, at +Oranienbaum, to dress herself from head to foot in male attire, and go +out in a skiff, accompanied only by an old huntsman, to shoot ducks and +snipe, sometimes doubling the Cape of Oranienbaum, which extends two +versts into the sea,--and how thus the fortunes of the Russian Empire, +during the latter half of the eighteenth century, were at the mercy of a +spring-tide, a gust of wind, or the tipping of a shallop. There is even +a recipe for removing tan and sunburn, which the beautiful Grand Duchess +used at the instance of the beautiful Empress; and, as both the imperial +belles testify to its great efficacy, it would be cruel not to give all +possible publicity to the fact that it was composed of white of egg, +lemon juice, and French brandy; but, alas! the proportion in which these +constituents are to be mixed is not recorded. + +Of the authenticity of these Memoirs there appears to be no reasonable +doubt, and we believe that none has been expressed. They were found, +after the death of Catharine, in a sealed envelope addressed to her son +Paul, in whose lifetime no one saw them but the friend of his childhood, +Prince Kourakine. He copied them; and, about twenty years after the +death of Paul, three or four copies were made from the Kourakine copy. +The Emperor Nicholas caused all these to be seized by the secret police, +and it is only since his death that one or two copies have again made +their appearance at Moscow (where the original is kept) and St. +Petersburg. From one of these M. Herzen made his transcript. They fail +to palliate any of Catharine's crimes, or in the least to brighten her +reputation, and add nothing to our knowledge of her sagacity and her +administrative talents; but they are yet not without very considerable +personal interest and historical value. + + +_Milch Cows and Dairy Farming_; comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and +Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and other Stock; the +Selection of Milch Cows, with a full Explanation of Guenon's Method; the +Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and +Cheese: embodying the most recent Improvements, and adapted to Farming +in the United States and British Provinces, with a Treatise upon the +Dairy Husbandry of Holland; to which is added Horsfall's System of Dairy +Management. By CHARLES L. FLINT, Secretary of the Massachusetts State +Board of Agriculture; Author of a Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants. +Liberally illustrated. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. pp. 416. + +This very useful treatise contains a full account of the best breeds of +cattle and of the most approved methods of crossing so as to develop +qualities particularly desirable; directions for choosing good milkers +by means of certain natural signs; a description of the most useful +grasses and other varieties of fodder; and very minute instructions for +the making of good butter and the proper arrangement and care of +dairies. The author has had the advantage of practical experience as a +dairyman, while his position as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of +Agriculture has afforded him more than common opportunity of learning +the experience of others. + +A volume of this kind cannot fail to commend itself to farmers and +graziers, and will be found valuable also by those who are lucky enough +to own a single cow. The production of good milk, butter, and meat is a +matter of interest to all classes in the community alike; and Mr. +Flint's book, by pointing out frankly the mistakes and deficiencies in +the present methods of our farmers and dairymen, and the best means of +remedying them, will do a good and much-needed service to the public. He +shows the folly of the false system of economy which thinks it good +farming to get the greatest quantity of milk with the least expenditure +of fodder, and which regards poor stock as cheaper because it costs less +money in the original outlay. + +If Dean Swift was right in saying that he who makes two blades of grass +grow where one grew before is of more service to mankind than he who +takes a city, we should be inclined to rank him hardly second as a +benefactor of his race who causes one pound of good butter to be made +where two pounds of bad were made before. We believe that more unsavory +and unwholesome grease is consumed in the United States under the +_alias_ of butter than in any other civilized country, and we trust that +a wide circulation of Mr. Flint's thoroughly executed treatise will tend +to reform a great and growing evil. The tendency in America has always +been to make a shift with what _will do_, rather than to insist on +having what is best; and we welcome this book as likely to act as a +corrective in one department, and that one of the most important. The +value of the volume is increased by numerous illustrations and a good +index. + + * * * * * + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + +The Young Housekeeper's Friend. By Mrs. Cornelius. Revised and Enlarged. +Boston. Brown, Taggard, & Chase. 12mo. pp. 254. 75 cts. + +The New and the Old; or California and India in Romantic Aspects. By +J.W. Palmer, M.D. With Thirteen Illustrations. New York. 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The collection of Hymn Tunes comprises a judicious choice of +the old and favorite pieces, together with original compositions of +great variety, freshness, and beauty. The Anthems, Motets, and Sentences +are designed to supply fully the varied wants of choirs. + +The characteristics which distinguish this book are: (1.) The +naturalness both of melody and harmony; (2.) The just expression of a +deeper musical thought and feeling than is ordinarily found in modern +tunes; (3.) 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9265] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 16, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, AUGUST 1859 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Sandra Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. IV.--AUGUST, 1859.--NO. XXII. + + + + + + + + +THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN THE BIBLE. + + +We say dramatic element _in_ the Bible, not dramatic element _of_ the +Bible, since that of which we speak is not essential, but incidental; it +is an aspect of the form of the book, not an attribute of its +inspiration. + +By the use of the term _dramatic_ in this connection, let us, in the +outset, be understood to have no reference whatever to the theatre and +stage-effect, or to the sundry devices whereby the playhouse is made at +once popular and intolerable. Nor shall we anticipate any charge of +irreverence; since we claim the opportunity and indulge only the license +of the painter, who, in the treatment of Scriptural themes, seeks both +to embellish the sacred page and to honor his art,--and of the sculptor, +and the poet, likewise, each of whom, ranging divine ground, remarks +upon the objects there presented according to the law of his profession. +As the picturesque, the statuesque, the poetical in the Bible are +legitimate studies, so also the dramatic. + +But in the premises, is not the term _dramatic_ interdicted,--since it +is that which is not the Bible, but which is foreign to the Bible, and +even directly contradistinguished therefrom? The drama is +representation,--the Bible is fact; the drama is imitation,--the Bible +narrative; the one is an embodiment,--the other a substance; the one +transcribes the actual by the personal,--the other is a return to the +simplest originality; the one exalts its subjects by poetic +freedom,--the other adheres to prosaic plainness. + +Yet are there not points in which they meet, or in which, for the +purposes of this essay, they may be considered as coming together,--that +is, admitting of an artistical juxtaposition? + +In the first place, to take Shakspeare for a type of the drama, what, we +ask, is the distinguishing merit of this great writer? It is his +fidelity to Nature. Is not the Bible also equally true to Nature? "It is +the praise of Shakspeare," says Dr. Johnson, "that his plays are the +mirror of life." Was there ever a more consummate mirror of life than +the Bible affords? "Shakspeare copied the manners of the world then +passing before him, and has more allusions than other poets to the +traditions and superstitions of the vulgar." The Bible, perhaps, excels +all other books in this sort of description. "Shakspeare was an exact +surveyor of the inanimate world." The Bible is full of similar sketches. +An excellence of Shakspeare is the individuality of his characters. +"They are real beings of flesh and blood," the critics tell us; "they +speak like men, not like authors." How truly this applies to the persons +mentioned in sacred writ! Goethe has compared the characters of +Shakspeare to "watches with crystalline cases and plates, which, while +they point out with perfect accuracy the course of the hours and +minutes, at the same time disclose the whole combination of springs and +wheels whereby they are moved." A similar transparency of motive and +purpose, of individual traits and spontaneous action, belongs to the +Bible. From the hand of Shakspeare, "the lord and the tinker, the hero +and the valet, come forth equally distinct and clear." In the Bible the +various sorts of men are never confounded, but have the advantage of +being exhibited by Nature herself, and are not a contrivance of the +imagination. "Shylock," observes a recent critic, "seems so much a man +of Nature's making, that we can scarce accord to Shakspeare the merit of +creating him." What will you say of Balak, Nabal, Jeroboam? "Macbeth is +rather guilty of tempting the Weird Sisters than of being tempted by +them, and is surprised and horrified at his own hell-begotten +conception." Saul is guilty of tampering with the Witch of Endor, and is +alarmed at the Ghost of Samuel, whose words distinctly embody and +vibrate the fears of his own heart, and he "falls straightway all along +on the earth." "The exquisite refinement of Viola triumphs over her +masculine attire." The exquisite refinement of Ruth triumphs in the +midst of men. + +We see there are points in which dramatic representation and Scriptural +delineation mutually touch. + +A distinguished divine of Connecticut said he wanted but two books in +his library, the Bible and Shakspeare,--the one for religion, the other +to be his instructor in human nature. In the same spirit, St. Chrysostom +kept a copy of Aristophanes under his pillow, that he might read it at +night before he slept and in the morning when he waked. The strong and +sprightly eloquence of this father, if we may trust tradition, drew its +support from the vigorous and masculine Atticism of the old comedian. + +But human nature, in every stage of its development and every variety of +its operation, is as distinctly pronounced on the pages of Scripture as +in the scenes of the dramatist. Of Shakespeare it is said, "He turned +the globe round for his amusement, and surveyed the generations of men, +and the individuals as they passed, with their different concerns, +passions, follies, vices, virtues, actions, and motives." He has been +called the "thousand-minded," the "oceanic soul." The Bible creates the +world and peoples it, and gives us a profound and universal insight into +all its concerns. + +Another peculiarity of Shakspeare is his self-forgetfulness. In reading +what is written, you do not think of him, but of his productions. "The +perfect absence of himself from his own pages makes it difficult for us +to conceive of a human being having written them." This remark applies +with obvious force to the Bible. The authors of the several books do not +thrust themselves upon your notice, or interfere with your meditations +on what they have written; indeed, to such an extent is this +self-abeyance maintained, that it is impossible, at this period of time, +to determine who are the authors of some of the books. The narrative of +events proceeds, for the most part, as if the author had never existed. +How _naively_ and perspicuously everything is told, without the +colouring of prejudice, or an infusion of egotism on the part of the +writer! + +Coleridge says, Shakspeare gives us no moral highwaymen, no sentimental +thieves and rat-catchers, no interesting villains, no amiable +adulteresses. The Bible even goes farther than this, and is faithful to +the foibles and imperfections of its favorite characters, and describes +a rebellious Moses, a perjured David, a treacherous Peter. + +"In nothing does Shakspeare so deeply and divinely touch the heart of +humanity as in the representation of woman." We have the grandeur of +Portia, the sprightliness of Rosalind, the passion of Juliet, the +delicacy of Ophelia, the mournful dignity of Hermione, the filial +affection of Cordelia. How shall we describe the Pythian greatness of +Miriam, the cheerful hospitality of Sarah, the heroism of Rahab, the +industry of Dorcas, the devotion of Mary? And we might set off Lady +Macbeth with Jezebel, and Cleopatra with Delilah. + +But the Bible, it may be said, so far as the subject before us is +concerned, is chiefly historical, while Shakspeare is purely dramatic. +The one is description,--the other action; the one relates to +events,--the other to feelings; the department of the one is the general +course of human affairs,--that of the other, the narrower circle of +individual experience; the field of the one is that which the eye of +philosophy may embrace,--while that of the other is what the human frame +may portray. + +However this may apply to the average of history, it will be found that +the Bible, in its historical parts, is not so strictly historical as to +preclude associations of another sort. The Bible is remarkable for a +visual and embodied relief, a bold and vivid detail. We know of no book, +if we may except the compositions of professed dramatists, that contains +so much of personal feeling and incident. In simplicity and directness, +in freedom from exaggeration, and in the general unreserve of its +expression, it even exceeds the most of these. In it we may discover a +succession of little dramas of Nature that will affect us quite as +profoundly as those larger ones of Art. + +If the structure of the drama be dialogistic, we find the Bible formed +on the same model. If the writers of the former disappear under the +personages of their fancy, the writers of the latter disappear under the +personages of fact. As in the one, so in the other, strangers are +introduced to tell their own story, each in his own way. + +In the commencement of the Bible, after a brief prologue, the curtain +rises, and we, as spectators, look in upon a process of interlocution. +The scene is the green, sunny garden of Eden, that to which the memory +of humanity reverts as to its dim golden age, and which ever expresses +the bright dream of our youth, ere the rigor of misfortune or the +dulness of experience has spoilt it. The _dramatis personae_ are three +individuals, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. There are the mysterious tree, +with its wonderful fruit,--the beautiful, but inquisitive woman,--the +thoughtful, but too compliant man,--and the insinuating reptile. One +speaks, the other rejoins, and the third fills up the chasm of interest. +The plot thickens, the passions are displayed, and the tragedy hastens +to its end. Then is heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool +(the wind) of the garden, the impersonal presence of Jehovah is, as it +were, felt in the passing breeze, and a shadow falls upon the +earth,--but such a shadow as their own patient toil may dissipate, and +beyond the confines of which their hope, which has now taken the place +of enjoyment, is permitted ever to look. + +Without delaying on the moral of this passage, what we would remark upon +is the clearness and freedom of the dialogue,--a feature which we find +pervading the whole of the sacred writings. + +In the account of Cain, which immediately succeeds, the narrative is +inelaborate, casual, secondary; the dialogue is simple and touching. The +agony of the fratricide and his remorse are better expressed by his own +lips than could be done by any skill of the historian. + +In the deception which Abraham put upon the Egyptians, touching his +wife,--which it is no part of our present object to justify or to +condemn,--what a stroke of pathos, what a depth of conjugal sentiment, +is exhibited! "Thou art a fair woman to look upon, and the Egyptians, +when they see thee, will kill me and save thee alive. _Say, I pray thee, +thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my +soul shall live because of thee_." + +Viola appears very interesting and very innocent, when, in boy's +clothes, she wanders about in pursuit of a lover. Is not Sarah equally +interesting and equally innocent, when, under cover of an assumed name, +and that a sister's, she would preserve the love of one who has worthily +won it? + +Will it be said that the dialogue of the Bible lacks the charm of +poetry?--that its action and sentiment, its love and its sorrow, are not +heightened by those efforts of the fancy which delight us in dramatic +authors?--that its simplicity is bald, and its naturalness rough?--that +its excessive familiarity repels taste and disturbs culture? If we may +trust Wordsworth, simplicity is not inconsistent with the pleasures of +the imagination. The style of the Bible is not redundant,--there is +little extravagance in it, and it has no trickery of words. Yet this +does not prevent its being deep in sentiment, brilliant with intrinsic +thought or powerful effect. + +In the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Valentine thus utters himself touching +his betrothed:-- + + "What light is light, if Sylvia be not seen? + What joy is joy, if Sylvia be not by? + Except I see my Sylvia in the night, + There is no music in the nightingale. + Unless I look on Sylvia in the day, + There is no day for me to look upon. + She is my essence; and I cease to be, + If I be not by her fair influence + Fostered, illumined, cherished, kept alive." + +Compare with this the language of Abraham. "Thou art fair, my wife. Say, +I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy +sake, and my soul shall live because of thee." The first is an instance +of poetic amplification and _abandon_; we should contend, for the last, +that it expresses poetic tenderness and delicacy. In the one case, +passion is diffuse,--in the other, concentrated. Which is the more +natural, others must judge. + +"Euthanasy," "Theron and Aspasio," the "Phaedon" of Plato are dialogues, +but they are not dramatic. It may be, that, for a composition to claim +this distinction, it must embody great character or deep feeling,--that +it must express not only the individuality, but the strength of the +passions. + +Observing this criticism, we think we may find any quantity of dramatic +dialogue in Scripture. The story of Joseph, the march in the wilderness, +the history of David, are full of it. + +There are not only dramatic dialogue and movement, but dramatic +monologue and episode. For illustration, we might refer to Hagar in the +wilderness. Her tragic loneliness and shuddering despair alight upon the +page of Scripture with the interest that attends the introduction of the +veiled Niobe with her children into the Grecian theatre. + +There are those who say, that the truth of particular events, so far as +we are conscious of it, is a drawback on the pleasure as well as the +dignity of the drama,--in other words, that the Bible is too true to +afford what is called dramatic delight, while the semblance of truth in +Shakspeare is exactly graduated to this particular affection. Between +the advocates of this theory, and those who say that Shakspeare is true +as truth itself, we can safely leave the point. + +The subject has another aspect, which appears in the inquiry, What is +the true object of the drama? If, as has been asserted, the object of +the drama be the exhibition of the human character,--if, agreeably to +Aristotle, tragedy purifies the affections by terror and pity,--or if, +according to a recent writer, it interests us through the moral and +religious principles of our nature,--or even if, according to Dr. +Johnson, it be the province of comedy to bring into view the customs, +manners, vices, and the whole character of a people,--it is obvious that +the Bible and the drama have some correspondence. If, in the somewhat +heated language of Mrs. Jameson, "whatever in religion is holy and +sublime, in virtue amiable and grave, whatever hath passion or +admiration in the changes of fortune or the refluxes of feeling, +whatever is pitiful in the weakness, grand in the strength, or terrible +in the perversion of the human intellect," be the domain of tragedy, +this correspondence increases upon us. + +If, however, it be the object of the drama to divert, then it occupies a +wholly different ground from the Bible. If it merely gratifies curiosity +or enlivens pastime, if it awakens emotion without directing it to +useful ends, if it rallies the infirmities of human nature with no other +design than to provoke our derision or increase our conceit, it shoots +very, very wide of the object which the sacred writers propose. + +It is worthy to be remarked, that the Jews had no drama, or nothing that +answers to our idea of that term at the present time; they had no +theatres, no writers of tragedy or comedy. Neither are there any traces +of the dramatic art among the Egyptians, among whom the Jews sojourned +four hundred years, nor among the Arabs or the Persians, who are of +kindred stock with this people. On the other hand, by the Hindoos and +Chinese, the Greeks and Romans, histrionic representation was cultivated +with assiduity. + +How shall we explain this national peculiarity? Was it because the +religion of the Jews forbade creative imitation? Is it to be found in +the letter or the spirit of the second commandment, which interdicts the +making of graven images of any pattern in earth or heaven? We should +hardly think so, since the object of this prohibition is rather to +prevent idolatry than to discourage the gratification of taste. "Thou +shalt not bow down to them nor serve them." The Jews did have emblematic +observances, costume, and works of art. Yet, on the other hand, the Jews +possessed something resembling the drama, and that out of which the +dramatic institutions of all nations have sprung. The question, then, +why the Jews had no drama proper, and still preserved the semblance and +germ thereof, will be partially elucidated by a reference to the early +history of dramatic art. + +In its inception, the drama, among all nations, was a religious +observance. It came in with the chorus and the ode. The chorus, or, as +we now say, choir, was a company of persons who on stated occasions sang +sacred songs, accompanying their music with significant gesture, and an +harmonious pulsation of the feet, or the more deliberate march. The ode +or song they sang was of an elevated structure and impassioned tone, and +was commonly addressed to the Divinity. Instances of the ode are the +lyrics of Pindar and David. The chorus was also divided into parts, to +each of which was assigned a separate portion of the song, and which +answered one another in alternate measures. A good instance of the +chorus and its movement appears after the deliverance of the Jews from +the dangers of the Red Sea. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel +this song unto the Lord: 'I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously,'" etc. "And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel +in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with +dances; and Miriam answered them, 'Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously.'" At a later period, in Jewish as in Greek +history, choral exercises became a profession, and the choir constituted +a detached portion of men and women. + +"Those who have studied the history of Grecian antiquities," says +Archbishop Potter, "and collected the fragments which remain of the most +ancient authors, have all concurred in the opinion, that poetry was +first employed in celebrating the praises of the gods. The fragments of +the Orphic hymns, and those of Linus and Musaeus, show these poets +entertained sounder notions of the Supreme Being than many philosophers +of a later date. There are lyric fragments yet remaining that bear +striking resemblance to Scripture." + +So, says Bishop Horne, "The poetry of the Jews is clearly traceable to +the service of religion. To celebrate the praises of God, to decorate +his worship, and give force to devout sentiments, was the employment of +the Hebrew Muse." + +The choral song, that is, a sacred ode united with appropriate action, +distinguished the Jews and Greeks alike. At a later period of Jewish +history, the chorus became perfected, yet without receiving any organic +change. Among the Greeks, however, the chorus passed by degrees into the +drama. To simple singing and dancing they added a variety of imitative +action; from celebrating the praises of the Divinity, they proceeded to +represent the deeds of men, and their orchestras were enlarged to +theatres. They retained the chorus, but subordinated it to the action. +The Jews, on the other hand, did no more than dramatize the chorus. So, +Bishop Horsley says, the greater part of the Psalms are a sort of +dramatic ode, consisting of dialogues between certain persons sustaining +certain characters. In these psalms, the persons are the writer himself +and a band of Levites,--or sometimes the Supreme Being, or a personation +of the Messiah. + +We find, then, the Jews and the Greeks running parallel in respect of +the drama, or that out of which the drama sprung, the chorus, for a long +series of years. The practice of the two nations in this respect +exhibits a striking coincidence, indeed, Lowth conceives that the Song +of Solomon bears a strong resemblance to the Greek drama. "The chorus of +virgins," he says, "seems in every respect congenial to the tragic +chorus of the Greeks. They are constantly present, and prepared to +fulfil all the duties of advice and consolation; they converse +frequently with the different characters; they take part in the whole +business of the poem." They fulfilled, in a word, all the purpose of the +Greek chorus on the Greek stage. + +On certain occasions, the Greek chorus celebrated divine worship in the +vicinity of the great altar of their god. Clad in magnificent vestments, +they move to solemn measures about it; they ascend and descend the steps +that lead to it; they offer sacrifices upon it; they carry in their +hands lighted torches; they pour out lustral water; they burn incense; +they divide into antiphonal bands, and sing alternate stanzas of their +sacred songs. + +So, in their religious festivals, the Jewish chorus surrounded the high +altar of their worship, gorgeously dressed, and with an harmonious +tread; they mounted and remounted the steps; they offered sacrifices; +they bore branches of trees in their hands; they scattered the lustral +water; they burnt incense; they pealed the responsive anthem. + +But while we follow down the stream of resemblance to a certain point, +it divides at last: on the Greek side, it is diverted into the lighter +practice of the theatre; on the Jewish side, it seems to deepen itself +in the religious feeling of the nation. + +Aeschylus, the father of tragedy, seizing upon the chorus, elaborated it +into the drama. The religious idea, indeed, seems never to have deserted +the gentile drama; for, at a later period, we find the Romans appointing +theatrical performances with the special design of averting the anger of +the gods. A religious spirit, also, pervades all the writings of the +ancient dramatists; they bring the gods to view, and the terrors of the +next world, on their stage, are seen crowding upon the sins of this. + +On the other hand, David, who may be denominated the Alfred of the Jews, +seems to have contented himself with the chorus; he allotted its +members, disciplined its ranks, heightened its effect, and supplied new +lyrics for its use. + +Another exemplification of singular coincidence and diversity between +the two nations appears in this, that the goat was common in the +religious observances of both; a similar ritual required the sacrifice +of this animal: but with the Jews the creature was an emblem of +solemnity, while with the Greeks he was significant of joy; the Jews +sacrificed him on their fasts,--the Greeks in their feasts. And here we +may observe, that tragedy, the most dignified and the primitive form of +the drama, deduces its origin from the goat,--being, literally, the song +of the goat, that is, the song accompanying the sacrifice of the goat. + +Let us now endeavor to answer the question, Why, since the drama was +generally introduced among surrounding nations, and Jewish customs and +life comprised so many initial dramatic materials, this art was not +known among that people? + +It was owing to the earnestness and solemnity of their religious faith. +We find the cause in the simple, exalted, and comparatively spiritual +ideas they had of the Supreme Being; in a word, we shall state the whole +ground to be this,--that the Greeks were polytheists, and the Jews +monotheists. + +Let us bear in mind that the chorus, and the drama that was built upon +it, had a religious association, and were employed in religious +devotion. We may add, moreover, that the Greeks introduced their gods +upon the stage; this the Jews could not do. The Greeks, of course, had a +great deal of religious feeling, but they could not cherish that +profound reverence for the object of their worship which the Jews +entertained towards theirs. The Jews accompanied the Greeks in the use +of the chorus, but they could not go with them any farther. They both +united in employing music and the dance, and all the pomp of procession +and charm of ceremony, in divine worship; but when it came to displaying +the object of their adoration in personal form to the popular eye, and +making him an actor on the stage, however dignified that stage might be, +the Jews could not consent. + +This, we think, will explain, in part, why others of the ancient +nations, the Arabs and Persians, rich as they were in every species of +literature, had no theatre; they were monotheists. + +But there is the department of comedy, of a lighter sort, which does not +converse with serious subjects, or necessarily include reference to +Deity; why do we find no trace of this among the Jews? We may remember, +that all festivals, in very ancient time, of every description, the +grave and the gay, the penitential and the jubilant, had a religious +design, and were suggested by a religious feeling. We think the peculiar +cast of the Judaic faith would hardly embody itself in such a mode of +expression. Moreover, tragedy was the parent of comedy,--and since the +Jews had not the first, we should hardly expect them to produce the +last. It is not difficult to perceive how the Greeks could convert their +goat to dramatic, or even to comic purposes; but the Jews could not deal +so with theirs. + +We approach another observation, that there is no comedy in the Bible. +There is tragedy there,--not in the sense in which we have just denied +that the Jews had tragedy, but in the obvious sense of tragic elements, +tragic scenes, tragic feelings. In the same sense, we say, there are no +comic elements, or scenes, or feelings. There is that in the Bible to +make you weep, but nothing to move you to laughter. Why is this? Are +there not smiles as well as tears in life? Have we not a deep, joyous +nature, as well as aspiration, reverence, awe? Is there not a +free-and-easy side of existence, as well as vexation and sorrow? We +assent that these things are so. + +But comedy implies ridicule, sharp, corroding ridicule. The comedy of +the Greeks ridiculed everything,--persons, characters, opinions, +customs, and sometimes philosophy and religion. Comedy became, +therefore, a sort of consecrated slander, lyric spite, aesthetical +buffoonery. Comedy makes you laugh at somebody's expense; it brings +multitudes together to see it inflict death on some reputation; it +assails private feeling with all the publicity and powers of the stage. + +Now we doubt if the Jewish faith or taste would tolerate this. The Jews +were commanded to love their neighbor. We grant, their idea of neighbor +was excessively narrow and partial; but still it was their neighbor. +They were commanded not to bear false witness against their neighbor, +and he was pronounced accursed who should smite his neighbor secretly. +It might appear that comedy would violate each of these statutes. But +the Jews had their delights, their indulgences, their transports, +notwithstanding the imperfection of their benevolence, the meagreness of +their truth, and the cumbersomeness of their ceremonials. The Feast of +Tabernacles, for instance, was liberal and happy, bright and smiling; it +was the enthusiasm of pastime, the psalm of delectableness. They did not +laugh at the exposure of another's foibles, but out of their own merry +hearts. + +Will it be said, the Bible is not true to Nature, if it does not +represent the comical side of life, as well as Shakspeare does? We think +the comical parts of Shakspeare, his extreme comical parts, are rather +an exaggeration of individual qualities than a fair portraiture of the +whole species. There is no Falstaff in the Bible, yet the qualities of +Falstaff exist in the Bible and in Nature, but in combination, and this +combination modifies their aspect and effect. + +There is laughter in the Bible, but it is not uttered to make you laugh. +There are also events recorded, which, at the time, may have produced +effects analogous to comedy. The approach of the Gibeonites to the camp +of Israel in their mock-beggarly costume might be mentioned. Shimei's +cursing David has always seemed to us to border on the ludicrous. + +But to leave these matters and return to the general thread of thought. +Dramas have been formed on the Bible. We hardly need name "Paradise +Lost," or "Samson Agonistes," or the "Cain" of Byron, the "Hadad" of +Hillhouse, or Mrs. More's "David and Goliah." "Pilgrim's Progress" has a +Scriptural basis. + +Moreover, if we may trust the best critics, certain portions of the +sacred volume are conceived in a dramatic spirit, and are propounded to +a dramatic interpretation. These are the Book of Job, the Song of +Solomon, and, possibly, the Apocalypse of St. John. If we were disposed +to contend for this view, we need but mention such authorities as +Calmet, Carpzov, Bishops Warburton, Percy, Lowth, Bossuet. + +The Book of Job has a prose prologue and epilogue, the intermediate +portions being poetic dialogue. The characters are discriminated and +well supported. It does not preserve the unities of Aristotle, which, +indeed, are found neither in the Bible nor in Nature,--which Shakspeare +neglects, and which are to be met with only in the crystalline +artificialness of the French stage. "It has no plot, not even of the +simplest kind," says Dr. Lowth. It has a plot,--not an external and +visible one, but an internal and spiritual one; its incidents are its +feelings, its progress is the successive conditions of mind, and it +terminates with the triumph of virtue. If it be not a record of actual +conversation, it is an embodiment of a most wonderful ideality. The +eternity of God, the grandeur of Nature, the profundity of the soul, +move in silent panorama before you. The great and agitating problems of +human existence are depicted with astonishing energy and precision, and +marvellous is the conduct of the piece to us who behold it as a painting +away back on the dark canvas of antiquity. + +We said the Jews had no drama, no theatre, because they would not +introduce the Divinity upon the stage. Yet God appears speaking in the +Book of Job, not bodily, but ideally, and herein is all difference. This +drama addresses the imagination, not the eye. The Greeks brought their +divinities into sight, stood them on the stage,--or clothed a man with +an enormous mask, and raised him on a pedestal, giving him also +corresponding apparel, to represent their god. The Hebrew stage, if we +may share the ordinary indulgence of language in using that term, with +an awe and delicacy suitable to the dignity of the subject, permits the +Divinity to speak, but does not presume to employ his person; the +majesty of Infinitude utters itself, but no robe-maker undertakes to +dress it for the occasion. In the present instance, how exalted, how +inspiring, is the appearance of God! how free from offensive diminution +and costumal familiarity! "Then the Lord answered Job out of the +whirlwind, and said." Dim indeed is the representation, but very +distinct is the impression. The phenomenon conforms to the purity of +feeling, not to the grossness of sense. Devotion is kindled by the +sublime impalpableness; no applause is enforced by appropriate acting. +The Greeks, would have played the Book of Job,--the Jews were contented +to read it. + +And here we might remark a distinction between dramatic reading and +dramatic seeing; and in support of our theory we can call to aid so good +an authority as Charles Lamb. "I cannot help being of opinion," says +this essayist, "that the plays of Shakspeare are less calculated for +performance on a stage than those of almost any other dramatist +whatever." + +How are the love dialogues of Romeo and Juliet, by the inherent fault of +stage representation, sullied and turned from their very nature by being +exposed to a large assembly! How can the profound sorrows of Hamlet be +depicted by a gesticulating actor? So, to see Lear acted, to see an old +man tottering about the stage with a walking-stick, turned out of doors +by his daughters in a rainy night, has nothing in it but what is painful +and disgusting. The contemptible machinery by which they mimic the storm +in which he goes out is not more inadequate to represent the horrors of +the real elements than any actor can be to represent Lear. In the acted +Othello, the black visage of the Moor is obtruded upon you; in the +written Othello, his color disappears in his mind. When Hamlet compares +the two pictures of Gertrude's first and second husband, who wants to +see the pictures? But in the acting, a miniature must be lugged out. "The +truth is," he adds, "the characters of Shakspeare are more the objects +of meditation than of interest or curiosity as to their actions." + +All this applies with force to what we have been saying. The Jews, in +respect of their dramatic culture, seem more like one who enjoys +Shakspeare in the closet; the Greeks, like those who are tolled off to +the theatre to see him acted. The Greeks would have contrived a pair of +bellows to represent the whirlwind; mystic, vast, inaudible, it passes +before the imagination of the Jew, and its office is done. The Jew would +be shocked to see his God in a human form; such a thing pleased the +Greek. The source of the difference is to be sought in the theology of +the two nations. The theological development of the Jews was very +complete,--that of the Greeks unfinished. + +Yet the Jews were very deficient in art, and the Greeks perfect; both +failed in humanity. The Greeks had more ideality than the Jews; but +their ideality was very intense; it was continually, so to speak, +running aground; it must see its conceptions embodied; and more,--when +they were embodied, Pygmalion-like, it must seek to imbue them with +motion and sensibility. The conception of the Jews was more vague, +perhaps, but equally affecting; they were satisfied with carrying in +their minds the faint outline of the sublime, without seeking to chisel +it into dimension and tangibility. They cherished in their bosoms their +sacred ideal, and worshipped from far the greatness of the majesty that +shaded their imaginations. Hence we look to Athens for art, to Palestine +for ethics; the one produces rhetoricians,--the other, prophets. + +So, we see, the theologico-dramatic forms of the two nations--and there +were no other--are different. The one pleases the prurient eye,--the +other gratifies the longing soul; the one amuses,--the other inspires; +the one is a hollow pageant of divine things,--the other is a glad, +solemn intimation from the unutterable heart of the universe. + +The Song of Solomon, that stumbling-block of criticism and pill of +faith, a recent writer regards as a parable in the form of a drama, in +which the bride is considered as representing true religion, the royal +lover as the Jewish people, and the younger sister as the Gospel +dispensation. But it is evidently conceived in a very different spirit +from the Book of Job or the Psalms of David, and its theological +character is so obscured by other associations as to lead many to +inquire whether an enlightened religious sensibility dictated it. + +We cannot dismiss this part of our subject without allusion to a species +of drama that prevailed in the Middle Ages, called Mysteries, or +Moralities. These were a sort of scenical illustration of the Sacred +Scripture, and the subjects were events taken sometimes from the New +Testament and sometimes from the Old. It is said they were designed to +supply the place of the Greek and Roman theatre, which had been banished +from the Church. The plays were written and performed by the clergy. +They seem to have first been employed to wile away the dulness of the +cloister, but were very soon introduced to the public. Adam and Eve in +Paradise, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection were theatrized. The effect +could hardly be salutary. The different persons of the Trinity appeared +on the stage; on one side of the scene stretched the yawning throat of +an immense wooden dragon; masked devils ran howling in and out. + +"In the year 1437,"--we follow the literal history, as we find it quoted +in D'Israeli,--"when the Bishop of Metz caused the Mystery of the +Passion to be represented near that city, God was an old gentleman, a +curate of the place, and who was very near expiring on the cross, had he +not been timely assisted. He was so enfeebled that another priest +finished his part. At the same time this curate undertook to perform the +Resurrection, which being a less difficult task, he did it admirably +well. Another priest, personating Judas, had like to have been stifled +while he hung on the tree, for his neck slipped. This being at length +luckily perceived, he was cut down, and recovered." In another instance, +a man who assumed the Supreme Being becoming nearly suffocated by the +paint applied to his face, it was wisely announced that for the future +the Deity should be covered by a cloud. These plays, carried about the +country, taken up by the baser sort of people, descended through all +degrees of farce to obscenity, and, in England, becoming entangled in +politics, at length disappeared. It is said they linger in Italy, and +are annually reproduced in Spain. + +The Bible is incapable of representation. For a man to act the Supreme +Being would be as revolting in idea as profane in practice. One may in +words portray the divine character, give utterance to the divine will. +This every preacher does. But to what is the effect owing? Not to +proprieties of attitude or arrangement of muscle, but to the spirit of +the man magnified and flooding with the great theme, and to the thought +of God that surrounds and subdues all; in other words, the imagination +is addressed, not the sight,--the sentiments and affections are engaged, +not the senses. As Lamb says of the Lear of Shakspeare, it cannot be +acted; so, with greater force, we may say of the Bible, it cannot be +acted. When we read or hear of the Passion of the Saviour, it is the +thought, the emotion, burning and seething within it, at which by +invisible contact our own thought and emotion catch fire; and the +capabilities of impersonation and manufacture are mocked by such a +subject. + +But the Bible abounds in dramatic situation, action, and feeling. This +has already been intimated; it only remains that we indicate some +examples. The history of David fulfils all the demands of dramatic +composition. It has the severe grandeur of Aeschylus, the moving +tenderness of Euripides, and the individual fidelity of Shakspeare. +Could this last-named writer, who, while he counterfeited Nature with +such success, was equally commended for his historical integrity,--could +Shakspeare have performed that service on this history, which Milton, +More, and others have undertaken on other portions of the sacred +volume,--could he have digested it into a regular dramatic form,--he +would have accomplished a work of rare interest. It would include the +characters of Samuel and Saul; it would describe the magnanimous +Jonathan and the rebellious Absalom; Nathan, Nabal, Goliah, Shimei, +would impart their respective features; it would be enriched with all +that is beautiful in woman's love or enduring in parental affection. It +is full of incident, and full of pathos. It verges towards the terrible, +it is shaken with the passionate, it rises into the heroic. Pursued in +the true spirit of Jewish theology, the awful presence of God would +overhang and pervade it, while the agency of his providence should +attend on the evolutions of events. + +There is one effect which, in the present arrangement of the canon, is +entirely lost to view, and which could be revived only by the +synchronizing of the Psalms with their proper epochs. For instance, the +eighth Psalm is referable to the youth of David, when he was yet leading +a shepherd life. The dramatic form of his history would detach this from +its present place, and insert it amid the occasions and in the years to +which it belongs. What a scene we should then have! The youthful David, +ruddy he was, and, withal, of a beautiful countenance, (marginal +reading, fair of eyes,) and goodly to look to; and he was a cunning +player on the harp. There is the glow of poetic enthusiasm in his eyes, +and the fervor of religious feeling in all his moods; as he tends his +flock amid the quietness and beauty of his native hills, he joins to the +aspirations of his soul the melodies of music. So the night overtakes +him, the labors of the day are past, his meditations withdraw him from +the society of men, he is alone with Nature and with God;--at such a +moment the spirit of composition and utterance is upon him, and he hymns +himself in those lofty and touching stanzas,-- + + "O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth! + When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, + The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, + What is man that thou art mindful of him, + And the son of man that thou carest for him? + Yet thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, + Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor; + Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hand, + Thou hast put all things under his feet,-- + All sheep and oxen, + Yea, and the beasts of the forest, + The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, + And whatsoever passes through the deep. + O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth!" + +Again, the fifty-seventh Psalm is assigned, in respect of place, to the +cave of En-gedi, into which David fled from the vengeance of Saul. Here, +surrounded by lofty rocks, whose promontories screen a wide extent of +vale, he breaks forth,-- + + "Have pity upon me, O God, have pity upon me, + For in thee doth my soul seek refuge! + Yea, in the shadow of thy wings do I take shelter, + Until these calamities be overpast!" + +Dramatically touched, and disposed according to the natural unities of +the subject, these sublime and affecting songs would appear on their +motive occasions, and be surrounded by their actual accompaniments. + +The present effect may be compared to that which would be felt, if we +should detach the songs of the artificial drama from their original +impulse and feeling, (for instance, the willow dirge of Desdemona, and +the fantastic moans of Ophelia,) and produce them in a parlor. Not but +that these lyrics have a universal fitness, and a value which no time +can change or circumstance diminish; but as we are looking at them +simply in a dramatic view, we claim the right to suggest their dramatic +force and pertinency. This effect, we might remark, is particularly and +most truthfully regarded in the Lament of David over Saul and Jonathan. +That monody would be shorn of its interest, if it were inserted anywhere +else. The Psalms are more impersonal and more strictly religious than +that, and hence their universal application; only we say, we can easily +conceive that the revival of them in the order of their history, and in +all the purity of their native pathos, would render them more +attractive. + +In connection with what we would further observe of the Psalms of David, +let us again call attention to the ancient chorus,--how it was a species +of melodrama, how it sang its parts, and comprised distinct vocalists +and musicians, who pursued the piece in alternate rejoinder. What we +would observe is, that many of the Psalms were written for the chorus, +and, so to speak, were performed by it. There are some of them which it +is impossible to understand without attention to this dramatic method of +rehearsal. Psalm cxviii., for instance, includes several speakers. Psalm +xxiv. was composed on the occasion of the transfer of the ark to the +tabernacle on Mount Zion. And David, we read, and all the house of +Israel, brought up the ark with shouting and with the sound of the +trumpet. In the midst of the congregated nation, supported by a varied +instrumental accompaniment, with the smoke of the well-fed altar surging +into the skies, the chorus took up the song which had been prepared to +their hand,--one group calling out, "Who shall ascend into the hill of +the Lord?"--the other pealing their answer, "He that hath clean hands +and a pure heart." Meanwhile, they dance before the Lord,--that is, we +suppose, preserving with their feet the unities of the music. + +It was during a melodrama like this, in the midst of its exciting +grandeur and all-pervading transport, executed at the Feast of +Tabernacles, in the open area of the Temple, when the Jews were wont to +pour upon the altar water taken from the pool of Siloam, chanting at the +same time the twelfth chapter of Isaiah, and one division of the chorus +had just sung the words,-- + + "With joy we draw water from the wells of salvation," + +and before the other had replied,--it was at this moment, that Christ, +as Dr. Furness very reasonably conjectures, took up the response in his +own person, and overwhelmed attention by that memorable declaration, "If +any man thirst, let him come to me and drink; and from within him shall +flow rivers of living water." + +It is what we may term the dramatic proprieties that give to many of the +Psalms, in the language of a recent commentator, "a greater degree of +fitness, spirit, and grandeur"; and they impart to the history of David +a certain decorousness of illustration and perspicuity of feature which +it would not otherwise possess. They would produce upon it the same +result as is achieved by the sister arts on this and other portions of +the sacred volume, without marring the text or doing violence to truth. +Not, let us repeat, that the Bible can be theatrized. Neither church nor +playhouse can revive the forms of Judaism, without recalling its lost +spirit. And that must be a bold hand, indeed, that shall undertake to +mend again the shivered vail of the Temple, or collect from its ruins a +ritual which He that was greater than Solomon typically denounced in +foretelling the overthrow of that gorgeous pile. The Bible, as to its +important verities and solemn doctrine, is transparent to the +imagination and affections, and does not require the mediation of dumb +show or scenic travesty. + +It is not difficult to trace many familiar dramatic resemblances in the +Old Testament. Shakspeare, who was certainly well read in the Bible and +frequently quotes it, in the composition of Lear may have had David and +Absalom in mind; the feigned madness of Hamlet has its prototype in that +of David; Macbeth and the Weird Sisters have many traits in common with +Saul and the Witch of Endor. Jezebel is certainly a suggestive study for +Lady Macbeth. The whole story has its key in that verse where we read, +"There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work +wickedness in the sight of the Lord, _whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred +up_." As in the play, so in this Scripture, we have the unrestrained and +ferocious ambition of the wife conspiring with the equally cruel, but +less hardy ambition of the husband. When Macbeth had murdered sleep, +when he could not screw his courage to the sticking-point, when his +purpose looked green and pale, his wife stings him with taunts, scathes +him with sarcasm, and by her own energy of intellect and storm of will +arouses him to action. So Ahab came in heavy and displeased, and laid +him down on his bed, and turned away his face, and so his wife inflames +him with the sharpness of her rebuke. "Why art thou sad?" she asks. +"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, eat bread, and be +merry!" The lust of regal and conjugal pride, intermixed, works in both. +Jezebel, whose husband was a king, would crown him with kingly deeds. +Lady Macbeth, whose husband was a prince, would see him crowned a king. +Jezebel would aggrandize empire, which her unlawful marriage thereto had +jeoparded. Lady Macbeth will run the risk of an unlawful marriage with +empire, if she may thereby aggrandize it. Jezebel is insensible to +patriotic feelings,--Lady Macbeth to civil and hospitable duties. The +Zidonian woman braves the vengeance of Jehovah,--the Scotch woman dares +the Powers of Darkness; the one is incited by the oracles of Baal,--the +other by the predictions of witches. Lady Macbeth has more intellectual +force,--Jezebel more moral decision; Lady Macbeth exhibits great +imagination,--Jezebel a stronger will. As the character of Lady Macbeth +is said to be relieved by the affection she shows for her husband, so is +that of Jezebel by her tenderness for Ahab. The grandness of the +audacity with which Jezebel sends after the prophet Elisha, saying, "So +let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life +of one of them by to-morrow about this time," has its counterpart in the +lofty terror of the invocation which Lady Macbeth makes to the "spirits +that wait on mortal thoughts,"-- + + "Fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full + Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, + Stop up the access and the passage of remorse! + . . . . Come to my woman's breasts, + And take my milk for gall, ye murdering ministers!" + +But the last moments of these excessive characters are singularly +contrasted. Jezebel scoffs at approaching retribution, and, shining with +paint and dripping with jewels, is pitched to the dogs; Lady Macbeth +goes like a coward to her grave, and, curdled with remorse, receives the +stroke of doom. + +If Shakspeare and the Old Testament are a just manifestation of human +nature, the New is so different, its representation would seem to be +almost fanciful or fallacious; or if the latter be accepted, the former +would seem to be discarded. But both are faithful to the different ages +and phases of man. The one is a dispensation of force,--the other of +love; the one could make nothing perfect,--but the bringing in of a +better covenant makes all things perfect. Through the tempest and storm, +the brutality and lust of the Greek tragedians, and even of the +barbarous times on which Shakspeare builds many of his plays, through +the night of Judaical back-slidings, idolatry, and carnal commandments, +we patiently wait, and gladly hail the morning of the Sun of +Righteousness. The New Testament is a green, calm, island, in this +heaving, fearful ocean of dramatic interest. How delightful is +everything there, and how elevated! how glad, and how solemn! how +energetic, and how tranquil! What characters, what incident, what +feeling! Yet how different! So different, indeed, from what elsewhere +appears, that we are compelled to ask, Can this be that same old +humanity whose passions, they tell us, are alike in all ages, and the +emphatic turbulence of which constitutes so large a portion of history? + +But how shall we describe what is before us? The events open, if we may +draw a term from our subject, with a prologue spoken by angels,-- + + "Peace on earth, and good-will towards men." + +There had been Jezebels and Lady Macbeths enough; the memory of David +still smelt of blood; the Roman eagles were gorging their beaks on human +flesh; and the Samaritan everywhere felt the gnawing, shuddering sense +of hatred and scorn. No chorus appears answering to chorus, praising the +god of battles, or exulting in the achievements of arms; but the +sympathies of Him who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities +answer to the wants and woes of the race, and every thoughtful mind +ecstatically encores. The inexorable Fate of the Greeks does not appear, +but a good Providence interferes, and Heaven smiles graciously upon the +scene. There is passion, indeed, grief and sorrow, sin and +suffering,--but the tempest-stiller is here, who breathes tranquillity +upon the waters, and pours serenity into the turbid deep. The Niobe of +humanity, stiff and speechless, with her enmarbled children, that used +sometimes to be introduced on the Athenian stage for purposes of terror +or pity, is here restored to life, and she renders thanks for her +deliverance and participates in the general joy to which the piece gives +birth. No murderers of the prophets are hewn in pieces before the Lord; +but from the agonies of the cross and the depths of a preternatural +darkness, the tender cry is heard, on behalf of the murderers of the Son +of God, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" No +Alcestis is exhibited, doomed to destruction to save the life of her +husband,--but One appears, moving cheerfully, voluntarily, forwards, to +what may be termed the funeral pile of the world, from which, +phoenix-like, he rises, and gloriously ascends, drawing after him the +hearts, the love, the worship of millions of spectators. The key of the +whole piece is Redemption, the spirit that actuates is Love. The chief +actors, indeed, are Christ and Man; but innumerable subsidiary +personages are the Charities. The elements of a spiritualized existence +act their part. Humanity is not changed in its substance, but in its +tendencies; the sensibilities exist, but under a divine culture. Stephen +is as heroic as Agamemnon, Mary as energetic as Medea. Little children +are no longer dashed in pieces,--they are embraced and blessed. + +But let us select for attention, and for a conclusion to these remarks, +a particular scene. It shall be from Luke. This evangelist has been +fabled a painter, and in the apotheosis of the old Church he was made +the tutelar patron of that class of artists. If the individuality of his +conceptions, the skill of his groupings, and the graphicness gave rise +to such an idea, it would seem to have its foundation as well in Nature +as in superstition. Matthew has more detail, more thought; Luke is more +picturesque, more descriptive. John has more deep feeling; Luke more +action, more life. The Annunciation, the Widow of Nain, the Prodigal Son, +the Good Samaritan, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the incident to which +we shall presently advert, are found in Luke alone. + +The incident in question is the dining of Christ at the house of Simon +the Pharisee, and, while they were reclining at meat, the entrance of a +woman which was a sinner, who bathes the feet of Jesus with tears, and +wipes them with the hair of her head. The place is the city of Nain; the +hour noon. The _dramatis personae_ are three,--Jesus, Simon, and the +Woman,--and, if we choose to add them, the other guests, who are silent +spectators of what transpires. + +Let, us consider, first, the Woman. She "was a sinner." This is all, in +fact, that we know of her; but this is enough. The term "sinner," in +this instance, as in many others, does not refer to the general apostasy +in Adam; it is distinctive of race and habit. She was probably of +heathen extraction, as she was certainly of a dissolute life. The poetry +of sin and shame calls her the Magdalen, and there may be a convenience +in permitting this name to stand. The depth of her depravity Christ +clearly intimates in his allusion to the debtor who owed five hundred +pence, and the language of Simon teaches that the infamy of her life was +well understood among the inhabitants of the city. If a foreigner, she +had probably been brought into the country by the Roman soldiers and +deserted. If a native, she had fallen beneath the ban of respectability, +and was an outcast alike from hope and from good society. She was +condemned to wear a dress different from that of other people; she was +liable at any moment to be stoned for her conduct; she was one whom it +was a ritual impurity to touch. She was wretched beyond measure; but +while so corrupt, she was not utterly hardened. Incapable of virtue, she +was not incapable of gratitude. Weltering in grossness, she could still +be touched by the sight of purity. Plunged into extremest vice, she +retained the damning horror of her situation. If she had ever striven to +recover her lost position, there were none to assist her; the bigotry of +patriotism rejected her for her birth,--the scrupulousness of modesty, +for her history. The night, that consecrated so many homes and gathered +together so many families in innocence and repose, was to her blacker +than its own blackness in misery and turpitude; the morning, that +radiated gladness over the face of the world, revealed the extent and +exaggerated the sense of her own degradation. But the vision of Jesus +had alighted upon her; she had seen him speeding on his errands of +mercy; she hung about the crowd that followed his steps; his tender look +of pity may have sometimes gleamed into her soul. Stricken, smitten, +confounded, her yearnings for peace gush forth afresh. It was as if +Hell, moved by contrition, had given up its prey,--as if Remorse, tired +of its gnawing, felt within itself the stimulus of hope. But how shall +she see Jesus? Wherewithal shall she approach him? She has "nothing to +pay." She has tears enough, and sorrows enough,--but these are derided +by the vain, and suspected by the wise. She has an alabaster box of +ointment, which, shut out as she is from honorable gain, must be the +product and the concomitant of her guilt. But with these she must go. We +see her threading her lonely way through the streets, learning by hints, +since she would not dare to learn by questions, where Jesus is, and +stops before the vestibule of the elegant mansion of Simon the Pharisee. + +Who is Simon the Pharisee? Not necessarily a bad man. We associate +whatever is odious in hypocrisy or base in craft with the name Pharisee, +while really it was the most distinguished title among the Jews. Many of +the Pharisees were hypocrites; not all of them. The name is significant +of profession, not of character. He could not have been an unprincipled, +villanous man, or he would never have tendered to Jesus the +hospitalities of his house. Indeed, Christ allows him, in the sense of +moral indebtedness, to owe but fifty pence. He was probably a rich man, +which might appear from the generous entertainment he made. He was a +respectable man. The sect to which he belonged was the most celebrated +and influential among the Jews; and when not debased by positive crime, +a Pharisee was always esteemed for his learning and his piety. He had +some interest in Christ, either in his mission or his character,--an +interest beyond mere curiosity, or he would not have invited him to dine +with him. He betrays a sincere friendliness, also, in his apprehension +lest Christ should suffer any religious contamination. + +The third person in the scene is Christ, who, to speak of him not as +theology has interpreted him to us, but as he appeared to the eyes of +his contemporaries, was the reputed son of Joseph and Mary, the +Bethlehemites; who by his words and deeds had attracted much attention +and made some converts; now accused of breaking the Jewish Sabbath, now +of plotting against the Roman sovereignty; one who in his own person had +felt the full power of temptation, and who had been raised to the +grandeur of a transfiguration; so tender he would not bruise the broken +reed, so gentle his yoke was rest; raying out with compassion and love +wherever he went; healing alike the pangs of grief and the languor of +disease; whom some believed to be the Messiah, and others thought a +prophet; whom the masses followed, and the priests feared;--this is the +third member of the company. + +The two last, with the other guests, are engaged at their meal, and in +conversation. The door is darkened by a strange figure; all eyes are +riveted on the apparition; the Magdalen enters, faded, distressed, with +long dishevelled hair. She has no introduction; she says nothing; +indeed, in all this remarkable scene she never speaks; her silence is as +significant as it is profound. She goes behind the couch where Jesus, +according to Oriental custom, is reclined. She drops at his feet; there +her tears stream; there the speechless agony of her soul bursts. Observe +the workings of the moment. See how those people are affected. Surprise +on the part of Simon and his friends turns to scorn, and this shades +into indignation. Jesus is calm, collected, and intently thoughtful. The +woman is overwhelmed by her situation. The lip of Simon curls, his eye +flashes with fire of outraged virtue. Jesus meets his gaze with equal +fire, but it is all of pure heavenly feeling. Simon moves to have the +vagabond expelled; Christ interrupts the attempt. But the honor of the +house is insulted. Yes, but the undying interests of the soul are at +stake. But the breath of the woman is ritual poison, and her touch will +bring down the curses of the law. But the look of Christ indicates that +depth of spirituality before which the institutions of Moses flee away +as chaff before the wind. Simon has some esteem for Jesus, and in this +juncture his sensations take a turn of pity, spiced, perhaps, with a +little contempt, and he says with himself,--"Surely, this man cannot be +a prophet, as is pretended, or he would know who and what sort of woman +it is that touches him; for she is a sinner; she is unclean and +reprobate." + +"Simon!" says Jesus, with a tone that pierced to the worthy host's +heart, and arrested the force of his pious alarm,--"Simon!" + +"Sir, say on," is the reply of the Pharisee, who is awed by this appeal +into an humble listener. + +Whereupon Jesus relates the story of the two debtors, and, with +irresistible strength of illustration and delicacy of application, +breaks the prejudice and wins the composure of the Jew. "If, then," he +continues, "he loves much to whom much is forgiven, what shall we say of +one who loves so much?" + +"See," he goes on, pointing to the woman, "See this woman,--this wretch. +I entered thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she has +washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She kisses +my feet; she anoints them with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her +sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." + +This scene, however inadequately it may be set forth, contains all that +is sublime in tragedy, terrible in guilt, or intense in pathos. The +woman represents humanity, or the soul of human nature; Simon, the +world, or worldly wisdom; Christ, divinity, or the divine purposes of +good to us ward. Simon is an incarnation of what St. Paul calls the +beggarly elements; Christ, of spirituality; the woman, of sin. It is not +the woman alone,--but in her there cluster upon the stage all want and +woe, all calamity and disappointment, all shame and guilt. In Christ +there come forward to meet her, love, hope, truth, light, salvation. In +Simon are acted out doting conservatism, mean expediency, purblind +calculation, carnal insensibility. Generosity in this scene is +confronted with meanness, in the attempt to shelter misfortune. The +woman is a tragedy herself, such as Aeschylus never dreamed of. The +scourging Furies, dread Fate, and burning Hell unite in her, and, borne +on by the new impulse of the new dispensation, they come towards the +light, they ask for peace, they throng to the heaven that opens in +Jesus. Simon embodies that vast array of influences that stand between +humanity and its redemption. He is a very excellent, a very estimable +man,--but he is not shocked at intemperance, he would not have slavery +disturbed, he sees a necessity for war. Does Christ know who and what +sort of a woman it is that touches him? Will he defile himself by such a +contact? Can he expect to accomplish anything by familiarity with such +matters? Why is he not satisfied with a good dinner? "Simon!" "Simon!" + +The silence of the woman is wonderful, it is awful. What is most +profound, most agitating, most intense cannot speak; words are too +little for the greatness of feeling. So Job sat himself upon the ground +seven days and seven nights, speechless. Not in this case, as is said of +Schiller's Robbers, did the pent volcano find vent in power-words; not +in strong and terrible accents was uttered the hoarded wrath of long +centuries of misrule and oppression. The volcano, raging, aching, threw +itself in silence into the arms of one who could soothe and allay it. +The thunder is noisy and harmless. The lightning is silent,--and the +lightning splits, kills, consumes. Humanity had muttered its thunder for +ages. Its lightning, the condensed, fiery, fatal force of things, leaped +from the blackness of sin, threaded with terrific glare the vision of +man, and, in the person of the woman, fell hot and blasting at the feet +of Jesus, who quenched its fire, and of that destructive bolt made a +trophy of grace and a fair image of hope. She could not speak, and so +she wept,--like the raw, chilling, hard atmosphere, which is relieved +only by a shower of snow. How could she speak, guilty, remorseful +wretch, without excuse, without extenuation? In the presence of divine +virtue, at the tribunal of judgment, she could only weep, she could only +love. But, blessed be Jesus, he could forgive her, he can forgive all. +The woman departs in peace; Simon is satisfied; Jesus triumphs; we +almost hear the applauses with which the ages and generations of earth +greet the closing scene. From the serene celestial immensity that opens +above the spot we can distinguish a voice, saying, "This is my beloved +Son; hear ye him!" + +We speak of these things dramatically, but, after all, they are the only +great realities. Everything else is mimetic, phantasmal, tinkling. +Deeply do the masters of the drama move us; but the Gospel cleaves, +inworks, regenerates. In the theatre, the leading characters go off in +death and despair, or with empty conceits and a forced frivolity; in the +Gospel, tranquilly, grandly, they are dismissed to a serener life and a +nobler probation. Who has not pitied the ravings of Lear and the agonies +of Othello? The Gospel pities, but, by a magnificence of plot altogether +its own, by preserving, if we may so say, the unities of heaven and +earth, it also saves. + +Of all common tragedy, we may exclaim, in the words of the old play,-- + + "How like a silent stream shaded with night, + And gliding softly, with our windy sighs, + Moves the whole frame of this solemnity!" + +The Gospel moves by, as a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, +from the throne of God and the Lamb; on its surface play the sunbeams of +hope; in its valleys rise the trees of life, beneath the shadows of +which the weary years of human passion repose, and from the leaves of +the branches of which is exhaled to the passing breeze healing for the +nations. + + + + +THE RING FETTER. + + +A NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDY. + + +There are long stretches in the course of the Connecticut River, where +its tranquil current assumes the aspect of a lake, its sudden bends cut +off the lovely reach of water, and its heavily wooded banks lie silent +and green, undisturbed, except by the shriek of the passing steamer, +casting golden-green reflections into the stream at twilight, and +shadows of deepest blackness, star-pierced, at remoter depths of night. +Here, now and then, a stray gull from the sea sends a flying throb of +white light across the mirror below, or the sweeping wings of a hawk +paint their moth-like image on the blue surface, or a little flaw of +wind shudders across the water in a black ripple; but except for these +casual stirs of Nature, all is still, oppressive, and beautiful, as +earth seems to the trance-sleeper on the brink of his grave. + +In one of these reaches, though on either side the heavy woods sweep +down to the shore and hang over it as if deliberating whether to plunge +in, on the eastern bank there is a tiny meadow just behind the +tree-fringe of the river, completely hedged in by the deep woods, and +altogether hidden from any inland road; nor would the traveller on the +river discover it, except for the chimney of a house that peers above +the yellow willows and seems in that desolate seclusion as startling as +a daylight ghost. But this dwelling was built and deserted and +weather-beaten long before the date of our story. It had been erected +and inhabited during the Revolution, by an old Tory, who, foreseeing the +result of the war better than some of his contemporaries, and being +unwilling to expose his person to the chances of battle or his effects +to confiscation, maintained a strict neutrality, and a secret trade with +both parties; thereby welcoming peace and independence, fully stocked +with the dislike and suspicion of his neighbors, and a large quantity of +Continental "fairy-money." So, when Abner Dimock died, all he had to +leave to his only son was the red house on "Dimock's Meadow," and a +ten-acre lot of woodland behind and around the green plateau where the +house stood. These possessions he strictly entailed on his heirs +forever, and nobody being sufficiently interested in its alienation to +inquire into the State laws concerning the validity of such an entail, +the house remained in the possession of the direct line, and in the year +18-- belonged to another Abner Dimock, who kept tavern in Greenfield, a +town of Western Massachusetts, and, like his father and grandfather +before him, had one only son. In the mean time, the old house in Haddam +township had fallen into a ruinous condition, and, as the farm was very +small, and unprofitable chestnut-woodland at that, the whole was leased +to an old negro and his wife, who lived there in the most utter +solitude, scratching the soil for a few beans and potatoes, and in the +autumn gathering nuts, or in the spring roots for beer, with which Old +Jake paddled up to Middletown, to bring home a return freight of salt +pork and rum. + +The town of Greenfield, small though it was, and at the very top of a +high hill, was yet the county town, subject to annual incursions of +lawyers, and such "thrilling incidents" as arise from the location of a +jail and a court-room within the limits of any village. The scenery had +a certain summer charm of utter quiet that did it good service with some +healthy people of well-regulated and insensitive tastes. From Greenfield +Hill one looked away over a wide stretch of rolling country; low hills, +in long, desolate waves of pasturage and grain, relieved here and there +by a mass of black woodland, or a red farm-house and barns clustered +against a hill-side, just over a wooden spire in the shallow valley, +about which were gathered a few white houses, giving signs of life +thrice a day in tiny threads of smoke rising from their prim chimneys; +and over all, the pallid skies of New England, where the sun wheeled his +shorn beams from east to west as coldly as if no tropic seas mirrored +his more fervid glow thousands of miles away, and the chilly moon beamed +with irreproachable whiteness across the round gray hills and the +straggling pond, beloved of frogs and mud-turtles, that Greenfield held +in honor under the name of Squam Lake. + +Perhaps it was the scenery, perhaps the air, possibly the cheapness of +the place as far as all the necessaries of life went, that tempted Judge +Hyde to pitch his tent there, in the house his fathers had built long +ago, instead of wearing his judicial honors publicly, in the city where +he attained them; but, whatever the motive might be, certain it is that +at the age of forty he married a delicate beauty from Baltimore, and +came to live on Greenfield Hill, in the great white house with a gambrel +roof and dormer windows, standing behind certain huge maples, where +Major Hyde and Parson Hyde and Deacon Hyde had all lived before him. + +A brief Northern summer bloomed gayly enough for Adelaide Howard Hyde +when she made her bridal tour to her new home; and cold as she found the +aspect of that house, with its formal mahogany chairs, high-backed, and +carved in grim festoons and ovals of incessant repetition,--its +penitential couch of a sofa, where only the iron spine of a +Revolutionary heroine could have found rest,--its pinched, starved, and +double-starched portraits of defunct Hydes, Puritanic to the very ends +of toupet and periwig,--little Mrs. Hyde was deep enough in love with +her tall and handsome husband to overlook the upholstery of a home he +glorified, and to care little for comfort elsewhere, so long as she +could nestle on his knee and rest her curly head against his shoulder. +Besides, flowers grew, even in Greenfield; there were damask roses and +old-fashioned lilies enough in the square garden to have furnished a +whole century of poets with similes; and in the posy-bed under the front +windows were tulips of Chinese awkwardness and splendor, beds of pinks +spicy as all Arabia, blue hyacinths heavy with sweetness as well as +bells, "pi'nies" rubicund and rank, hearts-ease clustered against the +house, and sticky rose-acacias, pretty and impracticable, not to mention +the grenadier files of hollyhocks that contended with fennel-bushes and +scarlet-flowered beans for the precedence, and the hosts of wild flowers +that bloomed by wood-edges and pond-shores wherever corn or potatoes +spared a foot of soil for the lovely weeds. So in Judge Hyde's frequent +absences, at court or conclave, hither and yon, (for the Judge was a +political man,) it was his pretty wife's chief amusement, when her +delicate fingers ached with embroidery, or her head spun with efforts to +learn housekeeping from old Keery, the time-out-of-mind authority in the +Hyde family, a bad-humored, good-tempered old maid,--it was, indeed, the +little Southerner's only amusement,--to make the polish and mustiness of +those dreary front-parlors gay and fragrant with flowers; and though +Judge Hyde's sense of the ridiculous was not remarkably keen, it was too +much to expect of him that he should do otherwise than laugh long and +loud, when, suddenly returning from Taunton one summer day, he tracked +his wife by snatches of song into the "company rooms," and found her on +the floor, her hair about her ears, tying a thick garland of red +peonies, intended to decorate the picture of the original Hyde, a dreary +old fellow, in bands, and grasping a Bible in one wooden hand, while a +distant view of Plymouth Bay and the Mayflower tried to convince the +spectator that he was transported, among other antediluvians, by that +Noah's ark, to the New World. On either hand hung the little Flora's +great-grandmother-in-law, and her great-grandfather accordingly, Mrs. +Mehitable and Parson Job Hyde, peering out, one from a bushy ornament of +pink laurel-blossoms, and the other from an airy and delicate garland of +the wanton sweet-pea, each stony pair of eyes seeming to glare with +Medusan intent at this profaning of their state and dignity. "Isn't it +charming, dear?" said the innocent little beauty, with a satisfaction +half doubtful, as her husband's laugh went on. + +But for every butterfly there comes an end to summer. The flowers +dropped from the frames and died in the garden; a pitiless winter set +in; and day after day the mittened and mufflered schoolboy, dragging his +sled through drifts of heavy snow to school, eyed curiously the wan, +wistful face of Judge Hyde's wife pressed up to the pane of the south +window, its great restless eyes and shadowy hair bringing to mind some +captive bird that pines and beats against the cage. Her husband absent +from home long and often, full of affairs of "court and state,"--her +delicate organization, that lost its flickering vitality by every +exposure to cold,--her lonely days and nights,--the interminable sewing, +that now, for her own reasons, she would trust to no hands but her +own,--conscious incapacity to be what all the women about her were, +stirring, active, hardy housekeepers,--a vague sense of shame, and a +great dread of the future,--her comfortless and motherless +condition,--slowly, but surely, like frost, and wind, and rain, and +snow, beat on this frail blossom, and it went with the rest. June roses +were laid against her dark hair and in her fair hands, when she was +carried to the lonely graveyard of Greenfield, where mulleins and +asters, golden-rod, blackberry-vines, and stunted yellow-pines adorned +the last sleep of the weary wife and mother; for she left behind her a +week-old baby,--a girl,--wailing prophetically in the square bedroom +where its mother died. + +Judge Hyde did not marry again, and he named his baby Mehitable. She +grew up as a half-orphaned child with an elderly and undemonstrative +father would naturally grow,--shy, sensitive, timid, and extremely +grave. Her dress, thanks to Aunt Keery and the minister's wife, (who +looked after her for her mother's sake,) was always well provided and +neat, but no way calculated to cultivate her taste or to gratify the +beholder. A district school provided her with such education as it could +give; and the library, that was her resort at all hours of the day, +furthered her knowledge in a singular and varied way, since its lightest +contents were histories of all kinds and sorts, unless one may call the +English Classics lighter reading than Hume or Gibbon. + +But at length the district-schoolma'am could teach Mehitable Hyde no +more, and the Judge suddenly discovered that he had a pretty daughter of +fourteen, ignorant enough to shock his sense of propriety, and delicate +enough to make it useless to think of sending her away from home to be +buffeted in a boarding-school. Nothing was left for him but to undertake +her education himself; and having a theory that a thorough course of +classics, both Greek and Latin, was the foundation of all knowledge, +half a score of dusty grammars were brought from the garret, and for two +hours every morning and afternoon little Miss Hitty worried her innocent +soul over conjugations and declensions and particles, as perseveringly +as any professor could have desired. But the dreadful part of the +lessons to Hitty was the recitation after tea; no matter how well she +knew every inflection of a verb, every termination of a noun, her +father's cold, gray eye, fixed on her for an answer, dispelled all kinds +of knowledge, and, for at least a week, every lesson ended in tears. +However, there are alleviations to everything in life; and when the +child was sent to the garret after her school-books, she discovered +another set, more effectual teachers to her than Sallust or the "Graeca +Minora," even the twelve volumes of "Sir Charles Grandison," and the +fewer but no less absorbing tomes of "Clarissa Harlowe"; and every hour +she could contrive not to be missed by Keery or her father was spent in +that old garret, fragrant as it was with sheaves of all the herbs that +grow in field or forest, poring over those old novels, that were her +society, her friends, her world. + +So two years passed by. Mehitable grew tall and learned, but knew little +more of the outside world than ever; her father had learned to love her, +and taught her to adore him; still shy and timid, the village offered no +temptation to her, so far as society went; and Judge Hyde was beginning +to feel that for his child's mental health some freer atmosphere was +fast becoming necessary, when a relentless writ was served upon the +Judge himself, and one that no man could evade; paralysis smote him, and +the strong man lay prostrate,--became bedridden. + +Now the question of life seemed settled for Hitty; her father admitted +no nursing but hers. Month after month rolled away, and the numb grasp +gradually loosed its hold on flesh and sense, but still Judge Hyde was +bedridden. Year after year passed by, and no change for better or worse +ensued. Hitty's life was spent between the two parlors and the kitchen; +for the room her dead mother had so decorated was now furnished as a +bedroom for her father's use; and her own possessions had been removed +into the sitting-room next it, that, sleeping or waking, she might be +within call. All the family portraits held a conclave in the other +front-parlor, and its north and east windows were shut all the year, +save on some sultry summer day when Keery flung them open to dispel damp +and must, and the school-children stared in reverentially, and wondered +why old Madam Hyde's eyes followed them as far as they could see. +Visitors came now and then to the kitchen-door, and usurped Keery's +flag-bottomed chair, while they gossiped with her about village affairs; +now and then a friendly spinster with a budget of good advice called +Hitty away from her post, and, after an hour's vain effort to get any +news worth retailing about the Judge from those pale lips, retired full +of disappointed curiosity to tell how stiff that Mehitable Hyde was, and +how hard it was to make her speak a word to one! Friends were what Hitty +read of in the "Spectator," and longed to have; but she knew none of the +Greenfield girls since she left school, and the only companion she had +was Keery, rough as the east wind, but genuine and kind-hearted,--better +at counsel than consolation, and no way adapted to fill the vacant place +in Hitty's heart. + +So the years wore away, and Miss Hyde's early beauty went with them. She +had been a blooming, delicate girl,--the slight grace of a daisy in her +figure, wild-rose tints on her fair cheek, and golden reflections in her +light brown hair, that shone in its waves and curls like lost sunshine; +but ten years of such service told their story plainly. When Hitty Hyde +was twenty-six, her blue eyes were full of sorrow and patience, when the +shy lids let their legend be read; the little mouth had become pale, and +the corners drooped; her cheek, too, was tintless, though yet round; +nothing but the beautiful hair lasted; even grace was gone, so long had +she stooped over her father. Sometimes the unwakened heart within her +dreamed, as a girl's heart will. Stately visions of Sir Charles +Grandison bowing before her,--shuddering fascinations over the image of +that dreadful Lovelace,--nothing more real haunted Hitty's imagination. +She knew what she had to do in life,--that it was not to be a happy wife +or mother, but to waste by a bedridden old man, the only creature on +earth she loved as she could love. Light and air were denied the plant, +but it grew in darkness,--blanched and unblooming, it is true, but still +a growth upward, toward light. + +Ten years more of monotonous patience, and Miss Hyde was thirty-six. Her +hair had thinned, and was full of silver threads; a wrinkle invaded +either cheek, and she was angular and bony; but something painfully +sweet lingered in her face, and a certain childlike innocence of +expression gave her the air of a nun; the world had never touched nor +taught her. + +But now Judge Hyde was dead; nineteen years of petulant, helpless, +hopeless wretchedness were at last over, and all that his daughter cared +to live for was gone; she was an orphan, without near relatives, without +friends, old, and tired out. Do not despise me that I say "old," you +plump and rosy ladies whose life is in its prime of joy and use at +thirty-six. Age is not counted by years, nor calculated from one's +birth; it is a fact of wear and work, altogether unconnected with the +calendar. I have seen a girl of sixteen older than you are at forty. I +have known others disgrace themselves at sixty-five by liking to play +with children and eat sugar-plums! + +One kind of youth still remained to Hitty Hyde,--the freshness of +inexperience. Her soul was as guileless and as ignorant as a child's; +and she was stranded on life, with a large fortune, like a helmless +ship, heavily loaded, that breaks from its anchor, and drives headlong +upon a reef. + +Now it happened, that, within a year after Judge Hyde's death, Abner +Dimock, the tavern-keeper's son, returned to Greenfield, after years of +absence, a bold-faced, handsome man, well-dressed and "free-handed," as +the Greenfield vernacular hath it. Nobody knew where Abner Dimock had +spent the last fifteen years; neither did anybody know anything against +him; yet he had no good reputation in Greenfield. Everybody looked wise +and grave when his name was spoken, and no Greenfield girl cared to own +him for an acquaintance. His father welcomed him home with more surprise +than pleasure; and the whole household of the Greenfield Hotel, as +Dimock's Inn was new-named, learned to get out of Abner Dimock's way, +and obey his eye, as if he were more their master than his father. + +Left quite alone, without occupation or amusement, Miss Hyde naturally +grasped at anything that came in her way to do or to see to; the lawyer +who had been executor of her father's will had settled the estate and +gone back to his home, and Miss Hyde went with him, the first journey of +her life, that she might select a monument for her father's grave. It +was now near a year since Judge Hyde's death, and the monument was on +its way from Boston; the elder Dimock monopolized the cartage of freight +as well as passengers to the next town, and to him Miss Hyde intrusted +the care of the great granite pillar she had purchased; and it was for +his father that Abner Dimock called on the young lady for directions as +to the disposal of the tombstone just arrived. Hitty was in the garden; +her white morning-dress shone among the roses, and the morning air had +flushed her pale cheek; she looked fair and delicate and gracious; but +her helpless ignorance of the world's ways and usages attracted the +world-hardened man more than her face. He had not spent a _roue_ life in +a great city for nothing; he had lived enough with gentlemen, +broken-down and lost, it is true, but well-bred, to be able to ape their +manners; and the devil's instinct that such people possess warned him of +Hitty Hyde's weakest points. So, too, he contrived to make that first +errand lead to another, and still another,--to make the solitary woman +depend on his help, and expect his coming; fifty thousand dollars, with +no more incumbrance than such a woman, was worth scheming for, and the +prey was easily snared. + +It is not to be expected that any country village of two streets, much +less Greenfield, could long remain ignorant of such a new and amazing +phase as the devotion of any man to any woman therein; but, as nobody +liked to interfere too soon in what might only be, after all, a mere +business arrangement, Greenfield contented itself with using its eyes, +its ears, and its tongues, with one exception to the latter organ's +clatter, in favor of Hitty Hyde; _to_ her no one dared as yet approach +with gossip or advice. + +In the mean time Hitty went on her way, all regardless of the seraphs at +the gate. Abner Dimock was handsome, agreeable, gentlemanly to a certain +lackered extent;--who had cared for Hitty, in all her life, enough to +aid and counsel her as he had already done? At first she was half afraid +of him; then she liked him; then he was "so good to me!" and then--she +pitied him! for he told her, sitting on that hard old sofa, in the June +twilight, how he had no mother, how he had been cast upon the charities +of a cruel and evil world from his infancy; reminded her of the old red +school-house where they had been to school together, and the tyranny of +the big boys over him,--a little curly, motherless boy. So he enlarged +upon his life; talked a mildly bitter misanthropy; informed Miss Hyde by +gradual insinuations that she was an angel sent on earth to console and +reform a poor sinner like him; and before the last September rose had +droped, so far had Abner Dimock succeeded in his engineering, that his +angel was astounded one night by the undeniably terrestrial visitation +of an embrace and a respectfully fervid kiss. + +Perhaps it would have been funny, perhaps pathetic, to analyze the mixed +consternation and delight of Mehitable Hyde at such _bona-fide_ evidence +of a lover. Poor woman's heart!--altogether solitary and +desolate,--starved of its youth and its joy,--given over to the chilly +reign of patience and resignation,--afraid of life,--without strength, +or hope, or pleasure,--and all at once Paradise dawns!--her cold, +innocent life bursts into fiery and odorous bloom; she has found her +fate, and its face is keen with splendor, like a young angel's. Poor, +deluded, blessed, rapture-smitten woman! + +Blame her as you will, indignant maidens of Greenfield, Miss Flint, and +Miss Sharp, and Miss Skinner! You may have had ten lovers and twenty +flirtations apiece, and refused half-a-dozen good matches for the best +of reasons; you, no doubt, would have known better than to marry a man +who was a villain from his very physiognomy; but my heart must needs +grow tender toward Miss Hyde; a great joy is as pathetic as a sorrow. +Did you never cry over a doting old man? + +But when Mrs. Smith's son John, a youth of ten, saw, by the light of an +incautious lamp that illuminated a part of the south parlor, a +good-night kiss bestowed upon the departing Abner by Miss Hitty Hyde and +absolutely returned by said Abner, and when John told his mother, and +his mother revealed it to Miss Flint, Miss Flint to Miss Skinner, and so +forth, and so on, till it reached the minister's wife, great was the +uproar in Greenfield; and the Reverend Mrs. Perkins put on her gray +bonnet and went over to remonstrate with Hitty on the spot. + +Whether people will ever learn the uselessness of such efforts is yet a +matter for prophecy. Miss Hyde heard all that was said, and replied very +quietly, "I don't believe it." And as Mrs. Perkins had no tangible +proofs of Abner Dimock's unfitness to marry Judge Hyde's daughter, the +lady in question got the better of her adviser, so far as any argument +was concerned, and effectually put an end to remonstrance by declaring +with extreme quiet and unblushing front,-- + +"I am going to marry him next week. Will you be so good as to notify Mr. +Perkins?" + +Mrs. Perkins held up both hands and cried. Words might have hardened +Hitty; but what woman that was not half tigress ever withstood another +woman's tears? + +Hitty's heart melted directly; she sat down by Mrs. Perkins, and cried, +too. + +"Please, don't be vexed with me," sobbed she. "I love him, Mrs. Perkins, +and I haven't got anybody else to love,--and--and--I never shall have. +He's very good to love me,--I am so old and homely." + +"Very good!" exclaimed Mrs. Perkins, in great wrath, "_good_! to marry +Judge Hyde's daughter, and--fifty thousand dollars," Mrs. Perkins bit +off. She would not put such thoughts into Hitty's head, since her +marriage was inevitable. + +"At any rate," sighed Hitty, on the breath of a long-drawn sob, "nobody +else ever loved me, if I am Judge Hyde's daughter." + +So Mrs. Perkins went away, and declared that things had gone too far to +be prevented; and Abner Dimock came on her retreating steps, and Hitty +forgot everything but that he loved her; and the next week they were +married. + +Here, by every law of custom, ought my weary pen to fall flat and refuse +its office; for it is here that the fate of every heroine culminates. +For what are women born but to be married? Old maids are excrescences in +the social system,--disagreeable utilities,--persons who have failed to +fulfil their destiny,--and of whom it should have been said, rather than +of ghosts, that they are always in the wrong. But life, with +pertinacious facts, is too apt to transcend custom and the usage of +novel-writers; and though the one brings a woman's legal existence to an +end when she merges her independence in that of a man, and the other +curtails her historic existence at the same point, because the +novelist's catechism hath for its preface this creed,--"The chief end of +woman is to get married"; still, neither law nor novelists altogether +displace this same persistent fact, and a woman lives, in all capacities +of suffering and happiness, not only her wonted, but a double life, when +legally and religiously she binds herself with bond and vow to another +soul. + +Happy would it have been for Hitty Hyde, if with the legal fiction had +chimed the actual existent fact!--happy indeed for Abner Dimock's wife +to have laid her new joy down at the altar, and been carried to sleep by +her mother under the mulleins and golden-rods on Greenfield Hill! Scarce +was the allotted period of rapture past half its term, scarce had she +learned to phrase the tender words aloud that her heart beat and choked +with, before Abner Dimock began to tire of his incumbrance, and to +invent plans and excuses for absence; for he dared not openly declare as +yet that he left his patient, innocent wife for such scenes of vice and +reckless dissipation as she had not even dreamed could exist. + +Yet for week after week he lingered away from Greenfield; even months +rolled by, and, except for rare and brief visits home, Hitty saw no more +of her husband than if he were not hers. She lapsed into her old +solitude, varied only by the mutterings and grumblings of old Keery, who +had lifted up her voice against Hitty's marriage with more noise and +less effect than Mrs. Perkins, and, though she still staid by her old +home and haunts, revenged herself on fate in general and her mistress in +particular by a continual course of sulking, all the time hiding under +this general quarrel with life a heart that ached with the purest +tenderness and pity. So some people are made, like chestnuts; one gets +so scratched and wounded in the mere attempt to get at the kernel +within, that it becomes matter of question whether one does not suffer +less from wanting their affection than from trying to obtain it. Yet +Hitty Dimock had too little love given her to throw away even Keery's +habit of kindness to her, and bore with her snaps and snarls as meekly +as a saint,--sustained, it is true, by a hope that now began to solace +and to occupy her, and to raise in her oppressed soul some glimmer of a +bright possibility, a faint expectation that she might yet regain her +husband's love, a passion which she began in her secret heart to fear +had found its limit and died out. Still, Hitty, out of her meek, +self-distrusting spirit, never blamed Abner Dimock for his absence or +his coldness; rather, with the divine unselfishness that such women +manifest, did she blame herself for having linked his handsome and +athletic prime with her faded age, and struggle daily with the morbid +conscience that accused her of having forgotten his best good in the +indulgence of her own selfish ends of happiness. She still thought, "He +is so good to me!" still idealized the villain to a hero, and, like her +kind, predestined to be the prey and the accusing angel of such men, +prayed for and adored her husband as if he had been the best and +tenderest of gentlemen. Providence has its mysteries; but if there be +one that taxes faith and staggers patience more than another, it is the +long misery that makes a good woman cringe and writhe and agonize in +silence under the utter rule and life-long sovereignty of a bad man. +Perhaps such women do not suffer as we fancy; for after much trial every +woman learns that it is possible to love where neither respect nor +admiration can find foothold,--that it even becomes necessary to love +some men, as the angels love us all, from an untroubled height of pity +and tenderness, that, while it sees and condemns the sin and folly and +uncleanness of its object, yet broods over it with an all-shielding +devotion, laboring and beseeching and waiting for its regeneration, +upheld above the depths of suffering and regret by the immortal power of +a love so fervent, so pure, so self-forgetting, that it will be a +millstone about the necks that disregard its tender clasping now, to +sink them into a bottomless abyss in the day of the Lord. + +Now had one long and not unhappy autumn, a lingering winter, a desolate +spring, a weary summer, passed away, and from an all-unconscious and +protracted wrestling with death Hitty Dimock awoke to find her hope +fulfilled,--a fair baby nestled on her arm, and her husband, not +all-insensible, smiling beside her. + +It is true, that, had she died then, Abner Dimock would have regretted +her death; for, by certain provisions of her father's will, in case of +her death, the real estate, otherwise at her own disposal, became a +trust for her child or children, and such a contingency ill suited Mr. +Dimock's plans. So long as Hitty held a rood of land or a coin of silver +at her own disposal, it was also at his; but trustees are not women, +happily for the world at large, and the contemplation of that fact +brought Hitty Hyde's husband into a state of mind well fitted to give +him real joy at her recovery. + +So, for a little while, the sun shone on this bare New England +hill-side, into this grim old house. Care and kindness were lavished on +the delicate woman, who would scarce have needed either in her present +delight; every luxury that could add to her slowly increasing strength, +every attention that could quiet her fluttering and unstrung nerves, was +showered on her, and for a time her brightest hopes seemed all to have +found fruition. + +As she recovered and was restored to strength, of course these cares +ceased. But now the new instincts of motherhood absorbed her, and, +brooding over the rosy child that was her own, caressing its waking, or +hanging above its sleep, she scarce noted that her husband's absences +from home grew more and more frequent, that strange visitors asked for +him, that he came home at midnight oftener than at dusk. Nor was it till +her child was near a year old that Hitty discovered her husband's old +and rewakened propensity,--that Abner Dimock came home drunk,--not drunk +as many men are, foolish and helpless, mere beasts of the field, who +know nothing and care for nothing but the filling of their insatiable +appetite;--this man's nature was too hard, too iron in its moulding, to +give way to temporary imbecility; liquor made him savage, fierce, +brutal, excited his fiendish temper to its height, nerved his muscular +system, inflamed his brain, and gave him the aspect of a devil; and in +such guise he entered his wife's peaceful Eden, where she brooded and +cooed over her child's slumbers, with one gripe of his hard hand lifted +her from her chair, kicked the cradle before him, and, with an awful +though muttered oath, thrust mother and child into the entry, locked the +door upon them, and fell upon the bed to sleep away his carouse. + +Here was an undeniable fact before Hitty Dimock, one she could no way +evade or gloss over; no gradual lesson, no shadow of foreboding, +preluded the revelation; her husband was unmistakably, savagely drunk. +She did not sit down and cry;--drearily she gathered her baby in her +arms, hushed it to sleep with kisses, passed down into the kitchen, woke +up the brands of the ash-hidden fire to a flame, laid on more wood, and, +dragging old Keery's rush-bottomed chair in front of the blaze, held her +baby in her arms till morning broke, careless of anything without or +within but her child's sleep and her husband's drunkenness. Long and +sadly in that desolate night did she revolve this new misery in her +mind; the fact was face to face, and must be provided for,--but how to +do it? What could she do, poor weak woman, even to conceal this +disgrace, much more to check it? Long since she had discovered that +between her and her husband there was no community of tastes or +interests; he never talked to her, he never read to her, she did not +know that he read at all; the garden he disliked as a useless trouble; +he would not drive, except such a gay horse that Hitty dared not risk +her neck behind it, and felt a shudder of fear assail her whenever his +gig left the door; neither did he care for his child. Nothing at home +could keep him from his pursuits; that she well knew; and, hopeful as +she tried to be, the future spread out far away in misty horror and +dread. What might not, become of her boy, with such a father's +influence? was her first thought;--nay, who could tell but in some fury +of drink he might kill or maim him? A chill of horror crept over Hitty +at the thought,--and then, what had not she to dread? Oh, for some +loophole of escape, some way to fly, some refuge for her baby's innocent +life! No,--no,--no! She was his wife; she had married him; she had vowed +to love and honor and obey,--vow of fearful import now, though uttered +in all pureness and truth, as to a man who owned her whole heart! Love +him!--that was not the dread; love was as much her life as her breath +was; she knew no interval of loving for the brute fiend who mocked her +with the name of husband; no change or chance could alienate her divine +tenderness,--even as the pitiful blue sky above hangs stainless over +reeking battle-fields and pest-smitten cities, piercing with its sad and +holy star-eyes down into the hellish orgies of men, untouched and +unchanged by just or unjust, forever shining and forever pure. But honor +him! could that be done? What respect or trust was it possible to keep +for a self-degraded man like that? And where honor goes down, obedience +is sucked into the vortex, and the wreck flies far over the lonely sea, +historic and prophetic to ship and shore. + +No! there was nothing to do! her vow was taken, past the power of man to +break; nothing now remained but endurance. Perhaps another woman, with a +strong will and vivid intellect, might have set herself to work, backed +by that very vow that defied poor Hitty, and, by sheer resolution, have +dragged her husband up from the gulf and saved him, though as by fire; +or a more buoyant and younger wife might have passed it by as a first +offence, hopeful of its being also the only one. But an instinctive +knowledge of the man bereft Hitty of any such hope; she knew it was not +the first time; from his own revelations and penitent confessions while +she was yet free, she knew he had sinned as well as suffered, and the +past augured the future. Nothing was left her, she could not escape, she +must shut her eyes and her mouth, and only keep out of his way as far as +she could. So she clasped her child more tightly, and, closing her heavy +eyes, rocked back and forth till the half-waked boy slept again; and +there old Keery found her mistress, in the morning, white as the cold +drifts without, and a depth of settled agony in her quiet eyes that +dimmed the old woman's only to look at. + +Neither spoke; nor when her husband strode into the breakfast-room and +took his usual place, sober enough, but scarcely regretful of the +over-night development, did any word of reproach or allusion pass the +wife's white lips. A stranger would have thought her careless and cold. +Abner Dimock knew that she was heartbroken; but what was that to him? +Women live for years without that organ; and while she lived, so long as +a cent remained of the Hyde estate, what was it to him if she pined +away? She could not leave him; she was utterly in his power; she was +his,--like his boots, his gun, his dog; and till he should tire of her +and fling her into some lonely chamber to waste and die, she was bound +to serve him; he was safe. + +And she offered no sort of barrier to his full indulgence of his will to +drink. Had she lifted one of her slender fingers in warning, or given +him a look of reproachful meaning, or uttered one cry of entreaty, at +least the conscience within him might have visited him with a temporary +shame, and restrained the raging propensity for a longer interval; but +seeing her apparent apathy, knowing how timid and unresisting was her +nature,--that nothing on earth will lie still and be trodden on but a +woman,--Abner Dimock rioted and revelled to his full pleasure, while all +his pale and speechless wife could do was to watch with fearful eyes and +straining ears for his coming, and slink out of the way with her child, +lest both should be beaten as well as cursed; for faithful old Keery, +once daring to face him with a volley of reproaches from her shrill +tongue, was levelled to the floor by a blow from his rapid hand, and +bore bruises for weeks that warned her from interference. Not long, +however, was there danger of her meddling. When the baby was a year and +a half old. Keery, in her out-door labors,--now grown burdensome enough, +since Mr. Dimock neither worked himself nor allowed a man on the +premises,--Keery took a heavy cold, and, worn out with a life of hard +work, sank into rest quickly, her last act of life being to draw Hitty's +face down to her own, wrinkled and wan as it was, scarce so old in +expression as her mistress's, and with one long kiss and sob speak the +foreboding and anxious farewell she could not utter. + +"Only you now!" whispered Hitty to her child, as Keery's peaceful, +shrouded face was hidden under the coffin-lid and carried away to +Greenfield Hill. Pitiful whisper! happily all-unmeaning to the child, +but full of desolation to the mother, floating with but one tiny plank +amid the wild wrecks of a midnight ocean, and clinging as only the +desperate can cling to this vague chance of life. + +A rough, half-crazed girl, brought from the alms-house, now did the +drudgery of the family. Abner Dimock had grown penurious, and not one +cent of money was given for comfort in that house, scarce for need. The +girl was stupid and rude, but she worked for her board,--recommendation +enough in Mr. Dimock's eyes; and so hard work was added to the other +burdens loaded upon his silent wife. And soon came another, +all-mysterious, but from its very mystery a deeper fear. Abner Dimock +began to stay at home, to be visited at late hours by one or two men +whose faces were full of evil and daring; and when, in the dead of the +long nights, Hitty woke from her broken and feverish sleep, it was to +hear muffled sounds from the cellar below, never heard there before; and +once, wrapping a shawl about her, she stole down the stairways with bare +feet, and saw streams of red light through the chinks of the +cellar-door, and heard the ring of metal, and muttered oaths, all +carefully dulled by such devices as kept the sounds from chance passers +in the street, though vain as far as the inhabitants of the house itself +were concerned. Trembling and cold, she stole back to her bed, full of +doubts and fears, neither of which she dared whisper to any one, or +would have dared, had she possessed a single friend to whom she could +speak. Troubles thickened fast over Hitty; her husband was always at +home now, and rarely sober; the relief his absences had been was denied +her entirely; and in some sunny corner of the uninhabited rooms +up-stairs she spent her days, toiling at such sewing as was needful, and +silent as the dead, save as her life appealed to God from the ground, +and called down the curse of Cain upon a head she would have shielded +from evil with her own life. + +Keen human legislation! sightless justice of men!--one drunken wretch +smites another in a midnight brawl, and sends a soul to its account with +one sharp shudder of passion and despair, and the maddened creature that +remains on earth suffers the penalty of the law. Every sense sobered +from its reeling fury, weeks of terribly expectation heaped upon the +cringing soul, and, in full consciousness, that murderer is strangled +before men and angels, because he was drunk!--necessary enough, one +perceives, to the good of society, which thereby loses two worse than +useless members; but what, in the name of God's justice, should His +vicegerent, law, visit upon the man who wrings another life away by slow +tortures, and torments heart and soul and flesh for lingering years, +where the victim is passive and tenacious, and dies only after +long-drawn anguish that might fill the cup of a hundred sudden deaths? +Yet what escapes the vicegerent shall the King himself visit and judge. +"For He cometh! He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall +he judge the world, and the people with equity." + +Six months passed after Keery's death, and now from the heights of +Greenfield and her sunny window Hitty Dimock's white face looked out +upon a landscape of sudden glory; for October, the gold-bringer, had +come, pouring splendor over the earth, and far and wide the forests +blazed; scarlet and green maples, with erect heads, sentinelled the +street, gay lifeguards of autumn; through dark green cedars the crimson +creeper threaded its sprays of blood-red; birches, gilded to their tops, +swayed to every wind, and drooped their graceful boughs earthward to +shower the mossy sward with glittering leaves; heavy oaks turned +purple-crimson through their wide-spread boughs; and the stately +chestnuts, with foliage of tawny yellow, opened wide their stinging +husks to let the nuts fall for squirrel and blue-jay. Splendid sadness +clothed all the world, opal-hued mists wandered up and down the valleys +or lingered about the undefined horizon, and the leaf-scented south wind +sighed in the still noon with foreboding gentleness. + +One day, Abner Dimock was gone, and Hitty stole down to the garden-door +with her little child, now just trying to walk, that he might have a +little play on the green turf, and she cool her hot eyes and lips in the +air. As she sat there watching the pretty clumsiness of her boy, and +springing forward to intercept his falls, the influence of sun and air, +the playful joy of the child, the soothing stillness of all Nature, +stole into her heart till it dreamed a dream of hope. Perhaps the +budding blossom of promise might become floral and fruitful; perhaps her +child might yet atone for the agony of the past;--a time might come when +she should sit in that door, white-haired and trembling with age, but as +peaceful as the autumn day, watching the sports of his children, while +his strong arm sustained her into the valley of shadow, and his tender +eyes lit the way. + +As she sat dreaming, suddenly a figure intercepted the sunshine, and, +looking up, she saw Abner Dimock's father, the elder Abner, entering the +little wicket-gate of the garden. A strange, tottering old figure, his +nose and chin grimacing at each other, his bleared eyes telling +unmistakable truths of cider-brandy and New England rum, his scant locks +of white lying in confusion over his wrinkled forehead and cheeks, his +whole air squalid, hopeless, and degraded,--not so much by the poverty +of vice as by its demoralizing stamp penetrating from the inner to the +outer man, and levelling it even below the plane of brutes that perish. + +"Good-day! good-day!" said he to his son's wife, in a squeaking, +tremulous tone, that drove the child to his mother's arms,--"Abner to +home?" + +"No, Sir," said Hitty, with an involuntary shudder, that did not escape +the bleared blue eye that fixed its watery gaze upon her. + +"Cold, a'n't ye? Better go in, better go in! Come, come along! How d'e +do, little feller? don't know yer grandper, hey?" + +The child met his advances with an ominous scream, and Hitty hurried +into the house to give him to the servant's charge, while she returned +to the sitting-room, where the old man had seated himself in the +rocking-chair, and was taking a mental inventory of the goods and +chattels with a momentary keenness in his look that no way reassured +Hitty's apprehensive heart. + +"So, Abner a'n't to home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't know where he's gone, do ye?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't never know where he goes, I expect?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he comes home,--know when he's a-comin' home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he doos, you tell him 't some folks come to the tavern last +night, 'n' talked pretty loud, 'n' I heerd--Guess 'ta'n't best, though, +to tell what I heerd. Only you tell Abner 't I come here, and I said +he'd better be a-joggin'. He'll know, he'll know,--h'm, yes," said the +old man, passing his hand across his thin blue lips, as if to drive away +other words better left unsaid,--and then rising from his seat, by the +aid of either arm, gained his balance, and went on, while he fumbled for +his stick:-- + +"I'd ha' writ, but black and white's a hangin' matter sometimes, 'n' +words a'n't; 'n' I hadn't nobody to send, so I crawled along. Don't ye +forget now! don't ye! It's a pretty consider'ble piece o' business; 'n' +you'll be dreffully on't, ef you do forget. Now _don't_ ye forget!" + +"No, I won't," said Hitty, trembling as she spoke; for the old man's +words had showed her a depth of dreadful possibility, and an old +acquaintance with crime and its manoeuvres, that chilled the blood in +her veins. She watched him out of the gate with a sickening sense of +terror at her heart, and turned slowly into the house, revolving all +kinds of plans in her head for her husband's escape, should her fears +prove true. Of herself she did not think; no law could harm her child; +but, even after years of brutality and neglect, her faithful affection +turned with all its provident thoughtfulness and care at once to her +husband; all her wrongs were forgotten, all her sorrows obliterated by +this one fear. Well did St. Augustine say, "God is patient because He is +eternal": but better and truer would the saying have been, had it run, +"God is patient because He is love": a gospel that He publishes in the +lives of saints on earth, in their daily and hourly "anguish of +patience," preaching to the fearful souls that dare not trust His +long-suffering by the tenacious love of those who bear His image, +saying, in resistless human tones, "Shall one creature endure and love +and continually forgive another, and shall I, who am not loving, but +Love, be weary of thy transgressions, O sinner?" And so does the silent +and despairing life of many a woman weave unconsciously its golden +garland of reward in the heavens above, and do the Lord's work in a +strange land where it cannot sing His songs. + +The day crept toward sunset, and Hitty sat with her wan face pressed to +the window-pane, hushing her child in his cradle with one of those low, +monotoned murmurs that mothers know; but still her husband did not come. +The level sun-rays pierced the woods into more vivid splendor, burnished +gold fringed the heavy purple clouds in the west, and warm crimson +lights turned the purple into more triumphant glory; the sun set, +unstained with mist or tempest, behind those blue and lonely hills that +guard old Berkshire with their rolling summits, and night came fast, +steel-blue and thick with stars; but yet he did not come, the untouched +meal on the table was untouched still. Hour after hour of starry +darkness crept by, and she sat watching at the window-pane; overhead, +constellations marched across the heavens in relentless splendor, +careless of man or sorrow; Orion glittered in the east, and climbed +toward the zenith; the Pleiades clustered and sparkled as if they missed +their lost sister no more; the Hyades marked the celestial pastures of +Taurus, and Lyra strung her chords with fire. Hitty rested her weary +head against the window-frame and sent her wearier thoughts upward to +the stars; there were the points of light that the Chaldeans watched +upon their plains by night, and named with mystic syllables of their +weird Oriental tongue,--names that in her girlhood she had delighted to +learn, charmed by that nameless spell that language holds, wherewith it +plants itself ineradicably in the human mind, and binds it with fetters +of vague association that time and chance are all-powerless to +break,--Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgunebi, Bellatrix and Betelguese, +sonorous of Rome and Asia both, full of old echoes and the dry resonant +air of Eastern plains,--names wherein sounded the clash of Bellona's +armor, and the harsh stir of palm-boughs rustled by a hot wind of the +desert, and vibrant with the dying clangor of gongs, and shouts of +worshipping crowds reverberating through horrid temples of grinning and +ghastly idols, wet with children's blood. + +Far, far away, the heavenly procession and their well-remembered names +had led poor Hitty's thoughts; worn out with anxiety, and faint for want +of the food she had forgotten to take, sleep crept upon her, and her +first consciousness of its presence was the awakening grasp of a rough +hand and the hoarse whisper of her husband. + +"Get up!" said he. "Pick up your brat, get your shawl, and come!" + +Hitty rose quickly to her feet. One faculty wretchedness gives, the +power of sudden self-possession,--and Hitty was broad awake in the very +instant she was called. Her husband stood beside her, holding a lantern; +her boy slept in the cradle at her feet. + +"Have you seen your father?" said she, with quick instinct. + +"Yes, d--n you, be quick! do you want to hang me?" + +Quick as a spirit Hitty snatched her child, and wrapped him in the +blanket where he lay; her shawl was on the chair she had slept in, her +hood upon a nail by the door, and flinging both on, with the child in +her arms, she followed her husband down-stairs, across the back-yard, +hitting her feet against stones and logs in the darkness, stumbling +often, but never falling, till the shadow of the trees was past, and the +starlight showed her that they were traversing the open fields, now +crisp with frost, but even to the tread,--over two or three of these, +through a pine-wood that was a landmark to Hitty, for she well knew that +it lay between the turnpike-road and another, less frequented, that by +various windings went toward the Connecticut Hue,--then over a tiny +brook on its unsteady bridge of logs, and out into a lane, where a +rough-spoken man was waiting for them, at the head of a strong horse +harnessed to one of those wagons without springs that New-Englanders +like to make themselves uncomfortable in. Her husband turned to her +abruptly. + +"Get in," said he; "get in behind; there's hay enough; and don't breathe +loud, or I'll murder you!" + +She clambered into the wagon and seated herself on the hay, hushing her +child, who nestled and moaned in her arms, though she had carried him +with all possible care. A sharp cut of the whip sent the powerful horse +off at full speed, and soon this ill-matched party were fast traversing +the narrow road that wound about the country for the use of every farm +within a mile of its necessary course, a course tending toward the +Connecticut. + +Hour after hour crept by. Worn out with fatigue, poor Hitty dozed and +fell back on the soft hay; her child slept, too, and all her troubles +faded away in heavy unconsciousness, till she was again awakened by her +husband's grasp, to find that dawn was gathering its light roseate +fleeces in the east, and that their flight was for the present stayed at +the door of a tavern, lonely and rude enough, but welcome to Hitty as a +place of rest, if only for a moment. The sullen mistress of the house +asked no questions and offered no courtesy, but, after her guests had +eaten their breakfast, rapidly prepared, she led the way to a bedroom in +the loft, where Abner Dimock flung himself down upon the straw bed and +fell sound asleep, leaving Hitty to the undisturbed care of her child. +And occupation enough that proved; for the little fellow was fretful and +excited, so that no hour for thought was left to his anxious and timid +mother till the dinner-bell awoke her husband and took him downstairs. +She could not eat, but, begging some milk for her boy, tended, and fed, +and sung to him, till he slept; and then all the horrors of the present +and future thronged upon her, till her heart seemed to die in her +breast, and her limbs failed to support her when she would have dragged +herself out of doors for one breath of fresh air, one refreshing look at +a world untroubled and serene. + +So the afternoon crept away, and as soon as night drew on the journey +was resumed. But this night was chill with the breath of a sobbing east +wind, and the dim stars foreboded rain. Hitty shivered with bitter cold, +and the boy began to cry. With a fierce curse Abner bade her stop his +disturbance, and again the poor mother had hands and heart full to +silence the still recurring sobs of the child. At last, after the +midnight cocks had ceased to send their challenges from farm to farm, +after some remote church-clocks had clanged one stroke on the damp wind, +they began to pass through a large village; no lights burned in the +windows, but white fences gleamed through the darkness, and sharp gable +ends loomed up against the dull sky, one after another, and the horse's +hoofs flashed sparks from the paved street before the church, that +showed its white spire, spectre-like, directly in their path. Here, by +some evil chance, the child awoke, and, between cold and hunger and +fear, began one of those long and loud shrieks that no power can stop +this side of strangulation. In vain Hitty kissed, and coaxed, and +half-choked her boy, in hope to stop the uproar; still he screamed more +and more loudly. Abner turned round on his seat with an oath, snatched +the child from its mother's arms, and rolled it closely in the blanket. + +"Hold on a minute, Ben!" said he to his companion; "this yelp must be +stopped"; and stepping over to the back of the wagon, he grasped his +wife tightly with one arm, and with the other dropped his child into the +street. "Now drive, Ben," said he, in the same hoarse whisper,--"drive +like the Devil!"--for, as her child fell, Hitty shrieked with such a cry +as only the heart of a mother could send out over a newly-murdered +infant. Shriek on shriek, fast and loud and long, broke the slumbers of +the village; nothing Abner could do, neither threat nor force, short of +absolute murder, would avail,--and there was too much real estate +remaining of the Hyde property for Abner Dimock to spare his wife yet. +Ben drove fiend-fashion; but before they passed the last house in the +village, lights were glancing and windows grating as they were opened. +Years after, I heard the story of such a midnight cry borne past +sleeping houses with the quick rattle of wheels; but no one who heard it +could give the right clue to its explanation, and it dried into a +legend. + +Now Hitty Dimock became careless of good or evil, except one absorbing +desire to get away from her husband,--to search for her child, to know +if it had lived or died. For four nights more that journey was pursued +at the height of their horse's speed; every day they stopped to rest, +and every day Hitty's half-delirious brain laid plans of escape, only to +be balked by Abner Dimock's vigilance; for if he slept, it was with both +arms round her, and the slightest stir awoke him,--and while he woke, +not one propitious moment freed her from his watch. Her brain began to +reel with disappointment and anguish; she began to hate her husband; a +band of iron seemed strained about her forehead, and a ringing sound +filled her ears; her lips grew parched, and her eye glittered; the last +night of their journey Abner Dimock lifted her into the wagon, and she +fainted on the hay. + +"What in hell did you bring her for, Dimock?" growled his companion; +"women are d----d plagues always." + +"She'll get up in a minute," coolly returned the husband; "can't afford +to leave a goose that lays golden eggs behind; hold on till I lift her +up. Here, Hitty! drink, I tell you! drink!" + +A swallow of raw spirit certainly drove away the faintness, but it +brought fresh fire to the fever that burned in her veins, and she was +muttering in delirium before the end of that night's journey brought +them to a small village just above the old house on the river that +figured in the beginning of this history, and which we trust the patient +reader has not forgotten. Abner Dimock left his wife in charge of the +old woman who kept the hovel of a tavern where they stopped, and, giving +Ben the horse to dispose of to some safe purchaser, after he had driven +him down to the old house, returned at night in the boat that belonged +to his negro tenant, and, taking his unconscious wife from her bed, +rowed down the river and landed her safely, to be carried from the skiff +into an upper chamber of the old house, where Jake's wife, Aunt Judy, as +Mr. Dimock styled her, nursed the wretched woman through three weeks of +fever, and "doctored" her with herbs and roots. + +The tenacious Hyde constitution, that was a proverb in Greenfield, +conquered at last, and Hitty became conscious, to find herself in a +chamber whose plastered walls were crumbling away with dampness and +festooned with cobwebs, while the uncarpeted floor was checkered with +green stains of mildew, and the very old four-post bedstead on which she +lay was fringed around the rickety tester with rags of green moreen, +mould-rotted. + +Hitty sank back on her pillow with a sigh; she did not even question the +old negress who sat crooning over the fire, as to where she was, or what +had befallen her; but accepted this new place as only another misty +delirium, and in her secret heart prayed, for the hundredth time, to +die. + +Slowly she recovered; for prayers to die are the last prayers ever +answered; we live against our will, and tempt living deaths year after +year, when soul and body cry out for the grave's repose, and beat +themselves against the inscrutable will of God only to fall down before +it in bruised and bleeding acquiescence. So she lived to find herself +immured in this damp and crumbling house, with no society but a drinking +and crime-haunted husband, and the ignorant negroes who served +him,--society varied now and then by one or two men revolting enough in +speech and aspect to drive Hitty to her own room, where, in a creaking +chair, she rocked monotonously back and forth, watching the snapping +fire, and dreaming dreams of a past that seemed now but a visionary +paradise. + +For now it was winter, and the heavy drifts of snow that lay on Dimock's +meadow forbade any explorations which the one idea of finding her child +might have driven her to make; and the frozen surface of the river no +white-sailed ship could traverse now, nor the hissing paddle-wheels of a +steamer break the silence with intimations of life, active and salient, +far beyond the lonely precinct of Abner Dimock's home. + +So the winter passed by. The noises and lights that had awoke Hitty at +midnight in the house at Greenfield had become so far an institution in +this lonely dwelling that now they disturbed her sleep no more; for it +was a received custom, that, whenever Abner Dimock's two visitors should +appear, the cellar should resound all night with heavy blows and +clinking of metal, and red light as from a forge streamed up through the +doorway; but it disturbed Hitty no more; apathy settled down in black +mist on her soul, and she seemed to think, to care, for nothing. + +But spring awoke the dead earth, and sleeping roots aroused with fresh +forces from their torpor, and sent up green signals to the birds above. +A spark of light awoke in Hitty's eye; she planned to get away, to steal +the boat from its hidden cove in the bushes and push off down the +friendly current of the river,--anywhere away from him! anywhere! though +it should be to wreck on the great ocean, but still away from him! Night +after night she rose from her bed to hazard the attempt, but her heart +failed, and her trembling limbs refused their aid. At length moonlight +came to her aid, and when all the house slept she stole downstairs with +bare, noiseless feet, and sped like a ghost across the meadow to the +river-bank. Poor weak hands! vainly they fumbled with the knotted rope +that bound the skiff to a crooked elm over-hanging the water,--all in +vain for many lingering minutes; but presently the obdurate knot gave +way, and, turning to gather up her shawl, there, close behind her, so +close that his hot breath seemed to sear her cheek, stood her husband, +clear in the moonlight, with a sneer on his face, and the lurid glow of +drunkenness, that made a savage brute of a bad man, gleaming in his +deep-set eyes. Hitty neither shrieked nor ran; despair nerved +her,--despair turned her rigid before his face. + +"Well," said he, "where are you going?" + +"I am going away,--away from you,--anywhere in the world away from you!" +answered she, with the boldness of desperation. + +"Ha, ha! going away from me!--that's a d--d good joke, a'n't it? Away +from your husband! You fool! you can't get away from me! you're mine, +soul and body,--this world and the next! Don't you know that? Where's +your promise, eh?--'for better, for worse!'--and a'n't I worse, you +cursed fool, you? You didn't put on the handcuffs for nothing; heaven +and hell can't get you away from me as long as you've got on that little +shiny fetter on your finger,--don't you know that?" + +The maddened woman made a quick wrench to pull away from him her left +hand, which he held in his, taunting her with the ring that symbolized +their eternal bonds; but he was too quick for her. + +"Hollo!" laughed he; "want to get rid of it, don't you? No, no! that +won't do,--that won't do! I'll make it safe!" + +And lifting her like a child in his arms, he carried her across the +meadow, back to the house, and down a flight of crazy steps into the +cellar, where a little forge was all ablaze with white-hot coal, and the +two ill-visaged men she well knew by sight were busy with sets of odd +tools and fragments of metal, while on a bench near by, and in the seat +of an old chair, lay piles of fresh coin. They were a gang of +counterfeiters. + +Abner Dimock thrust his wife into the chair, sweeping the gilt eagles to +the floor as one of the men angrily started up, demanding, with an oath, +what he brought that woman there for to hang them all. + +"Be quiet, Bill, can't you?" interposed the other man. "Don't you see +he's drunk? you'll have the Devil to pay, if you cross a drunk Dimock!" + +But Abner had not heard the first speaker; he was too much occupied with +tying his wife's arms to the chair,--a proceeding she could nowise +interfere with, since his heavy foot was set upon her dress so as to +hold her own feet in helpless fixedness. He proceeded to take the ring +from her finger, and, searching through a box of various contents that +stood in one corner, extracted from it a delicate steel chain, finely +wrought, but strong as steel can be; then, at the forge, with sundry +tools, carefully chosen and skilfully used, he soldered one end of the +chain to the ring, and, returning to his wife, placed it again upon her +finger. + +"Here, Bill," growled he, "where's that padlock off the tool-chest, eh? +give it here! This woman's a fool,--ha, ha, ha!--she wanted to get away +from me, and she's my wife!" + +Another peal of dissonant laughter interrupted the words. + +"What a d----d good joke! I swear I haven't laughed before, this dog's +age! And then she was goin' to rid herself of the ring! as if that would +help it! Why, there's the promise in black and white,--'love, honor, and +obey,'--'I take thee, Abner,'--ha, ha! that's good! But fast bind, fast +find; she a'n't going to get rid of the ring. I'll make it as tight as +the promise; both of 'em 'll last to doomsday. Give me the padlock, you +scoundrel!" + +Bill, the man he addressed, knew too much to hesitate after the savage +look that sent home the last words,--and, drawing from a bag of tools +and dies a tiny padlock and key, he handed them to Dimock, who passed +the chain about Hitty's thin white wrist, and, fastening it with the +padlock, turned the key, and, withdrawing it from the lock, dropped it +into the silvery heat of the forge, and burst into a fit of laughter, so +savage and so inhuman that the bearded lips of his two comrades grew +white with horror to hear the devil within so exult in his possession of +a man. + +Hitty sat, statue-like, in her chair; stooping, the man unbound her, and +she rose slowly and steadily to her feet, looking him in the face. + +"Look!" said she, raising her shackled arm high in air,--"I shall carry +it to God!"--and so fled, up the broken stairway, out into the +moonlight, across the meadow,--the three men following fast,--over the +fallen boughs that winter had strewn along the shore, out under the +crooked elm, swift as light, poising on the stern of the boat, that had +swung out toward the channel,--and once more lifting her hand high into +the white light, with one spring she dropped into the river, and its +black waters rolled down to the sea. + + + + +THE END OF ALL. + + + Wandering along a waste + Where once a city stood, + I saw a ruined tomb, + And in that tomb an urn,-- + + A sacred funeral-urn, + Without a name or date, + And in its hollow depths + A little human dust! + + Whose dust is this, I asked, + In this forgotten urn? + And where this waste now lies + What city rose of old? + + None knows; its name is lost; + It was, and is no more: + Gone like a wind that blew + A thousand years ago! + + Its melancholy end + Will be the end of all; + For, as it passed away, + The universe will pass! + + Its sole memorial + Some ruined world, like ours; + A solitary urn, + Full of the dust of men! + + + + +BIRDS OF THE NIGHT. + + +There are numerous swarms of insects and many small quadrupeds, +requiring partial darkness for their security, that come abroad only +during the night or twilight. These would multiply almost without check, +but that certain birds are formed with the power of seeing in the dark, +and, on account of their partial blindness in the daytime, are forced by +necessity to seek their food by night. Many species of insects are most +active after dewfall,--such, especially, as spend a great portion of +their lifetime in the air. Hence the very late hour at which Swallows +retire to rest, the hour succeeding sunset providing them with a fuller +repast than any other part of the day. No sooner has the Swallow +disappeared, than the Whippoorwill and the Night-Jar come forth, to prey +upon the larger kinds of aerial insects. The Bat, an animal of an +antediluvian type, comes out at the same time, and assists in lessening +these multitudinous swarms. The little Owls, though they pursue the +larger beetles and moths, direct their efforts chiefly at the small +quadrupeds that steal out in the early evening to nibble the tender +herbs and grasses. Thus the night, except the hours of total darkness, +is with many species of animals, though they pursue their objects with +comparative stillness and silence, a period of general activity. + +In this sketch, I shall treat of the Birds of the Night under two heads, +including, beside the true nocturnal birds that go abroad in the night +to seek their subsistence, those diurnal birds that continue their songs +during a considerable portion of the night. Some species of birds are +partly nocturnal in their habits. Such is the Chimney Swallow. This bird +is seldom out at noonday, which it employs in sleep, after excessive +activity from the earliest morning dawn. It is seen afterwards circling +about in the decline of day, and is sometimes abroad in fine weather the +greater part of the night, when the young broods require almost +unremitted exertions, on the part of the old birds, to procure their +subsistence. + +The true nocturnal birds, of which the Owl and the Whippoorwill are +conspicuous examples, are distinguished by a peculiar sensibility of the +eye, that enables them to see clearly by twilight and in cloudy weather, +while they are dazzled by the broad light of day. Their organs of +hearing are proportionally delicate and acute. Their wing-feathers also +have a peculiar downy softness, so that they fly without the usual +fluttering sounds that attend the flight of other birds, and are able to +steal unawares upon their prey, and make their predal excursions without +disturbing the general silence of the hour. This noiseless flight is +very remarkable in the Owl, as may be observed, if a tame one be allowed +to fly about a room, when we can perceive his motions only by our sight. +It is a fact worthy of our attention, that this peculiar structure of +the wing-feathers does not exist in the Woodcock. Nature makes no +useless provisions for her creatures; and hence this nocturnal bird, +which obtains his food by digging into the soil, and gets no part of it +while on the wing, has no need of this contrivance. Neither stillness +nor stealth would assist him in securing his helpless prey. + +Among the nocturnal birds, the most notorious is the Owl, of which there +are many species, varying from the size of an Eagle down to the little +Acadian, which is no larger than a Robin. The resemblance of the Owl to +the feline quadrupeds has been a frequent subject of remark. Like the +cat, he sees most clearly by twilight or the light of the moon, seeks +his prey in the night, and spends the principal part of the day in +sleep. The likeness is made stronger by his tufts of feathers, that +correspond to the ears of the quadruped,--by his large head,--his round, +full, and glaring eyes, set widely apart,--by the extreme contractility +of the pupil,--and in his manners, by his lurking and stealthy habit of +surprising his victims. His eyes are partially encircled by a disk of +feathers that yields a peculiarly significant expression to his face. +His hooked bill turned downwards, so as to resemble the nose in a human +countenance, the general flatness of his features, and his upright +position, give him a grave and intelligent look; and it was this +expression that caused him to be selected by the ancients as the emblem +of wisdom, and consecrated to Minerva. + +The Owl is remarkable also for the acuteness of his hearing, having a +large ear-drum, and being provided with an apparatus by which he can +exalt this faculty, when under the necessity of listening with greater +attention. Hence, while he is silent in his own motions, he is able to +perceive the least sound from the motion of any other object, and +overtakes his prey by coming upon it in silence and darkness. The +stillness of his flight is one of the circumstances that add mystery to +his character, and which have assisted in rendering him an object of +superstitious dread. + +Aware of his defenceless condition in the bright daylight, when his +purblindness would prevent him from evading the attacks of his enemies, +he seeks some obscure retreat where he may pass the day without exposing +himself to observation. It is this necessity which has caused him to +make his abode in desolate and ruined buildings, in old towers and +belfries, and in the crevices of dilapidated walls. In these places he +hides himself from the sight of other birds, who regard him as their +common enemy, and who show him no mercy when he is discovered. Here also +he rears his offspring, and with these solitary haunts his image is +closely associated. In thinly settled and wooded countries, he selects +the hollows of old trees and the clefts of rocks for his retreats. All +the smaller Owls, however, seem to multiply with the increase of human +population, subsisting upon the minute animals that accumulate in +outhouses, orchards, and fallows. + +When the Owl is discovered in his hiding-place, the alarm is given, and +there is a general excitement among the small birds. They assemble in +great numbers, and with loud chattering commence assailing and annoying +him in various ways, and soon drive him out of his retreat. The Jay, +usually his first assailant, like a thief employed as a thief-taker, +attacks him with great zeal and animation; the Chickadee, the Nuthatch, +and the small Thrushes peck at his head and eyes; while other birds, +less bold, fly round him, and by their vociferation encourage his +assailants and help to terrify their victim. + +It is while sitting on the branch of a tree or on a fence, after his +misfortune and his escape, that he is most frequently seen in the +daytime; and here he has formed a subject for painters, who have +commonly introduced him into their pictures as he appears in one of +these open situations. He is likewise represented ensconced in his own +select retreats, apparently peeping out of his hiding-place while +half-concealed; and the fact of his being seen in these lonely places +has caused many superstitions to be attached to his image. His voice is +supposed to bode misfortune, and his spectral visits are regarded as the +forewarnings of death. His connection with deserted houses and ruins has +invested him with a peculiarly romantic character; while the poets, by +introducing him to deepen the force of their gloomy and pathetic +descriptions, have enlivened these associations; and he deserves, +therefore, in a special degree, to be named among those animals which we +call picturesque. + +The gravity of the Owl's general appearance, combined with a sort of +human expression in his countenance, undoubtedly caused him to be +selected by the ancients as the emblem of wisdom. The moderns have +practically renounced this idea, which had no foundation in the real +character of the bird, who possesses only the sly and sinister traits +that mark the feline race. A very different train of associations and a +new series of picturesque images are now suggested by the figure of the +Owl, who has been portrayed more correctly by modern poetry than by +ancient mythology. He is now universally regarded as the emblem of ruin +and desolation, true to his character and habits, which are intimately +allied to this description of scenery. + +I will not enter into a speculation concerning the nature and origin of +those agreeable emotions which are so generally produced by the sight of +objects that suggest the ideas of decay and desolation. It is happy for +us, that, by the alchemy of poetry, we are able to turn some of our +misfortunes into sources of melancholy pleasure, after the poignancy of +grief has been assuaged by time. Nature has beneficently provided, also, +that many an object, which is capable of communicating no direct +pleasure to our senses, shall affect us agreeably through the medium of +sentiment. The image of the Owl is calculated to awaken the sentiment of +ruin, and to this feeling of the human soul we may trace the pleasure we +derive from the sight of this bird in his appropriate scenery. Two Doves +upon the mossy branch of a tree in a wild and beautiful sylvan retreat +are the pleasing emblems of innocent love and constancy; but they are +not more suggestive of poetic fancies than an Owl sitting upon an old +gate-post near a deserted house. + +I have alluded, in another page, to the faint sounds we hear when the +Night Birds, on a still summer evening, are flying over short distances +in a neighboring wood. There is a feeling of mystery excited by these +sounds, that exalts the pleasure we derive from the delightful influence +of the hour and the season. But the emotions thus produced are of a +cheerful kind, and not equal in intensity to the effects of the scarcely +perceptible sound occasioned by the flight of the Owl, as he glides by +in the dusk of the evening or in the dim light of the moon. Similar in +its influence is the dismal voice of this bird, which is harmonized with +darkness, and, though in some cases not unmusical, is tuned, as it were, +to the terrors of that hour when he makes secret warfare upon the +sleeping inhabitants of the wood. + +One of the most interesting of this tribe of birds is the little Acadian +Owl, (_Strix Acadica_,) whose note has formerly excited a great deal of +curiosity. In "The Canadian Naturalist," an account is given of a rural +excursion in April, in the course of which the attention of one of the +party is called by his companion, just after sunset, to a peculiar sound +proceeding from a cedar swamp. It was compared to the measured tinkling +of a cow-bell, or regular strokes upon a piece of iron, quickly +repeated. The one appealed to is able to give no satisfactory +information about it, but remarks, that, "during the months of April and +May, and in the former part of June, we frequently hear, after +nightfall, the sound just described. From its regularity, it is thought +to resemble the whetting of a saw, and hence the bird from which it +proceeds is called the Saw-Whetter." The author could not identify the +bird that uttered this note, but conjectured that it might be a Heron or +a Bittern. It has since been ascertained that this singular note +proceeds from the Acadian Owl. It is like the sound produced by the +filing of a mill-saw, and is said to be the amatory note of the male, +being heard only during the season of incubation. + +Mr. S.P. Fowler, of Danvers, informs me that "the Acadian Owl has +another note, which we frequently hear in the autumn, after the breeding +season is over. The parent birds, then accompanied by their young, while +hunting their prey during a bright moonlight night, utter a peculiar +note, resembling a suppressed moan or a low whistle. The little Acadian, +to avoid the annoyance of the birds he would meet by day, and the +blinding light of the sun, retires in the morning, his feathers wet with +dew and rumpled by the hard struggles he has encountered in seizing his +prey, to the gloom of the forest or the thick swamp, where, perched on a +bough, near the trunk of the tree, he sleeps through a summer's day, the +perfect picture of a _used-up_ little fellow, suffering from the sad +effects of a night's carouse. But he is an honest bird, notwithstanding +his late hours and his idle sleeping days; he is also domestic in his +habits, and the father of an interesting family, close at hand, in a +hollow white-birch, and he is ever ready to give them his support and +protection." + +The Mottled Owl, (_Strix Asio_) or Screech Owl, is somewhat larger than +the Acadian or Whetsaw, and not so familiar as the Barn Owl of Europe, +though resembling it in general habits. He commonly builds in the hollow +of an old tree, also in deserted buildings, whither he resorts in the +daytime to find repose and to escape annoyance. His voice is heard most +frequently in the latter part of summer, when the young Owlets are +abroad, and use their cries for purposes of mutual salutation and +recognition. This wailing note is singularly wild, and not unmusical. It +is not properly a screech or a scream, like that of the Hawk or the +Peacock, but rather a sort of moaning melody, half music and half +bewailment. This wailing song is far from disagreeable, though it has a +cadence which is expressive of dreariness and melancholy. It might be +performed on a small flute, by commencing with D octave and running down +by semitones to a fifth below, and frequently repeating the notes, for +the space of a minute, with occasional pauses and slight variations, +sometimes ascending as well as descending the scale. The bird does not +slur the passages, but utters them with a sort of trembling _staccato_. +The separate notes may be distinctly perceived, with intervals of about +a semitone. + +The Owl is not properly regarded as a useful bird. The generality of the +tribe deserve to be considered only as mischievous birds of prey, and no +more entitled to mercy and protection than the Falcons, to which they +are allied. All the little Owls, however, though guilty of destroying +small birds, are very serviceable in ridding our fields and premises of +mischievous animals. They likewise destroy multitudes of large nocturnal +insects, flying above the summits of the trees in pursuit of them, while +at other times their flight is low, when watching for the small animals +that run upon the ground. It is probably on account of its low flight +that the Owl is seldom seen on the wing. Bats, which are employed by +Nature for the same kind of services, fall victims in large numbers to +the Owls of different species, who are the principal means of preventing +their multiplication. + +I should wander from my present purpose, were I to attempt a sketch of +the large Owls, as I design only to treat of those birds which +contribute, either as poetic or picturesque objects, to improve the +charms of Nature. I shall say but a passing word, therefore, of the +Great Snowy Owl, almost exclusively an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, +where he frightens both man and beast with his dismal hootings,--or of +the Cat Owl, the prince of these monsters, who should be consecrated to +Pluto,--or of his brother monster, the Gray Owl, that will carry off a +full-grown rabbit. There are several other species, more or less +interesting, ridiculous, or frightful. I will leave them, to speak of +birds of more pleasing habits and a more innocent character. + +The next remarkable family of nocturnal birds comprises the +_Moth-Hunters_, including, in New England, only two species,--the +Whippoorwill and the Night-Hawk, or Piramidig. These birds resemble the +Owls in some of their habits; but in their structure, in their mode of +subsistence, and in their general traits of character, they are like +Swallows. They are shy and solitary, take their food while on the wing, +abide chiefly in deep woods, and come abroad only at twilight or in +cloudy weather. They remain, like the Dove, permanently paired, lay +their eggs on the bare ground, and, when perched upon the branch of a +tree, sit upon it lengthwise, unlike other birds. They are remarkable +for their singular voices, of which that of only one species, the +Whippoorwill, can be considered musical. They are known in all parts of +the world, but are particularly numerous in the warmer parts of America. + +The Whippoorwill (_Caprimulgus vociferus_) is well known to the +inhabitants of this part of the world, on account of his nocturnal song. +This is heard only in densely wooded and retired situations, and is +associated with the solitude of the forest, as well as the silence of +night. The Whippoorwill is, therefore, emblematic of the rudeness of +primitive Nature, and his voice always reminds us of seclusion and +retirement. Sometimes he wanders away from the wood into the precincts +of the town, and sings near some dwelling-house. Such an incident was +formerly the occasion of superstitious alarm, being regarded as an omen +of some evil to the inmates of the dwelling. The true cause of these +irregular visits is probably the accidental abundance of a particular +kind of insects, which the bird has followed from his retirement. + +I believe the Whippoorwill, in this part of the country, is first heard +in May, and continues vocal until the middle of July. He begins to sing +at dusk, and we usually hear his note soon after the Veery, the Philomel +of our summer evenings, has become silent. His song consists of three +notes, in a sort of triple or waltz time, with a slight pause after the +first note in the bar, as given below:-- + +[Illustration: SONG OF THE WHIPPOORWILL. Whip-poor-Will Whip-p'r-Will +Whip-p'r-Will Whip-] + +I should remark, that the bird usually commences his song with the +second syllable of his name, or the second note in the bar. Some birds +fall short of these intervals; but there seems to be an endeavor, on the +part of each individual, to reach the notes as they are written on the +scale. A few sliding notes are occasionally introduced, and an +occasional preluding cluck is heard when we are near the singer. + +The note of the Quail so closely resembles that of the Whippoorwill, +that I have thought it might be interesting to compare the two. + +[Illustration: NOTE OF THE QUAIL. Bob White. More Wet.] + +So great is the general similarity of the notes of these two birds, that +those of the Quail need only to be repeated several times in succession, +without pause, to be mistaken for those of the Whippoorwill. They are +uttered with similar intonations; but the voice of the nocturnal bird is +more harsh, and his song consists of three notes instead of two. + +The song of the Whippoorwill, though wanting in mellowness of tone, as +may be perceived when he is only a short distance from us, is to most +people very agreeable, notwithstanding the superstitions associated with +it. Some persons are not disposed to rank the Whippoorwill among +singing-birds, regarding him as more vociferous than musical. But it +would be difficult to determine in what respect his notes differ from +the songs of other birds, except that they approach more nearly to the +precision of artificial music. Yet it will be admitted that considerable +distance is required to "lend enchantment" to the sound of his voice. In +some retired and solitary districts, the Whippoorwills are often so +numerous as to be annoying by their vociferations; but in those places +where only two or three individuals are heard during the season, their +music is the source of a great deal of pleasure, and is a kind of +recommendation to the place. + +I was witness of this, some time since, in one of my botanical rambles +in the town of Beverly, which is, for the most part, too densely +populated to suit the habits of these solitary birds. On one of these +excursions, after walking several hours over a rather unattractive +region, I arrived at a very romantic spot, known by the unpoetical name +of Black Swamp. Nature uses her most ordinary materials to form her most +delightful landscapes, and often keeps in reserve prospects of +enchanting beauty, and causes them to rise up, as it were, by magic, +where we should least expect them. Here I suddenly found myself +encompassed by a charming amphitheatre of hills and woods, and in a +valley so beautiful that I could not have imagined anything equal to it. +A neat cottage stood alone in this spot, without a single architectural +decoration, which I am confident would have dissolved the spell that +made the whole scene so attractive. It was occupied by a shoemaker, whom +I recognized as an old acquaintance and a worthy man, who resided here +with his wife and children. I asked them if they could live contented so +far from other families. The wife of the cottager replied, that they +suffered in the winter from their solitude, but in the spring and summer +they preferred it to the town,--"for in this place we hear all the +singing-birds, early and late, and the Whippoorwill sings here every +night during May and June." It was the usual practice of these birds, +they told me, to sing both in the morning and the evening twilight; but +if the moon rose late in the evening, after they had become silent, they +would begin to sing anew, as if to welcome her rising. May the birds +continue to sing to this happy family, and may the voice of the +Whippoorwill never bode them any misfortune! + +The Night-Hawk, or Piramidig, (_Caprimulgus Americanus_,) is similar in +many points to the Whippoorwill, and the two species were formerly +considered identical. The former, however, is a smaller bird; he has no +song, and exhibits more of the ways of the Swallow. He is marked by a +white spot on his wings, which is very apparent during his flight. He +takes his prey in a higher part of the atmosphere,--being frequently +seen, at twilight and in cloudy weather, soaring above the house-tops in +quest of insects. The Whippoorwill finds his subsistence chiefly in the +woods, and takes a part of it from the branches of trees, while poising +himself on the wing, like a Humming-Bird. I believe he is never seen +circling aloft like the Night-Hawk. + +The movements of the Night-Hawk, during this flight, are performed, for +the most part, in circles, and are very picturesque. The birds are +usually seen in pairs, at such times, but occasionally there are numbers +assembled together; and one might suppose they were engaged in a sort of +aerial dance, or that they were emulating each other in their attempts +at soaring to a great height. It is evident that these evolutions +proceed in part from the pleasure of motion; but they are also connected +with their courtship. While they are soaring and circling in the air, +they occasionally utter the shrill and broken note which has been +supposed to resemble the word Piramidig, whence the name is +derived,--and now and then they dart suddenly aside, to seize a passing +insect. + +While performing these circumvolutions, the male frequently dives almost +perpendicularly downwards, a distance of forty feet or more, uttering, +when he turns at the bottom of his descent, a singular note, resembling +the twang of a viol-string. This sound has been supposed to proceed from +the action of the air, as the bird dives swiftly through it with open +mouth; but this supposition is rendered improbable by the fact that the +European species makes a similar sound while sitting on its perch. It +has also been alleged that the diving motion of this bird is an act +designed to intimidate those who seem to be approaching his nest; but +this cannot be true, because the bird performs the manoeuvre when he has +no nest to defend. This habit is peculiar to the male, and it is +probably one of those fantastic motions which are noticeable among the +males of the gallinaceous birds, and are evidently their artifices to +attract the attention of the female; very many of these motions may be +observed in the manners of tame Pigeons. + +The twanging note produced during the precipitate descent of the +Night-Hawk is one of the picturesque sounds of Nature, and is heard most +frequently in the morning twilight, when the birds are busy collecting +their repast of insects. During an early morning walk, while they are +circling about, we may hear their cry frequently repeated, and +occasionally the booming sound, which, if one is not accustomed to it, +and is not acquainted with this habit of the bird, affects him with a +sensation of mystery, and excites his curiosity in an extraordinary +degree. + +The sound produced by the European species is a sort of drumming or +whizzing note, like the hum of a spinning-wheel. The male commences this +performance about dusk, and continues it at intervals during a great +part of the night. It is effected while the breast is inflated with air, +like that of a cooing Dove. The Piramidig has the power of inflating +himself in the same manner, and he utters this whizzing note when one +approaches his nest. + +The American Woodcock (_Scolopax minor_) is a more interesting bird than +we should infer from his general appearance and physiognomy. He is +mainly nocturnal in his habits, and his ways are worthy of study and +observation. He obtains his food by scratching up the leaves and rubbish +that lie upon the surface of the ground in damp and wooded places, and +by boring into the earth for worms. He remains concealed in the wood +during the day, and comes out to feed at twilight, choosing the open +ploughed lands where worms are abundant; though it is probable that in +the shade of the wood he is more or less busy in scratching among the +leaves in the daytime. + +The Woodcock does not commonly venture abroad in the open day, unless he +be disturbed and driven from his retreats. He makes his first appearance +here in the latter part of April, and at this season we may observe that +soaring habit which renders him one of the picturesque objects of +Nature. This soaring takes place soon after sunset, continues during +twilight, and is repeated at the corresponding hour in the morning. If +you listen at this time near the places of his resort, he will soon +reveal himself by a lively peep, frequently uttered, from the ground. +While repeating this note, he may be seen strutting about, like a +turkey-cock, with fantastic jerkings of the tail and a frequent bowing +of the head; and his mate, I believe, is at this time not far off. +Suddenly he springs upward, and with a wide circular sweep, uttering at +the same time a rapid whistling note, he rises in a spiral course to a +great height in the air. At the summit of his ascent, he hovers about +with irregular motions, chirping a medley of broken notes, like +imperfect warbling. This continues about ten or fifteen seconds, when it +ceases, and he descends rapidly to the ground. We seldom hear him while +in his descent, but receive the first intimation of it by hearing a +repetition of his peep, resembling the sound produced by those minute +wooden trumpets sold at the German toy-shops. + +No person could watch this playful flight of the Woodcock without +interest; and it is remarkable that a bird with short wings and +difficult flight should be capable of mounting to so great an altitude. +It affords me a vivid conception of the pleasure with which I should +witness the soaring and singing of the Skylark, known to me only by +description. I have but to imagine the chirruping of the Woodcock to be +a melodious series of notes, to feel that I am listening to that bird, +which is so familiarized to our imaginations by English poetry that in +our early days we always expect his greetings with a summer sunrise. It +is with sadness that we first learn in our youth that the Skylark is not +an inhabitant of the New World; and our mornings seem divested of a +great portion of their charms, for the want of this poetical +accompaniment. + +There is another circumstance connected with the habits of the Woodcock +which increases his importance as an actor in the melodrame of Nature. +When we stroll away from the noise and din of the town, where the +stillness permits us to hear distinctly all those faint sounds which are +turned by the silence of night into music, we may hear at frequent +intervals the hum produced by the irregular flights of the Woodcock, as +he passes over short distances in the wood, where he is collecting his +repast. It resembles the sound of the wings of Doves, rendered distinct +by the stillness of all other things, and melodious by the distance. +There is a feeling of mystery attached to these musical nights that +yields a savor of romance to the quiet voluptuousness of a summer +evening. + +It is on such occasions, if we are in a moralizing mood, that we may be +keenly impressed with the truth of the saying, that the secret of +happiness consists in keeping alive our susceptibilities by frugal +indulgences, rather than by seeking a multitude of pleasures, that pall +in exact proportion to their abundance. The stillness and darkness of a +quiet night produce this enlivening effect upon our minds. Our +susceptibility is then awakened to such a degree, that slight sounds and +feeble sparks of light convey to our souls an amount of pleasure which +we seldom experience in the daytime from sights and sounds of the most +pleasing description. Thus the player in an orchestra can enjoy such +music only as would deafen common ears by its crash of sounds, in which +they perceive no connection or harmony; while the simple rustic listens +to the rude notes of a flageolet in the hands of a clown with feelings +of ineffable delight. Nature, if the seekers after luxurious and +exciting pleasures could but understand her language, would say to them, +"Except ye become as this simple rustic, ye cannot enter into my +paradise." + +The American Snipe has some of the nocturnal habits of the Woodcock, and +the same habit of soaring at twilight, when he performs a sort of +musical medley, which Audubon has very graphically described in the +following passage:--"The birds are met with in meadows and low grounds, +and, by being on the spot before sunrise, you may see both (male and +female) mount high, in a spiral manner, now with continuous beats of the +wings, now in short sailings, until more than a hundred yards high, when +they whirl round each other with extreme velocity, and dance, as it +were, to their own music; for, at this juncture, and during the space of +five or six minutes, you hear rolling notes mingled together, each more +or less distinct, perhaps, according to the state of the atmosphere. The +sounds produced are extremely pleasing, though they fall faintly on the +ear. I know not how to describe them; but I am well assured that they +are not produced simply by the beatings of their wings, as at this time +the wings are not flapped, but are used in sailing swiftly in a circle, +not many feet in diameter. A person might cause a sound somewhat similar +by blowing rapidly and alternately, from one end to another, across a +set of small pipes, consisting of two or three modulations. This +performance is kept up till incubation terminates; but I have never +observed it at any other period." + +Among the Heron family we discover a few nocturnal birds, which, though +not very well known, have some ways that are singular and interesting. +Goldsmith considered one of these birds worthy of introduction into his +"Deserted Village," as contributing to the poetic conception of +desolation. Thus, in his description of the grounds which were the +ancient site of the village, we read,-- + + "Along its glades, a solitary guest, + The hollow-sounding Bittern guards its nest." + +"The Bittern is a shy and solitary bird; it is never seen on the wing in +the daytime, but sits, generally with the head erect, hid among the +reeds and rushes of extensive marshes, from whence it will not stir, +unless disturbed by the sportsman. When it changes its haunts, it +removes in the dusk of the evening, and then, rising in a spiral +direction, soars to a vast height. It flies in the same heavy manner as +the Heron, and might be mistaken for that bird, were it not for the +singularly resounding cry which it utters, from time to time, while on +the wing: but this cry is feeble when compared with the hollow booming +noise which it makes during the night, in the breeding season, from its +swampy retreats. From the loudness and solemnity of its note, an +erroneous notion prevails with the vulgar, that it either thrusts its +head into a reed, which serves as a pipe for swelling its note beyond +its natural pitch, or that it immerges its head in water, and then +produces its boomings by blowing with all its might." + +The American Bittern is a smaller bird, but is probably a variety of the +European species. It exhibits the same nocturnal habits, and has +received at the South the name of _Dunkadoo_, from the resemblance of +its common note to these syllables. This is a hollow-sounding noise, but +not so loud as the voice of the Bittern to which Goldsmith alludes. I +have heard it by day proceeding from the wooded swamps, and am at a loss +to explain how so small a bird can produce so low and hollow a note. +Among this family of birds are one or two other nocturnal species, +including the Qua-Bird, which is common to both continents; but there is +little to be said of it that would be interesting in this connection. +The Herons, however, and their allied species, are birds of remarkable +habits, the enumeration and account of which would occupy a considerable +space. In an essay on the flight of birds in particular, the Herons +would furnish a multitude of very interesting facts. + + +Let us now turn our attention to those diurnal birds that sing in the +night as well as in the day, and which might be comprehended under the +general appellation of Nightingales. These birds do not confine their +singing to the night, like the true nocturnal birds, and are most vocal +when inspired by the light of the moon. Europe has several of these +minstrels of the night. Beside the true Philomel of poetry and romance, +the Reed-Thrush and the Woodcock are of this character. In the United +States, the Mocking-Bird enjoys the greatest reputation; the +Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the New York Thrush are also nocturnal +songsters. + +The Mocking-Bird (_Turdus polyglottus_) is well known in the Middle and +Southern States, but seldom passes a season in New England, except in +the southern part of Rhode Island and Connecticut, which seem to be the +northern limit of its migrations. Probably, like the Rose-breasted +Grosbeak, which is constantly extending its limits in an eastern +direction, the Mocking-Bird may be gradually making progress +northwardly, so that fifty years hence both of these birds may be common +in Massachusetts. The Mocking-Bird is familiar in his habits, +frequenting gardens and orchards, and perching on the roofs of houses +when singing, like the common Robin. Like the Robin, too, who sings at +all hours excepting those of darkness, he is a persevering songster, and +seems to be inspired by living in the vicinity of man. In his manners, +however, he bears more resemblance to the Red Thrush, being +distinguished by his vivacity, and the courage with which he repels the +attacks of his enemies. + +The Mocking-Bird is celebrated throughout the world for his musical +powers; but it is difficult to ascertain precisely the character and +quality of his original notes. Hence some naturalists have contended +that he has no song of his own, but confines himself to imitations. That +this is an error, all persons who have listened to him in his native +wild-wood can testify. I should say, from my own observations, not only +that he has a distinct song, peculiarly his own, but that his imitations +are far from being equal to his original notes. Yet it is seldom we hear +him except when he is engaged in mimicry. In his native woods, and +especially at an early hour in the morning, when he is not provoked to +imitation by the voices of other birds and animals, he sometimes pours +forth his own wild notes with full fervor. Yet I have often listened +vainly for hours to hear him utter anything but a few idle repetitions +of monotonous sounds, interspersed with some ludicrous varieties. Why he +should neglect his own pleasing notes, to tease the listener with his +imitations of all imaginable discords, is not easily explained. + +Though his imitations are the cause of his notoriety, they are not the +utterances upon which his true merit is based. He would be infinitely +more valuable as a songster, if he were incapable of imitating a single +sound. I would add, that as an imitator of the songs of other birds he +is very imperfect, and in this respect has been greatly overrated by our +ornithologists, who seem to vie with one another in their exaggerations +of his powers. He cannot utter the notes of the rapid singers; he is +successful only in his imitations of those birds whose notes are simple +and moderately delivered. He is, indeed, more remarkable for his +indefatigable propensity than for his powers. Single sounds, from +whatever source they may come, from birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, or +machines, he gives very accurately; but I have heard numbers of +Mocking-Birds in confinement attempt to imitate the Canary, and always +without success. There is a common saying, that the Mocking-Bird will +die of chagrin, if placed in a cage by the side of a caged Bobolink, +mortified because he cannot give utterance to his rapid notes. If this +were the cause of his death, he would also die when caged in a room with +a Canary, a Goldfinch, or any of the rapidly singing Finches. It is also +an error to say of his imitations, as the generality of writers assert, +that they are improvements upon the originals. When he utters the notes +of the Red-Bird, the Golden Robin, or the Common Robin, he does not +improve them; and when he gives us the screaming of the Jay or the +mewing of the Cat, he does not change them into music. + +As an original songster, judging him by what he is capable of +performing, however unfrequently he may exercise his powers to the best +advantage, the Mocking-Bird is probably equalled only by two or three of +our singing-birds. His notes are loud, varied, melodious, and of great +compass. They may be compared to those of the Red Thrush, more rapidly +delivered, and having more flute notes and fewer guttural notes and +sudden transitions. He also sings on the wing and with fervor, like the +Linnet, while the other Thrushes sing only from their perch. But his +song has less variety than that of the Red Thrush, and falls short of it +in as many respects as it surpasses it. For the greater part of the +time, the only notes of the Mocking-Bird, when he is not engaged in +mimicry, are a sort of melodious whistle, consisting of two notes about +a fourth apart, uttered in quick, but not rapid, succession, and hardly +to be distinguished from those of the Red-Bird of Virginia. + +I heard the notes of the Mocking-Bird the first time in his native +wilds, during a railroad journey by night, through the Pine Barrens of +North Carolina, in the month of June. The journey was very tiresome and +unpleasant, nothing being seen, when looking out upon the landscape, but +a gloomy stretch of level forest, consisting of tall pines, thinly +scattered, without any branches, except at their tops. The dusky forms +of these trees, pictured against the half-luminous sky, seemed like so +many giant spectres watching the progress of our journey, and increased +the loneliness of the hour. Before daylight, when the sky was faintly +crimsoned around the place where the sun was to come forth, the train +made a pause of half an hour, at one of the stations, and the passengers +alighted. While I was looking at the dreary prospect of desert, tired of +my journey and longing for day, suddenly the notes of the Mocking-Bird +came to my ear, and changed all my gloomy feelings into delight. + +It is seldom I have felt so vividly the power of one little incident to +change the tone of one's feelings and the humor of the occasion. As a +few drops of oil, cast upon the surface of the waters, will quiet the +troubled waves, so did the glad voice of this merry bird suddenly dispel +all those sombre feelings which had been fostered by dismal scenes and a +lonely journey. Nature never seemed so lovely as when the rising dawn, +with its tearful beams and purple radiance, was greeted by this warbling +salutation, as from some messenger of light, who came to announce that +Morning was soon to step forth from her throne, and extend over all +things her smiles and her beneficence. + +Of the other American birds that sing in the night I can say nothing +from my own observation. The most important of these is the New York +Thrush, (_Turdus aquaticus_,) which is said to resemble the River +Nightingale of Europe. This bird, which is common in the Western States, +is said to sing melodiously night and day. Wilson remarks of this +species, "They are eminently distinguished by the loudness, sweetness, +and expressive vivacity of their notes, which begin very high and clear, +falling with an almost imperceptible gradation, till they are scarcely +articulated. At these times the musician is perched on the middle +branches of a tree, over a brook or river-bank, pouring out his charming +melody, that may be distinctly heard for nearly half a mile. The voice +of this little bird appeared to me so exquisitely sweet and expressive, +that I was never tired listening to it." This description is exactly +applicable to the song of the Veery, supposed to be silent by Wilson, +who could not have fallen into such an error, except by having confined +his researches chiefly to the Middle and Southern States. + +The Rose-breasted Grosbeak (_Loxia rosea_) is said to be an excellent +songster, passing the greater part of the night in singing, and +continuing vocal in confinement. This bird is common in the Western +States, but until lately has seldom been seen in New England. I learn, +however, from Mr. Fowler, that "the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is found in +Essex County, and, though formerly seldom seen, is becoming every year +more common. Like the Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager, it is retiring in +its habits, and is usually found in the most sheltered part of the wood, +where, perched about midway on a tree, in fancied concealment, it +warbles its soft, clear, and melodious notes." He thinks this bird is +not heard so frequently by night as by day, though it often sings in the +light of the moon. + +In connection with this theme, we cannot help feeling a sense of regret, +almost like melancholy, when we reflect that the true Nightingale and +the Skylark, the classical birds of European literature, are strangers +to our fields and woods. In May and June there is no want of sylvan +minstrels to wake the morn and to sing the vespers of a sweet summer +evening. A flood of song wakes us at the earliest daylight; and the shy +and solitary Veery, after the Vesper-Bird has concluded his evening +hymn, pours his few pensive notes into the very bosom of twilight, and +makes the hour sacred by his melody. But after twilight is sped, and the +moon rises to shed her meek radiance over the sleeping earth, the +Nightingale is not here to greet her rising, and to turn her melancholy +beams into the cheerfulness of daylight. And when the Queen Moon is on +her throne, + + "Clustered around by all her starry Fays," + +the Whippoorwill alone brings her the tribute of his monotonous song, +and soothes the dull ear of Night with sounds which, however delightful, +are not of heaven. We have become so familiar with the Lark and the +Nightingale, by the perusal of the romance of rural life, that "neither +breath of Morn, when she ascends" without the charm of this her earliest +harbinger, "nor silent Night" without her "solemn bird," seems holy, as +when we contemplate them in the works of pastoral song. Poetry has +hallowed to our minds the pleasing objects of the Old World; those of +the New have to be cherished in song yet many more years, before they +will be equally sacred to our imaginations. + +By some of our writers the Mocking-Bird is put forward as equal in song +to the Nightingale. This assumption might be worthy of consideration, if +the American bird were not a mimic. But his mocking habits almost +annihilate his value as a songster,--as the effect of a good concert +would be spoiled, if the players were constantly introducing, in the +midst of their serious performances, snatches of ridiculous tunes and +uncouth sounds. I have never heard the Nightingale; but if I may judge +from descriptions of its song, and from the notes of those Canaries +which are said to give us perfect imitations of it, we have no bird in +America that equals this classical songster. The following description, +by Pliny, which is said to be superior to any other, may afford us some +idea of the extent of its powers:--"The Nightingale, that for fifteen +days and nights, hid in the thickest shades, continues her note without +intermission, deserves our attention and wonder. How surprising that so +great a voice can reside in so small a body! Such perseverance in so +minute an animal! With what musical propriety are the sounds it produces +modulated! The note at one time drawn out with a long breath, now +stealing off into a different cadence, now interrupted by a break, then +changing into a new note by an unexpected transition, now seeming to +renew the same strain, then deceiving expectation. She sometimes seems +to murmur within herself; full, deep, sharp, swift, drawling, trembling; +now at the top, the middle, and the bottom of the scale. In short, in +that little bill seems to reside all the melody which man has vainly +labored to bring from a variety of musical instruments. Some even seem +to be possessed of a different note from the rest, and contend with each +other with great ardor. The bird, overcome, is then seen to discontinue +its song only with its life." + +The cause of the nocturnal singing of birds that do not go abroad during +the night and are strictly diurnal in all their other habits has never +been satisfactorily explained. It is natural that the Whippoorwill, +which is a nocturnal bird, should sing during his hours of wakefulness +and activity. There is also no difficulty in explaining why Ducks and +Geese, and some other social birds, should utter their loud alarm-notes, +when they meet with any midnight disturbance. These birds usually have a +sentinel who keeps awake; and if he give an alarm, the others reply to +it. The crowing of the Cock bears more analogy to the song of a bird, +for it does not seem to be an alarm-note. This domestic bird may be +considered, therefore, a nocturnal songster, if his crowing can be +called a song; though it is remarkable that we seldom hear it during +evening twilight. The Cock sings his matins, but not his vespers; he +crows at the earliest dawn of day, and at midnight upon the rising of +the moon, and whenever he is awakened by artificial light. Many +singing-birds are accustomed to prolong their notes after sunset to a +late hour, and become silent only to commence again at the earliest +daybreak. But the habit of singing in the night is peculiar to a small +number of birds, and the cause of it forms a curious subject of inquiry. + +By what means are they enabled to sustain such constant watchfulness, +singing and providing subsistence for their offspring during the day, +and still continuing wakeful and musical while it is night? Why do they +take pleasure in singing, when no one will come in answer to their call? +Have they their worship, like religious beings, and are their midnight +lays but the outpouring of the fervency of their spirits? Do they +rejoice, like the clouds, in the presence of the moon, hailing her beams +as a pleasant relief from the darkness that has surrounded them? Or in +the silence of night, are their songs but responses to the sounds of the +trees, when they bow their heads and shake their rustling leaves in the +wind? When they listen to the streamlet, that makes audible melody only +in the hush of night, do they not answer to it from their leafy perch? +And when the moth flies hummingly through the recesses of the wood, and +the beetle sounds his horn, what are their notes but cheerful responses +to these sounds, that break sweetly upon the quiet of their slumbers? + +Wilson remarks, that the hunters in the Southern States, when setting +out on an excursion by night, as soon as they hear the Mocking-Bird +sing, know that the moon is rising. He quotes a writer who supposes that +it may be fear that operates upon the birds when they perceive the Owls +flitting among the trees, and that they sing, as a timid person whistles +in a lonely place, to quiet their fears. But the musical notes of birds +are never used by them to express their fears; they are the language of +love, sometimes animated by jealousy. It must be admitted that the +moonlight awakes these birds, and may be the most frequent exciting +cause of their nocturnal singing; but it is not true that they always +wait for the rising of the moon; and if this were the fact, the question +may still be asked, why these few species alone should be thus affected. + +Since Philosophy can give no explanation of this instinct, let Fancy +come to her aid, and assist us in our dilemma,--as when we have vainly +sought from Reason an explanation of the mysteries of Religion, we +humbly submit to the guidance of Faith. With Fancy for our interpreter, +we may suppose that Nature has adapted the works of creation to our +moral as well as our physical wants; and while she has instituted the +night as a time for general rest, she has provided means that shall +soften the gloomy effects of darkness. The birds, which are the +harbingers of all rural delights, are hence made to sing during +twilight; and when they cease, the nocturnal songsters become vocal, +bearing pleasant sensations to the sleepless, and by their lulling +melodies preparing us to be keenly susceptible of all agreeable +emotions. + + +TO THE MOCKING-BIRD. + + + Carolling bird, that merrily, night and day, + Tellest thy raptures from the rustling spray, + And wakest the morning with thy varied lay, + Singing thy matins,-- + When we have come to hear thy sweet oblation + Of love and joyance from thy sylvan station, + Why, in the place of musical cantation, + Balk us with pratings? + + We stroll by moonlight in the dusky forest, + Where the tall cypress shields thee, fervent chorist! + And sit in haunts of Echoes, when thou pourest + Thy woodland solo. + Hark! from the next green tree thy song commences: + Music and discord join to mock the senses, + Repeated from the tree-tops and the fences, + From hill and hollow. + + A hundred voices mingle with thy clamor; + Bird, beast, and reptile take part in thy drama; + Out-speak they all in turn without a stammer,-- + Brisk Polyglot! + Voices of Killdeer, Plover, Duck, and Dotterel; + Notes bubbling, hissing, mellow, sharp, and guttural; + Of Cat-Bird, Cat, or Cart-Wheel, thou canst utter all, + And all-untaught. + + The Raven's croak, the chirping of the Sparrow, + The scream of Jays, the creaking of Wheelbarrow, + And hoot of Owls,--all join the soul to harrow, + And grate the ear. + We listen to thy quaint soliloquizing, + As if all creatures thou wert catechizing, + Tuning their voices, and their notes revising, + From far and near. + + Sweet bird! that surely lovest the noise of folly; + Most musical, but never melancholy; + Disturber of the hour that should be holy, + With sound prodigious! + Fie on thee, O thou feathered Paganini! + To use thy little pipes to squawk and whinny, + And emulate the hinge and spinning-jenny, + Making night hideous! + + Provoking melodist! why canst thou breathe us + No thrilling harmony, no charming pathos, + No cheerful song of love without its bathos? + The Furies take thee,-- + Blast thy obstreperous mirth, thy foolish chatter,-- + Gag thee, exhaust thy breath, and stop thy clatter, + And change thee to a beast, thou senseless prater!-- + Nought else can check thee! + + A lengthened pause ensues:--but hark again! + From the new woodland, stealing o'er the plain, + Comes forth a sweeter and a holier strain!-- + Listening delighted, + The gales breathe softly, as they bear along + The warbled treasure,--the delicious throng + Of notes that swell accordant in the song, + As love is plighted. + + The Echoes, joyful from their vocal cell, + Leap with the winged sounds o'er hill and dell, + With kindling fervor, as the chimes they tell + To wakeful Even:-- + They melt upon the ear; they float away; + They rise, they sink, they hasten, they delay, + And hold the listener with bewitching sway, + Like sounds from heaven! + + + + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + + +HAVANA--THE JESUIT COLLEGE. + + +The gentlemen of our party go one day to visit the Jesuit College in +Havana, yclept "Universidad de Belen." The ladies, weary of dry goods, +manifest some disposition to accompany them. This is at once frowned +down by the unfairer sex, and Can Grande, appealed to by the other side, +shakes his shoulders, and replies, "No, you are only miserable women, +and cannot be admitted into any Jesuit establishment whatever." And so +the male deputation departs with elation, and returns with airs of +superior opportunity, and is more insufferable than ever at dinner, and +thereafter. + +They of the feminine faction, on the other hand, consult with more +direct authorities, and discover that the doors of Belen are in no wise +closed to them, and that everything within those doors is quite at their +disposition, saving and excepting the sleeping-apartments of the Jesuit +fathers,--to which, even in thought, they would on no account draw near. +And so they went and saw Belen, whereof one of them relates as follows. + +The building is spacious, inclosing a hollow square, and with numerous +galleries, like European cloisters, where the youth walk, study, and +play. We were shown up-stairs, into a pleasant reception-room, where two +priests soon waited on us. One of these, Padre Doyaguez, seemed to be +the decoy-duck of the establishment, and soon fastened upon one of our +party, whose Protestant tone of countenance had probably caught his +attention. Was she a Protestant? Oh, no!--not with that intelligent, +physiognomy!--not with that talent! What was her name? Julia (pronounced +_H_ulia). Hulia was a Roman name, a Catholic name; he had never heard of +a Hulia who was a Protestant;--very strange, it seemed to him, that a +Hulia could hold to such unreasonable ideas. The other priest, Padre +Lluc, meanwhile followed with sweet, quiet eyes, whose silent looks had +more persuasion in them than all the innocent cajoleries of the elder +man. Padre Doyaguez was a man eminently qualified to deal with the sex +in general,--a coaxing voice, a pair of vivacious eyes, whose cunning +was not unpleasing, tireless good-humor and perseverance, and a savor of +sincerity. Padre Lluc was the sort of man that one recalls in quiet +moments with a throb of sympathy,--the earnest eyes, the clear brow, the +sonorous voice. One thinks of him, and hopes that he is satisfied,--that +cruel longing and more cruel doubt shall never spring up in that +capacious heart, divorcing his affections and convictions from the +system to which his life is irrevocably wedded. No, keep still, Padre +Lluc I think ever as you think now, lest the faith that seems a fortress +should prove a prison, the mother a step-dame,--lest the high, +chivalrous spirit, incapable of a safe desertion, should immolate truth +or itself on the altar of consistency. + +Between those two advocates of Catholicity, Hulia Protestante walks +slowly through the halls of the University. She sees first a Cabinet of +Natural History, including minerals, shells, fossils, and insects, all +well-arranged, and constituting a very respectable beginning. Padre Lluc +says some good words on the importance of scientific education. Padre +Doyaguez laughs at the ladies' hoops, which he calls Malakoffs, as they +crowd through the doorways and among the glass cases; he repeats +occasionally, "_Hulia Protestante_?" in a tone of mock astonishment, and +receives for answer, "_Si, Hulia Protestante_." Then comes a very +creditable array of scientific apparatus,--not of the order employed by +the judges of Galileo,--electric and galvanic batteries, an orrery, and +many things beside. The library interests us more, with some luxurious +classics, a superb Dante, and a prison-cage of forbidden works, of which +Padre Lluc certainly has the key. Among these were fine editions of +Rousseau and Voltaire, which appeared to be intended for use; and we +could imagine a solitary student, dark-eyed and pale, exploring their +depths at midnight with a stolen candle, and endeavoring, with +self-torment, to reconcile the intolerance of his doctrine with the +charities of his heart. We imagine such a one lost in the philosophy and +sentiment of the "Nouvelle Heloise," and suddenly summoned by the +convent-bell to the droning of the Mass, the mockery of Holy Water, the +fable of the Real Presence. Such contrasts might be strange and +dangerous. No, no, Padre Lluc! keep these unknown spells from your +heart,--let the forbidden books alone. Instead of the Confessions of +Jean Jacques, read the Confessions of St. Augustine,--read the new book, +in three volumes, on the Immaculate Conception, which you show me with +such ardor, telling me that Can Grande, which, in the vernacular, is +Parker, has spoken of it with respect. Beyond the Fathers you must not +get, for you have vowed to be a child all your life. Those clear eyes of +yours are never to look up into the face of the Eternal Father; the +show-box of the Church must content them, with Mary and the saints seen +through its dusty glass,--the august figure of the Son, who sometimes +reproved his mother, crowded quite out of sight behind the woman, whom +it is so much easier to dress up and exhibit. What is this other book +which Parker has read? Padre Doyaguez says, "Hulia, if you read this, +you must become a Catholic." Padre Lluc says, "If Parker has read this +book, I cannot conceive that he is not a Catholic." The quick Doyaguez +then remarks, "Parker is going to Rome to join the Romish Church." Padre +Lluc rejoins, "They say so." Hulia Protestante is inclined to cry out, +"The day that Parker becomes a Catholic, I, too, will become one"; but, +remembering the rashness of vows and the fallibility of men, she does +not adopt that form of expressing _Never_. Parker might, if it pleased +God, become a Catholic, and then the world would have two Popes instead +of one. + +We leave at last the disputed ground of the library and ascend to the +observatory, which commands a fine view of the city, and a good sweep of +the heavens for the telescope, in which Padre Lluc seemed especially to +delight. The observatory is commodious, and is chiefly directed by an +attenuated young priest, with a keen eye and hectic cheek; another was +occupied in working out mathematical tables;--for these Fathers observe +the stars, and are in scientific correspondence with astronomers in +Europe. This circumstance gave us real pleasure on their account,--for +science, in all its degrees, is a positive good, and a mental tonic of +the first importance. Earnestly did we, in thought, commend it to those +wearied minds which have undergone the dialectic dislocations, the +denaturalizations of truth and of thought, which enable rational men to +become first Catholics and then Jesuits. For let there be no illusions +about strength of mind, and so on,--this is effected by means of a vast +machinery. As, in the old story, the calves were put in at one end of +the cylinder and taken out leather breeches at the other, or as glass is +cut and wood carved, so does the raw human material, put into the +machine of the Catholic Church, become fashioned according to the will +of those who guide it. Hulia Protestante! you have a free step and a +clear head; but once go into the machine, and you will come out carved +and embossed according to the old traditional pattern,--you as well as +another. Where the material is hard, they put on more power,--where it +is soft, more care; wherefore I caution you here, as I would in a mill +at Lowell or Lawrence,--Don't meddle with the shafts,--don't go too near +the wheel,--in short, keep clear of the machinery. And Hulia does so; +for, at the last attack of Padre Doyaguez, she suddenly turns upon him +and says, "Sir, you are a Doctrinary and a Propagandist." And the good +Father suffers her to depart in peace. But first there is the chapel to +be seen, with its tawdry and poor ornamentation,--and the dormitories of +the scholars, with long double rows of beds and mosquito-nettings. There +are two of these, and each of them has at one end a raised platform, +with curtains and a bed, where rests and watches the shepherd of the +little sheep. Lastly, we have a view of the whole flock, assembled in +their play-ground, and one of them, looking up, sees his mother, who has +kindly accompanied our visit to the institution. Across the distance +that separates us, we see his blue eyes brighten, and, as soon as +permission is given, he bounds like a young roe to her arms, shy and +tender, his English blood showing through his Spanish skin,--for he is a +child of mixed race. We are all pleased and touched, and Padre Lluc +presently brings us a daguerreotype, and says, "It is my mother." To us +it is an indifferent portrait of an elderly Spanish woman,--but to him, +how much! With kindest mutual regard we take leave,--a little surprised, +perhaps, to see that Jesuit priests have mothers, and remember them. + + + + +SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BANOS. + + + "Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone!" + +However enchanting Havana may prove, when seen through the moonlight of +memory, it seems as good a place to go away from as any other, after a +stifling night in a net, the wooden shutters left open in the remote +hope of air, and admitting the music of a whole opera-troupe of dogs, +including bass, tenor, soprano, and chorus. Instead of bouquets, you +throw stones, if you are so fortunate as to have them,--if not, +boot-jacks, oranges, your only umbrella. You are last seen thrusting +frantic hands and feet through the iron bars, your wife holding you back +by the flannel night-gown which you will persist in wearing in this +doubtful climate. At last it is over,--the fifth act ends with a howl +which makes you hope that some one of the performers has come to grief. +But, alas! it is only a stage _denouement_, whose hero will die again +every night while the season lasts. You fall asleep, but the welcome +cordial has scarcely been tasted when you are aroused by a knock at the +door. It is the night-porter, who wakes you at five by appointment, that +you may enjoy your early coffee, tumble into a hired _volante_, and +reach, half dead with sleep, the station in time for the train that goes +to San Antonio. + +Now, whether you are a partisan of early rising or not, you must allow +that sunrise and the hour after is the golden time of the day in Cuba. +So this hour of starting,--six o'clock,--so distasteful in our +latitudes, is a matter of course in tropical climates. Arriving at the +station, you encounter new tribulations in the registering and payment +of luggage, the transportation of which is not included in the charge +for your ticket. Your trunks are recorded in a book, and, having paid a +_real_ apiece for them, you receive a paper which entitles you to demand +them again at your journey's end. The Cuban railways are good, but +dear,--the charge being ten cents a mile; whereas in our more favored +land one goes for three cents, and has the chance of a collision and +surgeon's services without any extra payment. The cars have windows +which are always open, and blinds which are always closed, or nearly so. +The seats and backs of seats are of cane, for coolness,--hardness being +secured at the same time. One reaches San Antonio in an hour and a half, +and finds a pleasant village, with a river running through it, several +streets of good houses, several more of bad ones, a cathedral, a +cockpit, a _volante_, four soldiers on horseback, two on foot, a market, +dogs, a bad smell, and, lastly, the American Hotel,--a house built in a +hollow square, as usual,--kept by a strong-minded woman from the States, +whose Yankee thrift is unmistakable, though she has been long absent +from the great centres of domestic economy. + +Mrs. L----, always on the watch for arrivals, comes out to receive us. +We are very welcome, she hints, as far as we go; but why are there not +more of us? The smallest favors should be thankfully received, but she +hears that Havana is full of strangers, and she wonders, for her part, +why people will stay in that hot place, and roast, and stew, and have +the yellow fever, when she could make them so comfortable in San +Antonio. This want of custom she continues, during our whole visit, to +complain of. Would it be uncharitable for us to aver that we found other +wants in her establishment which caused us more astonishment, and which +went some way towards accounting for the deficiency complained of? wants +of breakfast, wants of dinner, wants of something good for tea, wants of +towels, wants of candles, wants of ice, or, at least, of the cooling +jars used in the country. Charges exorbitant,--the same as in Havana, +where rents are an ounce a week, and upwards; _volantes_ +difficult,--Mrs. L. having made an agreement with the one livery-stable +that they shall always be furnished at most unreasonable prices, of +which she, supposably, pockets half. On the other hand, the village is +really cool, healthy, and pretty; there are pleasant drives over +dreadful roads, if one makes up one's mind to the _volante_, and +delightful river-baths, shaded by roofs of palm-tree thatch. One of the +best of these is at the foot of Mrs. L.'s inclosure, and its use is +included in the privileges of the house. The water is nearly tepid, +clear, and green, and the little fish float hither and thither in +it,--though men of active minds are sometimes reduced to angle for them, +with crooked pins, for amusement. At the hour of one, daily, the ladies +of the house betake themselves to this refreshment; and there is +laughing, and splashing, and holding of hands, and simulation of all the +Venuses that ever were, from the crouching one of the bath, to the +triumphant Cytherea, springing for the first time from the wave. + +Such are the resources of the house. Those of the neighborhood are +various. Foremost among them is the _cafetal_, or coffee-plantation, of +Don Juan Torres, distant a league from the village, over which league of +stone, sand, and rut you rumble in a _volante_ dragged by three horses. +You know that the _volante_ cannot upset; nevertheless you experience +some anxious moments when it leans at an obtuse angle, one wheel in air, +one sticking in a hole, the horses balking and kicking, and the +postilion swearing his best. But it is written, the _volante_ shall not +upset,--and so it does not. Long before you see the entrance to the +plantation, you watch the tall palms, planted in a line, that shield, +its borders. An avenue of like growth leads you to the house, where +barking dogs announce you, and Don Juan, an elderly gentleman in +slippers and a Panama hat, his hair, face, and eyes all faded to one hue +of grayness, comes out to accost us. Here, again, Hulia Protestante +becomes the subject of a series of attacks, in a new kind. Don Juan +first exhausts his flower-garden upon her, and explains all that is new +to her. Then she must see his blind Chino, a sightless Samson of a +Cooly, who is working resolutely in a mill. "_Canta!_" says the master, +and the poor slave gives tongue like a hound on the scent. "_Baila!_" +and, a stick being handed him, he performs the gymnastics of his +country, a sort of war-dance without accompaniment. "_El can!_" and, +giving him a broom, they loose the dog upon him. A curious tussle then +ensues,--the dog attacking furiously, and the blind man, guided by his +barking, defending himself lustily. The Chino laughs, the master laughs, +but the visitor feels more inclined to cry, having been bred in those +Northern habits which respect infirmity. A _real_ dismisses the poor +soul with a smile, and then begins the journey round the _cafetal_. The +coffee-blossom is just in its perfection, and whole acres in sight are +white with its flower, which nearly resembles that of the small white +jasmine. Its fragrance is said to be delicious after a rain; but, the +season being dry, it is scarcely discernible. As shade is a great +object in growing coffee, the grounds are laid out in lines of fruit- +trees, and these are the ministers of Hulia's tribulation; for Don +Juan, whether in kindness or in mischief, insists that she shall taste +every unknown fruit,--and as he cuts them and hands them to her, she +is forced to obey. First, a little negro shins up a cocoa-nut-tree, +and flings down the nut, whose water she must drink. One cocoa-nut she +endures,--two,--but three? no, she must rebel, and cry out,--"_No mi +gusta!_" Then she must try a bitter orange, then a sour bitter one, then +a sweet lemon, then a huge fruit of triple verjuice flavor. "What is it +good for?" she asks, after a shuddering plunge into its acrid depths. +"Oh," says the Don, "they eat it in the castors instead of vinegar." +Then come _sapotas, mamey_, Otaheite gooseberries. "Does she like +bananas?" he cuts a tree down with his own hand, and sends the bunch of +fruit to her _volante_;--"Sugar-cane?" he bestows a huge bundle of +sticks for her leisurely rodentation;--he fills her pocket with coral +beans for her children. Having, at last, exhausted every polite +attention, and vainly offered gin, rum, and coffee, as a parting +demonstration, Hulia and her partner escape, bearing with them many +strange flavors, and an agonizing headache, the combined result of sun +and acids. Really, if there exist anywhere on earth a society for the +promotion and encouragement of good manners, it should send a diploma to +Don Juan, admonishing him only to omit the vinegar-fruit in his further +walks of hospitality. + +We take the Sunday to visit the nearest sugar-plantation, belonging to +Don Jacinto Gonzales. Sun, not shade, being the desideratum in +sugar-planting, there are few trees or shrubs bordering the +sugar-fields, which resemble at a distance our own fields of Indian +corn, the green of the leaves being lighter, and a pale blue blossom +appearing here and there. The points of interest here are the machinery, +the negroes, and the work. Entering the sugar-house, we find the +_maquinista_ (engineer) superintending some repairs in the machinery, +aided by another white man, a Cooly, and an imp of a black boy, who +begged of all the party, and revenged himself with clever impertinence +on those who refused him. The _maquinista_ was a fine-looking man, from +the Pyrenees, very kind and obliging. He told us that Don Jacinto was +very old, and came rarely to the plantation. We asked him how the +extreme heat of his occupation suited him, and for an answer he opened +the bosom of his shirt, and showed us the marks of innumerable leeches. +The machinery is not very complicated. It consists of a wheel and band, +to throw the canes under the powerful rollers which crush them, and +these rollers, three in number, all moved by the steam-engine. The juice +flows into large copper caldrons, where it is boiled and skimmed. As +they were not at work, we did not see the actual process. Leaving the +sugar-house, we went in pursuit of the _mayoral_, or overseer, who +seemed to inhabit comfortable quarters, in a long, low house, shielded +from the sun by a thick screen of matting. We found him a powerful, +thick-set man, of surly and uncivil manners, girded with a sword, and +further armed with a pistol, a dagger, and a stout whip. He was much too +important a person to waste his words upon us, but signified that the +major-domo would wait on us, which he presently did. We now entered the +negro quarter, a solid range of low buildings, formed around a hollow +square, whose strong entrance is closed at nightfall, and its inmates +kept in strict confinement till the morning hour of work comes round. +Just within the doorway we encountered the trader, who visits the +plantations every Sunday, to tempt the stray cash of the negroes by +various commodities, of which the chief seemed to be white bread, +calicoes, muslins, and bright cotton handkerchiefs. He told us that +their usual weekly expenditure amounted to about twenty-five dollars. +Bargaining with him stood the negro-driver, a tattooed African, armed +with a whip. All within the court swarmed the black bees of the +hive,--the men with little clothing, the small children naked, the women +decent. All had their little charcoal fires, with pots boiling over +them; the rooms within looked dismally dark, close, and dirty; there are +no windows, no air and light save through the ever-open door. The beds +are sometimes partitioned off by a screen of dried palm-leaf, but I saw +no better sleeping-privilege than a board with a blanket or coverlet. +From this we turned to the nursery, where all the children incapable of +work are kept; the babies are quite naked, and sometimes very handsome +in their way, black and shining, with bright eyes and well-formed limbs. +No great provision is made for their amusement, but the little girls +nurse them tenderly enough, and now and then the elders fling them a bit +of orange or _chaimito_, for which they scramble like so many monkeys. +Appeals are constantly made to the pockets of visitors, by open hands +stretched out in all directions. To these "_Nada_"--"Nothing"--is the +safe reply; for, if you give to one, the others close about you with +frantic gesticulation, and you have to break your way through them with +some violence, which hurts your own feelings more than it does theirs. +On _strict_ plantations this is not allowed; but Don Jacinto, like Lord +Ashburton at the time of the Maine treaty, is an old man,--a very old +man; and where discipline cannot be maintained, peace must be secured on +any terms. We visit next the sugar-house, where we find the desired +condiment in various stages of color and refinement. It is whitened with +clay, in large funnel-shaped vessels, open at the bottom, to allow the +molasses to run off. Above are hogsheads of coarse, dark sugar; below is +a huge pit of fermenting molasses, in which rats and small negroes +occasionally commit involuntary suicide, and from which rum is made.--N. +B. Rum is not a wicked word in Cuba; in Boston everybody is shocked when +it is named, and in Cuba nobody is shocked when it is drunk. + +And here endeth the description of our visit to the sugar-plantation of +Don Jacinto, and in good time, too,--for by this it had grown so hot, +that we made a feeble rush for the _volante_, and lay back in it, +panting for breath. Encountering a negress with a load of oranges on her +head, we bought and ate the fruit with eagerness, though the oranges +were bitter. The jolting over three miles of stone and rut did not +improve the condition of our aching heads. Arriving at San Antonio, we +thankfully went to bed for the rest of the morning, and dreamed, only +dreamed, that the saucy black boy in the boiling-house had run after us, +had lifted the curtain of the _volante_, screeched a last impertinence +after us, and kissed his hand for a good-bye, which, luckily for him, is +likely to prove eternal. + + + + +THE MORRO FORTRESS--THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA--THE BENEFICENZA. + + +The Spanish government experiences an unwillingness to admit foreigners +into the Morro, their great stronghold, the causes of which may not be +altogether mysterious. Americans have been of late especially excluded +from it, and it was only by a fortunate chance that we were allowed to +visit it. A friend of a friend of ours happened to have a friend in the +garrison, and, after some delays and negotiations, an early morning hour +was fixed upon for the expedition. + +The fort is finely placed at the entrance of the harbor, and is in +itself a picturesque object. It is built of a light, yellowish stone, +which is seen, as you draw near, in strong contrast with the vivid green +of the tropical waters. We approached it by water, taking a rowboat from +the Alameda. As we passed, we had a good view of a daily Havana +spectacle, the washing of the horses. This being by far the easiest and +most expeditious way of cleaning the animals, they are driven daily to +the sea in great numbers, those of one party being tied together; they +disport themselves in the surge and their wet backs glisten in the sun. +Their drivers, nearly naked, plunge in with them, and bring them safely +back to the shore. + +But for the Morro. We entered without difficulty, and began at once a +somewhat steep ascent, which the heat, even at that early hour, made +laborious. After some climbing, we reached the top of the parapet, and +looked out from the back of the fortress. On this side, if ever on any, +it will be taken,--for, standing with one's back to the harbor, one +sees, nearly on the right hand, a point where trenches could be opened +with advantage. The fort is heavily gunned and garrisoned, and seems to +be in fighting order. The outer wall is separated from the inner by a +paved space some forty feet in width. The height of both walls makes +this point a formidable one; but scaling-ladders could be thrown across, +if one had possession of the outer wall. The material is the coralline +rock common in this part of the island. It is a soft stone, and would +prove, it is feared, something like the cotton-bag defence of New +Orleans memory,--as the balls thrown from without would sink in, and not +splinter the stone, which for the murderous work were to be wished. A +little perseverance, with much perspiration, brought us to a high point, +called the Lantern, which is merely a small room, where the telescope, +signal-books, and signals are kept. Here we were received by an official +in blue spectacles and with a hole in his boot, but still with that air +of being the chiefest thing on God's earth common to all Spaniards. The +best of all was that we brought a sack of oranges with us, and that the +time was now come for their employment. With no other artillery than +these did we take the very heart of the Morro citadel,--for, on offering +them to the official with the hole, he surrendered at once, smiled, gave +us seats, and sitting down with us, indeed, was soon in the midst of his +half-dozenth orange. Having refreshed ourselves, examined the flags of +all nations, and made all the remarks which our limited Spanish allowed, +we took leave, redescended, and reembarked. One of our party, an old +soldier, had meanwhile been busily scanning the points and angles of the +fortress, pacing off distances, etc., etc. The result of his +observations would, no doubt, be valuable to men of military minds. But +the writer of this, to be candid, was especially engaged with the heat, +the prospect, the oranges, and the soldiers' wives and children, who +peeped out from windows here and there. Such trifling creatures do come +into such massive surroundings, and trifle still! + +Our ladies, being still in a furious mood of sight-seeing, desired to +visit the University of Havana, and, having made appointment with an +accomplished Cuban, betook themselves to the College buildings with all +proper escort. Their arrival in the peristyle occasioned some +excitement. One of the students came up, and said, in good English, +"What do you want?" Others, not so polite, stared and whispered in +corners. A message to one of the professors was attended with some +delay, and our Cuban friend, having gone to consult with him, returned +to say, with some embarrassment, that the professor would be happy to +show the establishment to the ladies on Sunday, at two, P.M., when every +male creature but himself would be out of it; but as for their going +through the rooms while the undergraduates were about, that was not to +be thought of. "Why not?" asked the ladies. "For your own sake," said +the messenger, and proceeded to explain that the appearance of the +_skirted_ in these halls of learning would be followed by such +ill-conduct and indignity of impertinence on the part of the _shirted_ +as might be intolerable to the one and disadvantageous to the other. Now +there be women, we know, whose horrid fronts could have awed these saucy +little Cubans into decency and good behavior, and some that we know, +whether possessing that power or not, would have delighted in the +fancied exercise of it. What strong-minded company, under these +circumstances, would have turned back? What bolting, tramping, and +rushing would they not have made through the ranks of the astonished +professors and students? The Anniversary set, for example, who sweep the +pews of men, or, coming upon one forlorn, crush him as a boa does a +sheep. Our silly little flock only laughed, colored, and retreated to +the _volantes_, where they held a council of war, and decided to go +visit some establishment where possibly better manners might prevail. + +Returning on the Sunday, at the hour appointed, they walked through the +deserted building, and found spacious rooms, the pulpits of the +professors, the benches of the students, the Queen's portrait, a very +limited library, and, for all consolation, some pleasant Latin sentences +over the doors of the various departments, celebrating the solace and +delights of learning. This was seeing the College, literally; but it was +a good deal like seeing the lion's den, the lion himself being absent on +leave,--or like visiting the hippopotamus in Regent's Park on those days +in which he remains steadfastly buried in his tank, and will show only +the tip of a nostril for your entrance-fee. Still, it was a pleasure to +know that learning was so handsomely housed; and as for the little +rabble who could not be trusted in the presence of the sex, we forgave +them heartily, knowing that soberer manners would one day come upon +them, as inevitably as baldness and paternity. + +Let me here say, that a few days in Havana make clear to one the +seclusion of women in the East, and its causes. Wherever the animal +vigor of men is so large in proportion to their moral power, as in those +countries, women must be glad to forego their liberties for the +protection of the strong arm. One master is better for them than many. +Whatever tyranny may grow out of such barbarous manners, the institution +springs from a veritable necessity and an original good intention. The +Christian religion should change this, which is justifiable only in a +Mohammedan country. But where that religion is so loosely administered +as in Cuba, where its teachers themselves frequent the cock-pit and the +gaming-table, one must not look for too much of its power in the manners +and morals of men. + +The Beneficenza was our next station. It is, as its name signifies, an +institution with a benevolent purpose, an orphan asylum and foundling +hospital in one. The State here charitably considers that infants who +are abandoned by their parents are as much orphaned as they can become +by the interposition of death,--nay, more. The death of parents oftenest +leaves a child with some friend or relative; but the foundling is cut +off from all human relationship,--he belongs only to the hand that takes +him up, when he has been left to die. Despite the kind cruelty of modern +theories, which will not allow of suitable provision for the sufferer, +for fear of increasing the frequency of the crime by which he suffers, +our hearts revolt at the miserable condition of those little creatures +in our great cities, confounded with hopeless pauperism in its desolate +asylums, or farmed out to starve and die. They belong to the State, and +the State should nobly retrieve the world's offence against them. Their +broken galaxy shows many a bright star here and there. Such a little +wailing creature has been found who has commanded great actions and done +good service among men. Let us, then, cherish the race of foundlings, of +whom Moses was the first and the greatest. The princess who reared him +saw not the glorious destiny which lay hid, as a birth-jewel, in his +little basket of reeds. She saw only, as some of us have seen, a +helpless, friendless babe. When he dedicated to her his first edition of +the Pentateuch--But, nay, he did not; for neither gratitude nor +dedications were in fashion among the Jews. + +We found the Beneficenza spacious, well-ventilated, and administered +with great order. It stands near the sea, with a fine prospect in view, +and must command a cool breeze, if there be any. The children enjoy +sea-bathing in summer. The superintendent received us most kindly, and +presented us to the sisters who have charge of the children, who were +good specimens of their class. We walked with them through the neat +dormitories, and observed that they were much more airy than those of +the Jesuit College, lately described. They all slept on the sackings of +the cots, beds being provided only in the infirmary. In the latter place +we found but two inmates,--one suffering from ordinary Cuban fever, the +other with ophthalmia.--N.B. Disease of the eyes does not seem to be +common in Cuba, in spite of the tropical glare of the sun; nor do people +nurse and complain of their eyes there, as with us. We found a separate +small kitchen for the sick, which was neat and convenient. The larger +kitchen, too, was handsomely endowed with apparatus, and the +superintendent told us, with a twinkle in his eye, that the children +lived well. Coffee at six, a good breakfast at nine, dinner at the usual +hour, bread and coffee before bed-time;--this seemed very suitable as to +quantity, though differing from our ideas of children's food; but it +must be remembered that the nervous stimulus of coffee is not found to +be excessive in hot climates; it seems to be only what Nature +demands,--no more. The kind nun who accompanied us now showed us, with +some pride, various large presses, set in the wall, and piled to the top +with clean and comfortable children's clothing. We came presently to +where the boys were reciting their catechism. An ecclesiastic was +hearing them;--they seemed ready enough with their answers, but were +allowed to gabble off the holy words in a manner almost unintelligible, +and quite indecorous. They were bright, healthy-looking little fellows, +ranging apparently from eight to twelve in age. They had good +play-ground set off for them, and shady galleries to walk up and down +in. Coming from their quarter, the girls' department seemed quiet +enough. Here was going on the eternal task of needlework, to which the +sex has been condemned ever since Adam's discovery of his want of +wardrobe. Oh, ye wretched, foolish women! why will ye forever sew? "We +must not only sew, but be thankful to sew; that little needle being, as +the sentimental Curtis has said, the only thing between us and the worst +that may befall." + +These incipient women were engaged in various forms of sewing,--the most +skilful in a sort of embroidery, like that which forms the border of +_pina_ handkerchiefs. A few were reading and spelling. One poor blind +girl sat amongst them, with melancholy arms folded, and learned +nothing,--they told us, nothing; for the instruction of the blind is not +thought of in these parts. This seemed piteous to us, and made us +reflect how happy are _our_ blinds, to say nothing of our deafs and +dumbs. Idiocy is not uncommon here, and is the result of continual +intermarriage between near relations; but it will be long before they +will provide it with a separate asylum and suitable instruction. + +But now came the saddest part of the whole exhibition,--a sight common +enough in Europe, but, by some accident, hitherto unseen by us. Here is +a sort of receptacle, with three or four compartments, which turns on a +pivot. One side of it is open to the street, and in it the wretched +parent lays the more wretched baby,--ringing a small bell, at the same +time, for the new admittance; the parent vanishes, the receptacle turns +on its pivot,--the baby is within, and, we are willing to believe, in +merciful hands. + +The sight of this made, for the first time, the crime real to me. I saw, +at a flash, the whole tragedy of desertion,--the cautious approach, the +frightened countenance, the furtive act, and the great avenging pang of +Nature after its consummation. What was Hester Prynne's pillory, +compared to the heart of any of those mothers? I thought, too, of +Rousseau, bringing to such a place as this children who had the right to +inherit divine genius, and deserting them for the sordid reason that he +did not choose to earn their bread,--the helpless mother weeping at +home, and begging, through long years, to be allowed to seek and reclaim +them. + +Well, here were the little creatures kindly cared for; yet what a +piteous place was their nursery! Some of the recent arrivals looked as +if ill-usage had been exhausted upon them before they were brought +hither. Blows and drugs and starvation had been tried upon them, but, +with the tenacity of infancy, they clung to life. They would not +die;--well, then, they should live to regret it. Some of them lay on the +floor, deformed and helpless; the older ones formed a little class, and +were going through some elementary exercise when we passed. The babies +had a large room allotted to them, and I found the wet-nurses +apportioned one to each child. This appeared a very generous provision, +as, in such establishments elsewhere, three and even four children are +given to one nurse. They had comfortable cribs, on each of which was +pinned the name of its little inmate, and the date of its +entrance;--generally, the name and age of the child are found written on +a slip of paper attached to its clothing, when it is left in the +receptacle. I saw on one, "Cecilio, three weeks old." He had been but a +few days in the establishment. + +Of course, I lingered longest in the babies' room, and longest of all +near the crib of the little Cecilio. He was a pretty baby, and seemed to +me the most ill-used of all, because the youngest. "Could they not bear +with you three weeks, little fellow?" I said. "I know those at whose +firesides such as you would have been welcome guests. That New York +woman whom I met lately, young, rich, and childless,--I could commend +you to her in place of the snarling little spaniel fiend who was her +constant care and companion." + +But here the superintendent made a polite bow, saying,--"And now your +Worships have seen all; for the chapel is undergoing repairs, and cannot +be visited." And so we thanked, and departed. + + + + +DANIEL GRAY. + + + If I shall ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray, + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + I knew him well; in fact, few knew him better; + For my young eyes oft read for him the Word, + And saw how meekly from the crystal letter + He drank the life of his beloved Lord. + + Old Daniel Gray was not a man who lifted + On ready words his freight of gratitude, + And was not called upon among the gifted, + In the prayer-meetings of his neighborhood. + + He had a few old-fashioned words and phrases, + Linked in with sacred texts and Sunday rhymes; + And I suppose, that, in his prayers and graces, + I've heard them all at least a thousand times. + + I see him now,--his form, and face, and motions, + His homespun habit, and his silver hair,-- + And hear the language of his trite devotions + Rising behind the straight-backed kitchen-chair. + + I can remember how the sentence sounded,-- + "Help us, O Lord, to pray, and not to faint!" + And how the "conquering-and-to-conquer" rounded + The loftier aspirations of the saint. + + He had some notions that did not improve him: + He never kissed his children,--so they say; + And finest scenes and fairest flowers would move him + Less than a horseshoe picked up in the way. + + He could see nought but vanity in beauty, + And nought but weakness in a fond caress, + And pitied men whose views of Christian duty + Allowed indulgence in such foolishness. + + Yet there were love and tenderness within him; + And I am told, that, when his Charley died, + Nor Nature's need nor gentle words could win him + From his fond vigils at the sleeper's side. + + And when they came to bury little Charley, + They found fresh dew-drops sprinkled in his hair, + And on his breast a rose-bud, gathered early,-- + And guessed, but did not know, who placed it there. + + My good old friend was very hard on fashion, + And held its votaries in lofty scorn, + And often burst into a holy passion + While the gay crowds went by, on Sunday morn. + + Yet he was vain, old Gray, and did not know it! + He wore his hair unparted, long, and plain, + To hide the handsome brow that slept below it, + For fear the world would think that he was vain! + + He had a hearty hatred of oppression, + And righteous words for sin of every kind; + Alas, that the transgressor and transgression + Were linked so closely in his honest mind! + + Yet that sweet tale of gift without repentance, + Told of the Master, touched him to the core, + And tearless he could never read the sentence: + "Neither do I condemn thee: sin no more." + + Honest and faithful, constant in his calling, + Strictly attendant on the means of grace, + Instant in prayer, and fearful most of falling, + Old Daniel Gray was always in his place. + + A practical old man, and yet a dreamer, + He thought that in some strange, unlooked-for way, + His mighty Friend in heaven, the great Redeemer, + Would honor him with wealth some golden day. + + This dream he carried in a hopeful spirit + Until in death his patient eye grew dim, + And his Redeemer called him to inherit + The heaven of wealth long garnered up for him. + + So, if I ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The Doctor sat at his study-table. It was evening, and the slant beams +of the setting sun shot their golden arrows through the healthy purple +clusters of lilacs that veiled the windows. There had been a shower that +filled them with drops of rain, which every now and then tattooed, with +a slender rat-tat, on the window-sill, as a breeze would shake the +leaves and bear in perfume on its wings. Sweet, fragrance-laden airs +tripped stirringly to and fro about the study-table, making gentle +confusions, fluttering papers on moral ability, agitating treatises on +the great end of creation, mixing up subtile distinctions between +amiable instincts and true holiness, and, in short, conducting +themselves like very unappreciative and unphilosophical little breezes. + +The Doctor patiently smoothed back and rearranged, while opposite to him +sat Mary, bending over some copying she was doing for him. One stray +sunbeam fell on her light brown hair, tinging it to gold; her long, +drooping lashes lay over the wax-like pink of her cheeks, as she wrote +on. + +"Mary," said the Doctor, pushing the papers from him. + +"Sir," she answered, looking up, the blood just perceptibly rising in +her cheeks. + +"Do you ever have any periods in which your evidences seem not +altogether clear?" + +Nothing could show more forcibly the grave, earnest character of thought +in New England at this time than the fact that this use of the term +"evidences" had become universally significant and understood as +relating to one's right of citizenship in a celestial, invisible +commonwealth. + +So Mary understood it, and it was with a deepening flush she answered +gently, "No, Sir." + +"What! never any doubts?" said the Doctor. + +"I am sorry," said Mary, apologetically; "but I do not see how I _can_ +have; I never could." + +"Ah!" said the Doctor, musingly, "would I could say so! There are times, +indeed, when I hope I have an interest in the precious Redeemer, and +behold an infinite loveliness and beauty in Him, apart from anything I +expect or hope. But even then how deceitful is the human heart! how +insensibly might a mere selfish love take the place of that +disinterested complacency which regards Him for what He is in Himself, +apart from what He is to us! Say, my dear friend, does not this thought +sometimes make you tremble?" + +Poor Mary was truth itself, and this question distressed her; she must +answer the truth. The fact was, that it had never come into her blessed +little heart to tremble, for she was one of those children of the +bride-chamber who cannot mourn, because the bridegroom is ever with +them; but then, when she saw the man for whom her reverence was almost +like that for her God thus distrustful, thus lowly, she could not but +feel that her too calm repose might, after all, be the shallow, +treacherous calm of an ignorant, ill-grounded spirit, and therefore, +with a deep blush and a faltering voice, she said,-- + +"Indeed, I am afraid something must be wrong with me. I _cannot_ have +any fears,--I never could; I try sometimes, but the thought of God's +goodness comes all around me, and I am so happy before I think of it!" + +"Such exercises, my dear friend, I have also had," said the Doctor; "but +before I rest on them as evidences, I feel constrained to make the +following inquiries:--Is this gratitude that swells my bosom the result +of a mere natural sensibility? Does it arise in a particular manner +because God has done me good? or do I love God for what He is, as well +as for what He has done? and for what He has done for others, as well as +for what He has done for me? Love to God which is built on nothing but +good received is not incompatible with a disposition so horrid as even +to curse God to His face. If God is not to be loved except when He does +good, then in affliction we are free. If doing _us_ good is all that +renders God lovely to us, then not doing us good divests Him of His +glory, and dispenses us from obligation to love Him. But there must be, +undoubtedly, some permanent reason why God is to be loved by all; and if +not doing us good divests Him of His glory so as to free _us_ from our +obligation to love, it equally frees the universe; so that, in fact, the +universe of happiness, if ours be not included, reflects no glory on its +Author." + +The Doctor had practised his subtile mental analysis till his +instruments were so fine-pointed and keen-edged that he scarce ever +allowed a flower of sacred emotion to spring in his soul without picking +it to pieces to see if its genera and species were correct. Love, +gratitude, reverence, benevolence,--which all moved in mighty tides in +his soul,--were all compelled to pause midway while he rubbed up his +optical instruments to see whether they were rising in right order. +Mary, on the contrary, had the blessed gift of womanhood,--that vivid +life in the soul and sentiment which resists the chills of analysis, as +a healthful human heart resists cold; yet still, all humbly, she thought +this perhaps was a defect in herself, and therefore, having confessed, +in a depreciating tone, her habits of unanalyzed faith and love, she +added,-- + +"But, my dear Sir, you are my best friend. I trust you will be faithful +to me. If I am deceiving myself, undeceive me; you cannot be too severe +with me." + +"Alas!" said the Doctor, "I fear that I may be only a blind leader of +the blind. What, after all, if I be only a miserable self-deceiver? What +if some thought of self has come in to poison all my prayers and +strivings? It is true, I think,--yes, I _think_," said the Doctor, +speaking very slowly and with intense earnestness,--"I think, that, if I +knew at this moment that my name never would be written among those of +the elect, I could still see God to be infinitely amiable and glorious, +and could feel sure that He _could_ not do me wrong, and that it was +infinitely becoming and right that He should dispose of me according to +His sovereign pleasure. I _think_ so;--but still my deceitful +heart!--after all, I might find it rising in rebellion. Say, my dear +friend, are you sure, that, should you discover yourself to be forever +condemned by His justice, you would not find your heart rising up +against Him?" + +"Against _Him_?" said Mary, with a tremulous, sorrowful expression on +her face,--"against my Heavenly Father?" + +Her face flushed, and faded; her eyes kindled eagerly, as if she had +something to say, and then grew misty with tears. At last she said,-- + +"Thank you, my dear, faithful friend! I will think about this; _perhaps_ +I may have been deceived. How very difficult it must be to know one's +self perfectly!" + +Mary went into her own little room, and sat leaning for a long time with +her elbow on the window-seat, watching the pale shells of the +apple-blossoms as they sailed and fluttered downward into the grass, and +listened to a chippering conversation in which the birds in the nest +above were settling up their small housekeeping accounts for the day. + +After a while, she took her pen and wrote the following, which the +Doctor found the next morning lying on his study-table:-- + +"MY DEAR, HONORED FRIEND,--How can I sufficiently thank you for your +faithfulness with me? All you say to me seems true and excellent; and +yet, my dear Sir, permit me to try to express to you some of the many +thoughts to which our conversation this evening has given rise. To love +God because He is good to me you seem to think is not a right kind of +love; and yet every moment of my life I have experienced His goodness. +When recollection brings back the past, where can I look that I see not +His goodness? What moment of my life presents not instances of merciful +kindness to me, as well as to every creature, more and greater than I +can express, than my mind is able to take in? How, then, can I help +loving God because He is good to me? Were I not an object of God's mercy +and goodness, I cannot have any conception what would be my feeling. +Imagination never yet placed me in a situation not to experience the +goodness of God in some way or other; and if I do love Him, how can it +be but because He is good, and to me good? Do not God's children love +Him because He first loved them? + +"If I called nothing goodness which did not happen to suit my +inclination, and could not believe the Deity to be gracious and merciful +except when the course of events was so ordered as to agree with my +humor, so far from imagining that I had any love to God, I must conclude +myself wholly destitute of anything good. A love founded on nothing but +good received is not, you say, incompatible with a disposition so horrid +as even to curse God. I am not sensible that I ever in my life imagined +anything _but_ good could come from the hand of God. From a Being +infinite in goodness everything _must_ be good, though we do not always +comprehend how it is so. Are not afflictions good? Does He not even in +judgment remember mercy? Sensible that 'afflictions are but blessings in +disguise,' I would bless the hand that, with infinite kindness, wounds +only to heal, and love and adore the goodness of God equally in +suffering as in rejoicing. + +"The disinterested love to God, which you think is alone the genuine +love, I see not how we can be certain we possess, when our love of +happiness and our love of God are so inseparably connected. The joys +arising from a consciousness that God is a benefactor to me and my +friends, (and when I think of God, every creature is my friend,) if +arising from a selfish motive, it does not seem to me possible could be +changed into hate, even supposing God my enemy, whilst I regarded Him as +a Being infinitely just as well as good. If God is my enemy, it must be +because I deserve He should be such; and it does not seem to me +_possible_ that I should hate Him, even if I knew He would always be so. + +"In what you say of willingness to suffer eternal punishment, I don't +know that I understand what the feeling is. Is it wickedness in me that +I do not feel a willingness to be left to eternal sin? Can any one +joyfully acquiesce in being thus left? When I pray for a new heart and a +right spirit, must I be willing to be denied, and rejoice that my prayer +is not heard? Could any real Christian rejoice in this? But he fears it +not,--he knows it will never be,--he therefore can cheerfully leave it +with God; and so can I. + +"Such, my dear friend, are my thoughts, poor and unworthy; yet they seem +to me as certain as my life, or as anything I see. Am I unduly +confident? I ask your prayers that I may be guided aright. + +"Your affectionate friend, + +"MARY." + +There are in this world two kinds of natures,--those that have wings, +and those that have feet,--the winged and the walking spirits. The +walking are the logicians: the winged are the instinctive and poetic. +Natures that must always walk find many a bog, many a thicket, many a +tangled brake, which God's happy little winged birds flit over by one +noiseless flight. Nay, when a man has toiled till his feet weigh too +heavily with the mud of earth to enable him to walk another step, these +little birds will often cleave the air in a right line towards the bosom +of God, and show the way where he could never have found it. + +The Doctor paused in his ponderous and heavy reasonings to read this +real woman's letter; and being a loving man, he felt as if he could have +kissed the hem of her garment who wrote it. He recorded it in his +journal, and after it this significant passage from Canticles:-- + +"I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the +hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake this lovely one till +she please." + +Mrs. Scudder's motherly eye noticed, with satisfaction, these quiet +communings. "Let it alone," she said to herself; "before she knows it, +she will find herself wholly under his influence." Mrs. Scudder was a +wise woman. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +In the course of a day or two, a handsome carriage drew up in front of +Mrs. Scudder's cottage, and a brilliant party alighted. They were +Colonel and Madame de Frontignac, the Abbe Lefon, and Colonel Burr. Mrs. +Scudder and her daughter, being prepared for the call, sat in afternoon +dignity and tranquillity, in the best room, with their knitting-work. + +Madame de Frontignac had divined, with the lightning-like tact which +belongs to women in the positive, and to French women in the superlative +degree, that there was something in the cottage-girl, whom she had +passingly seen at the party, which powerfully affected the man whom she +loved with all the jealous intensity of a strong nature, and hence she +embraced eagerly the opportunity to see her,--yes, to see her, to study +her, to dart her keen French wit through her, and detect the secret of +her charm, that she, too, might practise it. + +Madame de Frontignac was one of those women whose beauty is so striking +and imposing, that they seem to kindle up, even in the most prosaic +apartment, an atmosphere of enchantment. All the pomp and splendor of +high life, the wit, the refinements, the nameless graces and luxuries of +courts, seemed to breathe in invisible airs around her, and she made a +Faubourg St. Germain of the darkest room into which she entered. Mary +thought, when she came in, that she had never seen anything so splendid. +She was dressed in a black velvet riding-habit, buttoned to the throat +with coral; her riding-hat drooped with its long plumes so as to cast a +shadow over her animated face, out of which her dark eyes shone like +jewels, and her pomegranate cheeks glowed with the rich shaded radiance +of one of Rembrandt's pictures. Something quaint and foreign, something +poetic and strange, marked each turn of her figure, each article of her +dress, down to the sculptured hand on which glittered singular and +costly rings,--and the riding-glove, embroidered with seed-pearls, that +fell carelessly beside her on the floor. + +In Antwerp one sees a picture in which Rubens, who felt more than any +other artist the glory of the physical life, has embodied his conception +of the Madonna, in opposition to the faded, cold ideals of the Middle +Ages, from which he revolted with such a bound. _His_ Mary is a superb +Oriental sultana, with lustrous dark eyes, redundant form, jewelled +turban, standing leaning on the balustrade of a princely terrace, and +bearing on her hand, _not_ the silver dove, but a gorgeous paroquet. The +two styles, in this instance, were both in the same room; and as Burr +sat looking from one to the other, he felt, for a moment, as one would +who should put a sketch of Overbeck's beside a splendid painting of +Titian's. + +For a few moments, everything in the room seemed faded and cold, in +contrast with the tropical atmosphere of this regal beauty. Burr watched +Mary with a keen eye, to see if she were dazzled and overawed. He saw +nothing but the most innocent surprise and delight. All the slumbering +poetry within her seemed to awaken at the presence of her beautiful +neighbor,--as when one, for the first time, stands before the great +revelations of Art. Mary's cheek glowed, her eyes seemed to grow deep +with the enthusiasm of admiration, and, after a few moments, it seemed +as if her delicate face and figure reflected the glowing loveliness of +her visitor, just as the virgin snows of the Alps become incarnadine as +they stand opposite the glorious radiance of a sunset sky. + +Madame de Frontignac was accustomed to the effect of her charms; but +there was so much love in the admiration now directed towards her, that +her own warm, nature was touched, and she threw out the glow of her +feelings with a magnetic power. Mary never felt the cold, habitual +reserve of her education so suddenly melt, never felt herself so +naturally falling into language of confidence and endearment with a +stranger; and as her face, so delicate and spiritual, grew bright with +love, Madame de Frontignac thought she had never seen anything so +beautiful, and, stretching out her hands towards her, she exclaimed, in +her own language,-- + +"_Mais, mon Dieu! mon enfant, que tu es belle_!" + +Mary's deep blush, at her ignorance of the language in which her visitor +spoke, recalled her to herself;--she laughed a clear, silvery laugh, and +laid her jewelled little hand on Mary's with a caressing movement. + +"_He_ shall not teach you French, _ma toute belle_" she said, indicating +the Abbe, by a pretty, wilful gesture; "_I_ will teach you;--and you +shall teach me English. Oh, I shall try _so_ hard to learn!" she said. + +There was something inexpressibly pretty and quaint in the childish lisp +with which she pronounced English. Mary was completely won over. She +could have fallen into the arms of this wondrously beautiful fairy +princess, expecting to be carried away by her to Dream-land. + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Scudder was gravely discoursing with Colonel Burr and M. +de Frontignac; and the Abbe, a small and gentlemanly personage, with +clear black eye, delicately-cut features, and powdered hair, appeared to +be absorbed in his efforts to follow the current of a conversation +imperfectly understood. Burr, the while, though seeming to be entirely +and politely absorbed in the conversation he was conducting, lost not a +glimpse of the picturesque aside which was being enacted between the two +fair ones whom he had thus brought together. He smiled quietly when he +saw the effect Madame de Frontignac produced on Mary. + +"After all, the child has flesh and blood!" he thought, "and may feel +that there are more things in heaven and earth than she has dreamed of +yet. A few French ideas won't hurt her." + +The arrangements about lessons being completed, the party returned to +the carriage. Madame de Frontignac was enthusiastic in Mary's praise. + +"_Cependant_" she said, leaning back, thoughtfully, after having +exhausted herself in superlatives,--"_cependant elle est devote,--et a +dix-neuf comment cela se peut il_?" + +"It is the effect of her austere education," said Burr. "It is not +possible for you to conceive how young people are trained in the +religious families of this country." + +"But yet," said Madame, "it gives her a grace altogether peculiar; +something in her looks went to my heart. I could find it very easy to +love her, because she is really good." + +"The Queen of Hearts should know all that is possible in loving," said +Burr. + +Somehow, of late, the compliments which fell so readily from those +graceful lips had brought with them an unsatisfying pain. Until a woman +really _loves_, flattery and compliment are often like her native air; +but when that deeper feeling has once awakened in her, her instincts +become marvellously acute to detect the false from the true. Madame de +Frontignac longed for one strong, unguarded, real, earnest word from the +man who had stolen from her her whole being. She was beginning to feel +in some dim wise what an untold treasure she was daily giving for tinsel +and dross. She leaned back in the carriage, with a restless, burning +cheek, and wondered why she was born to be so miserable. The thought of +Mary's saintly face and tender eyes rose before her as the moon rises on +the eyes of some hot and fevered invalid, inspiring vague yearnings +after an unknown, unattainable peace. + +Could some friendly power once have made her at that time clairvoyant +and shown her the _reality_ of the man whom she was seeing through the +prismatic glass of her own enkindled ideality! Could she have seen the +calculating quietness in which, during the intervals of a restless and +sleepless ambition, he played upon her heart-strings, as one uses a +musical instrument to beguile a passing hour,--how his only +embarrassment was the fear that the feelings he was pleased to excite +might become too warm and too strong, while as yet his relations to her +husband were such as to make it dangerous to arouse his jealousy! And if +he could have seen that pure ideal conception of himself which alone +gave him power in the heart of this woman,--that spotless, glorified +image of a hero without fear, without reproach,--would he have felt a +moment's shame and abasement at its utter falsehood? + +The poet says that the Evil Spirit stood abashed when he saw virtue in +an angel form! How would a man, then, stand, who meets face to face his +own glorified, spotless ideal, made living by the boundless faith of +some believing heart? The best must needs lay his hand on his mouth at +this apparition; but woe to him who feels no redeeming power in the +sacredness of this believing dream,--who with calculating shrewdness +_uses_ this most touching miracle of love only to corrupt and destroy +the loving! For him there is no sacrifice for sin, no place for +repentance. His very mother might shrink in her grave to have him laid +beside her. + +Madame de Frontignac had the high, honorable nature of the old blood of +France, and a touch of its romance. She was strung heroically, and +educated according to the notions of her caste and church, purely and +religiously. True it is, that one can scarcely call _that_ education +which teaches woman everything except herself,--_except_ the things that +relate to her own peculiar womanly destiny, and, on plea of the holiness +of ignorance, sends her without one word of just counsel into the +temptations of life. Incredible as it may seem, Virginie de Frontignac +had never read a romance or work of fiction of which love was the +staple; the _regime_ of the convent in this regard was inexorable; at +eighteen she was more thoroughly a child than most American girls at +thirteen. On entrance into life, she was at first so dazzled and +bewildered by the mere contrast of fashionable excitement with the +quietness of the scenes in which she had hitherto grown up, that she had +no time for reading or thought,--all was one intoxicating frolic of +existence, one dazzling, bewildering dream. + +He whose eye had measured her for his victim verified, if ever man did, +the proverbial expression of the iron hand under the velvet glove. Under +all his gentle suavities there was a fixed, inflexible will, a calm +self-restraint, and a composed philosophical measurement of others, that +fitted him to bear despotic rule over an impulsive, unguarded nature. +The position, at once accorded to him, of her instructor in the English +language and literature, gave him a thousand daily opportunities to +touch and stimulate all that class of finer faculties, so restless and +so perilous, and which a good man approaches always with certain awe. It +is said that he once asserted that he never beguiled a woman who did not +come half-way to meet him,--an observation much the same as a serpent +might make in regard to his birds. + +The visit of the morning was followed by several others. Madame de +Frontignac seemed to conceive for Mary one of those passionate +attachments which women often conceive for anything fair and +sympathizing, at those periods when their whole inner being is made +vital by the approaches of a grand passion. It took only a few visits to +make her as familiar as a child at the cottage; and the whole air of the +Faubourg St. Germain seemed to melt away from her, as, with the +pliability peculiar to her nation, she blended herself with the quiet +pursuits of the family. Sometimes, in simple straw hat and white +wrapper, she would lie down in the grass under the apple-trees, or join +Mary in an expedition to the barn for hen's eggs, or a run along the +sea-beach for shells; and her childish eagerness and delight on these +occasions used to arouse the unqualified astonishment of Mrs. Katy +Scudder. + +The Doctor she regarded with a _naive_ astonishment, slightly tinctured +with apprehension. She knew he was very religious, and stretched her +comprehension to imagine what he might be like. She thought of Bossuet's +sermons walking about under a Protestant coat, and felt vaguely alarmed +and sinful in his presence, as she used to when entering under the +shadows of a cathedral. In her the religious sentiment, though vague, +was strong. Nothing in the character of Burr had ever awakened so much +disapprobation as his occasional sneers at religion. On such occasions +she always reproved him with warmth, but excused him in her heart, +because he was brought up a heretic. She held a special theological +conversation with the Abbe, whether salvation were possible to one +outside of the True Church,--and had added to her daily prayer a +particular invocation to the Virgin for him. + +The French lessons, with her assistance, proceeded prosperously. She +became an inmate in Mrs. Marvyn's family also. The brown-eyed, sensitive +woman loved her as a new poem; she felt enchanted by her; and the +prosaic details of her household seemed touched to poetic life by her +innocent interest and admiration. The young Madame insisted on being +taught to spin at the great wheel; and a very pretty picture she made of +it, too, with her earnest gravity of endeavor, her deepening cheek, her +graceful form, with some strange foreign scarf or jewelry waving and +flashing in odd contrast with her work. + +"Do you know," she said, one day, while thus employed in the north room +at Mrs. Marvyn's,--"do you know Burr told me that princesses used to +spin? He read me a beautiful story from the 'Odyssey,' about how +Penelope cheated her lovers with her spinning, while she was waiting for +her husband to come home;--_he_ was gone to sea, Mary,--her _true_ +love,--you understand." + +She turned on Mary a wicked glance, so full of intelligence that the +snowdrop grew red as the inside of a sea-shell. + +"_Mon enfant_! thou hast a thought _deep in here_!" she said to Mary, +one day, as they sat together in the grass under the apple-trees. + +"Why, what?" said Mary, with a startled and guilty look. + +"Why, what? _petite_!" said the fairy princess, whimsically mimicking +her accent. "_Ah! ah! ma belle_! you think I have no eyes;--Virginie +sees deep in here!" she said, laying her hand playfully on Mary's heart. +"_Ah, petite_!" she said, gravely, and almost sorrowfully, "if you love +him, wait for him,--_don't marry another_. It is dreadful not to have +one's heart go with one's duty." + +"I shall never marry anybody," said Mary. + +"Nevare marrie anybodie!" said the lady, imitating her accents in tones +much like those of a bobolink. "Ah! ah! my little saint, you cannot +always live on nothing but the prayers, though prayers are verie good. +But, _ma chere_," she added, in a low tone, "don't you ever marry that +good man in there; priests should not marry." + +"Ours are not priests,--they are ministers," said Mary. "But why do you +speak of him?--he is like my father." + +"Virginie sees something!" said the lady, shaking her head gravely; "she +sees he loves little Mary." + +"Of course he does!" + +"Of-course-he-does?--ah, yes; and by-and-by comes the mamma, and she +takes this little hand, and she says, 'Come, Mary!' and then she gives +it to him; and then the poor _jeune homme_, when he comes back, finds +not a bird in his poor little nest. _Oh, c'est ennuyeux cela_!" she +said, throwing herself back in the grass till the clover-heads and +buttercups closed over her. + +"I do assure you, dear Madame!"-- + +"I do assure you, dear Mary, _Virginie knows_. So lock up her words in +your little heart; you will want them some day." + +There was a pause of some moments, while the lady was watching the +course of a cricket through the clover. At last, lifting her head, she +spoke very gravely,-- + +"My little cat! it is _dreadful_ to be married to a good man, and want +to be good, and want to love him, and yet never like to have him take +your hand, and be more glad when he is away than when he is at home; and +then to think how different it would all be, if it was only somebody +else. That will be the way with you, if you let them lead you into this; +so don't you do it, _mon enfant_." + +A thought seemed to cross Mary's mind, as she turned to Madame de +Frontignac, and said, earnestly,-- + +"If a good man were my husband, I would never think of another,--I +wouldn't let myself." + +"How could you help it, _mignonne_? Can you stop your thinking?" + +Mary said, after a moment's blush,-- + +"I can _try_!" + +"Ah, yes! But to try all one's life,--oh, Mary, that is too hard! Never +do it, darling!" + +And then Madame de Frontignac broke out into a carolling little French +song, which started all the birds around into a general orchestral +accompaniment. + +This conversation occurred just before Madame de Frontignac started for +Philadelphia, whither her husband had been summoned as an agent in some +of the ambitious intrigues of Burr. + +It was with a sigh of regret that she parted from her friends at the +cottage. She made them a hasty good-bye call,--alighting from a splendid +barouche with two white horses, and filling their simple best-room with +the light of her presence for a last half-hour. When she bade good-bye +to Mary, she folded her warmly to her heart, and her long lashes drooped +heavily with tears. + +After her absence, the lessons were still pursued with the gentle, quiet +little Abbe, who seemed the most patient and assiduous of teachers; but, +in both houses, there was that vague _ennui_, that sense of want, which +follows the fading of one of life's beautiful dreams! We bid her adieu +for a season;--we may see her again. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The summer passed over the cottage, noiselessly, as our summers pass. +There were white clouds walking in saintly troops over blue mirrors of +sea,--there were purple mornings, choral with bird-singing,--there were +golden evenings, with long, eastward shadows. Apple-blossoms died +quietly in the deep orchard grass, and tiny apples waxed and rounded and +ripened and gained stripes of gold and carmine; and the blue eggs broke +into young robins, that grew from gaping, yellow-mouthed youth to +fledged and outflying maturity. Came autumn, with its long Indian +summer, and winter, with its flinty, sparkling snows, under which all +Nature lay a sealed and beautiful corpse. Came once more the spring +winds, the lengthening days, the opening flowers, and the ever-renewing +miracle of buds and blossoms on the apple-trees around the cottage. A +year had passed since the June afternoon when first we showed you Mary +standing under the spotty shadows of the tree, with the white dove on +her hand--a year in which not many outward changes have been made in the +relations of the actors of our story. + +Mary calmly spun and read and thought; now and then composing with care +very English-French letters, to be sent to Philadelphia to Madame de +Frontignac, and receiving short missives of very French-English in +return. + +The cautions of Madame, in regard to the Doctor, had not rippled the +current of their calm, confiding intercourse; and the Doctor, so very +satisfied and happy in her constant society and affection, scarcely as +yet meditated distinctly that he needed to draw her more closely to +himself. If he had a passage to read, a page to be copied, a thought to +express, was she not ever there, gentle, patient, unselfish? and scarce +by the absence of a day did she let him perceive that his need of her +was becoming so absolute that his hold on her must needs be made +permanent. + +As to his salary and temporal concerns, they had suffered somewhat for +his unpopular warfare with reigning sins,--a fact which had rather +reconciled Mrs. Scudder to the dilatory movement of her cherished hopes. +Since James was gone, what need to press imprudently to new +arrangements? Better give the little heart time to grow over before +starting a subject which a certain womanly instinct told her might be +met with a struggle. Somehow she never thought without a certain +heart-sinking of Mary's look and tone the night she spoke with her about +James; she had an awful presentiment that that tone of voice belonged to +the things that cannot be shaken. But yet, Mary seemed so even, so +quiet, her delicate form filled out and rounded so beautifully, and she +sang so cheerfully at her work, and, above all, she was so entirely +silent about James, that Mrs. Scudder had hope. + +Ah, that silence! Do not listen to hear whom a woman praises, to know +where her heart is! do not ask for whom she expresses the most earnest +enthusiasm! but if there be one she once knew well, whose name she never +speaks,--if she seem to have an instinct to avoid every occasion of its +mention,--if, when you speak, she drops into silence and changes the +subject,--why, look there for something! just as, when going through +deep meadow-grass, a bird flies ostentatiously up before you, you may +know her nest is not there, but far off, under distant tufts of fern and +buttercup, through which she has crept with a silent flutter in her +spotted breast, to act her pretty little falsehood before you. + +Poor Mary's little nest was along the sedgy margin of the sea-shore, +where grow the tufts of golden-rod, where wave the reeds, where crimson, +green, and purple sea-weeds float up, like torn fringes of Nereid +vestures, and gold and silver shells lie on the wet wrinkles of the +sands. + +The sea had become to her like a friend, with its ever-varying monotony. +Somehow she loved this old, fresh, blue, babbling, restless giant, who +had carried away her heart's love to hide him in some far-off palmy +island, such as she had often heard him tell of in his sea-romances. +Sometimes she would wander out for an afternoon's stroll on the rocks, +and pause by the great spouting cave, now famous to Newport +_dilettanti_, but then a sacred and impressive solitude. There the +rising tide bursts with deafening strokes through a narrow opening into +some inner cavern, which, with a deep thunder-boom, like the voice of an +angry lion, casts it back in a high jet of foam into the sea. + +Mary often sat and listened to this hollow noise, and watched the +ever-rising columns of spray as they reddened with the transpiercing +beams of the afternoon sun; and thence her eye travelled far, far off +over the shimmering starry blue, where sails looked no bigger than +miller's wings; and it seemed sometimes as if a door were opening by +which her soul might go out into some eternity,--some abyss, so wide and +deep, that fathomless lines of thought could not sound it. She was no +longer a girl in a mortal body, but an infinite spirit, the adoring +companion of Infinite Beauty and Infinite Love. + +As there was an hour when the fishermen of Galilee saw their Master +transfigured, his raiment white and glistening, and his face like the +light, so are there hours when our whole mortal life stands forth in a +celestial radiance. From our daily lot falls off every weed of +care,--from our heart-friends every speck and stain of earthly +infirmity. Our horizon widens, and blue, and amethyst, and gold touch +every object. Absent friends and friends gone on the last long journey +stand once more together, bright with an immortal glow, and, like the +disciples who saw their Master floating in the clouds above them, we +say, "Lord, it is good to be here!" How fair the wife, the husband, the +absent mother, the gray-haired father, the manly son, the bright-eyed +daughter! Seen in the actual present, all have some fault, some flaw; +but absent, we see them in their permanent and better selves. Of our +distant home we remember not one dark day, not one servile care, nothing +but the echo of its holy hymns and the radiance of its brightest +days,--of our father, not one hasty word, but only the fulness of his +manly vigor and noble tenderness,--of our mother, nothing of mortal +weakness, but a glorified form of love,--of our brother, not one +teasing, provoking word of brotherly freedom, but the proud beauty of +his noblest hours,--of our sister, our child, only what is fairest and +sweetest. + +This is to life the true ideal, the calm glass, wherein looking, we +shall see, that, whatever defects cling to us, they are not, after all, +permanent, and that we are tending to something nobler than we yet +are;--it is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the +purchased possession." In the resurrection we shall see our friends +forever as we see them in these clairvoyant hours. + +We are writing thus on and on, linking image and thought and feeling, +and lingering over every flower, and listening to every bird, because +just before us there lies a dark valley, and we shrink and tremble to +enter it. + +But it _must_ come, and why do we delay? + + +Towards evening, one afternoon in the latter part of June, Mary returned +from one of these lonely walks by the sea, and entered the kitchen. It +was still in its calm and sober cleanness;--the tall clock ticked with a +startling distinctness. From the half-closed door of her mother's +bedroom, which stood ajar, she heard the chipper of Miss Prissy's voice. +She stayed her light footsteps, and the words that fell on her ear were +these:-- + +"Miss Marvyn fainted dead away;--she stood it till he came to _that_; +but then she just clapped both hands together, as if she'd been shot, +and fell right forward on the floor in a faint!" + +What could this be? There was a quick, intense whirl of thoughts in +Mary's mind, and then came one of those awful moments when the powers of +life seem to make a dead pause and all things stand still; and then all +seemed to fail under her, and the life to sink down, down, down, till +nothing was but one dim, vague, miserable consciousness. + +Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy were sitting, talking earnestly, on the +foot of the bed, when the door opened noiselessly, and Mary glided to +them like a spirit,--no color in check or lip,--her blue eyes wide with +calm horror; and laying her little hand, with a nervous grasp, on Miss +Prissy's arm, she said,-- + +"Tell me,--what is it?--is it?--is he--dead?" + +The two women looked at each other, and then Mrs. Scudder opened her +arms. + +"My daughter!" + +"Oh! mother! mother!" + +Then fell that long, hopeless silence, broken only by hysteric sobs from +Miss Prissy, and answering ones from the mother; but _she_ lay still and +quiet, her blue eyes wide and clear, making an inarticulate moan. + +"Oh! are they _sure_?--_can_ it be?--_is_ he dead?" at last she gasped. + +"My child, it is too true; all we can say is, 'Be still, and know that I +am God!'" + +"I shall _try_ to be still, mother," said Mary, with a piteous, hopeless +voice, like the bleat of a dying lamb; "but I did not think he _could_ +die! I never thought of that!--I never _thought_ of it!--Oh! mother! +mother! mother! oh! what shall I do?" + +They laid her on her mother's bed,--the first and last resting-place of +broken hearts,--and the mother sat down by her in silence. Miss Prissy +stole away into the Doctor's study, and told him all that had happened. + +"It's the same to her," said Miss Prissy, with womanly reserve, "as if +he'd been an own brother." + +"What was his spiritual state?" said the Doctor, musingly. + +Miss Prissy looked blank, and answered mournfully,-- + +"I don't know." + +The Doctor entered the room where Mary was lying with closed eyes. Those +few moments seemed to have done the work of years,--so pale, and faded, +and sunken she looked; nothing but the painful flutter of the eyelids +and lips showed that she yet breathed. At a sign from Mrs. Scudder, he +kneeled by the bed, and began to pray,--"Lord, thou hast been our +dwelling-place in all generations,"--prayer deep, mournful, upheaving +like the swell of the ocean, surging upward, under the pressure of +mighty sorrows, towards an Almighty heart. + +The truly good are of one language in prayer. Whatever lines or angles +of thought may separate them in other hours, _when they pray in +extremity_, all good men pray alike. The Emperor Charles V. and Martin +Luther, two great generals of opposite faiths, breathed out their dying +struggle in the self-same words. + +There be many tongues and many languages of men,--but the language of +prayer is one by itself, _in_ all and _above_ all. It is the inspiration +of that Spirit that is ever working with our spirit, and constantly +lifting us higher than we know, and, by our wants, by our woes, by our +tears, by our yearnings, by our poverty, urging us, with mightier and +mightier force, against those chains of sin which keep us from our God. +We speak not of _things_ conventionally called prayers,--vain mutterings +of unawakened spirits talking drowsily in sleep,--but of such prayers as +come when flesh and heart fail, in mighty straits;--_then_ he who prays +is a prophet, and a Mightier than he speaks in him; for the "_Spirit_ +helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we +ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings +which cannot be uttered." + +So the voice of supplication, upheaving from that great heart, so +childlike in its humility, rose with a wisdom and a pathos beyond what +he dreamed in his intellectual hours; it uprose even as a strong angel, +whose brow is solemnly calm, and whose wings shed healing dews of +paradise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The next day broke calm and fair. The robins sang remorselessly in the +apple-tree, and were answered by bobolink, oriole, and a whole tribe of +ignorant little bits of feathered happiness that danced among the +leaves. Golden and glorious unclosed those purple eyelids of the East, +and regally came up the sun; and the treacherous sea broke into ten +thousand smiles, laughing and dancing with every ripple, as +unconsciously as if no form dear to human hearts had gone down beneath +it. Oh! treacherous, deceiving beauty of outward things! beauty, wherein +throbs not one answering nerve to human pain! + +Mary rose early and was about her morning work. Her education was that +of the soldier, who must know himself no more, whom no personal pain +must swerve from the slightest minutiae of duty. So she was there, at +her usual hour, dressed with the same cool neatness, her brown hair +parted in satin bands, and only the colorless cheek and lip differing +from the Mary of yesterday. + +How strange this external habit of living! One thinks how to stick in a +pin, and how to tie a string,--one busies one's self with folding robes, +and putting away napkins, the day after some stroke that has cut the +inner life in two, with the heart's blood dropping quietly at every +step. + +Yet it is better so! Happy those whom stern principle or long habit or +hard necessity calls from the darkened room, the languid trance of pain, +in which the wearied heart longs to indulge, and gives this trite prose +of common life, at which our weak and wearied appetites so revolt! Mary +never thought of such a thing as self-indulgence;--this daughter of the +Puritans had her seed within her. Aerial in her delicacy, as the +blue-eyed flax-flower with which they sowed their fields, she had yet +its strong fibre, which no stroke of the flail could break; bruising and +hackling only made it fitter for uses of homely utility. Mary, +therefore, opened the kitchen-door at dawn, and, after standing one +moment to breathe the freshness, began spreading the cloth for an early +breakfast. Mrs. Scudder, the mean while, was kneading the bread that had +been set to rise over-night; and the oven was crackling and roaring with +a large-throated, honest garrulousness. + +But, ever and anon, as the mother worked, she followed the motions of +her child anxiously. + +"Mary, my dear," she said, "the eggs are giving out; hadn't you better +run to the barn and get a few?" + +Most mothers are instinctive philosophers. No treatise on the laws of +nervous fluids could have taught Mrs. Scudder a better _role_ for this +morning, than her tender gravity, and her constant expedients to break +and ripple, by changing employments, that deep, deadly under-current of +thoughts which she feared might undermine her child's life. + +Mary went into the barn, stopped a moment, and took out a handful of +corn to throw to her hens, who had a habit of running towards her and +cocking an expectant eye to her little hand, whenever she appeared. All +came at once flying towards her,--speckled, white, and gleamy with hues +between of tawny orange-gold,--the cocks, magnificent with the bladelike +waving of their tails,--and, as they chattered and cackled and pressed +and crowded about her, pecking the corn, even where it lodged in the +edge of her little shoes, she said, "Poor things, I am glad they enjoy +it!"--and even this one little act of love to the ignorant fellowship +below her carried away some of the choking pain which seemed all the +while suffocating her heart. Then, climbing into the hay, she sought the +nest and filled her little basket with eggs, warm, translucent, +pinky-white in their freshness. She felt, for a moment, the customary +animation in surveying her new treasures; but suddenly, like a vision +rising before her, came a remembrance of once when she and James were +children together and had been seeking eggs just there. He flashed +before her eyes, the bright boy with the long black lashes, the dimpled +cheeks, the merry eyes, just as he stood and threw the hay over her when +they tumbled and laughed together,--and she sat down with a sick +faintness, and then turned and walked wearily in. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER III. + + +BEGGARS IN ROME. + + +Directly above the Piazza di Spagna and opposite to the Via di Condotti, +rise the double towers of the Trinita de' Monti. The ascent to them is +over one hundred and thirty-five steps, planned with considerable skill, +so as to mask the steepness of the Pincian, and forming the chief +feature of the Piazza. Various landings and dividing walls break up +their monotony; and a red granite obelisk, found in the gardens of +Sallust, crowns the upper terrace in front of the church. All day long, +these steps are flooded with sunshine, in which, stretched at length, or +gathered in picturesque groups, models of every age and both sexes bask +away the hours when they are free from employment in the studios. Here, +in a rusty old coat and long white beard and hair, is the _Padre +Eterno_, so called from his constantly standing as model for the First +Person of the Trinity in religious pictures. Here is the ferocious +bandit, with his thick black beard and conical hat, now off duty, and +sitting with his legs wide apart, munching in alternate bites an onion, +which he holds in one hand, and a lump of bread, which he holds in the +other. Here is the _contadina_, who is always praying at a shrine with +upcast eyes, or lifting to the Virgin the little child, among whose dark +curls, now lying tangled in her lap, she is on a vigorous hunt for the +animal whose name denotes love. Here is the invariable pilgrim, with his +scallop-shell, who has been journeying to St. Peter's and reposing by +the way near aqueducts or broken columns so long that the memory of man +runneth not to the contrary, and who is now fast asleep on his back, +with his hat pulled over his eyes. When the _forestieri_ come along, the +little ones run up and thrust out their hands for _baiocchi_; and so +pretty are they, with their large, black, lustrous eyes, and their +quaint, gay dresses, that new comers always find something in their +pockets for them. Sometimes a group of artists, passing by, will pause +and steadily examine one of these models, turn him about, pose him, +point out his defects and excellences, give him a _baiocco_, and pass +on. It is, in fact, the model's exchange. [Footnote: During this last +winter, the government have prohibited the models, for I know not what +reason, from gathering upon these steps; and they now congregate at the +corner of the Via Sistina and Capo le Case, near the Pizzicheria, from +which they supply themselves with groceries.] + +All this is on the lower steps, close to the Piazza di Spagna; but as +one ascends to the last platform, before reaching the upper piazza in +front of the Trinita de' Monti, a curious squat figure, with two +withered and crumpled legs, spread out at right angles and clothed in +long stockings, comes shuffling along on his knees and hands, which are +protected by clogs. As it approaches, it turns suddenly up from its +quadrupedal position, takes off its hat, shows a broad, stout, legless +_torso_, with a vigorous chest and a ruddy face, as of a person who has +come half-way up from below the steps through a trap-door, and with a +smile whose breadth is equalled only by the cunning which lurks round +the corners of the eyes, says, in the blandest and most patronizing +tones, with a rising inflection, "_Buon giorno, Signore! Oggi fa bel +tempo_," or "_fa cattivo tempo_," as the case may be. This is no less a +person than Beppo, King of the Beggars, and permanent bore of the Scale +di Spagna. He is better known to travellers than the Belvedere Torso of +Hercules at the Vatican, and has all the advantage over that wonderful +work, of having an admirable head and a good digestion. Hans Christian +Andersen has celebrated him in "The Improvvisatore," and unfairly +attributed to him an infamous character and life; but this account is +purely fictitious, and is neither _vero_ nor _ben trovato_. Beppo, like +other distinguished personages, is not without a history. The Romans say +of him, "_Era un Signore in paese suo_"--"He was a gentleman in his own +country,"--and this belief is borne out by a certain courtesy and style +in his bearing which would not shame the first gentleman in the land. He +was undoubtedly of a good family in the provinces, and came to Rome, +while yet young, to seek his fortune. His crippled condition cut him off +from any active employment, and he adopted the profession of a +mendicant, as being the most lucrative and requiring the least exertion. +Remembering Belisarius, he probably thought it not beneath his own +dignity to ask for an _obolus_. Should he be above doing what a general +had done? However this may be, he certainly became a mendicant, after +changing his name,--and, steadily pursuing this profession for more than +a quarter of a century, by dint of his fair words, his bland smiles, and +his constant "_Fa buon tempo_" and "_Fa cattivo tempo_," which, together +with his withered legs, were his sole stock in starting, he has finally +amassed a very respectable little fortune. He is now about fifty-five +years of age, has a wife and several children; and a few years ago, on +the marriage of a daughter to a very respectable tradesman, he was able +to give her what was considered in Rome a more than respectable dowry. +The other day, a friend of mine met a tradesman of his acquaintance +running up the Spanish steps. + +"_Dove andate in una tanta affretta?_" he inquired. + +"_Al Banchiere mio._" + +"_Al Banchiere? Ma quale Banchiere sta in su le scale?_" + +"_Ma Beppo_," was the grave answer. "_Ho bisogna di sessanta scudi, e +lui mele prestera senza difficolta._" + +"_Da vero?_" said my friend. + +"_Eh sicuro, come gli pare_," said the other, as he went on to his +banker. [Footnote: "Where are you going in such haste?"] + +"To my banker." + +"To your banker? But what banker is there above the steps?" + +"Only Beppo. I want sixty _scudi_, and he can lend them to ma without +difficulty." + +"Really?" + +"Of course." + +Beppo hires his bank--which is the upper platform of the steps--of the +government, at a small rent _per annum_; and woe to any poor devil of +his profession who dares to invade his premises! Hither, every fair day, +at about noon, he comes mounted on his donkey and accompanied by his +valet, a little boy, who, though not lame exactly, wears a couple of +crutches as a sort of livery,--and as soon as twilight begins to thicken +and the sun is gone, he closes his bank, (it is purely a bank of +deposit,) crawls up the steps, mounts a stone post, and there +majestically waits for his valet to bring the donkey. But he no more +solicits deposits. His day is done; his bank is closed; and from his +post he looks around, with a patronizing superiority, upon the poorer +members of his profession, who are soliciting, with small success, the +various passers by, as a king smiles down upon his subjects. The donkey +being brought, he shuffles on to its crupper and makes a joyous and +triumphant passage down through the streets of the city to his home. The +bland business smile is gone. The wheedling subserviency of the day is +over. The cunning eye opens largely. He is calm, dignified, and +self-possessed. He mentions no more the state of the weather. What's +Hecuba to him, at this free moment of his return? It is the large style +in which all this is done that convinces me that Beppo was a "_Signore +in paese suo_." He has a bank, and so has Sir Francis Baring. What of +that? He is a gentleman still. The robber knights and barons demanded +toll of those who passed their castles, with violence and threats, and +at the bloody point of their swords. Whoso passes Beppo's castle is +prayed in courtesy to leave a remembrance, and receives the blandest bow +and thanks in return. Shall we, then, say, the former are nobles and +gentlemen,--the other is a miserable beggar? Is it worse to ask than to +seize? Is it meaner to thank than to threaten? If he who is supported by +the public is a beggar, our kings are beggars, our pensions are charity. +Did not the Princess Royal hold out her hand, the other day, to the +House of Commons? and does any one think the worse of her for it? We are +all, in measure, beggars; but Beppo, in the large style of kings and +robber-barons, asks for his _baiocco_, and, like the merchant-princes, +keeps his bank. I see dukes and _guardie nobili_, in shining helmets, +spurs, and gigantic boots, ride daily through the streets on horseback, +and hurry to their palaces; but Beppo, erectly mounted on his donkey in +his short-jacket, (for he disdains the tailored skirts of a fashionable +coat, though at times over his broad shoulders a great blue cloak is +grandly thrown, after the manner of the ancient emperors,) is far more +impressive, far more princely, as he slowly and majestically moves at +nightfall towards his august abode. The shadows close around him as he +passes along; salutations greet him from the damp shops; and darkness at +last swallows up for a time the great square _torso_ of the "King of the +Beggars." + +Begging, in Rome, is as much a profession as praying and shop-keeping. +Happy is he who is born _stroppiato_, with a withered limb, or to whom +Fortune sends the present of a hideous accident or malady; it is a stock +to set up trade upon. St. Vitus's dance is worth its hundreds of _scudi_ +annually; epileptic fits are also a prize; and a distorted leg and +hare-lip have a considerable market value. Thenceforth the creature who +has the luck to have them is absolved from labor. He stands or lies in +the sun, or wanders through the Piazza, and sings his whining, +lamentable strophe of, "_Signore, povero stroppiato, datemi qualche cosa +per amor di Dio!_"--and when the _baiocco_ falls into his hat, like ripe +fruit from the tree of the stranger, he chants the antistrophe, "_Dio la +benedica, la Madonna e tutti santi!_" [Footnote: Signore, a poor +cripple; "give me something, for the love of God!--May God bless you, +the Madonna, and all the saints!"] No refusal but one does he recognize +as final,--and that is given, not by word of mouth, but by elevating the +fore-finger of the right hand, and slowly wagging it to and fro. When +this finger goes up he resigns all hope, as those who pass the gate of +the Inferno, replaces his hat and lapses into silence, or turns away to +some new group of sunny-haired foreigners. The recipe to avoid beggars +is, to be black-haired, to wear a full beard, to smoke in the streets, +speak only Italian, and shake the fore-finger of the right hand when +besieged for charity. Let it not be supposed from this that the Romans +give nothing to the beggars, but pass them by on the other side. This is +quite a mistake. On the contrary, they give more than the foreigners; +and the poorest class, out of their little, will always find something +to drop into their hats for charity. + +The ingenuity which the beggars sometimes display in asking for alms is +often humoristic and satirical. Many a woman on the cold side of thirty +is wheedled out of a _baiocco_ by being addressed as _Signorina._ Many a +half-suppressed exclamation of admiration, or a prefix of _Bella_, +softens the hearts of those to whom compliments on their beauty come +rarely. The other day, as I came out of the city gate of Siena, a ragged +wretch, sitting, with one stump of a leg thrust obtrusively forward, in +the dust of the road, called out, "_Una buona passeggiata, Signorino +mio!_" (and this although my little girl, of thirteen years, accompanied +me.) Seeing, however, that I was too old a bird for that chaff, he +immediately added, "_Ma prima pensi alia conservazione dell' anima +sua._" [Footnote: "A pleasant walk, young gentleman!"--"But first pay +heed to the salvation of your soul."] A great many _baiocchi_ are also +caught, from green travellers of the middle class, by the titles which +are lavishly squandered by these poor fellows. _Illustrissimo, +Eccellenza, Altezza_, will sometimes open the purse, when plain +"_Mosshoe_" will not. + +The profession of a beggar is by no means an unprofitable one. A great +many drops finally make a stream. The cost of living is almost nothing +to them, and they frequently lay up money enough to make themselves very +comfortable in their old age. A Roman friend of mine, Conte C., speaking +of them one day, told me this illustrative anecdote:-- + +"I had occasion," he said, "a few years ago, to reduce my family," (the +servants are called, in Rome, the family,) "and having no need of the +services of one under-servant, named Pietro, I dismissed him. About a +year after, as I was returning to my house, after nightfall, I was +solicited by a beggar, who whiningly asked me for charity. There was +something in the voice which struck me as familiar, and, turning round +to examine the man more closely, I found it was my old servant, Pietro. +'Is that you, Pietro?' I said; 'you begging here in the streets! what +has brought you to this wretched trade?' He gave me, however, no very +clear account of himself, but evidently desired to avoid me when he +recognized who I was. But, shocked to find him in so pitiable a +condition, I pressed my questions, and finally told him I could not bear +to see any one who had been in my service reduced to beggary; and though +I had no actual need of his services, yet, rather than see him thus, he +might return to his old position as servant in my house, and be paid the +same wages as he had before. He hesitated, was much embarrassed, and, +after a pause, said,--'A thousand thanks, your Excellency, for your +kindness; but I cannot accept your proposal, because, to tell you the +truth, I make more money by this trade of begging.'" + +But though the beggars often lay by considerable sums of money, so that +they might, if they chose, live with a certain degree of comfort, yet +they cannot leave off the habit of begging after having indulged it for +many years. They get to be avaricious, and cannot bring their minds to +spend the money they have. The other day, an old beggar, who used to +frequent the steps of the Gesu, when about to die, ordered the hem of +her garment to be ripped up, saying that there was money in it. In fact, +about a thousand _scudi_ were found there, three hundred of which she +ordered to be laid out upon her funeral, and the remainder to be +appropriated to masses for her soul. This was accordingly done, and her +squalid life ended in a pompous procession to the grave. + +The great holidays of the beggars are the country _festas_. Thronging +out of the city, they spread along the highways, and drag, drive, roll, +shuffle, hobble, as they can, towards the festive little town. +Everywhere along the road they are to be met,--perched on a rock, seated +on a bank, squatted beneath a wall or hedge, and screaming, with +outstretched hand, from the moment a carriage comes in sight until it is +utterly passed by. As one approaches the town where the _festa_ is held, +they grow thicker and thicker. They crop up along the road like +toadstools. They hold up every hideous kind of withered arm, distorted +leg, and unsightly stump. They glare at you out of horrible eyes, that +look like cranberries. You are requested to look at horrors, all without +a name, and too terrible to be seen. All their accomplishments are also +brought out. They fall into improvised fits; they shake with sudden +palsies; and all the while keep up a chorus, half whine, half scream, +which suffers you to listen to nothing else. It is hopeless to attempt +to buy them all off, for they are legion in number, and to pay one +doubles the chorus of the others. The clever scamps, too, show the +utmost skill in selecting their places of attack. Wherever there is a +sudden rise in the road, or any obstacle which will reduce the gait of +the horses to a walk, there is sure to be a beggar. But do not imagine +that he relies on his own powers of scream and hideousness alone,--not +he! He has a friend, an ambassador, to recommend him to your notice, and +to expatiate on his misfortunes. Though he himself can scarcely move, +his friend, who is often a little ragged boy or girl, light of weight +and made for a chase, pursues the carriage and prolongs the whine, +repeating, with a mechanical iteration, "_Signore! Signore! datemi +qualche cosa, Signore!_" until his legs, breath, and resolution give out +at last; or, what is still commoner, your patience is wearied out or +your sympathy touched, and you are glad to purchase the blessing of +silence for the small sum of a _baiocco_. When his whining fails, he +tries to amuse you; and often resorts to the oddest freaks to attract +your notice. Sometimes the little rascal flings himself heels over head +into the dust, and executes somersets without number, as if they had +some hidden influence on the sentiment of compassion. Then, running by +the side of the carriage, he will play upon his lips with both hands, +making a rattling noise, to excite your curiosity. If you laugh, you are +lost, and he knows it. + +As you reach the gates of the town, the row becomes furious. There are +scores of beggars on either side the road, screaming in chorus. No +matter how far the town be from the city, there is not a wretched, +maimed cripple of your acquaintance, not one of the old stumps who have +dodged you round a Roman corner, not a ragged baron who has levied toll +for passage through the public squares, a privileged robber who has shut +up for you a pleasant street or waylaid you at an interesting church, +but he is sure to be there. How they got there is as inexplicable as how +the apples got into the dumplings in Peter Pindar's poem. But at the +first ring of a _festa_-bell, they start up from under ground, (those +who are legless getting only half-way up,) like Roderick Dhu's men, and +level their crutches at you as the others did their arrows. An English +lady, a short time since, after wintering at Rome, went to take the +baths at Siena in the summer. On going out for a walk, on the first +morning after her arrival, whom should she meet but King Beppo, whom she +had just left in Rome! He had come with the rest of the nobility for +recreation and bathing, and of course had brought his profession with +him. + +Owing to a great variety of causes, the number of beggars in Rome is +very large. They grow here as noxious weeds in a hot-bed. The government +neither favors commerce nor stimulates industry. Its policy is averse to +change of any kind, even though it be for the development of its own +resources or of the energies of the people. The Church is Brahmanic, +contemplating only its own navel. Its influence is specially restrictive +in Rome, because it is also the State there. It restrains not only +trade, but education; it conserves exploded ideas and usages; it prefers +not to grow, and looks with abhorrence upon change. + +Literature may be said to be dead in Rome. There is not only no free +press there, but no press at all. The "Diario Romano" contains about as +much news as the "Acta Diurna" of the ancient Romans, and perhaps less. +I doubt whether at present such facts as those given by Petronius, in an +extract from the latter, would now be permitted to be published. +However, we know that Augustus prohibited the "Acta Diurna,"--and the +"Diario Romano" exists still; so that some progress has been made. And +it must be confessed that Tuscany is scarcely in advance of Rome in this +respect; and Naples is behind both. Even the introduction of foreign +works is so strictly watched and the censorship so severe, that few +liberal books pass the cordon. The arguments in favor of a censorship +are very plain, but not very conclusive. The more compressed the +energies and desires of a people, the more danger of their bursting into +revolution. There is no safety-valve to passions and desires like the +utterance of them,--no better corrective to false ideas than the free +expression of them. Freedom of thought can never be suppressed, and +ideas kept too long pent up in the bosom, when heated by some sudden +crisis of passion, will explode into license and fury. Let me put a +column from Milton here into my own weak plaster; the words are well +known, but cannot be too well known. "Though all the winds of doctrine," +he says, "were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the +field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her +strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the +worse in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest +suppressing." Here in Rome genius rots. The saddest words I almost ever +heard were from a young Italian of ability and _esprit_. + +"Why," said I, in conversation with him, one day, "do you not devote +your talents to some worthy object, instead of frittering them away in +dancing, chatting, fencing, and morning-calls?" + +"What would you have me do?" he answered. + +"Devote yourself to some course of study. Write something." + +"_Mio caro_" was his reply, "it is useless. How can I write what I +think? How can I publish what I write? I have now manuscript works begun +in my desk, which it would be better to burn. Our only way to be happy +is to be idle and ignorant. The more we know, the unhappier we must be. +There is but one avenue for ambition,--the Church. I was not made for +that." + +This restrictive policy of the Church makes itself felt everywhere, high +and low; and by long habit the people have become indolent and supine. +The splendid robes of ecclesiastical Rome have a draggled fringe of +beggary and vice. What a change there might be, if the energies of the +Italians, instead of rotting in idleness, could have a free scope! +Industry is the only purification of a nation; and as the fertile and +luxuriant Campagna stagnates into malaria, because of its want of +ventilation and movement, so does this grand and noble people. The +government makes what use it can, however, of the classes it exploits by +its system; but things go in a vicious circle. The people, kept at a +stand-still, become idle and poor; idleness and poverty engender vice +and crime; crime fills the prisons; and the prisons afford a body of +cheap slaves to the government. + +To-day, as I am writing, some hundreds of _forcats_, in their striped +brown uniforms, are tugging at their winches and ropes to drag the +column of the Immaculate Virgin to its pedestal on the Piazza di Spagna. +By the same system of compulsory labor, the government, despite its +limited financial resources, is enabled to carry out public projects +which, with well-paid workmen, would be too expensive to be feasible. In +this manner, for instance, for an incredibly small sum, was built the +magnificent viaduct which spans with its triple tier of arches the +beautiful Val di L'Arriccia. But, for my own part, I cannot look upon +this system as being other than very bad, in every respect. And when, +examining into the prisons themselves, I find that the support of these +poor criminal slaves is farmed out by the government to some responsible +person at the lowest rate that is offered, generally for five or six +_baiocchi_ apiece _per diem_, and often refarmed by him at a still lower +rate, until the poor wretches are reduced to the very minimum of +necessary food as to quantity and quality, I confess that I cannot look +with pleasure on the noble viaduct at L'Arriccia, or the rich column to +the Immaculate Virgin, erected by the labor of their hands. + +Within a few years the government seemed to become conscious of the +great number of beggars in Rome, and of the reproach they offered to the +wise and paternal regulations of the priestcraft. Accordingly, for a +short time, they carried on a move in the right direction, which had +been begun by the Triumvirate of 1849, during their short career. Some +hundreds of the beggars were hired at the rate of a few _baiocchi_ a day +to carry on excavations in the Forum and in the Baths of Caracalla. The +selection was most appropriate. Only the old, decrepit, and broken-down +were taken,--the younger and sturdier were left. Ruined men were in +harmony with the ruined temples. Such a set of laborers was never before +seen. Falstaff's ragged regiment was a joke to them. Each had a +wheelbarrow, a spade, or pick, and a cloak; but the last was the most +important part of their equipment. Some of them picked at the earth with +a gravity that was equalled only by the feebleness of the effort and the +poverty of the result. Three strokes so wearied them that they were +forced to pause and gather strength, while others carried away the +ant-hills which the first dug up. It seemed an endless task to fill the +wheelbarrows. Fill, did I say? They were never filled. After a bucketful +of earth had been slowly shovelled in, the laborer paused, laid down his +spade carefully on the little heap, sighed profoundly, looked as if to +receive congratulations on his enormous success, then, flinging, with a +grand sweep, the tattered old cloak over his left shoulder, lifted his +wheelbarrow-shafts with dignity, and marched slowly and measuredly +forward towards the heap of deposit, as Belisarius might have moved at a +funeral in the intervals of asking for _oboli_. But reduced gentlemen, +who have been accustomed to carry round the hat as an occupation, always +have a certain air of condescension when they work for pay, and, by +their dignity of deportment, make you sensible of their former superior +state. Occasionally, in case a _forestiere_ was near, the older, idler, +and more gentlemanlike profession would be resumed for a moment, (as by +parenthesis,) and if without success, a sadder dignity would be seen in +the subsequent march. Very properly for persons who had been reduced +from beggary to work, they seemed to be anxious both for their health +and their appearance in public, and accordingly a vast deal more time +was spent in the arrangement of the cloak than in any other part of the +business. It was grand in effect, to see these figures, incumbered in +their heavy draperies, guiding their wheelbarrows through the great +arches of Caracalla's Baths or along the Via Sacra. It often reminded me +of modern _bassi-rilievi_ and portrait statues, in which gentlemen +looking sideways with very modern faces, and both hands full of swords, +pens, or books, stand impotently swaddled up in ancient togas or the +folds of similar enormous cloaks. The antique treatment with the modern +subject was evident in both. If sometimes, with a foolish spirit of +innovation, one felt inclined to ask what purpose in either case these +heroic mantles subserved, and whether, in fact, they could not be +dispensed with to advantage, he was soon made to know that his inquiry +indicated ignorance, and a desire to debase in the one case Man, in the +other Art. + +It would, however, be a grievous mistake to suppose that all the beggars +in the streets of Rome are Romans. In point of fact, the greater number +are strangers, who congregate in Rome during the winter from every +quarter. Naples and Tuscany send them by thousands. Every little country +town of the Abruzzi Mountains yields its contribution. From north, +south, east, and west they flock here as to a centre where good pickings +may be had of the crumbs that fall from the rich men's tables. In the +summer season they return to their homes with their earnings, and not +one in five of those who haunted the churches and streets in the winter +is to be seen. + +It is but justice to the Roman government to say that its charities are +very large. If, on the one hand, it does not encourage commerce and +industry, on the other, it liberally provides for the poor. In +proportion to its means, no government does more, if so much. Every +church has its _Cassa dei Poveri_. Numerous societies, such as the +_Sacconi_, and other confraternities, employ themselves in accumulating +contributions for the relief of the poor and wretched. Well-endowed +hospitals exist for the care of the sick and unfortunate; and there are +various establishments for the charge and education of poor orphans. A +few figures will show how ample are these charities. The revenue of +these institutions is no less than eight hundred and forty thousand +_scudi_ annually, of which three hundred thousand are contributed by the +Papal treasury, forty thousand of which are a tax upon the Lottery. The +hospitals, altogether, accommodate about four thousand patients, the +average number annually received amounting to about twelve thousand; and +the foundling hospitals alone are capable of receiving upwards of three +thousand children annually. Besides the hospitals for the sick, there is +also a hospital for poor convalescents at Sta Trinita dei Pellegrini, a +lunatic asylum containing about four hundred patients, one for +incurables at San Giacomo, a lying-in hospital at San Rocco, and a +hospital of education and industry at San Michele. There are also +thirteen societies for bestowing dowries on poor young girls on their +marriage; and from the public purse, for the same object, are expended +every year no less than thirty-two thousand _scudi_. In addition to +these charities, are the sums collected and administered by the various +confraternities, as well as the sum of one hundred and seventy-two +thousand _scudi_ distributed to the poor by the commission of subsidies. +But though so much money is thus expended, it cannot be said that it is +well administered. The proportion of deaths at the hospitals is very +large; and among the foundlings, it amounted, between the years 1829 and +1833, to no less than seventy-two _per cent_. + +The arrangements at these institutions were very much improved during +the career of the Triumvirate, and, under the auspices of the Princess +Belgiojoso, cleanliness, order, and system were introduced. The heroism +of this noble-hearted woman during the trying days of the Roman siege +deserves a better record than I can give. She gave her whole heart and +body to the regeneration of the hospitals, and the personal care of the +sick and wounded. Her head-quarters were at the Hospital _dei +Pellegrini_. Day after day and night after night she was at her post, +never moving from her chair, except to visit the various wards, and to +comfort with tender words the sufferers in their beds. Their faces, +contorted with pain, smoothed at her approach; and her hand and voice +carried consolation wherever she went. Many a scene have I witnessed +there more affecting than any tragedy, in which I knew not which most to +admire, the heroism of the sufferers or the tender humanity of the +consoler and nurse. In all her arrangements she showed that masterly +administrative faculty in which women are far superior to men. When she +came to the Pellegrini, all was in disorder; but a few days sufficed to +reduce a chaotic confusion to exact and admirable system. Hers was the +brain that regulated all the hospitals. Always calm, she distributed her +orders with perfect tact and precision, and with a determination of +purpose and clearness of perception which commanded the minds of all +about her. The care, fatigue, and labor which she underwent would have +broken down a less determined spirit. Nothing moved except from her +touch. In a little damp cell, a pallet of straw was laid on the brick +floor, and there, when utterly overcome, she threw herself down to sleep +for a couple of hours,--no more; all the rest of the time she sat at her +desk, writing orders, giving directions, and supervising the new +machinery which owed its existence to her. + +With the return of the Papal government came the old system. Certain it +is that _that_ system does not work well. Despite the enormous sums +expended in charity, the people are poor, the mortality in the hospitals +is very large. "Something is rotten in the state of" Rome. + +There is one noble exception not to be forgotten. To the Hospital of San +Michele Cardinal Tosti has given a new life and vigor, and set an +example worthy of his elevated position in the Church. This foundation +was formerly an asylum for poor children and infirm and aged persons; +but of late years an industrial and educational system has been +ingrafted upon it, until it has become one of the most enlarged and +liberal institutions that can anywhere be found. It now embraces not +only an asylum for the aged, a house of correction for juvenile +offenders and women, and a house of industry for children of both sexes, +but also a school of arts, in which music, painting, drawing, +architecture, and sculpture are taught gratuitously to the poor, and a +considerable number of looms, at which from eight hundred to one +thousand persons are employed for the weaving of woollen fabrics for the +government. A stimulus has thus been given to education and to industry, +and particularly to improvements in machinery and manufacture. Once a +year, during the holy week, religious dramas and operas, founded on some +Biblical subject, are creditably performed by the pupils in a private +theatre connected with the establishment. I was never present but at one +of these representations, when the tragical story of Shadrach, Meshach, +and Ahednego was performed. Honor to Cardinal Tosti for his successful +efforts in this liberal direction! + +At many of the convents in Rome, it is the custom at noon to distribute, +gratis, at the door, a quantity of soup, and any poor person may receive +a bowlful on demand. Many of the beggars thus become pensioners of the +convents, and may be seen daily at the appointed hour gathering round +the door with their bowl and wooden spoon, in expectation of the _Frate_ +with the soup. This is generally made so thick with cabbage that it +might be called a cabbage-stew; but Soyer himself never made a dish more +acceptable to the palate of the guests than this. No nightingales' +tongues at a banquet of Tiberius, no edible birds-nests at a Chinese +feast, were ever relished with more gusto. The figures and actions of +these poor wretches, after they have obtained their soup, make one sigh +for human nature. Each, grasping his portion as if it were a treasure, +separates himself immediately from his brothers, flees selfishly to a +corner, if he can find one empty, or, if not, goes to a distance, turns +his back on his friends, and, glancing anxiously at intervals all +around, as if in fear of a surprise, gobbles up his cabbage, wipes out +his bowl, and then returns to companionship or disappears. The idea of +sharing his portion with those who are portionless occurs to him only as +the idea of a robber to the mind of a miser. + +Any account of the beggars of Rome without mention of the Capuchins and +Franciscans would be like performing the "Merchant of Venice" with no +Shylock; for these orders are founded in beggary and supported by +charity. The priests do not beg; but their ambassadors, the +lay-brothers, clad in their long, brown serge, a cord around their +waist, and a basket on their arm, may be seen shuffling along at any +hour and in every street, in dirty sandalled feet, to levy contributions +from shops and houses. Here they get a loaf of bread, there a pound of +flour or rice, in one place fruit or cheese, in another a bit of meat, +until their basket is filled. Sometimes money is given, but generally +they are paid in articles of food. There is another set of these +brothers who enter your studio or ring at your bell and present a little +tin box with a slit in it, into which you are requested to drop any sum +you please, for the holidays, for masses, for wax candles, etc. As a big +piece of copper makes more ring than gold, it is generally given, and +always gratefully received. Sometimes they will enter into conversation, +and are always pleased to have a little chat about the weather. They are +very poor, very good-natured, and very dirty. It is a pity they do not +baptize themselves a little more with the material water of this world. +But they seem to have a hydrophobia. Whatever the inside of the platter +may be, the outside is far from clean. They walk by day and they sleep +by night in the same old snuffy robe, which is not kept from contact +with the skin by any luxury of linen, until it is worn out. Dirt and +piety seem to them synonymous. Sometimes I have deemed, foolishly +perhaps, but after the manner of my nation, that their goodness would +not wash off with the soil of the skin,--that it was more than +skin-deep; but as this matter is above reason, in better moods I have +faith that it would. Still, in disbelieving moments, I cannot help +applying to them Charles Lamb's famous speech,--"If dirt were trumps, +what a hand they would have of it!" Yet, beggars as they are, they have +the reputation at Rome of being the most inoffensive of all the +conventual orders, and are looked upon by the common people with +kindliness, as being thoroughly sincere in their religious professions. +They are, at least, consistent in many respects in their professions and +practice. They really mortify the flesh by penance, fasting, and +wretched fare, as well as by dirt. They do not proclaim the virtues and +charms of poverty, while they roll about in gilded coaches dressed in +"purple and fine linen," or gloat over the luxuries of the table. Their +vices are not the cardinal ones, whatever their virtues may be. The +"Miracles of St. Peter," as the common people call the palaces of Rome, +are not wrought for them. Their table is mean and scantily provided with +the most ordinary food. Three days in the week they eat no meat; and +during the year they keep three _Quaresime_. But, good as they are, +their sour, thin wine, on empty, craving stomachs, sometimes does a mad +work; and these brothers in dirt and piety have occasionally violent +rows and disputes in their refectories over their earthen bottles. It is +only a short time since that my old friends the Capuchins got furious +together over their wine, and ended by knocking each other about the +ears with their earthen jars, after they had emptied them. Several were +wounded, and had time to repent and wash in their cells. But one should +not be too hard on them. The temper will not withstand too much fasting. +A good dinner puts one at peace with the world, but an empty stomach is +the habitation often of the Devil, who amuses himself there with pulling +all the nerve-wires that reach up into the brain. I doubt whether even +St. Simeon Stylites always kept his temper as well as he did his fast. + +As I see them walking up and down the alleys of their vegetable garden, +and under the sunny wall where oranges glow and roses bloom, without the +least asceticism, during the whole winter, I do not believe in their +doctrine, nor envy them their life. And I cannot but think that the one +hundred and fifty thousand _Frati_ who are in the Roman States would do +quite as good service to God and man, if they were an army of laborers +on the Campagna, or elsewhere, as in their present life of beggary and +self-contemplation. I often wonder, as I look at them, hearty and stout +as they are, despite their mode of life, what brought them to this pass, +what induced them to enter this order,--and recall, in this connection, +a little anecdote current here in Rome, to the following effect:--A +young fellow, from whom Fortune had withheld her gifts, having become +desperate, at last declared to a friend that he meant to throw himself +into the Tiber, and end a life which was worse than useless. "No, no," +said his friend, "don't do that. If your affairs are so desperate, +retire into a convent, become a Capuchin." _"Ah, non!_" was the +indignant answer; "I am desperate; but I have not yet arrived at such a +pitch of desperation." + +Though the Franciscans live upon charity, they have almost always a +garden connected with their convent, where they raise multitudes of +cabbages, cauliflowers, _finocchi_, peas, beans, artichokes, and +lettuce. Indeed, there is one kind of the latter which is named after +them,--_capuccini_. But their gardens they do not till themselves; they +hire gardeners, who work for them. Now I cannot but think that working +in a garden is just as pious an employment as begging about the streets, +though perhaps scarcely as profitable. The opinion, that, in some +respects, it would be better for them to attend to this work themselves, +was forced upon my mind by a little farce I happened to see enacted +among their cabbages, the other day, as I was looking down out of my +window. My attention was first attracted by hearing a window open from a +little three-story-high _loggia_, opposite, hanging over their garden. A +woman came forth, and, from amid the flower-pots which half-concealed +her, she dropped a long cord to the ground. "_Pst, Pst_," she cried to +the gardener at work below. He looked up, executed a curious pantomime, +shrugged his shoulders, shook his fore-finger, and motioned with his +head and elbow sideways to a figure, visible to me, but not to her, of a +brown Franciscan, who was amusing himself in gathering some _finocchi_, +just round the corner of the wall. The woman, who was fishing for the +cabbages, immediately understood the predicament, drew up her cord, +disappeared from the _loggia_, and the curtain fell upon the little +farce. The gardener, however, evidently had a little soliloquy after she +had gone. He ceased working, and gazed at the unconscious Franciscan for +some time, with a curious grimace, as if he were not quite satisfied at +thus losing his little perquisite. + +These brown-cowled gentlemen are not the only ones who carry the tin +box. Along the curbstones of the public walks, and on the steps of the +churches, sit blind old creatures, and shake at you a tin box, outside +of which is a figure of the Madonna, and inside of which are two or +three _baiocchi_, as a rattling accompaniment to an unending invocation +of aid. Their dismal chant is protracted for hours and hours, increasing +in loudness whenever the steps of a passer-by are heard. It is the old +strophe and antistrophe of begging and blessing, and the singers are so +wretched that one is often softened into charity. Those who are not +blind have often a new _Diario_ or _Lunario_ to sell towards the end of +the year, and at other times they vary the occupation of shaking the box +by selling lives of the saints, which are sometimes wonderful enough. +One sad old woman, who sits near the Quattro Fontane, and says her +prayers and rattles her box, always touches my heart, there is such an +air of forlornness and sweetness about her. As I was returning, last +night, from a mass at San Giovanni in Laterano, an old man glared at us +through great green goggles,--to which Jealousy's would have yielded in +size and color,--and shook his box for a _baiocco_. "And where does this +money go?" I asked. "To say masses for the souls of those who die over +opposite," said he, pointing to the Hospital of San Giovanni, through +the open doors of which we could see the patients lying in their beds. + +Nor are these the only friends of the box. Often in walking the streets +one is suddenly shaken in your ear, and, turning round, you are startled +to see a figure entirely clothed in white from head to foot, a rope +round his waist, and a white _capuccio_ drawn over his head and face, +and showing, through two round holes, a pair of sharp black eyes behind +them. He says nothing, but shakes his box at you, often threateningly, +and always with an air of mystery. This is a penitent _Saccone_; and as +this _confraternita_ is composed solely of noblemen, he may be one of +the first princes or cardinals in Rome, performing penance in expiation +of his sins; or, for all you can see, it may be one of your intimate +friends. The money thus collected goes to various charities. They always +go in couples,--one taking one side of the street, the other the +opposite,--never losing sight of each other, and never speaking. Clothed +thus in secresy, these _Sacconi_ can test the generosity of any one they +please with complete impunity, and they often amuse themselves with +startling foreigners. Many a group of English girls, convoyed by their +mother, and staring into some mosaic or cameo shop, is scared into a +scream by the sudden jingle of the box, and the apparition of the +spectre in white who shakes it. And many a simple old lady retains to +the end of her life a confused impression, derived therefrom, of +Inquisitions, stilettos, tortures, and banditti, from which it is vain +to attempt to dispossess her mind. The stout old gentleman, with a bald +forehead and an irascibly rosy face, takes it often in another +way,--confounds the fellows for their impertinence, has serious notions, +first, of knocking them down on the spot, and then of calling the +police, but finally concludes to take no notice of them, as they are +nothing but _Eye_-talians, who cannot be expected to know how to behave +themselves in a rational manner. Sometimes a _santa elemosina_ is +demanded after the oddest fashion. It was only yesterday that I met one +of the _confraternita_, dressed in a shabby red suit, coming up the +street, with the invariable oblong tin begging-box in his hand,--a +picture of Christ on one side, and of the Madonna on the other. He went +straight to a door, opening into a large, dark room, where there was a +full cistern of running water, at which several poor women were washing +clothes, and singing and chatting as they worked. My red acquaintance +suddenly opens the door, letting in a stream of light upon this +Rembrandtish interior, and, lifting his box with the most wheedling of +smiles, he says, with a rising inflection of voice, as if asking a +question,--"_Prezioso sangue di Gesu Christo?_"--( Precious blood of +Jesus Christ?) + +The last, but by no means the meanest, of the tribe of pensioners whom I +shall mention, is my old friend, "Beefsteak,"--now, alas! gone to the +shades of his fathers. He was a good dog,--a mongrel, a Pole by +birth,--who accompanied his master on a visit to Rome, where he became +so enamored of the place that he could not be persuaded to return to his +native home. Bravely he cast himself on the world, determined to live, +like many of his two-legged countrymen, upon his wits. He was a dog of +genius, and his confidence in the world was rewarded by its +appreciation. He had a sympathy for the arts. The crowd of artists who +daily and nightly flocked to the Lepre and the Caffe Greco attracted his +notice. He introduced himself to them, and visited them at their studios +and rooms. A friendship was struck between them and him, and he became +their constant visitor and their most attached ally. Every day, at the +hour of lunch, or at the more serious hour of dinner, he lounged into +the Lepre, seated himself in a chair, and awaited his friends, confident +of his reception. His presence was always hailed with a welcome, and to +every new comer he was formally presented. His bearing became, at last, +not only assured, but patronizing. He received the gift of a +chicken-bone or a delicate titbit as if he conferred a favor. He became +an epicure, a _gourmet_. He did not eat much; he ate well. With what a +calm superiority and gentle contempt he declined the refuse bits a +stranger offered from his plate! His glance, and upturned nose, and +quiet refusal, seemed to say,--"Ignoramus! know you not I am Beefsteak?" +His dinner finished, he descended gravely, and proceeded to the Caffe +Greco, there to listen to the discussions of the artists, and to partake +of a little coffee and sugar, of which he was very fond. At night, he +accompanied some one or other of his friends to his room, and slept upon +the rug. He knew his friends, and valued them; but perhaps his most +remarkable quality was his impartiality. He dispensed his favors with an +even hand. He had few favorites, and called no man master. He never +outstayed his welcome "and told the jest without the smile," never +remaining with one person for more than two or three days at most. A +calmer character, a more balanced judgment, a better temper, a more +admirable self-respect,--in a word, a profounder sense of what belongs +to a gentleman, was never known in any dog. But Beefsteak is now no +more. Just after the agitations of the Revolution of '48, with which he +had little sympathy,--he was a conservative by disposition,--he +disappeared. He had always been accustomed to make a _villegratura_ at +L'Arriccia during a portion of the summer months, returning only now and +then to look after his affairs in Rome. On such visits he would often +arrive towards midnight, and rap at the door of a friend to claim his +hospitality, barking a most intelligible answer to the universal Roman +inquiry of "_Chi e_?" "One morn we missed him at the accustomed" place, +and thenceforth he was never seen. Whether a sudden homesickness for his +native land overcame him, or a fatal accident befell him, is not known. +Peace to his manes! There "rests his head upon the lap of earth" no +better dog. + +In the Roman studio of one of his friends and admirers, Mr. Mason, I had +the pleasure, a few days since, to see, among several admirable and very +spirited pictures of Campagna life and incidents, a very striking +portrait of Beefsteak. He was sitting in a straw-bottomed chair, as we +have so often seen him in the Lepre, calm, dignified in his deportment, +and somewhat obese. The full brain, the narrow, fastidious nose, the +sagacious eye, were so perfectly given, that I seemed to feel the actual +presence of my old friend. So admirable a portrait of so distinguished a +person should not be lost to the world. It should be engraved, or at +least photographed. + + + + +ENCELADUS. + + + Under Mount Etna he lies; + It is slumber, it is not death; + For he struggles at times to arise, + And above him the lurid skies + Are hot with his fiery breath. + + The crags are piled on his breast, + The earth is heaped on his head; + But the groans of his wild unrest, + Though smothered and half suppressed, + Are heard, and he is not dead. + + And the nations far away + Are watching with eager eyes; + They talk together and say, + "To-morrow, perhaps to-day, + Enceladus will arise!" + + And the old gods, the austere + Oppressors in their strength, + Stand aghast and white with fear, + At the ominous sounds they hear, + And tremble, and mutter, "At length!" + + Ah, me! for the land that is sown + With the harvest of despair! + Where the burning cinders, blown + From the lips of the overthrown + Enceladus, fill the air! + + Where ashes are heaped in drifts + Over vineyard and field and town, + Whenever he starts and lifts + His head through the blackened rifts + Of the crags that keep him down! + + See, see! the red light shines! + 'Tis the glare of his awful eyes! + And the storm-wind shouts through the pines + Of Alps and of Apennines, + "Enceladus, arise!" + + + + +THE ZOUAVES. + + +The decree of October 1, 1830, approved by a royal ordinance, March 21, +1831, created two battalions of Zouaves. To perceive the necessity for +this body of troops, to understand the nature of the service required of +them, and to obtain a just notion of their important position in African +affairs, it will be necessary to glance, for a moment, at the previous +history of Algeria under the Deys, and especially at the history of that +Turkish militia which they were to replace,--a body of irresponsible +tyrants, which, since 1516, had exercised the greatest power in Africa, +and had rendered their name hated and feared by the most distant tribes. + +Algeria was settled in 1492, by Moors driven from Spain. They recognized +a kind of allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey, which was, however, only +nominal; he appointed their Emirs, but further than this there was no +restraint on their actions. Hard pressed by the Spaniards in 1509, the +Emirs sent in haste to Turkey for aid; and Barbarossa, a noted pirate, +sailed to their help, drove out the Christians, but fixed upon the Moors +the yoke of Turkish sovereignty. In 1516, he declared himself Sultan, or +Dey, of Algiers; and his brother succeeding him, the Ottoman power was +firmly established in the Northwest of Africa. Hated by the people of +this great territory, both Moors and Arabs, menaced not only by their +dissensions, but frequently attacked by the Christians from the North, +there was but one method by which the Dey could maintain his power. He +formed a large body of mercenary soldiers, drawn entirely from Turkey, +united with himself and each other by a feeling of mutual dependence and +common danger, and bound by no feeling of interest or affection to the +inhabitants of the soil. Brave they were, as they proved in 1541, +against Charles the Fifth, whose forces they defeated and nearly +destroyed at Haratsch,--in 1565, at the siege of Malta,--in 1572, in the +seafight of Lepanto,--in many smaller combats at different times, +defending their land triumphantly in 1775 against the Spaniards under +O'Reilly and Castejon. Hardy and ready they were, from the very +necessity of the case; for they were hated and dreaded beyond measure by +the Arabs, and theirs was a life of constant exertion. Other than united +they could not be; for they were in continual warfare of offence or of +defence; they suppressed rebellion and anarchy,--for without a leader +and union they had been cut off by the restless foe, whose piercing eyes +watched, and whose daggers waited only _for the time_. In constant +danger, they could not sink into that sloth that eats out the heart of +Eastern and Southern nations; for it was only in unrest that safety +lay;--he who slumbered on those burning plains, no less than the sleeper +on Siberian ice, was lost utterly and without remedy. + +This body of troops, called the _Odjack_, elected or deposed Deys at +pleasure; the Dey, nominally their ruler, was in reality their tool. In +one period of twenty years there were six Deys, of whom four were +decapitated, one abdicated through fear, and one died peacefully in the +exercise of his governing functions. [Footnote: _Voyage pour la +Redemption des Captifs aux Royaumes d'Alger et de Tunis, fait en 1720._ +Paris, 1721.] In 1629, they declared the kingdom free from the +domination of Turkey; soon after, they expelled the Koulouglis, or +half-breed Turks, and enslaved the Moors. Admitting some of the latter +to service in the militia, they never allowed them to hope for +advancement in the State, or, what was the same thing, the army. Only +Turks, or in some instances renegade Christians, could lead the +soldiers, whom thus no feeling of local patriotism mollified in their +course of savage cruelty, grinding the face of the poor natives till +spirit and hope were lost and resistance ceased to be a settled idea in +their minds. + +Now when the French navy came up to the port of Algiers, June 12, 1830, +the unity between the soldiers and their master, Hussein Pacha, was +tottering on the verge of dissolution; a plot against his life had just +been discovered, he had punished the ringleaders with death, and many +who had been concerned in the conspiracy felt that there was no safety +for them with him. Beaten constantly in every skirmish or battle, they +conceived a high respect for the military genius of the invaders, and, +ere the close of the summer campaign, offered their services in a body +to General Clausel; this offer he promptly declined, and they thereupon +withdrew, carrying their swords to the aid of other powers less +scrupulous. + +The news, however, that the terrible Odjack had offered themselves to +serve under the French spread a lively terror through the Arab tribes, +who, believing themselves about to suffer an aggravation of their +already intolerable oppression, experienced a sensation of relief and an +elevation of spirit no less marked, on hearing that the newly formed +government had rejected their services. Perceiving the fear in which +these Algerine Praetorians were held by the tribes, Marshal Clausel +conceived the plan of replacing them by a corps of light infantry, +consisting of two battalions, to perform the services of household +troops, and to receive some name as significant as that held by their +predecessors under the old _regime_. Consequently, after some +consideration, the newly constituted body was called by the name of +_Zouaves_, from the Arabic word _Zouaoua_. + +The Zouaoua are a tribe, or rather a confederation of tribes, of the +Kabyles, who inhabit the gorges of the Jurjura Mountains, the boundary +of Algeria on the east, separating it from the province of Constantine. +They are a brave, fierce, laborious people, whose submission to the +Turks was never more than nominal; yet they were well known in the city +of Algiers, whither they came frequently to exchange the products of +their industry for the luxuries of comparative civilization. As they had +the reputation of being the best soldiers in the Regency, and had +occasionally lent their services to the Algerine princes, their name was +given to the new military force; while, to give it the character of a +French corps, the number of native soldiers received into its ranks was +limited, and all its officers, from the highest to the lowest grade, +were required to be native-born Frenchmen. The service in this corps was +altogether voluntary, none being appointed to the Zouaves who did not +seek the place; but there were found enough young and daring spirits who +embraced with enthusiasm this life, so harassing, so full of privation, +of rude labor, of constant peril. The first battalion was commanded by +Major Maumet; the second by Captain Duvivier, (since General,) who died +in Paris, 1848, of wounds received in the African service. Levaillant, +(since General of Division,) Verge, (now General of Brigade,) and +Molliere, who died Colonel, of wounds received at the siege of Rome, +were officers in these first two battalions. + +Scarcely six weeks had elapsed since their formation, when the Zouaves +took the field under Marshal Clausel, marching against Medeah, an +important station in the heart of Western Algeria. On the hill of +Mouzaia they fought their first battle, in which they were completely +successful. They remained two months as a garrison in Medeah. Here they +showed proofs of a valor and patience most extraordinary. Left alone in +a frontier post, constantly in the vicinity of a savage foe, watching +and fighting night and day, leaving the gun only to take up the spade, +compelled to create everything they needed, reduced to the last +extremities for food, cut off from all communications,--it was a rough +trial for this little handful of new soldiers. The place was often +attacked; they were always at their posts; till in the last days of +April they were recalled, and the fortress yielded up to the feeble Bey +whom the French had decided to establish there. In June, troubles having +again arisen, General Berthezene conducted some troops of the regular +army to Medeah, to which was added the second battalion of Zouaves, +under its gallant captain, Duvivier. On his return, the troops were +attacked with fury on the hill of Mouzaia, the spot where the Zouaves +had in February of the same year received their baptism of fire. Wearied +with the long night-march, borne down by insupportable heat, stretched +in a long straggling line through mountain-passes, the commander of the +van severely wounded at the first discharge, they themselves separated, +without chiefs, and surrounded by enemies, the French troops recoiled; +when Duvivier, seeing the peril that menaced the army, advanced with his +battalion. Shouting their war-cry, they rushed on the Kabyles, supported +by the Volunteers of the Chart, or French Zouaves, thundering forth the +Marseillaise; turning the pursuers into pursued, they covered the +retreat of their associates to the farm of Mouzaia, where the army +rallied and proceeded without further loss to Algiers. This retreat, and +its attendant circumstances, made the Zouaves, before regarded, if not +with contempt, at least with dislike, _free of the camp_. + +But now the losses sustained by the two battalions began to be seriously +felt,--for the growing hostility of the Arabs rendered it difficult to +recruit from native sources; and an ordinance of the king, dated March +7,1833, united the two battalions into one, consisting of ten companies, +eight of which were to be exclusively European, and two to be _not_ +exclusively Algerine,--it being required that in each native company +there should be at least twelve Frenchmen. Duvivier was called to +Bougie; Maumet was compelled by his wounds to return to Paris; Captain +Lamoriciere was, therefore, appointed chief of the united battalion, +having given proof of his capacity in every way,--whether as soldier, +linguist, or negotiator,--being a wise and prudent man. It is to the +training the Zouaves received under this remarkable man that much of +their subsequent success must be ascribed. In his dealings with the +Arabs he had shown himself the first who could treat with them by other +means than the rifle or bayonet. [Footnote: _Annales Algeriennes_, Tom. +ii. p. 72.] In his capacity of Lieutenant-Colonel of Zouaves he showed +talents of a high order. He infused into them the spirit, the activity, +the boldness and impetuosity which he himself so remarkably possessed, +with a certain independence of character which demanded from those who +commanded them a resolute firmness on essential, and a dignified +indulgence on unessential points. [Footnote: _Conquete d'Alger_. Par A. +Nettement. p. 546.] To the course of discipline used by him, and still +maintained in this arm of the service, are due their tremendous working +power, their tirelessness, their self-dependence, and all their +qualities differing from those of other soldiers; so that by his means +one of the most irregular species of warfare has produced a body of +irresistible regular soldiers, and border combats have given rise to the +most rigid discipline in the world. + +The post of Dely Ibrahim was assigned to the Zouaves. At this place they +were obliged to work laboriously, making for themselves whatever was +needed; whether as masons, ditchers, blacksmiths, carpenters, or +farmers,--whatever business was to be performed, they were, or learned +to be, sufficient for it. No idlers in that camp,--each must earn his +daily bread. What time was not devoted to labor was given to the +practice of arms and the acquisition of instruction in all departments +of military science; so that many a soldier was there fitted for the +position he afterwards acquired, of officer, colonel, or general. To +fence with the mounted bayonet, to wrestle, to leap, to climb, to run +for miles, to swim, to make and to destroy temporary bridges, to throw +up earth-walls, to carry great weights, to do, in short, what Indians +learn to do, and much that they do not learn,--these served as the +relaxations of the unwearied Zouaves. To vary the monotony of such a +life, there was enough adventure to be found for the seeking,--now an +incursion into the Sahel, or into the plains of Mitidja, or a wild foray +through the northern gorges of the Atlas. Day by day progress appeared; +they learned to march rapidly and long, to sustain the extremes of +hunger, thirst, and weather, and to manoeuvre with intelligent +precision; diligently fitting themselves, in industry, discipline, and +warlike education, for the position they had to fill. Their costume and +equipment were brought near perfection; they wore the Turkish dress, +slightly modified,--a dress perfectly suited to the changes of that +climate, and without which their movements would have been cramped and +constrained. Only the officers retained the uniform of the hussars, +which is rich and easy to wear. The cost of a suitable Turkish uniform +would have been too heavy for them, besides that the dress of a Turk of +rank is somewhat ridiculous. Certain officers on the march used, +however, to wear the _fez_, or, as the Arabs called it, the _chechia_. +Lamoriciere was known in Algeria as _Bou Chechia_, or _Papa with the +Cap_,--as he was known later in Oran as _Bou Araoua, Papa with the +Stick_. One finds, however, nothing of Orientalism in the regulations of +this body of troops; not the least negligence or slovenliness is allowed +in the most trifling detail. In fine, the care, and that descending to +note the smallest minutiae, which brought this race of soldiers to such +a pitch of perfection, leaving them their gayety and sprightliness, and, +notwithstanding the rigidness of the discipline, giving solidity and +precision to irregular troops, was rewarded by success unparalleled in +history. It was the best practical school for soldiers and officers; and +many of the best generals in the French army began their military career +in the wild guerrilla combats or the patient camp-life of this band of +heroes. + +Nearly two years had passed away in this training, when Marshal Clausel +returned to Africa, and led the Zouaves, whose fitness for the service +he well knew, into Oran. Here they added fresh laurels to those already +acquired. In the expedition of Mascara, where they fought under the eye +of the Duke of Orleans, they covered themselves with glory; insomuch +that on his return to Paris he procured a decree, 1835, constituting the +First Regiment of Zouaves, of two battalions, of six companies each, +and, should occasion justify the measure, of ten companies. Lamoriciere +continued in command. + +In 1836 the Zouaves again took the hill of Mouzaia. This time they razed +its fortifications even with the ground, and returned to Algiers, where +they remained during General Clausel's first and unfortunate expedition +into Constantine, the eastern province of French Africa. In 1837 the +second expedition was made, and in this the Zouaves took part. One of +the divisions of the army was under the command of the Duke of Nemours. +In this division were the Zouaves under Lamoriciere, who here showed +themselves worthy of their renown. Fighting by the side of the most +excellent soldiers in the regular army, they proved themselves bravest +where all were brave. They were placed at the head of the first column +of attack. Lamoriciere was the first officer on the breach, and carried +all before him. The soldiers whom he had trained supported him nobly; +but when they had won the day, they found that many companies were +decimated, some nearly annihilated; numbers of their officers were dead +in the breach, "Those who are not mortally wounded rejoice at this great +success," said an officer to the Duke; and it was a significant +sentence. [Footnote: Verbal report of Colonel Combes to the Duke of +Nemours,--conclusion.] + +To form some notion of those troops, among whom the Zouaves showed +themselves like the gods in the war of Troy, one anecdote will suffice, +chosen from many which prove the valor of the army my generally. The +rear-guard at Mansourah was under the command of Changarnier; it was +reduced to three hundred men; he halted this little troop and said, +"Come, my men, look these fellows in the face; they are six thousand, +you are three hundred; surely the match is even." This speech was +sufficient. The Frenchmen awaited the onset till the enemy was within +pistol-shot; then, after a murderous volley, they charged on the Arabs, +who broke and fled in dismay. During the remainder of the day they would +not approach this band nearer than long rifle range. [Footnote: +_Moniteur_, December 16, 1833; report of Marshal Clausel.] + +The siege of Constantine may properly be said to have ended the war of +occupation in Africa. Hitherto we have seen the Zouaves only in time of +active war, or in the defence of hill-forts, obliged to unity through +fear of an ever-menacing foe, and laboring for their own preservation or +comfort only; but now commenced a new training for them, no less severe +and dangerous, in which they showed themselves equally willing and +competent,--a war against stubborn Nature in all her most forbidding +aspects. Under the blazing suns of that tropical climate they +recommenced at Coleah the work already begun at Dely Ibrahim; ditches +were to be dug, works thrown up, roads made, draining accomplished, +farms tended, all that was necessary for the establishment of those +permanent colonies which France was so anxious to settle in Algeria was +to be done by the Zouaves; yet, despite that terrible labor, the danger +and hardship, the sickness and death, the ranks of the regiment filled +up rapidly; and, joined by the wrecks of the battalion of Mechouar, they +were kept full to overflowing. This battalion of Mechouar was a troop +left by Clausel in the _mechouar_, or citadel, of Tlemcen, in the West +of Oran, under the command of Captain Cavaignac; on the conclusion of +the war, in 1837, they, of course, returned to their regiment at Coleah. + +This deceitful peace lasted only till 1839. In this year the vigilant +colonel of Zouaves perceived in his native troops alarming symptoms of +mutiny, and learned, to his surprise, that they were in a ripe condition +for revolt. Wild Santons of the desert, emissaries, doubtless, of +Abd-el-Kader, held secret meetings near the camp; many soldiers attended +them, and were seduced by artfully prepared inflammatory harangues and +prophecies. In the month of December, 1839, at the raising of the +standard of Islam, the natives flocked in vast numbers to rid the land +of the Christians; and most of the native Zouaves deserted to join the +fortunes of the prince whom they reverenced as a prophet. Old soldiers, +trained in the French service to a thorough acquaintance with European +tactics, and gray with battling long for Lamoriciere, suddenly left him, +and by their knowledge of the art of war gave great advantage to the +Arab force. In their combats with the Sultan, the Zouaves not +infrequently found that a sharp resistance or a masterly retreat on the +part of the enemy was executed under the direction of one of their +former comrades in arms. It was a critical moment for the Zouaves; but +at the announcement of the renewal of hostilities volunteers flowed in +on all sides, whether of young men full of ardor and excitement, or, as +in many instances, of old soldiers who had already served their time. +After a winter of petty skirmishing and reestablishing in Algeria the +semblance of security, the Duke of Orleans led the army, considerably +reinforced, in a raid against the Arabs under Abd-el-Kader in their own +territory. The Zouaves accompanied this expedition, and whether in their +charges against the mountaineers, who, with the aid of the Arab +regulars, defended each pass, or sustaining the shock of the provincial +cavalry, or even standing unmoved before the attack of Abd-el-Kader's +terrible "Reds," [Footnote: The mounted body-guard of Abd-el-Kader, so +called by the French from their complete red uniform.] they maintained +their character of rapid, intrepid, and successful soldiers. What names +we find in this regiment! Lamoriciere, Regnault, Renault, (now General +of Division,) Cavaignac, Leflo, (now General of Brigade,) and St. +Arnaud, who died Marshal of France two days after the victory of the +Alma. + +A singular instance of the _handiness_ of the Zouaves is found in the +notice of their forced march on this campaign, undertaken May 20th, to +support the retreating Seventeenth Light Infantry. Their cartridges were +fired away, the regulars of Abd-el-Kader were upon them, and nothing +seemed to remain but an heroic death, when, "Comrades," cried one, "see, +here are stones!" Not a word more; each caught the hint, and, with +simultaneous volleys of stones, drove off the charging enemy, and broke +their way to where the remains of the Seventeenth rallied under Colonel +Bedeau, after a retreat more properly to be called a continual attack! + +Hard at work during the winter of 1840-41, General Bugeaud found these +indefatigable soldiers in perfect condition to take the field again, +when he landed in April. There had been sharp fighting during the past +year at Mouzaia, in which the Zouaves always led the van, and were, as +in every engagement they ever fought, covered with honor. "The Second, +electrified by the example of its officers, and led by Colonel +Changarnier, flung itself on the intrenchments; the redoubts were +carried, etc. At the same time, in the other column, Lamoriciere led the +way with his Zouaves, followed by the other troops. The Zouaves +surmounted the almost impassable cliffs, attacked and carried two lines +of intrenchment, and, in the teeth of a murderous fire, forced a third; +a few moments later the two columns joined, and, rushing up the +acclivity, planted the flag of France on the highest peak of the Atlas." +[Footnote: Report of Marshal Valee: _Moniteur_.] Little variation is +found in the reports of generals concerning the Zouaves at this time; +they say of these troops always, "The First," or "The Second, was +covered with glory." + +But now, with the arrival of Bugeaud, the war in Africa was changed; +hitherto it had been a mere war of occupation,--a holding of the ground +already French against the attacking Arabs; now it was to be a duel, a +war of devastation; thus only could France hope to tame the +indefatigable Abd-el-Kader, and permanently hold her own. The trouble +was not so much to fight him as to get near enough to fight him; for he +pursued a truly Fabian policy, and being lighter armed, was consequently +swifter than the invaders. Under Marshal Clausel, the French, drawing +with them the heavy wagons and munitions of European warfare, were +obliged to follow the high-roads, and the Arabs could never be taken by +surprise; scouts gave information of their numbers, and after harassing +marches they would find that the foe had either retreated to unknown +fastnesses or assembled on the spot in prodigious force. Now Lamoriciere +proposed a plan, in the execution of which he was eminently successful. +Bugeaud's design was, to follow the Arabs into the desert, to climb the +steep mountains, to plunge into their chasms, to storm every hill-fort, +and to drive, step by step, the swift Abd-el-Kader far from the land +which his presence so troubled; but how? for swift troops are +light-armed, carry no luggage, and but little provision; and to follow +without food the Arabs who concealed food in _silos_, _caches_ in the +ground, seemed hopeless. Lamoriciere required but his Zouaves, who +carried only four days' provisions, and no baggage of any sort; when +they drew near any of these _silos_, which were always, of course, in +the vicinity of the deserted villages, he spread out his troops in a +long crescent, and they advanced slowly, rooting up the ground with +their bayonets till some one struck on the stone or pebbles covering the +precious deposit. Thus, without wagons, trained to tireless activity, +they could follow the Arabs from _douar_ to _douar_ with little delay, +and with fatal effect. + +Great reinforcements were sent to Africa, and the Zouaves were not +forgotten; for, in the royal ordinance of September 8th, 1841, the +regiment was raised to three battalions of nine companies; only one of +the nine, however, could receive natives, so that but three native +companies now existed, and few Algerines were found even in these. The +reasons seem to have been threefold: first, the danger from mutiny; +second, the evils arising from the mixture of the two races, which had +augmented their vices, without a corresponding improvement in their good +qualities; third, and perhaps most important of all, the discontent very +properly felt by the French Zouaves, who were compelled to work at the +trenches, to dig, to plant, etc., while the Mussulmans utterly refused +to take part in this, to their mind, degrading toil. The Gordian knot +was cut, and all difficulty done away, by making the regiment, in +effect, exclusively European. Thus reorganized and reinforced, the +regiment, on receiving the standard sent it by the king, immediately +separated,--one battalion marching for Oran, one for Constantine, while +the other remained at Blidah, in Algeria. + +The year 1842 was full of great results; the new system worked well, +great numbers of tribes laid down their arms and swore fealty to France, +and the provinces were more than nominally in the hands of the French. +Still many of the more distant and powerful tribes held to their +allegiance to the Prophet Sultan. The war gradually took on itself the +form of a civil contest, and mutual animosities gave rise to many +occasions for sanguinary combats; one of these, in the valley of the +Cheliff, September, 1842, lasted unintermittingly for thirty-six hours! +In this battle, and that of Oued Foddah, and, in fact, in almost every +battle of those years, the Zouaves took an honorable part. In mountain +fights, long marches over burning sands, repulses of cavalry, at +Jurjura, Ouarsanis, among the Beni Menasser, at the Smalah, in the +struggles of Bedeau with the Moroccan cavalry, and in the memorable +battle of Isly, they did good service; their history was but a narrative +of brilliant exploits. In many of their hill fights, the deserters of +1839 gave much trouble. In a skirmish, 1844, on the south side of the +Aures, in which Captain Espinasse (died General of Division, Magenta, +June 6th, 1859) was concerned, and wounded four times, an old native +Zouave commanded the Kabyles, and defended their principal position with +much skill. + +In fine, to recount the hundredth part of their deeds,--to make out a +list of their soldiers, sub-officers, or officers who have been since +promoted to high honors,--to trace minutely each step by which they +mounted to their present position, would be to write, not an article, +but a book. In 1842 the natives disappeared finally from their ranks; +the best and bravest soldiers of the African army eagerly sought their +places, attracted by the uniform, the manner of life, the constant +danger and no less constant excitement, the liberty allowed, the glory +ever open to all. As their numbers were decimated by the continual +warfare, the ranks were immediately filled by the descendants of those +brave Gauls who once said, "If the heavens fall, what care we? We will +support them on the points of our lances!" In 1848, the Zouaves received +a large accession from Paris; the _gamins_ of the Revolution were sent +to them in great numbers; out of this unpromising, rebellious material, +some of the finest of these admirable troops have been made. And now, +when the entry into this regiment was longed for by so many, as a +species of promotion, on the 13th of February, 1852, Louis Napoleon, +then President of the Republic, decreed that three regiments of Zouaves +be formed, each on one of the three battalions as a nucleus, taking the +number of the battalion as its own. Thus the first regiment was formed +at Blidah, in Algiers; the second at Oran, in Oran; the third at +Constantine, in the province of Constantine. Officers of the corps of +infantry were eligible to the new regiments, holding the same grade; the +men were to be drawn from any infantry corps in the army, on their own +application, if the Minister of War saw proper. None were accepted but +men physically and morally in excellent condition; the officers had, for +the most part, already served with credit; the under-officers and +soldiers had been many years in the service; and even many corporals, +and not a few ensigns and lieutenants, voluntarily relinquished their +positions to serve in the rank-and-file of the new corps. So, occupied +in pacificating and securing the three provinces, the regiments lost +nothing of their former renown; obedient to orders, and fearless of +danger, it was no idle compliment paid them by Louis Napoleon, when, in +the winter of 1853-4, be said, "If the war break out, we must show our +Zouaves to the Russians." They were a body trained in the school of a +terrible experience of twenty-four years; they had learned, like the +lion-hunter, Gerard, to take death by the mane, and look into his fiery +eyes without blenching; they were fit for this service, which demanded +the best nerve of the two most powerful nations of the world. What they +did there is known to all; at the battle of the Alma, Marshal St. Arnaud +was unable to repress his admiration, calling them "the bravest soldiers +in the world." All Europe, at first wondering at these strange troops, +with their wild dress, their half-savage manners, and strange method of +warfare, found speedy cause to admire their courage and success; France +was proud of their renown, and they became immensely popular in Paris, +sure proof of their remarkable qualities. Their oddities, their courage, +their imperfect knowledge of the distinctions of _meum_ and _tuum_, +their wondering, childlike simplicity, furnished themes for endless +songs and caricatures; the comedy of "Les Zouaves" met with great +success; and the cant name for them, "Zouzou," is to be heard at any +time in the streets. In 1855, the Fourth Zouaves was created, consisting +of but two battalions, and enrolled in the Imperial Guard; they are +distinguished from the others by wearing a white turban, while that of +the other regiments is green; since the formation of this regiment, no +new corps have been added. The peace with Russia, in 1856, was not peace +for the Zouaves, who returned, desiring nothing better, to Africa, +where, in the continued war, they found congenial employment till the +final submission of the last tribes, July 15, 1857, dissolved the army +of Kabylia, and made them, perforce, peaceful, till the 26th of April of +this year brought them to win fresh laurels on a new field. + +Vague reports, assertions without proof, have been not infrequently +made, to the effect that the Zouaves are in character cruel, dissolute, +and excessively given to hard drinking. That they are absolutely free +from the first charge I shall not attempt to deny; that they are more so +than other men, in like circumstances, there is no proof; there is even +good reason to state the contrary, if we may judge by instances, of +which, for want of space, one shall suffice here. The Zouaves were in +the van of the army, on their march toward the Tell; in their charge was +a large body of prisoners, wounded, and helpless women, old men, and +children, whom they were conducting to the Tell, to restore them to +their homes. The weather was intensely hot, even for Africa; the nearest +well was eleven leagues distant; and the sufferings of the poor people +must have been dreadful indeed. Mothers flung down their infants on the +burning sand, and pressed madly on to save themselves from the most +horrible of deaths; old men and boys sunk exhausted, panting, declaring +they could go no farther. "Then it was," says an eyewitness, "that the +Zouaves behaved like very Sisters of Charity, rather than rough bearded +soldiers; they divided their last morsel with these unfortunates, gave +them drink from their own scanty stores, and, putting their canteens to +the mouths of the dying, revived them with the precious draught. They +raised the screaming infants, overturned and held ewes, that they might +suckle the poor creatures, abandoned in despair by their mothers, and, +in many instances, carried them the whole distance in their arms. At +night they ate nothing, giving their food to the helpless prisoners, +whose lives they thus saved at the risk of their own." If in war they +"imitate the action of the tiger," we have every reason to believe that +in peace they are, to say the least, not less humane than others. + +The author of "Recollections of an Officer" [Footnote: _Souvenirs d'un +Officier du 2me de Zouaves_. Paris, 1859.] sums up the character of the +Zouaves in a few words which clear them from the other two charges, +those of dissoluteness and drunkenness. He says,--"Beside the condition +of success resulting from the first organization, it must be said, that, +somewhat later, the happy idea came to be adopted, of giving to the +Zouaves destined to fight in the light-armed troops the costume of +_Chasseurs-a-pied_. The recruitment added also not a little to the +reputation which the Zouaves so rapidly acquired; the soldiers are all +drawn, not from conscripts, but from applicants for the service. Many +are Parisians, or, at all events, inhabitants of the other great French +cities; most have already served,--are therefore inured to the +work,--accustomed to privations, which they undergo gayly,--to fatigues, +at which they joke,--to dangers in battle, which they treat as mere +play. They are proud of their uniform, which does not resemble that of +any other corps,--proud of that name, _Zouave_, of mysterious +origin,--proud of the splendid actions with which each succeeding day +enriches the history of their troops,--happy in the liberty they +experience, both in garrison and on expeditions. It is said that the +Zouaves love wine; it is true; but they are rarely seen intoxicated; +they seek the pleasures of conviviality, not the imbrutement of +drunkenness. These regiments count in their ranks officers, who, +_ennuied_ by a lazy life, have taken up the musket and the +_chechia_,--under-officers, who, having already served, brave, even +rash, seek to win their epaulettes anew in this hard service, and gain +either a glorious position or a glorious death,--old officers of the +_garde mobile_,--broad-shouldered marines, who have served their time on +shipboard, accustomed to cannon and the thunderings of the +tempest,--young men of family, desirous to replace with the red ribbon +of the Legion of Honor, bought and colored with their blood, the +dishonor of a life gaped wearily away on the pavements of Paris. + +"Composed of such elements, one can scarcely imagine the body of Zouaves +other than brilliant in the field of battle. The officers are generally +chosen from the regiments of the line, men remarkable for strength, +courage, and prudence; full of energy, pushing the love of their colors +to its last limit, always ready to confront death and to run up to meet +danger, they seek glory rather than promotion. To train up their +soldiers, to give them an example, in their own persons, of all the +military virtues,--such are their only cares. Our ancestors said, +'_Noblesse, oblige_'; these choose the same motto. _Their_ nobility is +not that of old family-titles, but the uniform in which they are +clothed, the title of officer of Zouaves. _Esprit de corps_, that +religion of the soldier, is carried by the Zouaves to its highest pitch; +the common soldiers would not consent to change their turban for the +epaulettes of an ensign in the other service; and many an ensign, and +not a few captains, have preferred to await their advancement in the +Zouaves rather than immediately obtain it by entering other regiments. +There exists, moreover, between the soldiers and officers, a military +fraternity, which, far from destroying discipline, tends rather to draw +more closely its bonds. The officer sees in his men rather companions in +danger and in glory than inferiors; he willingly attends to their +complaints, and strives to spare them all unnecessary privations. Where +they are exposed to difficulties, he does not hesitate to employ all the +means in his power to aid them. In return, the soldier professes for his +officer an affection, a devotion, a sort of filial respect. Discipline, +he knows, must be severe, and he does not grumble at its penalties. In +battle, he does not abandon his chief; he watches over him, will die for +his safety, will not let him fall into the hands of the enemy if +wounded. At the bivouac he makes the officer's fire, though his own +should die for want of fuel; cares for his horse, arranges his +furniture; if any delicacy in the way of food can be procured, he brings +it to the chief. Convinced of the desire of their master that the +soldiers shall be well fed, the Zouaves often insist that a part of +their pay be expended for procuring the provisions of the tribe. +[Footnote: In accordance with Arab customs, the Zouaves, who (to use the +ordinary expression) "live in common," compose a circle to which they +give the name of _tribe_. In the tribe, each one has his allotted task: +one attends to making the fires and procuring wood; another draws water +and does the cooking; another makes the coffee and arranges the camp, +etc.] The colonel is the man most venerated by these soldiers, who look +upon him as the father of the family. They are proud of the colonel's +success, and happy to have contributed to his honor or advancement. When +an order comes directly from him, be sure it will be religiously obeyed. +'When _papa_ says anything,' they repeat, one to another, 'it must be +done. Papa knows it is _already_ done; be wants us to be the best +children possible.' In critical moments, the colonel can use the +severest Draconian code, without having anything to fear from the +disapprobation of his men." + + + + +MY PSALM. + + + I mourn no more my vanished years: + Beneath a tender rain, + An April rain of smiles and tears, + My heart is young again. + + The west winds blow, and, singing low, + I hear the glad streams run; + The windows of my soul I throw + Wide open to the sun. + + No longer forward nor behind + I look in hope or fear; + But, grateful, take the good I find, + The best of now and here. + + I plough no more a desert land, + To harvest weed and tare; + The manna dropping from God's hand + Rebukes my painful care. + + I break my pilgrim staff, I lay + Aside the toiling oar; + The angel sought so far away + I welcome at my door. + + The airs of Spring may never play + Among the ripening corn, + Nor freshness of the flowers of May + Blow through the Autumn morn;-- + + Yet shall the blue-eyed gentian look + Through fringed lids to heaven, + And the pale aster in the brook + Shall see its image given;-- + + The woods shall wear their robes of praise, + The south wind softly sigh, + And sweet, calm days in golden haze + Melt down the amber sky. + + Not less shall manly deed and word + Rebuke an age of wrong; + The graven flowers that wreathe the sword + Make not the blade less strong. + + But smiting hands shall learn to heal, + To build as to destroy; + Nor less my heart for others feel + That I the more enjoy. + + All as God wills, who wisely heeds + To give or to withhold, + And knoweth more of all my needs + Than all my prayers have told! + + Enough that blessings undeserved + Have marked my erring track,-- + That, wheresoe'er my feet have swerved, + His chastening turned me back,-- + + That more and more a Providence + Of love is understood, + Making the springs of time and sense + Sweet with eternal good,-- + + That death seems but a covered way + Which opens into light, + Wherein no blinded child can stray + Beyond the Father's sight,-- + + That care and trial seem at last, + Through Memory's sunset air, + Like mountain-ranges overpast, + In purple distance fair,-- + + That all the jarring notes of life + Seem blending in a psalm, + And all the angles of its strife + Slow rounding into calm. + + And so the shadows fall apart, + And so the west winds play; + And all the windows of my heart + I open to the day! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +There has been a sort of stillness in the atmosphere of our +boarding-house since my last record, as if something or other were going +on. There is no particular change that I can think of in the aspect of +things; yet I have a feeling as if some game of life were quietly +playing and strange forces were at work, underneath this smooth surface +of every-day boarding-house life, which would show themselves some fine +morning or other in events, if not in catastrophes. I have been +watchful, as I said I should be, but have little to tell as yet. You may +laugh at me, and very likely think me foolishly fanciful to trouble +myself about what is going on in a middling-class household like ours. +Do as you like. But here is that terrible fact to begin with,--a +beautiful young girl, with the blood and the nerve-fibre that belong to +Nature's women, turned loose among live men. + +--_Terrible_ fact? + +Very terrible. Nothing more so. Do you forget the angels who lost heaven +for the daughters of men? Do you forget Helen, and the fair women who +made mischief and set nations by the ears before Helen was born? If +jealousies that gnaw men's hearts out of their bodies,--if pangs that +waste men to shadows and drive them into raving madness or moping +melancholy,--if assassination and suicide are dreadful possibilities, +then there is always something frightful about a lovely young woman.--I +love to look at this "Rainbow," as her father used sometimes to call +her, of ours. Handsome creature that she is in forms and colors,--the +very picture, as it seems to me, of that "golden blonde" my friend whose +book you read last year fell in love with when he was a boy, (as you +remember, no doubt,)--handsome as she is, fit for a sea-king's bride, it +is not her beauty alone that holds my eyes upon her. Let me tell you one +of my fancies, and then you will understand the strange sort of +fascination she has for me. + +It is in the hearts of many men and women--let me add children--that +there is a _Great Secret_ waiting for them,--a secret of which they get +hints now and then, perhaps oftener in early than in later years. These +hints come sometimes in dreams, sometimes in sudden startling +flashes,--second wakings, as it were,--a waking out of the waking state, +which last is very apt to be a half-sleep. I have many times stopped +short and held my breath, and felt the blood leaving my cheeks, in one +of these sudden clairvoyant flashes. Of course I cannot tell what kind +of a secret this is; but I think of it as a disclosure of certain +relations of our personal being to time and space, to other +intelligences, to the procession of events, and to their First Great +Cause. This secret seems to be broken up, as it were, into fragments, so +that we find here a word and there a syllable, and then again only a +letter of it; but it never is written out for most of us as a complete +sentence, in this life. I do not think it could be; for I am disposed to +consider our beliefs about such a possible disclosure rather as a kind +of premonition of an enlargement of our faculties in some future state +than as an expectation to be fulfilled for most of us in this life. +Persons, however, have fallen into trances,--as did the Reverend William +Tennent, among many others,--and learned some things which they could +not tell in our human words. + +Now among the visible objects which hint to us fragments of this +infinite secret for--which our souls are waiting, the faces of women are +those that carry the most legible hieroglyphics of the great mystery. +There are women's faces, some real, some ideal, which contain something +in them that becomes a positive element in our creed, so direct and +palpable a revelation is it of the infinite purity and love. I remember +two faces of women with wings, such as they call angels, of Fra +Angelico,--and I just now came across a print of Raphael's Santa +Apollina, with something of the same quality,--which I was sure had +their prototypes in the world above ours. No wonder the Catholics pay +their vows to the Queen of Heaven! The unpoetical side of Protestantism +is, that it has no women to be worshipped. + +But mind you, it is not every beautiful face that hints the Great Secret +to us, nor is it only in beautiful faces that we find traces of it. +Sometimes it looks out from a sweet sad eye, the only beauty of a plain +countenance; sometimes there is so much meaning in the lips of a woman, +not otherwise fascinating, that we know they have a message for us, and +wait almost with awe to hear their accents. But this young girl has at +once the beauty of feature and the unspoken mystery of expression. Can +she tell me anything? Is her life a complement of mine, with the missing +element in it which I have been groping after through so many +friendships that I have tired of, and through--Hush! Is the door fast? +Talking loud is a bad trick in these curious boarding-houses. + +You must have sometimes noted this fact that I am going to remind you of +and to use for a special illustration. Riding along over a rocky road, +suddenly the slow monotonous grinding of the crushing gravel changes to +a deep heavy rumble. There is a great hollow under your feet,--a huge +unsunned cavern. Deep, deep beneath you, in the core of the living rock, +it arches its awful vault, and far away it stretches its winding +galleries, their roofs dripping into streams where fishes have been +swimming and spawning in the dark until their scales are white as milk +and their eyes have withered out, obsolete and useless. + +So it is in life. We jog quietly along, meeting the same faces, grinding +over the same thoughts,--the gravel of the soul's highway,--now and then +jarred against an obstacle we cannot crush, but must ride over or round +as we best may, sometimes bringing short up against a disappointment, +but still working along with the creaking and rattling and grating and +jerking that belong to the journey of life, even in the +smoothest-rolling vehicle. Suddenly we hear the deep underground +reverberation that reveals the unsuspected depth of some abyss of +thought or passion beneath us.---- + +I wish the girl would go. I don't like to look at her so much, and yet I +cannot help it. Always that same expression of something that I ought to +know,--something that she was made to tell and I to hear,--lying there +ready to fall off from her lips, ready to leap out of her eyes and make +a saint of me, or a devil or a lunatic, or perhaps a prophet to tell the +truth and be hated of men, or a poet whose words shall flash upon the +dry stubble-field of worn-out thoughts and burn over an age of lies in +an hour of passion. + +It suddenly occurs to me that I may have put you on the wrong track. The +Great Secret that I refer to has nothing to do with the Three Words. Set +your mind at ease about that,--there are reasons I could give you which +settle all that matter. I don't wonder, however, that you confounded the +Great Secret with the Three Words. + +I LOVE YOU is all the secret that many, nay, most women have to tell. +When that is said, they are like China-crackers on the morning of the +fifth of July. And just as that little patriotic implement is made with +a slender train which leads to the magazine in its interior, so a sharp +eye can almost always see the train leading from a young girl's eye or +lip to the "I love you" in her heart. But the Three Words are not the +Great Secret I mean. No, women's faces are only one of the tablets on +which that is written in its partial, fragmentary symbols. It lies +deeper than Love, though very probably Love is a part of it. Some, I +think,--Wordsworth might be one of them,--spell out a portion of it from +certain beautiful natural objects, landscapes, flowers, and others. I +can mention several poems of his that have shadowy hints which seem to +me to come near the region where I think it lies. I have known two +persons who pursued it with the passion of the old alchemists,--all +wrong evidently, but infatuated, and never giving up the daily search +for it until they got tremulous and feeble, and their dreams changed to +visions of things that ran and crawled about their floor and ceilings, +and so they died. The vulgar called them drunkards. + +I told you that I would let you know the mystery of the effect this +young girl's face produces on me. It is akin to those influences a +friend of mine has described, you may remember, as coming from certain +voices. I cannot translate it into words,--only into feelings; and these +I have attempted to shadow by showing that her face hinted that +revelation of something we are close to knowing, which all imaginative +persons are looking for either in this world or on the very threshold of +the next. + +You shake your head at the vagueness and fanciful incomprehensibleness +of my description of the expression in a young girl's face. You forget +what a miserable surface-matter this language is in which we try to +reproduce our interior state of being. Articulation is a shallow trick. +From the light Poh! which we toss off from our lips as we fling a +nameless scribbler's impertinences into our waste-baskets, to the +gravest utterance which comes from our throats in our moments of deepest +need, is only a space of some three or four inches. Words, which are a +set of clickings, hissings, lispings, and so on, mean very little, +compared to tones and expression of the features. I give it up; I +thought I could shadow forth in some feeble way, by their aid, the +effect this young girl's face produces on my imagination; but it is of +no use. No doubt your head aches, trying to make something of my +description. If there is here and there one that can make anything +intelligible out of my talk about the Great Secret, and who has spelt +out a syllable or two of it on some woman's face, dead or living, that +is all I can expect. One should see the person with whom he converses +about such matters. There are dreamy-eyed people to whom I should say +all these things with a certainty of being understood;-- + + That moment that his face I see, + I know the man that must hear me: + To him my tale I teach. + +----I am afraid some of them have not got a spare quarter for this +August number, so that they will never see it. + +----Let us start again, just as if we had not made this ambitious +attempt, which may go for nothing, and you can have your money refunded, +if you will make the change. + +This young girl, about whom I have talked so unintelligibly, is the +unconscious centre of attraction to the whole solar system of our +breakfast-table. The little gentleman, leans towards her, and she again +seems to be swayed as by some invisible gentle force towards him. That +slight inclination of two persons with a strong affinity towards each +other, throwing them a little out of plumb when they sit side by side, +is a physical fact I have often noticed. Then there is a tendency in all +the men's eyes to converge on her; and I do firmly believe, that, if all +their chairs were examined, they would be found a little obliquely +placed, so as to favor the direction in which their occupants love to +look. + +That bland, quiet old gentleman, of whom I have spoken as sitting +opposite to me, is no exception to the rule. She brought down some +mignonette one morning, which she had grown in her chamber. She gave a +sprig to her little neighbor, and one to the landlady, and sent another +by the hand of Bridget to this old gentleman. + +----Sarvant, Ma'am! Much obleeged,--he said, and put it gallantly in his +button-hole.--After breakfast he must see some of her drawings. Very +fine performances,--very fine!--truly elegant productions,--truly +elegant!--Had seen Miss Linley's needle-work in London, in the year +(eighteen hundred and little or nothing, I think he said,)--patronized +by the nobility and gentry, and Her Majesty,--elegant, truly elegant +productions, very fine performances; these drawings reminded him of +them;--wonderful resemblance to Nature; an extraordinary art, painting; +Mr. Copley made some very fine pictures that he remembered seeing when +he was a boy. Used to remember some lines about a portrait written by +Mr. Cowper, beginning,-- + + "Oh that those lips had language! Life has past + With me but roughly since I saw thee last." + +And with this the old gentleman fell to thinking about a dead mother of +his that he remembered ever so much younger than he now was, and +looking, not as his mother, but as his daughter should look. The dead +young mother was looking at the old man, her child, as she used to look +at him so many, many years ago. He stood still as if cataleptic, his +eyes fixed on the drawings till their outlines grew indistinct and they +ran into each other, and a pale, sweet face shaped itself out of the +glimmering light through which he saw them.--What is there quite so +profoundly human as an old man's memory of a mother who died in his +earlier years? Mother she remains till manhood, and by-and-by she grows, +as it were, to be as a sister; and at last, when, wrinkled and bowed and +broken, he looks back upon her in her fair youth, he sees in the sweet +image he caresses, not his parent, but, as it were, his child. + +If I had not seen all this in the old gentleman's face, the words with +which he broke his silence would have betrayed his train of thought. + +----If they had only taken pictures then as they do now!--he said.--All +gone! all gone! nothing but her face as she leaned on the arms of her +great chair; and I would give a hundred pound for the poorest little +picture of her, such as you can buy for a shilling of anybody that you +don't want to see.--The old gentleman put his hand to his forehead so as +to shade his eyes. I saw he was looking at the dim photograph of memory, +and turned from him to Iris. + +How many drawing-books have you filled,--I said,--since you began to +take lessons?--This was the first,--she answered,--since she was here; +and it was not full, but there were many separate sheets of large size +she had covered with drawings. + +I turned over the leaves of the book before us. Academic studies, +principally of the human figure. Heads of sibyls, prophets, and so +forth. Limbs from statues. Hands and feet from Nature. What a superb +drawing of an arm! I don't remember it among the figures from Michel +Angelo, which seem to have been her patterns mainly. From Nature, I +think, or after a cast from Nature.--Oh!---- + +----Your smaller studies are in this, I suppose,--I said, taking up the +drawing-book with a lock on it.----Yes,--she said.--I should like to see +her style of working on a small scale.--There was nothing in it worth +showing,--she said; and presently I saw her try the lock, which proved +to be fast. We are all caricatured in it, I haven't the least doubt. I +think, though, I could tell by her way of dealing with us what her +fancies were about us boarders. Some of them act as if they were +bewitched with her, but she does not seem to notice it much. Her +thoughts seem to be on her little neighbor more than on anybody else. +The young fellow John appears to stand second in her good graces. I +think he has once or twice sent her what the landlady's daughter calls +bo-kays of flowers,--somebody has, at any rate.--I saw a book she had, +which must have come from the divinity-student. It had a dreary +title-page, which she had enlivened with a fancy portrait of the +author,--a face from memory, apparently,--one of those faces that small +children loathe without knowing why, and which give them that inward +disgust for heaven so many of the little wretches betray, when they hear +that these are "good men," and that heaven is full of such.--The +gentleman with the "diamond"--the Koh-i-noor, so called by us--was not +encouraged, I think, by the reception of his packet of perfumed soap. He +pulls his purple moustache and looks appreciatingly at Iris, who never +sees him, as it should seem. The young Marylander, who I thought would +have been in love with her before this time, sometimes looks from his +corner across the long diagonal of the table, as much as to say, I wish +you were up here by me, or I were down there by you,--which would, +perhaps, be a more natural arrangement than the present one. But nothing +comes of all this,--and nothing has come of my sagacious idea of finding +out the girl's fancies by looking into her locked drawing-book. + +Not to give up all the questions I was determined to solve, I made an +attempt also to work into the little gentleman's chamber. For this +purpose, I kept him in conversation, one morning, until he was just +ready to go up-stairs, and then, as if to continue the talk, followed +him as he toiled back to his room. He rested on the landing and faced +round toward me. There was something in his eye which said, Stop there! +So we finished our conversation on the landing. The next day, I mustered +assurance enough to knock at his door, having a pretext ready.--No +answer.--Knock again. A door, as if of a cabinet, was shut softly and +locked, and presently I heard the peculiar dead beat of his thick-soled, +misshapen boots. The bolts and the lock of the inner door were +unfastened,--with unnecessary noise, I thought,--and he came into the +passage. He pulled the inner door after him and opened the outer one at +which I stood. He had on a flowered silk dressing-gown, such as "Mr. +Copley" used to paint his old-fashioned merchant-princes in; and a +quaint-looking key in his hand. Our conversation was short, but long +enough to convince me that the little gentleman did not want my company +in his chamber, and did not mean to have it. + +I have been making a great fuss about what is no mystery at all,--a +schoolgirl's secrets and a whimsical man's habits. I mean to give up +such nonsense and mind my own business.--Hark! What the deuse is that +odd noise in his chamber? + +----I think I am a little superstitious. There were two things, when I +was a boy, that diabolized my imagination,--I mean, that gave me a +distinct apprehension of a formidable bodily shape which prowled round +the neighborhood where I was born and bred. The first was a series of +marks called the "Devil's footsteps." These were patches of sand in the +pastures, where no grass grew, where even the low-bush blackberry, the +"dewberry," as our Southern neighbors call it, in prettier and more +Shakspearian language, did not spread its clinging creepers,--where even +the pale, dry, sadly-sweet "everlasting" could not grow, but all was +bare and blasted. The second was a mark in one of the public buildings +near my home,--the college dormitory named after a Colonial Governor. I +do not think many persons are aware of the existence of this +mark,--little having been said about the story in print, as it was +considered very desirable, for the sake of the institution, to hush it +up. In the northwest corner, and on the level of the third or fourth +story, there are signs of a breach in the walls, mended pretty well, but +not to be mistaken. A considerable portion of that corner must have been +carried away, from within outward. It was an unpleasant story; and I do +not care to repeat the particulars; but some young men had been using +sacred things in a profane and unlawful way, when the occurrence, which +was variously explained, took place. The story of the Appearance in the +chamber was, I suppose, invented afterwards; but of the injury to the +building there could be no question; and the zig-zag line, where the +mortar is a little thicker than before, is still distinctly visible. The +queer burnt spots, called the "Devil's footsteps," had never attracted +attention before this time, though there is no evidence that they had +not existed previously, except that of the late Miss M., a "Goody," so +called, or sweeper, who was positive on the subject, but had a strange +horror of referring to an affair of which she was thought to know +something.--I tell you it was not so pleasant for a little boy of +impressible nature to go up to bed in an old gambrel-roofed house, with +untenanted, locked upper-chambers, and a most ghostly garret,--with the +"Devil's footsteps" in the fields behind the house, and in front of it +the patched dormitory where the unexplained occurrence had taken place +which startled those godless youths at their mock devotions, so that one +of them was an idiot from that day forward, and another, after a +dreadful season of mental conflict, took holy orders and became renowned +for his ascetic sanctity. + +There were other circumstances that kept up the impression produced by +these two singular facts I have just mentioned. There was a dark +storeroom, on looking through the keyhole of which, I could dimly see a +heap of chairs and tables, and other four-footed things, which seemed to +me to have rushed in there, frightened, and in their fright to have +huddled together and climbed up on each other's backs,--as the people +did in that awful crush where so many were killed, at the execution of +Holloway and Haggerty. Then the Lady's portrait, up-stairs, with the +sword-thrusts through it,--marks of the British officers' rapiers,--and +the tall mirror in which they used to look at their red coats,--confound +them for smashing its mate!--and the deep, cunningly wrought arm-chair +in which Lord Percy used to sit while his hair was dressing;--he was a +gentleman, and always had it covered with a large _peignoir_, to save +the silk covering my grandmother embroidered. Then the little room +down-stairs, from which went the orders to throw up a bank of earth on +the hill yonder, where you may now observe a granite obelisk,--"the +study," in my father's time, but in those days the council-chamber of +armed men,--sometimes filled with soldiers;--come with me, and I will +show you the "dents" left by the butts of their muskets all over the +floor.--With all these suggestive objects round me, aided by the wild +stories those awful country-boys that came to live in our service +brought with them,--of contracts written in blood and left out over +night, not to be found the next morning,--removed by the Evil One, who +takes his nightly round among our dwellings, and filed away for future +use,--of dreams coming true,--of death-signs,--of apparitions,--no +wonder that my imagination got excited, and I was liable to +superstitious fancies. + +Jeremy Bentham's logic, by which he proved that he couldn't possibly see +a ghost, is all very well--in the day-time. All the reason in the world +will never get those impressions of childhood, created by just such +circumstances as I have been telling, out of a man's head. That is the +only excuse I have to give for the nervous kind of curiosity with which +I watch my little neighbor, and the obstinacy with which I lie awake +whenever I hear anything going on in his chamber after midnight. + +But whatever further observations I may have made must be deferred for +the present. You will see in what way it happened that my thoughts were +turned from spiritual matters to bodily ones, and how I got my fancy +full of material images,--faces, heads, figures, muscles, and so +forth,--in such a way that I should have no chance in this number to +gratify any curiosity you may feel, if I had the means of so doing. + +Indeed, I have come pretty near omitting my periodical record this time. +It was all the work of a friend of mine, who would have it that I should +sit to him for my portrait. When a soul draws a body in the great +lottery of life, where every one is sure of a prize, such as it is, the +said soul inspects the said body with the same curious interest with +which one who has ventured into a "gift enterprise" examines the +"massive silver pencil-case" with the coppery smell and impressible +tube, or the "splendid gold ring" with the questionable specific +gravity, which it has been his fortune to obtain in addition to his +purchase. + +The soul, having studied the article of which it finds itself +proprietor, thinks, after a time, it knows it pretty well. But there is +this difference between its view and that of a person looking at us:--we +look from within, and see nothing but the mould formed by the elements +in which we are incased; other observers look from without, and see us +as living statues. To be sure, by the aid of mirrors, we get a few +glimpses of our outside aspect; but this occasional impression is always +modified by that look of the soul from within outward which none but +ourselves can take. A portrait is apt, therefore, to be a surprise to +us. The artist looks only from without. He sees us, too, with a hundred +aspects on our faces we are never likely to see. No genuine expression +can be studied by the subject of it in the looking-glass. + +More than this; he sees us in a way in which many of our friends or +acquaintances never see us. Without wearing any mask we are conscious +of, we have a special face for each friend. For, in the first place, +each puts a special reflection of himself upon us, on the principle of +assimilation referred to in my last record, if you happen to have read +that document. And secondly, each of our friends is capable of seeing +just so far, and no farther, into our face, and each sees in it the +particular thing that he looks for. Now the artist, if he is truly an +artist, does not take any one of these special views. Suppose he should +copy you as you appear to the man who wants your name to a +subscription-list, you could hardly expect a friend who entertains you +to recognize the likeness to the smiling face which sheds its radiance +at his board. Even within your own family, I am afraid there is a face +which the rich uncle knows, that is not so familiar to the poor +relation. The artist must take one or the other, or something compounded +of the two, or something different from either. What the daguerreotype +and photograph do is to give the features and one particular look, the +very look which kills all expression, that of self-consciousness. The +artist throws you off your guard, watches you in movement and in repose, +puts your face through its exercises, observes its transitions, and so +gets the whole range of its expression. Out of all this he forms an +ideal portrait, which is not a copy of your exact look at any one time +or to any particular person. Such a portrait cannot be to everybody what +the ungloved call "as nat'ral as life." Every good picture, therefore, +must be considered wanting in resemblance by many persons. + +There is one strange revelation which comes out, as the artist shapes +your features from his outline. It is that you resemble so many +relatives to whom you yourself never had noticed any particular likeness +in your countenance. + +He is at work at me now, when I catch some of these resemblances, +thus:-- + +There! that is just the look my father used to have sometimes; I never +thought I had a sign of it. The mother's eyebrow and grayish-blue eye, +those I knew I had. But there is a something which recalls a smile that +faded away from my sister's lips--how many years ago! I thought it so +pleasant in her, that I love myself better for having a trace of it. + +Are we not young? Are we not fresh and blooming? Wait a bit. The artist +takes a mean little brush and draws three fine lines, diverging outwards +from the eye over the temple. Five years.--The artist draws one +tolerably distinct and two faint lines, perpendicularly between the +eyebrows. Ten years.--The artist breaks up the contours round the mouth, +so that they look a little as a hat does that has been sat upon and +recovered itself, ready, as one would say, to crumple up again in the +same creases, on smiling or other change of feature.--Hold on! Stop +that! Give a young fellow a chance! Are we not whole years short of that +interesting period of life when Mr. Balzac says that a man, etc., etc., +etc.? + +There now! That is ourself, as we look after finishing an article, +getting a three-mile pull with the ten-foot sculls, redressing the +wrongs of the toilet, and standing with the light of hope in our eye and +the reflection of a red curtain on our cheek. Is he not a POET that +painted us? + + "Blest be the art that can immortalize!" + +COWPER + +----Young folks look on a face as a unit; children who go to school with +any given little John Smith see in his name a distinctive appellation, +and in his features as special and definite an expression of his sole +individuality as if he were the first created of his race. As soon as we +are old enough to get the range of three or four generations well in +hand, and to take in large family histories, we never see an individual +in a face of any stock we know, but a mosaic copy of a pattern, with +fragmentary tints from this and that ancestor. The analysis of a face +into its ancestral elements requires that it should be examined in the +very earliest infancy, before it has lost that ancient and solemn look +it brings with it out of the past eternity; and again in that brief +space when Life, the mighty sculptor, has done his work, and Death, his +silent servant, lifts the veil and lets us look at the marble lines he +has wrought so faithfully; and lastly, while a painter who can seize all +the traits of a countenance is building it up, feature after feature, +from the slight outline to the finished portrait. + +----I am satisfied, that, as we grow older, we learn to look upon our +bodies more and more as a temporary possession, and less and less as +identified with ourselves. In early years, while the child "feels its +life in every limb," it lives in the body and for the body to a very +great extent. It ought to be so. There have been many very interesting +children who have shown a wonderful indifference to the things of earth +and an extraordinary development of the spiritual nature. There is a +perfect literature of their biographies, all alike in their essentials; +the same "disinclination to the usual amusements of childhood"; the same +remarkable sensibility; the same docility; the same conscientiousness; +in short, an almost uniform character, marked by beautiful traits, which +we look at with a painful admiration. It will be found that most of +these children are the subjects of some constitutional unfitness for +living, the most frequent of which I need not mention. They are like the +beautiful, blushing, half-grown fruit that falls before its time because +its core is gnawed out. They have their meaning,--they do not live in +vain,--but they are windfalls. I am convinced that many healthy children +are injured morally by being forced to read too much about these little +meek sufferers and their spiritual exercises. Here is a boy that loves +to run, swim, kick football, turn somersets, make faces, whittle, fish, +tear his clothes, coast, skate, fire crackers, blow squash "tooters," +cut his name on fences, read about Robinson Crusoe and Sinbad the +Sailor, eat the widest-angled slices of pie and untold cakes and +candies, crack nuts with his back teeth and bite out the better part of +another boy's apple with his front ones, turn up coppers, "stick" +knives, call names, throw stones, knock off hats, set mousetraps, chalk +doorsteps, "cut behind" anything on wheels or runners, whistle through +his teeth, "holler" Fire! on slight evidence, run after soldiers, +patronize an engine-company, or, in his own words, "blow for tub No. +11," or whatever it may be;--isn't that a pretty nice sort of a boy, +though he has not got anything the matter with him that takes the taste +of this world out? Now, when you put into such a hot-blooded, +hard-fisted, round-cheeked little rogue's hand a sad-looking volume or +pamphlet, with the portrait of a thin, white-faced child, whose life is +really as much a training for death as the last month of a condemned +criminal's existence, what does he find in common between his own +overflowing and exulting sense of vitality and the experiences of the +doomed offspring of invalid parents? The time comes when we have learned +to understand the music of sorrow, the beauty of resigned suffering, the +holy light that plays over the pillow of those who die before their +time, in humble hope and trust. But it is not until he has worked his +way through the period of honest, hearty animal existence, which every +robust, child should make the most of,--not until he has learned the use +of his various faculties, which is his first duty,--that a boy of +courage and animal vigor is in a proper state to read these tearful +records of premature decay. I have no doubt that disgust is implanted in +the minds of many healthy children by early surfeits of pathological +piety. I do verily believe that He who took children in His arms and +blessed them loved the healthiest and most playful of them just as well +as those who were richest in the tuberculous virtues. I know what I am +talking about, and there are more parents in this country who will be +willing to listen to what I say than there are fools to pick a quarrel +with me. In the sensibility and the sanctity which often accompany +premature decay I see one of the most beautiful instances of the +principle of compensation which marks the Divine benevolence. But to get +the spiritual hygiene of robust natures out of the exceptional regimen +of invalids is just simply what we Professors call "bad practice"; and I +know by experience that there are worthy people who not only try it on +their own children, but actually force it on those of their neighbors. + +----Having been photographed, and stereographed, and chromatographed, or +done in colors, it only remained to be phrenologized. A polite note from +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane, requesting our attendance at their +Physiological Emporium, was too tempting to be resisted. We repaired to +that scientific Golgotha. + +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane are arranged on the plan of the man and the +woman in the toy called a "weather-house," both on the same wooden arm +suspended on a pivot,--so that when one comes to the door, the other +retires backwards, and _vice versa_. The more particular speciality of +one is to lubricate your entrance and exit,--that of the other to polish +you off phrenologically in the recesses of the establishment. Suppose +yourself in a room full of casts and pictures, before a counter-full of +books with taking titles. I wonder if the picture of the brain is there, +"approved" by a noted Phrenologist, which was copied from _my_, the +Professor's, folio plate in the work of Gall and Spurzheim. An extra +convolution, No. 9, _Destructiveness_, according to the list beneath, +which was not to be seen in the plate, itself a copy of Nature, was very +liberally supplied by the artist, to meet the wants of the catalogue of +"organs." Professor Bumpus is seated in front of a row of +women,--horn-combers and gold-beaders, or somewhere about that range of +life,--looking so credulous, that, if any Second-Advent Miller or Joe +Smith should come along, he could string the whole lot of them on his +cheapest lie, as a boy strings a dozen "shiners" on a stripped twig of +willow. + +The Professor (meaning ourselves) is in a hurry, as usual; let the +horn-combers wait,--he shall be bumped without inspecting the +antechamber. + +Tape round the head,--22 inches. (Come on, old 23 inches, if you think +you are the better man!) + +Feels of thorax and arm, and nuzzles round among muscles as those horrid +old women poke their fingers into the salt-meat on the provision-stalls +at the Quincy Market. Vitality, No. 5 or 6, or something or other. +_Victuality_, (organ at epigastrium,) some other number equally +significant. + +Mild champooing of head now commences. Extraordinary revelations! +Cupidipbilous, 6! Hymeniphilous, 6+! Paediphilous, 5! Deipniphilous, 6! +Gelasmiphilous, 6! Muslkiphilous, 5! Uraniphilous, 5! Glossiphilous, 8!! +and so on. Meant for a linguist.--Invaluable information. Will invest in +grammars and dictionaries immediately.--I have nothing against the grand +total of my phrenological endowments. + +I never set great store by my head, and did not think Messrs. Bumpus and +Crane would give me so good a lot of organs as they did, especially +considering that I was a _dead_-head on that occasion. Much obliged to +them for their politeness. They have been useful in their way by calling +attention to important physiological facts. (This concession is due to +our immense bump of Candor.) + +_A short Lecture on Phrenology, read to the Boarders at our +Breakfast-Table._ + +I shall begin, my friends, with the definition of a _Pseudo-science_. A +Pseudo-science consists of _a nomenclature_, with a self-adjusting +arrangement, by which all positive evidence, or such as favors its +doctrines, is admitted, and all negative evidence, or such as tells +against it, is excluded. It is invariably connected with some lucrative +practical application. Its professors and practitioners are usually +shrewd people; they are very serious with the public, but wink and laugh +a good deal among themselves. The believing multitude consists of women +of both sexes, feeble-minded inquirers, poetical optimists, people who +always get cheated in buying horses, philanthropists who insist on +hurrying up the millennium, and others of this class, with here and +there a clergyman, less frequently a lawyer, very rarely a physician, +and almost never a horse-jockey or a member of the detective police.--I +did not say that Phrenology was one of the Pseudo-sciences. + +A Pseudo-science does not necessarily consist wholly of lies. It may +contain many truths, and even valuable ones. The rottenest bank starts +with a little specie. It puts out a thousand promises to pay on the +strength of a single dollar, but the dollar is very commonly a good one. +The practitioners of the Pseudo-sciences know that common minds, after +they have been baited with a real fact or two, will jump at the merest +rag of a lie, or even at the bare hook. When we have one fact found us, +we are very apt to supply the next out of our own imagination. (How many +persons can read Judges xv. 16 correctly the first time?) The +Pseudo-sciences take advantage of this.--I did not say that it was so +with Phrenology. + +I have rarely met a sensible man who would not allow that there was +_something_ in Phrenology. A broad, high forehead, it is commonly +agreed, promises intellect; one that is "villanous low" and has a huge +hind-head back of it, is wont to mark an animal nature. I have as rarely +met an unbiassed and sensible man who really believed in the bumps. It +is observed, however, that persons with what the Phrenologists call +"good heads" are more prone than others toward plenary belief in the +doctrine. + +It is so hard to prove a negative, that, if a man should assert that the +moon was in truth a green cheese, formed by the coagulable substance of +the Milky Way, and challenge me to prove the contrary, I might be +puzzled. But if he offer to sell me a ton of this lunar cheese, I call +on him to prove the truth of the caseous nature of our satellite, before +I purchase. + +It is not necessary to prove the falsity of the phrenological statement. +It is only necessary to show that its truth is not proved, and cannot +be, by the common course of argument. The walls of the head are double, +with a great air-chamber between them, over the smallest and most +closely crowded "organs." Can you tell how much money there is in a +safe, which also has thick double walls, by kneading its knobs with your +fingers? So when a man fumbles about my forehead, and talks about the +organs of _Individuality_, _Size_, etc., I trust him as much as I should +if he felt of the outside of my strong-box and told me that there was a +five-dollar- or a ten-dollar-bill under this or that particular rivet. +Perhaps there is; _only he doesn't know anything about it_. But this is +a point that I, the Professor, understand, my friends, or ought to, +certainly, better than you do. The next argument you will all +appreciate. + +I proceed, therefore, to explain the self-adjusting mechanism of +Phrenology, which is _very similar_ to that of the Pseudo-sciences. An +example will show it most conveniently. + +A. is a notorious thief. Messrs. Bumpus and Crane examine him and find a +good-sized organ of Acquisitiveness. Positive fact for Phrenology. Casts +and drawings of A. are multiplied, and the bump _does not lose_ in the +act of copying.--I did not Hay it gained.--What do you look so for? (to +the boarders.) + +Presently B. turns up, a bigger thief than A. But B. has no bump at all +over Acquisitiveness. Negative fact; goes against Phrenology.--Not a bit +of it. Don't you see how small Conscientiousness is? _That's_ the reason +B. stole. + +And then comes C., ten times as much a thief as either A. or B.,--used +to steal before he was weaned, and would pick one of his own pockets and +put its contents in another, if he could find no other way of committing +petty larceny. Unfortunately, C. has a _hollow_, instead of a bump, over +Acquisitiveness. Ah, but just look and see what a bump of +Alimentiveness! Did not C. buy nuts and ginger-bread, when a boy, with +the money he stole? Of course you see why he is a thief, and how his +example confirms our noble science. + +At last comes along a case which is apparently a _settler_, for there is +a little brain with vast and varied powers,--a case like that of Byron, +for instance. Then comes out the grand reserve-reason which covers +everything and renders it simply impossible ever to corner a +Phrenologist. "It is not the size alone, but the _quality_ of an organ, +which determines its degree of power." + +Oh! oh! I see.--The argument may be briefly stated thus by the +Phrenologist: "Heads I win, tails you lose." Well, that's convenient. + +It must be confessed that Phrenology has a certain resemblance to the +Pseudo-sciences. I did not say it was a Pseudo-science. + +I have often met persons who have been altogether struck up and amazed +at the accuracy with which some wandering Professor of Phrenology had +read their characters written upon their skulls. Of course the Professor +acquires his information solely through his cranial inspections and +manipulations.--What are you laughing at? (to the boarders).--But let us +just _suppose_, for a moment, that a tolerably cunning fellow, who did +not know or care anything about Phrenology, should open a shop and +undertake to read off people's characters at fifty cents or a dollar +apiece. Let us see how well he could get along without the "organs." + +I will suppose myself to set up such a shop. I would invest one hundred +dollars, more or less, in casts of brains, skulls, charts, and other +matters that would make the most show for the money. That would do to +begin with. I would then advertise myself as the celebrated Professor +Brainey, or whatever name I might choose, and wait for my first +customer. My first customer is a middle-aged man. I look at him,--ask +him a question or two, so as to hear him talk. When I have got the hang +of him, I ask him to sit down, and proceed to fumble his skull, +dictating as follows:-- + + + SCALE FROM I TO 10. + + LIST OF FACULTIES FOR CUSTOMER. PRIVATE NOTES FOR MY PUPIL: + _Each to be accompanied with a wink._ + + _Amativeness_, 7. Most men love the conflicting sex, and all + men love to be told they do. + + _Alimentiveness_, 8. Don't you see that he has burst off his + lowest waistcoat-button with feeding,--hay? + + _Acquisitiveness_, 8. Of course. A middle-aged Yankee. + + _Approbativeness_, 7+. Hat well brushed. Hair ditto. Mark the + effect of that _plus_ sign. + + _Self-esteem_, 6. His face shows that. + + _Benevolence_, 9. That'll please him + + _Conscientiousness_, 8-1/2. That fraction looks first-rate. + + _Mirthfulness_, 7. Has laughed twice since he came in. + + _Ideality_, 9. That sounds well. + + _Form, Size, Weight, Color, } + Locality, Eventuality, etc.,} 4 to 6. Average everything that + etc.,_ } can't be guessed. + + And so of the other faculties. + + +Of course, you know, that isn't the way the Phrenologists do. They go +only by the bumps.--What do you keep laughing so for? (to the boarders.) +I only said that is the way _I_ should practise "Phrenology" for a +living. + +_End of my Lecture._ + +----The Reformers have good heads generally. Their faces are commonly +serene enough, and they are lambs in private intercourse, even though +their voices may be like + + The wolf's long howl from Oonalaska's shore, + +when heard from platform. Their greatest spiritual danger is from the +perpetual _flattery of abuse_ to which they are exposed. These lines are +meant to caution them. + + + + +SAINT ANTHONY THE REFORMER. + + +HIS TEMPTATION. + + + No fear lest praise should make us proud! + We know how cheaply that is won; + The idle homage of the crowd + Is proof of tasks as idly done. + + A surface-smile may pay the toil + That follows still the conquering Right, + With soft, white hands to dress the spoil + That sunbrowned arms have clutched in fight. + + Sing the sweet song of other days, + Serenely placid, safely true, + And o'er the present's parching ways + Thy verse distils like evening dew. + + But speak in words of living power,-- + They fall like drops of scalding rain + That plashed before the burning shower + swept o'er the cities of the plain! + + Then scowling Hate turns deadly pale,-- + Then Passion's half-coiled adders spring, + And, smitten through their leprous mail, + Strike right and left in hope to sting. + + If thou, unmoved by poisoning wrath, + They feet on earth, they heart above, + Canst walk in peace they kingly path, + Unchanged in trust, unchilled in love,-- + + Too kind for bitter words to grieve, + Too firm for clamor to dismay, + When Faith forbids thee to believe, + And Meekness calls to disobey,-- + + Ah, then beware of mortal pride! + The smiling pride that calmly scorns + Those foolish fingers, crimson dyed + In laboring on thy crown of thorns! + + + + +THE ITALIAN WAR. + + +War has been pronounced the condition of humanity; and it is certain +that conflict of some kind rages everywhere and at all times. The most +combative people on earth are the advocates of universal and perpetual +peace. There is something essentially defiant in the action of men who +avowedly seek the abolition of a custom that has existed since the days +of Cain, and which was well known to those magnificent beasts that +ranged over the earth's face long before man began to dream or was +dreamed of. To fight seems a necessity of the animal nature, whether the +animal be called tiger, bull, or man. Those who have fought assure us +that there is a positive pleasure in battle. That clever young woman, +Miss Flora Mac-Ivor, who passed most of her life in the very highest +fighting society, assures us, that men, when confronted with each other, +have a certain instinct for strife, as we see in other male animals, +such as dogs, bulls, and so forth. It is even so; and, further, the +fondness that men have for accounts and details of battles is another +evidence of the popularity of war, and an absolute stumbling-block in +the way of the Peace Society, which has the hardest of combats to fight. + +The journals of the world are at this time full of the details of a war +such as that world has not witnessed since 1815, and in comparison with +which even the Russian War was but a second-rate contest. The old +quarrel between Austria and France, which has repeatedly caused the +peace of Europe to be broken since the days of Frederick III. and Louis +XI., has been renewed in our time with a fierceness and a vehemence and +on a scale that would have astonished Francis I., Charles V., Richelieu, +Turenne, Conde, Louis XIV., Eugene, and even Napoleon himself, the most +mighty of whose contests with Austria alone cannot be compared with that +which his nephew is now waging with the House of Lorraine. For, in 1805 +and in 1809, Napoleon was not merely the ruler of France, but had at his +control the resources of many other countries. Belgium and Holland were +then at the command of France, and now they are independent monarchies, +holding strictly the position of neutrals. In 1809, Napoleon had those +very German States for his active allies that now threaten Napoleon +III.; and some of the hardest fighting on the French side, in the first +days of the campaign, was the work of Bavarians and other German +soldiers. That part of Poland which then constituted the Grand Duchy of +Warsaw was among his dependent principalities; and Russia sent an army +to his aid. In 1805, Napoleon I. had far more of Italian assistance than +Napoleon III. has had at the time we write; and in 1809, the entire +Peninsula obeyed his decrees as implicitly as they were obeyed by +France. Napoleon III. entered upon the war with the hereditary rival of +his country with no other ally than Sardinia, though it is now evident +that there was an "understanding" between him and the Czar, not pointing +to an attack on England, but to prevent the intervention of the Germans +in behalf of Austria, by holding out the implied threat of an attack on +Germany by Russia, should its rulers or people move against the allies. + +Whatever may be thought of the motives of the French Emperor, and +however little most men may be disposed to believe in his generosity, it +is impossible to refrain from admiring the promptness and skill with +which he has acted, or to deny to him the merit of courage in daring to +pronounce so decidedly against the Austrians at a time when he could not +have reasonably reckoned upon a single ally beyond the limits of Italy, +when England, under Tory rule, was more disposed to act against him than +with him, and when the hostility of Germany, and its readiness to +support the Slavonic empire of Austria, were unequivocally expressed. So +great indeed, were the odds against him, that we find in that fact the +chief reason for the indisposition of the world to believe in the +possibility of war, and its extraordinary surprise when war actually +broke out. + +To those who had closely scanned the affairs of Europe, and who observed +them by the light of the history of nearly four centuries, the coming of +war was no surprise. They foresaw it, and predicted its occurrence some +time before that famous lecture which the Emperor of the French +administered to the Emperor of Austria in the person of Baron Huebner. +With them, the question was not, Shall there be a war?--but it was, When +will the war break out? They reasoned from the _cause_ of the quarrel +between the two empires; while those who so long clung to the belief +that peace would be preserved, and who so plausibly argued in support of +their theory as to impose upon wellnigh the whole world, concerned +themselves only with its _occasion_. The former referred to things that +lay beyond the range of temporary politics, and, while admitting that +the shock of actual conflict might be postponed even for a few years, +were certain that such conflict must come, even if in the interval there +should happen an entire change of government in France. France might be +imperial, or royal, or republican, she might be Bonapartean, or +Henriquist, or Orleansist, or democratic,--tri-color, white, blue or +red,--but the quarrel would come, and cause new campaigns. The latter +thinking that the dispute was on the Italian question only, and knowing +that that was susceptible of diplomatic settlement, and believing that +there would be a union of European powers to accomplish such settlement, +rather than allow peace to be disturbed, never could suppose that the +balance of probabilities would be found on the side of war. It is due to +them to say, that a variety of causes conduced not merely to make them +firm in their faith, but to win for their views the general approbation +on mankind. Prominent among these was the striking fact, that there had +been no European was, strictly so called, with the single exception of +the Russian contest,--and that was highly exceptional in its +character,--for four-and-forty years. The generation that is passing +away, and the generation that is most active in discharging the business +of the world, never had seen a grand conflict between Christian states, +in which mighty armies had operated on vast and various fields. Old men +recollected the wars of Napoleon, but the number of such men is not +large, and their influence on opinion is small. Of quarrels and threats +of war all had seen enough; but this only tended to make them slow to +believe that war was really at hand. If so many quarrels had taken +place, and had been settled without resort to arms, assuredly the new +quarrel might be settled, and Europe get on peaceably for a few years +more without warfare. Neither the invasion of Spain in 1823, nor the +revolution of 1830, nor the Eastern question of 1840, nor the universal +outbreaks of 1848-9, nor the threats of Russia against Turkey when she +sought to compel the Sultan to give up those who had eaten his salt to +the gallows of Arad, nor the repeated discussions of the practicability +of a French conquest of England had led to a general war. If so many and +so black clouds had been dispersed without storms, it was not reasonable +to believe that the cloud which rose in the beginning of 1859 might also +break, and leave again a serene sky. It may be added that we have all of +us come to the conclusion that this is the best age the world has ever +known, as in most respects it is; and it seemed scarcely compatible with +our estimate of the age's excellence to believe that it _could_ send a +couple of million of men into the field for the purpose of cutting one +another's throats, except clearly as an act of self-defence. Man is the +same war-making animal now that he was in the days of Marathon, but he +readily admits the evils of war, and is peremptory in demanding that +they shall not be incurred save for good and valid reasons. He is as +ready to fight as ever he was, but he must fight for some definite +cause,--for a cause that will bear examination: and it did not seem +possible that a mere dispute concerning the manner in which Austria +governed her Italian dominions was of sufficient moment to light up the +flames of war anew on a scale as gigantic as ever they were made to +blaze during the days of Napoleon. Then, so far as the Russian War threw +any light upon the policy of France, the fair inference was that she at +least was not disposed to fight. France made the peace by which that war +was brought to a sudden end. She dictated that peace, much to the +disgust of the English, who had just become thoroughly roused, and who, +little anticipating the Indian mutiny, were for carrying on the contest +until Russia should be thoroughly humiliated. Considering all these +things, it was not unreasonable to believe that peace could be +maintained, and that Austria, far from taking the initiative in the war, +would be found ready to make such concessions as should lead to the +indefinite postponement of hostilities. + +Those who reasoned from the mere occasion of the war were perfectly +right, from their point of view. Unfortunately for their reputation for +sagacity, their premises were entirely wrong, and hence the viciousness +of their conclusion. If we would know the cause of the war, we must +banish from our minds all that is said about the desire of Napoleon III +for vengeance on the conquerors of his uncle, all that we are told of +his sentimental wish for the elevation of the Italian people to a +national position, and all that is predicated of his ambitious longings +for the reconstruction of the First Empire. We must regard Napoleon III +in the light of what he really is, namely, one of the greatest statesmen +that ever lived, or we shall never be able to understand what are his +purposes. We have nothing to do with his morals, but have to regard him +only as the chief of France, pursuing the policy he believes best +calculated to advance that country's interests, and doing so in strict +accordance with her historical traditions, and in the same manner in +which it was pursued by the ablest of the Valois kings, by Henry IV. and +Sully, by Richelieu and Mazarin, by Louis XIV., by the chiefs of the +First Republic, and by Napoleon I. He may be a good man or a bad man, +but his character is entirely aside from the question, the nature and +merits of which have no necessary connection with the nature and merits +of the men engaged in effecting its solution. Let us examine the +subject, and see if we cannot find an intelligent, reasonable cause for +Napoleon's course of action, that shall harmonize with the duties, we +might almost say the instincts, of a great French statesman. The +examination will embrace nothing recondite, but we are confident it will +show that the French Emperor is no Quixote, and that he has been forced +into the war by the necessities of his situation, and by the very +natural desire he feels to prevent France from being compelled to +descend to a secondary place in the scale of European nations. + +Modern Europe, in the sense in which we understand the term, dates from +the last quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Then England ceased to +attempt permanent conquests on the continent. Then Spain assumed +European rank and definite position. But two powers then began +especially to show themselves, and to play parts which both have +maintained down to the present time. The one was France, which then +ceased to dread English invasions, from the effects of which she was +rapidly recovering, whereby she was left to employ her energies on +foreign fields. The other was the _House of Austria_, which, by a series +of fortunate marriages, became, in the short period of forty years, the +most powerful family the modern world has ever known. On the day when +Maximilian, son of Frederick III., Emperor of Germany, wedded Mary of +Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, the rivalry between France and +the Austrian family began. Philip, son of that marriage, married Juana, +daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; and their son, Charles I. of the +Spains, became Charles V. of Germany. Thus there centred in his person a +degree of power such as no other sovereign could boast, and which alone +would have sufficed to make him the rival of the King of France, Francis +I., had no personal feeling entered into the relations between them. But +such feeling existed, and grew out of their competition for the imperial +crown. The previous ill-will between the Valois and the Hapsburg was +greatly increased, and assumed such force as permanently to color the +course of European history from that day to this. The rivalry of Charles +and Francis was the cause of many contests, and the French monarch, +though he was "The Most Christian King," in the opinion of some, more +than once aided, or offered to aid, the German Protestants against the +Emperor. To Philip II. and Henry II. the rivalry of their fathers +descended as an inheritance. It was in their warfare that the Battle of +St. Quentin was fought. The progress of the Reformation led monarchs in +those days to take a view of affairs not much unlike that which monarchs +of this century took in the days of the Holy Alliance, and after the +revolution of 1830. The hatred of Protestantism led the two kings to +draw together, though Henry II. had had no mean part in that work which +had enabled the Protestant Maurice of Saxony to render abortive all the +plans of Charles V. for the full restoration of Catholicism in Germany. +During the thirty years that followed the death of Henry II., the +dissensions of France had rendered her unable to contend with the House +of Austria, then principally represented by the Spanish branch of that +family; and Philip II. at one time thought of obtaining the crown of +that country for a member of his own house. But no sooner had Henry IV. +ascended the French throne, and established himself firmly thereon, than +the rivalry of France and Austria became as clearly pronounced as it had +been in the reign of Francis I.; and at the time of his death that most +popular of the Bourbon kings was engaged on a plan having for its object +the subversion of the Austrian power. His assassination changed the +course of events for a few years; but Richelieu became the ally of the +Swedes and Protestant Germans in the Thirty Years' War, though he was a +Cardinal, had destroyed the political power of the Huguenots, and might +have aspired to the Papacy. Mazarin, another Cardinal, followed +Richelieu's policy. Louis XIV. was repeatedly at war with the House of +Austria, though he was the son of an Austrian princess, and was married +to another. His last war with that house was for the throne of Spain, +when the elder branch of the Hapsburgs died out, in 1700. Louis XV. had +two contests with Austria; but in 1756, under the lead of Count Kaunitz, +France and Austria were united, and acted together in the Seven Years' +War, the incidents and effects of which were by no means calculated to +reconcile the French to the departure of their government from its +ancient policy. One of the causes of the French Revolution was the +Austrian alliance, and one of its effects was the complete rupture of +that alliance. Austria was the most determined foe that the French +Republic and Empire ever encountered. Including the war of 1815, there +were six contests between Austria and republican and imperial France. In +all these wars Austria was the aggressor, and showed herself to be the +enemy of _France_ as well as of those _French principles_ which so +frightened the conservatives of the world in those days. In the first +war, she took possession of French places for herself, and not for the +House of Bourbon; and in the last she purposed a partition of France, +long after Louis XVIII. had been finally restored, and when Napoleon was +at or near St. Helena. She demanded that Alsace and Lorraine should be +made over to her, in the autumn of 1815. She sought to induce Prussia to +unite with her by offering to support any demand that she might make for +French territory; and, failing to move that power, endeavored to get the +smaller German States to act with her,--the same States, indeed, that +are now so hostile to France, and which talk of a march upon Paris, and +of a reduction of French territorial strength. Nothing prevented the +Austrian idea from being reduced to practice but the opposition of +Russia and England, neither of which had any interest in the spoliation +of France, while both had no desire to see Austria rendered stronger +than she was. It was to England that Austria owed her Italian +possessions, which, in 1814, she at first had the sense not to wish to +be cumbered with; and to make her still more powerful north of the Alps +was not to be thought of even by the Liverpools and Castlereaghs. The +Czar, too, had in his thoughts a closer connection with France than it +suited him then to avow, and for purposes of his own; and therefore he +could not desire the sensible diminution of the power of a country the +resources of which he expected to employ. Nicholas inherited his +brother's ideas and designs, and we are to attribute much of the +ill-feeling that he exhibited towards the Orleans dynasty to his +disappointment; for the revolution that elevated that dynasty to the +French throne destroyed the hope that he had entertained of having +French aid to effect the conquest of Turkey. There never would have been +a siege of Sebastopol, if the elder branch of the Bourbons had continued +to rule in France. It required even a series of revolutions to bring +France to that condition in which the Western Alliance was possible. But +there would have been something more than "an understanding" between +France and Russia concerning Austria, had the government of the +Restoration endured a few years beyond 1830. It suited the Austrian +government to show considerable coldness towards the Orleans dynasty; +but assuredly so wise a man as Prince Metternich, and who had such +excellent means of information, never could have believed otherwise than +that the establishment of that dynasty saved Austria from being assailed +by both Russia and France. + +The rivalry of France and Austria being understood, and that rivalry +leading to war whenever occasion therefor chances to arise, it remains +to inquire what is the occasion of the existing contest. When Napoleon +III. became head of France, as Prince-President, at the close of 1848, +Austria was the last power with which he could have engaged in war, +supposing that he had then been strong enough to control the policy of +France, and it had suited him to make an occasion for war. She was then +engaged in her death-and-life struggles with Hungarians, Italians, and +others of her subjects who that year threw off her yoke, while the +Sardinians had endeavored to obtain possession of Lombardy and Venice. +Francis Joseph became chief of the Austrian Empire at the same time that +Louis Napoleon ascended to the same point in France. Certainly, if the +object of France had been the mere weakening and spoliation of Austria, +then was the time to assail her, when one half her subjects were +fighting the other half, when the Germans outside of her empire were by +no means her friends, and when it was far from clear that she could rely +upon assistance from Russia. Austria was then in a condition of +helplessness apparently so complete, that many thought her hour had +come; but those who knew her history, and were aware how often she had +recovered from just such crises, held no belief of the kind. Yet if +France had assailed her at that time, Austria must have lost all her +Italian provinces; and it is now generally admitted, that, if Cavaignac +had sent a French army into Italy immediately after the victory won by +Radetzky over Charles Albert at Somma Campagna, (July 26th, 1848,) the +"Italian question" would then have been settled in a manner that would +have been satisfactory to the greater part of Europe, and have rendered +such a war as is now waging in Italy quite impossible. Russia could have +done nothing to prevent the success of the French arms, and it is +probable that Austria would have abandoned the contest without fighting +a battle. At an earlier period she had signified her readiness to allow +the incorporation of most of Lombardy with Sardinia, she to retain the +country beyond the Mincio, and to hold the two great fortresses of +Peschiera (at the southern extremity of the Lago di Garda, and at the +point where the river issues from the lake) and Mantua. She even asked +the aid of France and England to effect a peace on this basis, but +unsuccessfully. Cavoignac's anomalous political position prevented him +from aiding the Italians. He was a Liberal, but the actual head of the +reactionists in France of all colors, of men who looked upon the +Italians as ruffians wedded to disorder, while Austria, in their eyes, +was the champion of order. France did nothing, and in December Louis +Napoleon became President. An opportunity was soon afforded him to +interfere in Italian affairs. The armistice that had existed between the +Austrians and the Sardinians after the 9th of August, 1848, was +denounced on the 12th of March, 1849, by the latter; and Radetzky closed +the order of the day, issued immediately after this denunciation was +made, with the words,--"Forward, soldiers, to Turin!" The intentions of +the Sardinians must have been known to Louis Napoleon, but he took no +measures to aid them. He saw Piedmont conquered in a campaign of +"hours." He saw Brescia treated by Haynau as Tilly treated Magdeburg. He +saw the long and heroical defence of Venice against the Austrians, +during the dreary spring and summer of '49,--a defence as worthy of +immortality as the War of Chiozza, and indicating the presence of the +spirit of Zeno, and Contarini, and Pisani in the old home of those +patriots. But nothing moved him. He would not even mediate in behalf of +the Venetians; and it was by the advice of the French consul and the +French admiral on the station that Venice finally surrendered, but not +until she had exhausted the means of defence and life. At that time, few +men in America but were in the habit of denouncing the French President +for his indifference to the Italian cause. He was charged with having +been guilty of a blunder and a crime. His consent to the expedition to +Rome aggravated his offence, for it was an act of intervention on the +wrong side. But the passage of ten years enables us to be more just to +him than it was possible for us to be in 1849. He was not firm in his +seat. He was but a temporary chief of the State. He was surrounded by +enemies, political and personal, who were seeking his overthrow, without +any regard for the tenure of his office. He knew not his power. His +object was the restoration of internal peace to France, her recovery +from the weakness info which she had fallen or had been precipitated. He +dared not offend the Catholics, who saw then, as they see now, a +champion in Austria. He was the victim of circumstances, and he had to +bow before them, in order that he might finally become their master. +Then he had no occasion for a quarrel with Austria. She was at the +lowest ebb her fortunes had known since the day that the Turks appeared +for the second time before Vienna. She could not have maintained herself +in Italy, even after the successes of Radetzky, had not Nicholas sent +one hundred and fifty thousand men to her assistance in Hungary. What +had France to fear from her? No more than she had to fear from her on +the day after Austerlitz. + +Years rolled on, and brought with them great changes; and the greatest +of those changes was to be seen in Italy, in reference to the position +of Austria there, and its effect upon France. Austria rapidly +reestablished her power in Italy, not only over Lombardy and Venice, but +over every part of the Peninsula, excepting Sardinia. Tuscany was +connected with her by various ties, and was ruled as she wished it to be +ruled. Parma and Modena were hers in every sense. She was the patron and +protector of the abominable Bomba, and her support alone enabled him to +defy the sentiment of the civilized world, and to indulge in cruelties +such as would have added new infamy to the name of Ezzelino. She upheld +the misgovernment of the Papal States, which has made Rome the scandal +of Europe. All the nominal rulers of the Italian States, with the +honorable exception of the King of Sardinia, were her vassal princes, +and were no more free to act without her consent than were the kings the +Roman Republic and Empire allowed to exist within their dominions free +to act without the consent of the proconsuls. What the proconsul of +Syria was to the little potentates mentioned in the New Testament, the +Austrian viceroy in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom was to the nominal +rulers of the various Italian States. It only remained to bring Sardinia +within this ring-fence of sea and mountains to convert all Italy into an +Austrian dependency. There is nothing like this in history, we verily +believe. In the short period of ten years after the capture of Milan by +Radetzky, (August 4, 1848,) the Austrians had established themselves +completely in nearly every part of Italy. Of the twenty-seven millions +of people that compose her population, twenty-two millions were as much +at the command of Austria as were the Hungarians and Bohemians. Had she +had the sense to use her power, not with mildness only, but beneficially +to this great mass of men, and had nothing occurred to disturb her +plans, she would have nearly doubled the number of her subjects, and +have more than doubled her resources. She would have become a great +maritime state, and have converted the Mediterranean into an Austrian +lake. Had they been well governed, the Italians might, and most probably +would, have accepted their condition, and have become loyal subjects of +the House of Lorraine. Foreign rule is no new thing to them, nor have +they ever been impatient under its existence, when it has existed for +their good. The people rarely are hostile to any government that is +conducted with ordinary fairness. There is no greater error than that +involved in the idea that revolutions or changes of any kind originate +from below, that they proceed from the people. Almost invariably they +come from above, from governmental action; and it is ever in the power +of a government to make itself perpetual. The term of its existence is +in its own hands. At the very worst for Austria, she might have +accomplished in Italy what was accomplished there three centuries ago by +Spain, then ruled by the elder branch of the Hapsburgs. She might have +commanded almost everything within its limits, with Sardinia to play +some such part as was then played by Venice. + +This is said on the supposition, first, that her government should have +been mild and conciliatory, active only for good, and that all her +interference with local rule should have been on the side of humanity; +and, second, that no foreign power should have interfered to prevent the +full development of her policy. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately +for other nations, and especially so for Italy, she not only did _not_ +govern well, but governed badly; and there was a great power which was +deeply, vitally interested--moved by the all-controlling principle of +self-preservation--in watching all her movements, and in finding +occasion to drive her out of Italy. She was not content with upholding +misgovernment in Naples, Rome, Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and elsewhere, +but she meant to subvert the constitutional polity established in the +Sub-Alpine Kingdom of Sardinia. The enemy of constitutionalism and +freedom everywhere, she was especially hostile to their existence in the +little state that bordered on a portion of her Italian possessions, +whence they always threatened Lombardy with a plague she detests far +more heartily than she detests cholera. No natural boundary or _cordon +militaire_ could suffice to stay the march of principles. Nothing would +answer but the subversion of the Sardinian constitution and the bringing +of that nation's government into harmony with the admirable rule that +existed, under the double-headed eagle's protection, in Naples and +Modena. Unless all Austrian history be false, Austria's object for years +has been a revolution in Sardinia, and Rome has aided her. This is the +necessity of her moral situation with reference to her little neighbor. +The world has smiled at Austria's late complaint that Sardinia menaced +her, it seemed so like the wolf's protestation that the lamb was doing +him an injury; but it was really well founded, though not entitled to +much respect. Sardinia _did_ menace Austria. She menaced her by the +force of her example,--as the honest man menaces the rogue, as the +peaceful man menaces the ruffian, as the charitable man menaces the +miser, as the Good Samaritan menaced the priest and Levite. In the sense +that virtue ever menaces vice, and right constantly menaces wrong, +Sardinia was a menace to Austria;--and as we often find the wrongdoer +denouncing the good as subverters of social order, we ought not to be +astonished at the plaintive whine of the master of thrice forty legions +at the conduct of the decorous, humane, and enlightened Victor Emanuel. + +The only foreign power that had a direct, immediate, positive interest +in preventing the establishment of Austrian power over Italy was France. +Several other powers had some interest adverse to the success of the +Austrian scheme, but it was so far below that which France felt, that it +is difficult to make any comparison between the several cases. England, +speaking generally, might not like the idea of a new naval power coming +into existence in the Mediterranean, which, with great fleets and +greater armies, might come to have a controlling influence in the East, +and prevent the establishment of her power in Egypt and Syria. She might +see with some jealousy the further development of Austrian commerce, +which has been so successfully pursued in the Mediterranean and the +Levant since 1815. But then England is not very remarkable for +forethought, and she has a just confidence in her own naval power. +Besides, would not Austria, in the event of her adding Italy virtually +to her dominions, become the ally of England in the business of +supporting Turkey against Russia, and in preventing the further +extension of Russian power to the South and the East? The old +traditionary policy of England pointed to an Austrian alliance, and +nations are tenacious of their traditions. The war in Italy was +unquestionably precipitated by Austria's belief that in the last resort +she could rely upon English support; and she made a fatal delay in her +military movements in deference to English interposition. Prussia could +not be expected to see the increase of the power of the House of Austria +with pleasure; but it was possible that the extension of its dominions +to the South, by giving it new objects of ambition, and forcing upon it +a leading part in Eastern affairs, might cause that house to pay less +regard to German matters, leaving them to be managed by the House of +Hohenzollern. Russia, under the system that Nicholas pursued, could not +have seen Austria absorb Italy without resisting the process at any +cost; but Alexander IV., [Footnote: I call the present czar Alexander +the _Fourth_, as there have been three other Alexanders _sovereigns_ of +Russia; but he is generally styled Alexander the _Second_.] a wiser man +than his father was, never would have gone to war to prevent it, his +views being directed to those internal reforms the success of which is +likely to create a _Russian People_, and to place his empire in a far +higher position than it has ever yet occupied. Yet Russia could not have +witnessed Austria's success with pleasure; and the readiness with which +she has agreed to aid France, should the Germans aid Austria, is proof +sufficient that she is desirous that Austria should not merely be +prevented from extending her territory, but actually reduced in extent +and in means. From no part of Europe have come more decided +condemnations of the course of Austria than from the Russian capital. +The language of the St. Petersburg journals touching the Treaties of +Vienna has been absolutely contemptuous; and that language is all the +more oracular and significant because we know that the editors of those +journals must have been inspired by the government. It has been justly +regarded as expressing the views of the Czar, and of the statesmen who +compose his cabinet. Though not disposed for war, and probably sincerely +desirous of the preservation of peace everywhere, the rulers of Russia +are quite ready to support France in all proper measures that she may +adopt to drive the Austrians from every part of the Italian Peninsula. +They are too sagacious not to see that France cannot hold a league of +Italian territory, and the reduction of Austrian power is just so much +gained towards the ultimate realization of their Oriental policy. + +Of the other European powers, and of their opinions respecting the +effect of Austrian supremacy, little need be said. Such countries as +Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal have little weight in +the European system, individually or collectively. Even Spain, though +she is not the feeble nation many of our countrymen are pleased to +represent her, when seeking to find a _reason_ for the seizure of +Cuba,--even Spain, we say, could not be much moved by the prospect of +Austria's reaching to that condition of vast strength which would +necessarily follow from her undisputed ascendency in Italy. The lesser +German States would probably have seen Austria's increase with pleasure, +partly because it would have helped to remove their fears of France and +Russia, and partly because it would have been flattering to their pride +of race, the House of Austria being Germanic in its character, though +ruling directly over but few Germans,--few, we mean, in comparison with +the Slaves, Magyars, Italians, and other races that compose the bulk of +its subjects. Turkey alone had a direct interest in Austria's success, +as promising her protection against all the other great European powers; +but Turkey is not, properly speaking, a member of the European +Commonwealth. + +But the case was very different with France. She is the first nation of +Continental Europe,--a position she has held for nearly four centuries, +though sometimes her fortunes have been reduced very low, as during the +closing days of the Valois dynasty, and in 1815; but even in 1815 she +had the melancholy consolation of knowing that it required the combined +exertions of all Europe to conquer her. Her wonderful elasticity in +rising superior to the severest visitations has often surprised the +world, and those who remember 1815 will be most astonished at her +present position in Europe, or rather in Christendom. Her position, +however, has always been the result of indefatigable exertions, and a +variety of circumstances have made those exertions necessary on several +occasions. Great as France is now, and great as she has been at several +periods of her history since the death of Mazarin, it may be doubted if +she is so great as she was at the date of the Treaty of Westphalia, the +work of her arms and her diplomacy (1648). At that time, and for many +years afterwards, several nations had no pronounced political existence +that now are powers of the first class. Russia had no weight in Europe +until the last years of Louis XIV., and her real importance commenced +fifty years after that monarch was placed in his grave. Prussia, though +she attained to a respectable position at the close of the seventeenth +century, the date of the creation of her monarchy, did not become a +first-class power until two generations later, and as the result of the +Seven Years' War. The United States count but eighty-three years of +national life; and they have had international influence less than half +of that time. England, which the restoration of the Stuarts caused to +sink so low in those very years during which Louis XIV. was at the +zenith of his greatness, has been for one hundred and seventy years the +equal of France. On the other hand, the two nations with which France +was formerly much connected, Turkey and Sweden, have ceased to influence +events. France allied herself with Turkey in the early years of her +struggle with the House of Austria, to the offence of Christian peoples; +and the relations between Paris and Constantinople were long maintained +on the basis of common interest, the only tie that has ever sufficed to +bind nations. Both countries were the enemies of Austria. The second +half of the Thirty Years' War was maintained, on the part of the enemies +of Austria, by the alliance of France and Sweden; and between these +countries a good understanding frequently prevailed in after-times, the +growth of Russia serving to force Sweden into the arms of France. Poland +has disappeared from the list of nations, and her territory has +augmented the resources of two countries that had no political weight in +the first century of the Bourbon kings, and those of France's rival. +Thus France has relatively fallen. That ancient international system of +which she was the centre for nearly one hundred and fifty years--say +from the middle of the reign of Henry IV. to the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle, (1599-1748)--has passed entirely away from the world, +and never can be restored. France has seldom seriously thought of +attempting its restoration, though some of her statesmen, and probably a +large majority of the more intelligent of her people, have from time to +time warmly favored the idea of the reconstruction of Poland; and of all +the errors of Napoleon I., his failure to realize that idea was +unquestionably the greatest. The turn that things took in the French +Revolution enabled France to establish an hegemony in Europe, which +might have been long preserved but for the disasters of 1812; but the +empire of Napoleon I. was never a political empire, being only of a +military character. France then led Europe, but she lost her ascendency +on the first reverse, like Sparta after Leuctra. History has no parallel +to the change that the France of 1814 presented to the France of 1812. +On the 1st of October, 1812, the French were at Moscow; on the 1st of +April, 1814, the allies were in Paris. Eighteen months had done work +that no man living at the first date had expected to see accomplished. +What happened in 1815 was but the complement of 1814. Then France was +struck down, trampled upon, spoiled, insulted, and mulcted in immense +sums of money; and finally forced to pay the cost of an armed police, +headed by Wellington himself, which held her chief fortresses for three +years, and saw that her chains were kept bright and strong. Never, since +Lysander demolished the Long Walls of Athens to the music of the Spartan +flute, had the world seen so bitter a spectacle of national humiliation, +so absolute a reversal of fortune,--the long-conquering legions +perishing by the sword, and him who had headed so many triumphal +processions perishing as it were in the Mamertine dungeon. + +It was from the nadir to which she had thus fallen, that the rulers of +France, acting as the agents of its people, have been laboring to raise +her ever since 1815. They have had a twofold object in view. They have +sought territory, in order that France might not be driven into the list +of second-class nations,--and military glory, to make men forget +Vittoria, and Leipzig, and Waterloo. All the governments of France have +been alike in this respect, no matter how much they have differed in +other respects. The legitimate Bourbons,--of whom an American is bound +to speak well, for they were our friends, and often evinced a feeling +towards us that exceeded largely anything that is required by the terms +or the spirit of a political alliance,--the solitary Orleans King, the +shadowy Republic of '48, and the imperial government, all have +endeavored to do something to elevate France, to win for her new +glories, and to regain for her her old position. The expedition into +Spain, in 1823, ostensibly made in the interest of Absolutism, was +really undertaken for the purpose of rebaptizing the white flag in fire. +Charles X. and M. de Polignac were engaged in a great scheme of foreign +policy when they fell, the chief object of which, on their side, was the +restoration to France of the provinces of the Rhine,--and which Russia +favored, because she knew, that, unless the Bourbons could do something +to satisfy their people, they must remain powerless, and it did not +answer her purpose that they should be otherwise than powerful. The +conquest of Algiers was made for the purpose of gratifying the French +people, and with the intention of spreading French dominion over +Northern Africa. It was a step towards the acquisition of Egypt, for +which land France has exhibited a strange longing. In this way the loss +of French India and French America, things of the old monarchy, were to +be compensated. The government of Louis Philippe expended mines of gold +and seas of blood in Africa, much to the astonishment of prudent men, +who had no idea of the end upon which its eyes were fixed. When the +Republic of 1848 was improvised, even Lamartine, not an unjust man, +could talk of the rights of France in Italy, and of her proper influence +there; and the wicked attack on the Romans, in 1849, was prompted by a +desire to make French influence felt in that country in a manner that +should be clear to the sense of mankind. + +When Louis Napoleon became President of France, it was impossible for +him to devote much attention to foreign affairs. His aim was to make +himself Emperor, to restore the Napoleon dynasty. This, after a hard +struggle, he effected in 1851-'52. It must be within the recollection of +all that the French invasion question was never more vehemently +discussed in England than during the ten or twelve months that followed +the _coup d'etat_. This happened because it was assumed that the Emperor +_must_ do something to revenge the injuries his house and France had +suffered from that alliance of which England was the chief member and +the purse-holder. Whether he ever thought of assailing England, no man +can say; for he never yet communicated his thoughts on any important +subject to any human being. We may assume, however, that he would not +have attacked England without having made extensive preparations for +that purpose; and long before such preparations could have been +perfected, the Eastern question was forced upon the attention of Europe, +and the two nations which were expected to engage in war as foes united +their immense armaments to thwart the plans of Russia. Blinded by his +feelings, and altogether mistaking the character of the English people, +the Czar treated Napoleon III. contemptuously, and sought to bring about +the partition of Turkey by the aid of England alone. It will always +furnish material for the ingenious writers of the history of things that +might have been, whether the French Emperor would have accepted the +Czar's proposition, had it been made to him. Certainly it would have +enabled him to do great things for France, while by the same course of +action he could have struck heavy blows at both England and Austria. As +it was, he joined England to oppose Russia, and the English have borne +full and honorable testimony to his fidelity to his engagements. The war +concluded, his attention was directed to Italy, and he sought to +meliorate the condition of that country; but Austria would not hear even +of the discussion of Italian affairs. The events that marked the course +of things in Paris, in the spring of 1856, showed that nothing could be +hoped for Italy from Austria. She spoke, through Count Buol, as if she +regarded the whole Peninsula as peculiarly her property, meddling with +which on the part of other powers was sheer impertinence, and not to be +borne with good temper, or even the show of it. + +The twenty-second meeting of the Congress of Paris, held the 8th of +April, was long, exciting, and important; for then several European +questions were discussed, among them being the affairs of Italy. The +protocol of that day proves the sensitiveness of the Austrian +plenipotentiaries and the earnestness of those of Sardinia. Eight days +later, the Sardinian plenipotentiaries, Cavour and De Villa Marina, +addressed to the governments of France and England a Memorial relating +to the affairs of Italy, in the course of which occur expressions that +must have had a strong effect on the mind of Napoleon III. "Called by +the sovereigns of the small states of Italy, who are powerless to +repress the discontent of their subjects," says the Memorial, "Austria +occupies militarily the greater part of the Valley of the Po and of +Central Italy, and makes her influence felt in an irresistible manner, +_even in the countries where she has no soldiers_. Resting on one side +on Ferrara and Bologna, her troops extend themselves to Ancona, the +length of the Adriatic, which has become in a manner an Austrian lake; +on the other, mistress of Piacenza, which, contrary to the spirit, if +not to the letter, of the Treaties of Vienna, she labors to transform +into a first-class fortress, she has a garrison at Parma, and makes +dispositions to deploy her forces all along the Sardinian frontier, from +the Po to the summit of the Apennines. This permanent occupation by +Austria of territories which do not belong to her _renders her absolute +mistress of nearly all Italy_, destroys the equilibrium established by +the Treaties of Vienna, and is a continual menace to Piedmont." In +conclusion, the plenipotentiaries say,--"Sardinia is the only state in +Italy that has been able to raise an impassable barrier to the +revolutionary spirit, and at the same time remain independent of +Austria. It is the counterpoise to her invading influence. If Sardinia +succumbed, exhausted of power, abandoned by her allies,--if she also was +obliged to submit to Austrian domination, _then the conquest of Italy by +this power would be achieved_; and Austria, after having obtained, +without its costing her the least sacrifice, the immense benefit of the +free navigation of the Danube, and the neutralization of the Black Sea, +_would acquire a preponderating influence in the West_. This is what +France and England would never wish,--this they will never permit." + +These are grave and weighty words, and were well calculated to produce +an effect on the mind of Napoleon III.; and we are convinced that they +furnish a key to his conduct toward Austria, and set forth the occasion +of the Italian War. The supremacy of Austria once completely asserted +over Italy, France would necessarily sink in the European scale in +precisely the same proportion in which Austria should rise in it. The +subjects of Francis Joseph would number sixty millions, while those of +Napoleon III. would remain at thirty-six millions. The sinews of war +have never been much at the command of Austria, but possession of Italy +would render her wealthy, and enable her to command that gold which +moves armies and renders them effective. Her commerce would be increased +to an incalculable extent, and she would have naval populations from +which to conscribe the crews for fleets that she would be prompt to +build. Her voice would be potential in the East, and that of France +would there cease to be heard. She would become the first power of +Europe, and would exercise an hegemony far more decided than that which +Russia held for forty years after 1814. It was to be expected that the +Italians would cease fruitlessly to oppose her, and, their submission +leading to her abandonment of the repressive system, they might become a +bold and an adventurous people, helping to increase and to consolidate +her power. They might prove as useful to her as the Hungarians and +Bohemians have been, whom she had conquered and misruled, but whose +youth have filled her armies. All these things were not only possible, +but they were highly probable; and once having become facts, what +security would France have that she would not be attacked, conquered, +and partitioned? With sixty millions of people, and supported by the +sentiment and arms of Germany, Austria could seize upon Alsace and +Lorraine, and other parts of France, and thus reduce her strength +positively as well as relatively. All that was talked of in 1815, and +more than all that, might be accomplished in sixty years from that date, +and while Napoleon III. himself should still be on the throne he had so +strangely won. That degradation of France which the uncle's ambition had +brought about at the beginning of the century would be more than +equalled at the century's close through the nephew's forbearance. The +very names of Napoleon and Bonaparte would become odious in France, and +contemptible everywhere. On the other hand, should he interfere +successfully in behalf of Italian nationality, he would reduce the +strength of Austria, and prevent her from becoming an overshadowing +empire. Her population and her territory would be essentially lessened. +She would be cut off from all hope of making Italy her own, would be +compelled to abandon her plans of commercial and maritime greatness, +would be disregarded in the East, would not be courted by England, would +lose half her influence in Germany, and would not be in a condition to +menace France in any quarter. The glory of the French arms would be +increased, the weight of France would be doubled, new lustre would shine +from the name of Napoleon, the Treaties of Vienna would be torn up by +the nation against which they had been directed, the most determined foe +of the Bonaparte family would be punished, and that family's power would +be consolidated. + +Such, we verily believe, were the reasons that led Napoleon III. to plan +an attack on Austria, that attack which has been so brilliantly +commenced. That he has gone to war for the liberation of Italy, merely +as such, we do not suppose; but that must follow front his policy, +because in that way alone can his grand object be effected. The freedom +of the Peninsula will be brought about, because it is necessary for the +welfare of France, for the maintenance of her weight in Europe, that it +should be brought about. That the Emperor is insensible of the glory +that would come from the rehabilitation of Italy, we do not assert. We +think he is very sensible of it, and that he enjoys the satisfaction +that comes from the performance of a good deed as much as if he were not +a usurper and never had overthrown a nominal republic. But we cannot +agree with those who say that the liberation of Italy was the pure and +simple purpose of the war. He means that Austria shall not have Italy, +and his sobriety of judgment enables him to understand that France +cannot have it. That country is to belong to the children of the soil, +who, with ordinary wisdom and conduct, will be able to prevent it from +again relapsing under foreign rule. The Emperor understands his epoch, +and will attempt nothing that shall excite against himself and his +dynasty the indignation of mankind. If not a saint, he is not a +senseless sinner. + +Our article is so long, that we cannot discuss the questions, whether +Napoleon III. is not animated by the desire of vengeance, and whether, +having chastised Russia and Austria, he will not turn his arms against +Prussia and England. Our opinion is that he will do nothing of the kind. +Prussia is not likely to afford him any occasion for war; and if he +should make one, he would have to fight all the other German powers at +the same time, and perhaps Russia. The only chance that exists for a +Prussian war is to be found in the wrath of the Germans, who, at the +time we write, have assumed a very hostile attitude towards France, and +wish to be led from Berlin; but the government of Prussia is discreet, +and will not be easily induced to incur the positive loss and probable +disgrace that would follow from a Russian invasion, like that which took +place in 1759. As to England, the Emperor would be mad to attempt her +conquest; and he knows too well what is due to his fame to engage in a +piratical dash at London. An invasion of England can never be safely +undertaken except by some power that is master of the seas; and England +is not in the least disposed to abandon her maritime supremacy. There +would have to be a Battle of Actium before her shores could be in +danger, and she must have lost it; and no matter what is said concerning +the excellence of the French navy, that of England is as much ahead of +it in all the elements of real, enduring strength, as it has been at any +other period of the history of the two countries. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Iron-Manufacturer's Guide to the Furnaces, Forges, and +Rolling-Mills of the United States_. By J.P. LESLEY. New York: John +Wiley. 1859. + +This valuable book is published by the Secretary of the American +Iron-Association, and by authority of the same. This Association--now +four years old--is not a common trades-union, nor any impotent +combination to resist the law of supply and demand. Its general objects, +as stated in the constitution, are "to procure regularly the statistics +of the trade, both at home and abroad; to provide for the mutual +interchange of information and experience, both scientific and +practical; to collect and preserve all works relating to iron, and to +form a complete cabinet of ores, limestones, and coals; to encourage the +formation of such schools as are designed to give the young iron-master +a proper and thorough scientific training, preparatory to engaging in +practical operations." In pursuance of this wise and liberal policy, the +Association has now published this "Iron-Manufacturer's Guide," +containing, first, a descriptive catalogue of all the furnaces, forges, +and rolling-mills of the United States and Canada; secondly, a +discussion of the physical and chemical properties of iron, and its +combinations with other elements; thirdly, a complete survey of the +geological position, chemical, physical, or mechanical properties, and +geographical distribution of the ores of iron in the United States. + +The directory to the iron-works of the United States and Canada +enumerates 1545 works of various kinds, of which 386 are now abandoned; +560 blast-furnaces, 389 forges, and 210 rolling-mills are now in +operation; and the directory states the position, capacity, and +prominent characteristics of each furnace, forge, or mill, the names of +the owners or agents, and, in many cases, the date of the construction +of the works, and their annual production. The great importance of the +iron-manufacture, as a branch of industry, in this country, is clearly +demonstrated by this very complete catalogue. It shows that in the year +1856 there were nearly twelve hundred active iron-factories in the +United States, and that they produced about eight hundred and fifty +thousand tons of iron, worth fifty millions of dollars. When we consider +that the greater part of the iron thus produced is left in a rough and +crude state, merely extracted from its ores and made ready for the use +of the blacksmith, the machinist, and the engineer,--when we remember +that human labor multiplies by hundreds and by thousands the value of +the raw material, that a bar of iron which costs five dollars will make +three thousand dollars' worth of penknife-blades and two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars' worth of watch-springs, we begin to understand +the importance of the iron-manufacture, as an element of national +wealth, independence, and power. + +A fourth part of all the iron-works which have been constructed in this +country have been abandoned by their projectors, in despair of competing +with the cheap iron from abroad, which the low _ad-valorem_ tariffs have +admitted to the American market. The story which these ruined works +might tell, of hopes disappointed, capital sunk, and labor wasted, would +be long and dreary. From an excellent diagram, appended to the "Guide," +illustrating the duties on iron, the importations, and the price of the +metal, for each year since 1840, we learn that the average annual +importation of iron under the specific tariff of 1842 was 77,328 tons, +while under the _ad-valorem_ tariff of 1846 it was 373,864 tons. The +increase in the importation of foreign iron under the tariff of 1846 was +more than ten times the increase of the population, and more than +thirty-eight times the increase in the domestic production. The +iron-masters of this country have been compelled to struggle against a +host of formidable difficulties,--adverse legislation, the ruinous +competition of English iron, the dearness of labor, and the high rates +of interest on borrowed capital. These have all been met and, let us hope, +in good part overcome. Slowly, and with many hindrances and disasters, +the iron-business is gaining strength, and achieving independence +of foreign competition and the tender mercies of legislators. +Very conclusive evidence of this gradual growth is presented +in the unusually accurate statistics of the "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide." Of the 1,209,913 tons of iron consumed in the United States +in the year 1856, 856,235 tons, or seventy-one per cent, of the whole, +was of domestic manufacture. The catalogue of iron-works shows that +the country now possesses many extensive and well-constructed works, +of which some are still owned by the men who built them, but the +larger part have descended, at great sacrifices, to the hands of +more fortunate proprietors. Beside the accumulated stock of machinery, +knowledge of the ores and fuel has been gained, experience has +refuted many errors and pointed out the dangers and difficulties to +he overcome, the natural channels of communication throughout the +country have been opened, and a large body of skilled workmen has been +trained for the business and seeks steady employment. Whenever a rise in +the price of iron stimulates the manufacture, the domestic production of +iron suddenly expands, and increases with a rapidity which gives +evidence of wonderful elasticity and latent strength. Twice within +twenty years the production of American iron has nearly doubled in a +period of three years. Twelve years ago no railroad-iron was made in the +United States. In 1853 we imported 300,000 tons of rails, and in 1854 +280,000 tons; but in 1855 only 130,000 tons were imported, while 135,000 +tons were made at home, and in 1856, again, nearly one half of the +310,000 tons of rails consumed was of domestic production. The admitted +superiority of the American rails has undoubtedly contributed to this +result. + +In spite of these encouraging signs, these sure indications of the +success which at no distant day will reward this branch of American +industry, it must not be imagined that checks and reverses are hereafter +to be escaped. The production of the year 1857 promised in the summer to +be much larger than that of 1856; but the panic of September wrought the +same effect in the iron-business as in all the other manufactures of the +country, and in the spring of 1858 more than half of the iron-works of +the United States were standing idle. Mr. Lesley states that the returns +received in answer to the circular issued by the Iron-Association, July +1, 1858, were, almost without exception, unfavorable, and that these +replies are sufficient to prove a very serious diminution in the +production of iron for the year 1858. When the manufacture of iron, in +its various branches, has expanded to its true proportions, and has +reached a magnitude and importance second only to the agricultural +interest of the country, the iron-masters of that generation may read in +this first publication of the Iron-Association the record of the +struggles and trials of their more adventurous, but less fortunate +predecessors. + +The construction of the directory which constitutes the first part of +the "Guide" might be improved in several respects. An alphabetical +arrangement of the furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills, in each State, +would be much more convenient for reference than the obscure and +uncertain system which has been followed. If a State can be divided, +like Pennsylvania, into two or three sections, by strongly marked +geological features, it would, perhaps, be well to subdivide the list of +its iron-works into corresponding sections, and then to make the +arrangement of each section alphabetical. But convenience of reference +is the essential property of a directory; and to that convenience the +natural desire to follow a geological or geographical arrangement should +he sacrificed. Some important items of information, such as the means of +transportation, and the distance of each furnace or forge from its +market, are not given in all cases; the power by which the works are +driven, whether steam or water, is not uniformly stated; and the +pressure of the blast used, that very important condition of success in +the management of a furnace, is stated in only a very few instances. A +useful piece of information, seldom given in the descriptions of forges +and rolling-mills, is the source from which the iron used in the works +is obtained; and it is also desirable that the nature of the work done +in each forge or mill should be invariably stated. It would he +interesting to know the number of men employed in the iron-manufacture +throughout the country, and it would not seem difficult for the +Association to add this fact to the very valuable statistics which they +have already collected. The descriptions of abandoned works are not all +printed in small type. If this rule is adopted in the directory, it +should be uniformly adhered to. The maps accompanying the directory, +which were made by the photolithographic process, are all on too small a +scale, and consequently lack clearness. The colored lithographs, which +exhibit the anthracite furnaces of Pennsylvania and the iron works of +the region east of the Hudson River, are altogether the best +illustrations in the book. + +An elaborate discussion of iron as a chemical element occupies another +division of the book. Its purpose is to instruct the iron master in the +chemical properties and relations of the metal with which he deals; and +to this end it should be clear, concise, and definite, and, leaving all +disputed points, should explain the known and well-determined +characteristics of iron and its compounds with other elements. Mr. +Lesley, the compiler of the book, distinctly states in the Preface that +he is no chemist, and we are therefore prepared to meet the occasional +inaccuracies observable in this chemical portion of the "Guide." It +lacks condensation and system; matters of very little moment receive +disproportionate attention; and pages are filled with discussions of +nice points of chemical science still in dispute among professed +chemists, and wholly out of place in what should be a brief elementary +treatise on the known properties of iron. If these questions in dispute +were such as the practical experience of the iron-master might settle, +or, indeed, throw any light upon, there would be an obvious propriety in +stating the points at issue; but if the question concerns the best +chemical name for iron-rust, or the largest possible per cent. of carbon +in steel, the practical metallurgist should not be perplexed with +problems in analytical chemistry which the best chemists have not yet +solved. + +Valuable space is occasionally occupied by the too rhetorical statement +of matters which would have been better presented in a simpler way; +thus, the fervid description of oxygen, however appropriate in Faraday's +admirable lectures before the Royal Institution, is out of place in the +"Iron-Manufacturer's Guide." We must also enter an earnest protest +against the importation, upon any terms, of such words as +"ironoxydulcarbonate," "ironoxydhydrate," and the adjective "anhydrate." +Some descriptions of considerable imaginative power have found place +even in the directory of works. From the description of the Allentown +furnaces we learn, with some surprise, that "no finer object of art +invites the artist"; and again, "that the _repose_ of bygone _centuries_ +seems to sit upon its immense walls, while the roaring _energy_ of the +present day fills it with a truer and better life than the revelry of +Kenilworth or the chivalry of Heidelberg." The average age of the +Allentown works subsequently appears to be nine years. + +Another principal division of Mr. Lesley's book treats of the ores of +iron in the United States. This portion of the book contains much +valuable and interesting information, which has never been published +before in so complete and satisfactory a form. The geographical and +geological position of every ore-bank in the country, which has been +opened and worked, is fully described, with many details of the peculiar +properties, mineralogical associations, and history of each bed or mine. +The inexhaustible wealth of the country in ores of iron is clearly +shown, and the superiority of the American ores to the English needs no +other demonstration than can be found on the pages of this catalogue of +our ore-beds. Two or three geological maps, to illustrate the +distribution of the ores, would have been an instructive addition to the +book. In this section, as in the preceding one on the chemistry of iron, +much space is misapplied to the discussion of questions of structural +geology, of opposing theories of the formation of veins, and other +scientific problems with which the iron-master is not concerned, and +which he cannot be expected to understand, much less to solve. We regret +the more this unnecessary introduction of comparatively irrelevant +matters, when we find, at the close of the volume, that the unexpected +length of the discussion of the ores has prevented the publication of +several chapters on the machinery now in use, the hot-blast and +anthracite coal, the efforts to obtain malleable iron directly from the +ore, and the history and present condition of the iron-manufacture in +America. + +The American Iron-Association, by their Secretary, have accomplished a +very laborious and valuable work, in accumulating and digesting the mass +of facts and statistics embodied in this, the first "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide"; but the subject is as inexhaustible as the mineral wealth of the +country, and we shall look for the future publications of the society +with much interest. + + +_An Essay on Intuitive Morals_. Being an Attempt to Popularize Ethical +Science. Part I. Theory of Morals. First American Edition, with +Additions and Corrections by the Author. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. +1859. pp. 294. + +Four years ago last March this book appeared in England, published by +Longman; a thin octavo, exciting little attention there, and scarcely +more on this side the water, where the best English books have of late +years found their first appreciation. The first notice of it printed in +this country, so far as we know, appeared in the "Harvard Magazine" for +June, 1855,--a publication so obscure, that, to most readers of the +ATLANTIC, this will be their first knowledge of its existence. About two +years later, Part II appeared in England, and then both books were +reviewed in the "Christian Examiner"; yet, to all intents and purposes, +this new edition is a new book, and we shall treat it as such. We have +as yet a reprint of Part I. only, but we trust the publishers will soon +give us the other,--"The Practice of Morals,"--which, if less valuable +than this, is still so much better than most works of its kind as to +demand a republication. + +The author--a woman--(for, to the shame of our _virile secus_ be it +said, a woman has written the best popular treatise on Ethics in the +language)--divides her First Part into four chapters:-- + + I. What Is the Moral Law? + II. Where the Moral Law is found. + III. That the Moral Law can be obeyed. + IV. Why the Moral Law should be obeyed. + +This, as will be seen, is an exhaustive analysis. To the great question +of the first chapter, after a full discussion, she gives this answer:-- + +"The Moral Law is the resumption of the eternal necessary Obligation of +all Rational Free Agents to do and feel those Sentiments which are +Right. The identification of this law with His will constitutes the +Holiness of the Infinite God. Voluntary and disinterested obedience to +this law constitutes the Virtue of all finite creatures. Virtue is +capable of infinite growth, of endless approach to the Divine nature and +to perfect conformity with the law. God has made all rational free +agents for virtue, and all worlds for rational free agents. _The Moral +Law, therefore, not only reigns throughout His creation_, (all its +behests being enforced thereon by His omnipotence,) _but is itself the +reason why that creation exists_."--pp. 62-63. + +This is certainly good defining, and the passage we have Italicized has +the true Transcendental ring. Indeed, the book is a system of Kantian +Ethics, as the author herself says in her Preface; and the tough old +Koenigsberg professor has no reason to complain of his gentle expounder. +Unlike most British writers,--with the grand exception of Sir William +Hamilton, the greatest British metaphysician since Locke and Hume,--she +_understands_ Kant, admires and loves him, and so is worthy to develop +his knotty sublimities. This alone would be high praise; but we think +she earns a more original and personal esteem. + +The question of the second chapter she thus answers:-- + +"The Moral Law is found in the Intuitions of the Human Mind. These +Intuitions are natural; but they are also revealed. Our Creator wrought +them into the texture of our souls to form the groundwork of our +thoughts, and made it our duty first to examine and then to erect upon +them by reflection a Science of Morals. But He also continually aids us +in such study, and He increases this aid in the ratio of our obedience. +Thus Moral Intuitions are both Human and Divine, and the paradoxes in +their nature are thereby solved."--p. 136. + +This statement may, perhaps, be received without cavil by most readers; +but the reasoning on which it depends is the weakest part of the book, +and we shall be surprised if some hard-headed divine, who fears that +this doctrine of Intuition will pester his Church, does not find out the +flaws in the argument. It will be urged, for instance, that, in +confessing that the Science of Morals can never be as exact as that of +Mathematics, because we have no terminology for Ethics so exact as for +Geometry, she, in effect, yields the whole question, and leaves us in +the old slough of doubt where Pyrrho and Pascal delighted to thrust us, +and where the Church threatens to keep us, unless we will pay her tolls +and pick our way along her turnpike. But though her major and minor +premises may not be on the best terms with each other,--even though they +may remind us of that preacher of whom Pierrepont Edwards said, "If his +text had the smallpox, his sermon would not catch it,"--her conclusion +is sound, and as inspiring now as when the poet said,-- + + "Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo,"-- + +or when George Fox trudged hither and thither over Europe with the same +noble tune sounding in his ears. + +In the third chapter the old topics are treated, which, according to +Milton, the fallen angels discussed before Adam settled the debate by +sinning,-- + + "Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,"-- + +and it is concluded that the Moral Law can be obeyed:-- + +"1st. Because the Human Will is free. 2d. Because this freedom, though +involving present sin and suffering, is foreseen by God to result +eventually in the Virtue of every creature endowed therewith." + +In this chapter the history of the common doctrine of Predestination is +admirably sketched, (pp. 159-164, note.) and the grounds for our belief +in Free Will more clearly stated than we remember to have seen +elsewhere. Especially fine is her method of reducing Foreordination to +simple Ordination, by directing attention to the fact that with God +there is no Past and Future, but an Endless Now; as Tennyson sings in +"In Memoriam,"-- + + "Oh, if indeed that eye foresee, + Or see, (in Him is no before.)"-- + +and as Dante sang five centuries ago. + +But it is the last chapter which best shows the power of the author and +the pure and generous spirit with which the whole book is filled. Here +she shows why the Moral Law should be obeyed; and dividing the advocates +of Happiness as a motive into three classes, Euthumists, Public +Eudaimonists, and Private Eudaimonists, she refutes them all and +establishes her simple scheme, which she states in these words:-- + +"The law itself, the Eternal Right, for right's own sake, that alone +must be our motive, the spring of our resolution, the ground of our +obedience. Deep from our inmost souls comes forth the mandate, the bare +and simple law claiming the command of our whole existence merely by its +proper right, and disdaining alike to menace or to bribe." + +The terms _Euthumism_ and _Eudaimonism_ are, perhaps, peculiar to this +essay, and may need some explanation. The Euthumist is one who assumes +moral pleasure as a sufficient reason why virtue should be sought; the +Eudaimonist believes we should be virtuous for the sake of affectional, +intellectual, and sensual pleasure; if he means the pleasure of all +mankind, he is a Public Eudaimonist; but if he means the pleasure of the +individual, he is a Private Eudaimonist. Democritus is reckoned the +first among Euthumists; and in England this school has been represented, +among others, by Henry More and Cumberland, by Sharrock, [Footnote: +Sharrock is a name unfamiliar to most readers. His [Greek: Hypothesis +aethikae] published in 1660, contains the first clear statement of +Euthumism made by any Englishman. See p.223.] Hutcheson, and Shaftesbury. +Paley thrust himself among Public Eudaimonists, and our author well +exposes his grovelling morals, aiming to produce the "greatest happiness +of the greatest number," a system which has too long been taught among +the students of our colleges and high schools. But he properly belongs +to the Private Eudaimonists; for this interpreter of ethics to the +ingenuous youth of England and America says, "Virtue is the doing good +to mankind in obedience to the will of God, _and for the sake of +everlasting happiness_. According to which definition, the good of +mankind is the subject, the will of God the rule, _and everlasting +happiness the motive of virtue_." + +It is such heresies as this, and the still grosser pravities into which +the ethics of expediency run, that this book will do much to combat. +Nothing is more needed in our schools for both sexes than the systematic +teaching of the principles here set forth; and we have no doubt this +volume could be used as a text-book, at least with some slight omissions +and additions, such as a competent teacher could well furnish. Portions +of it, indeed, were some years since read by Mrs. Lowell to her classes, +and are now incorporated in her admirable book, "Seed Grain"; nor does +there seem to be any good reason why it should not be introduced at +Cambridge. With a short introduction containing the main principles of +metaphysics, and with the omission of some rhetorical passages unsuited +to a text-book, it might supplant the books of both intellectual and +moral philosophy now in use in our higher schools. + +But it is not as a school-book that this essay is to be considered; it +will find a large and increasing circle of readers among the mature and +the cultivated, and these will perceive that few have thought so +profoundly or written so clearly on these absorbing topics. Take, for +example, the classification of _possible_ beings, made in the first +chapter:-- + +"Proceeding on our premises, that the omnipotence of God is not to be +supposed to include self-contradictions, we observe at the outset, that +(so far as we can understand subjects so transcendent) there were only, +in a moral point of view, three orders of beings possible in the +universe:--1st. One Infinite Being. A Rational Free Agent, raised by the +infinitude of his nature above the possibility of temptation. He is the +only _Holy_ Being. 2d. Finite creatures who are Rational Free Agents, +but exposed by the finity of their natures to continual temptations. +These beings are either _Virtuous_ or _Vicious_. 3d. Finite creatures +who are not rational nor morally free. These beings are _Unmoral_, and +neither virtuous nor vicious."--pp. 24-25. + +Nothing can be shorter or more thorough than this statement, and, if +accepted, it settles many points in theology as well as in ethics. + +Then, too, the comparison, in the last chapter, of the Law of Honor, +considered as a system of morals, with the systems of Paley and Bentham, +shows a fine perception of the true relation of chivalry to ethics, and +gives occasion for one of the most eloquent passages in the book:-- + +"I envy not the moralist who could treat disdainfully of Chivalry. It +was a marvellous principle, that which could make of plighted faith a +law to the most lawless, of protection to weakness a pride to the most +ferocious. While the Church taught that personal duty consisted in +scourgings and fastings, and social duty in the slaughter of Moslems and +burning of Jews, Chivalry roused up a man to reverence himself through +his own courage and truth, and to treat the weakest of his +fellow-creatures with generosity and courtesy.... Recurring to its true +character, the Law of Honor, when duly enlarged and rectified, becomes +highly valuable. We perceive, that, amid all its imperfections and +aberrations, it has been the truest voice of intuition, amid the +lamentations of the believer in 'total depravity,' and the bargaining of +the expediency-seeking experimentalist. While the one represented Virtue +as a Nun and the other as a Shop-woman, the Law of Honor drew her as a +Queen,--faulty, perhaps, but free-born and royal. Much service has this +law done to the world; it has made popular modes of thinking and acting +far nobler than those inculcated from many a pulpit; and the result is +patent, that many a 'publican and sinner,' many an opera-frequenting, +betting, gambling man of the world, is a far safer person with whom to +transact business than the Pharisee who talks most feelingly of the +'frailties of our fallen nature.'"--pp. 267-270. + +The learning shown in the book, though not astonishing, like Sir William +Hamilton's, is sufficient and always at the author's service. The text +throughout, and especially the notes on Causation, Predestination, +Original Sin, and Necessary Truths, will amply support our opinion. But +better than either learning or logic is that noble and devout spirit +pervading every page, and convincing the reader, that, whether the +system advanced be true or false, it is the result of a genuine +experience, and the guide of a pure and generous life. + +The volume is neatly printed, but lacks an index sadly, and shows some +errors resulting from the distance between the author and the +proof-reader. Such is the misuse of the words "woof" and "warp" on page +56; evidently a slip of the pen, since the same terms are correctly used +elsewhere in the volume. + + +_Memoirs of the Empress Catharine II._ Written by herself. With a +Preface by A. HERZEN. Translated from the French. New York: D. Appleton +& Co. 12mo. pp. 309. + +It would seem, that, if any one of the women celebrated in history +should, more than all the others, have shrunk from writing her own +memoirs, that woman was the petty German princess whom opportunity and +her own crafty ambition made absolutest monarch of all the Russias under +the name of Catharine II. And of that abandoned and shameless personal +career which has made her name a reproach to her sex, and covered her +memory with an infamy that the administrative glories of her reign serve +only to cast into a blacker shadow, even she has shrunk from committing +the details to paper. Indeed, in these Memoirs, she alludes to but one +of her amours,--that with Sergius Soltikoff, which was the first, (if we +may be sure that she had a first,)--and which seems clearly to have been +elevated, if not purified, by a true and deep affection. That it was so +appears not by any protestation or even calm assertion of her own, which +in an autobiography might be reasonably doubted, but from the unstudied +tenderness of her allusions to him; from the fact, which indirectly +appears, that he first cooled towards her, and the pang--not of wounded +vanity--which this gave her; and yet more unmistakably from the +forgiveness which she, imperious and relentless as she was, extended, +manifestly, again and again, to her errant lover. + +The Memoirs are confined to events which occurred between 1744 and +1760,--the period of Catharine's girlhood and youthful womanhood; but +although she brings herself before us, a young creature of fifteen, +"with her hair dressed _a la Moise_," (which, in the benightment of our +bearded ignorance, we suppose to mean that astounding style in which the +excellent Mistress Hannah More is represented in the frontispiece to her +Memoirs, with each particular hair standing on end,--a crimped glory of +radiating powder,) she appears no less ambitious, crafty, designing, +selfish, and self-conscious then than when she drops her pen as she is +deepening the traits of the matured woman of thirty. She went to Russia +to be betrothed to the Grand Duke, afterwards Peter III., to whom she +was at first utterly indifferent, and whom she soon began to despise and +regard with personal aversion; and yet when there was a chance that she +might be released from this union, she seems not to have known the +slightest thrill of joy or felt the least sensation of relief, although +she was then not sixteen years old,--so entirely was her mind bent upon +the crown of Russia. Partly to attain her end, and partly because it +suited her intriguing, managing nature, she set herself immediately to +the acquirement of the favor of the Empress on the one hand, and +popularity on the other. The first she sought by an absolute submission +of her will to that of Elizabeth, giving her self-negation an air of +grateful deference; the latter she obtained, as most very popular people +obtain their popularity, by adroit flattery,--the subtlest form of which +was, in her case, as it ever is, the manifestation of an interest in the +affairs of persons utterly indifferent to the flatterer. This moral +emollient she applied, as popular people usually do, without +discrimination. She remarks that she was liked because she was "the same +to everybody"; and it is noteworthy that the same is said almost +invariably of very popular persons, and in way of eulogy, by the very +people into whose favor they have licked their way; the latter always +seeming to be blinded by the titillation of their own cuticles to the +fact that the most worthless and disagreeable individuals--those with +whom they would scorn to be put upon a level--have received the same +coveted evidences of personal regard. When will the world learn that the +man, of whom we sometimes hear and read, who is absolutely without an +enemy, must either be very unscrupulous or very weak? Catharine's +duplicity in this respect seems to have been as constant as it was +artful, during the years in which it was necessary for her purpose to +make friends; and it was rewarded, as it almost always is, when +skilfully practised, with entire success. + +Catharine seems to have written these Memoirs partly for her own +satisfaction and partly to justify her course to her son Paul and his +successors. Therefore they record much that is of little value or +interest to the general reader; and that, indeed, is unintelligible, +except to those who are intimately acquainted with the Russian Court +during the reign of Elizabeth. Such persons will find in these pages +much authentic matter which will confirm or unsettle their previous +belief as to the secret intrigues of that court, political and personal. +To the great mass of readers, the revelations of the internal economy of +the Court of Russia in the middle of the last century, and of the +manners and morals of the persons who composed it, which are freely made +by the author of these imperial confessions, will constitute their +principal, if not their only interest. In this respect they will well +repay the attentive perusal of every person who likes the study of human +nature. The picture which they present is striking, and its various +parts keep alive the attention which its first sight awakens. Yet it +cannot be regarded with pleasure by any reader of undepraved taste; and +a consideration of it is absolutely fatal to the faith which is +cherished by many deluded minds in the social, if not in the ethical +virtues of an ancient aristocracy. In this respect Catharine's "Memoirs" +are not peculiar. For it is remarkable, that in all the published +memoirs, journals, and confessions of members of royal households, +(there may be an exception, but we do not remember it,) court-life +within-doors has appeared devoid of every grace and beauty, and deformed +by all that is coarse, brutal, sordid, and grovelling. Even that grace, +almost a virtue, which has its name from courts, seems not to exist in +them in a genuine form; and instead of it we find only a hollow, +glittering sham, which has but an outward semblance to real courtesy, +and which itself even is produced only on occasions more or less public +and for purposes more or less selfish. + +Russia in its most civilized parts was half barbarous in the days of +Catharine's youth, and society at the Court of St. Petersburg seems to +have been distinguished from that in the other circles of the empire +only by an addition of the vices of civilization to those of barbarism. +The women blended the manners and tastes of Indian squaws and French +_marquises_ of the period; the men modelled themselves on Peter the +Great, and succeeded in imitating him in everything except his wisdom +and patriotism. The business of life was, first, to avoid being sent to +Siberia or Astracan,--next and last, to get other people sent thither; +its pleasure, an alternation of gambling and orgies. Catharine makes +some excuse for her unrestrained sexual license, which shows that she +wrote for posterity. For what need of extenuation in this regard for a +woman whose immediate predecessors were Catharine I., and. Anne and +Elizabeth, and who lived in a court where, on the simultaneous marriage +of three of its ladies, a bet was made between the Hetman Count +Rasoumowsky and the Minister of Denmark,--not which of the brides would +be false to her marriage vows,--that was taken for granted with regard +to all,--but which would be so first! It turned out that he who bet on +the Countess Anne Voronzoff, daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of the +Empire, and bride to Count Strogonoff, who was the plainest of the three +and at the time the most innocent and childlike, won the wager. The bet +was wisely laid; for she was likely to be soonest neglected by her +husband. + +What semblance of courtesy these highborn gamblers, adulterers, and +selfish intriguers showed in their daily life appears in their behavior +to a M. Brockdorf, against whom Catharine had ill feelings, more or less +justifiable. This M. Brockdorf, who was high in favor with the Grand +Duke, was unfortunately ugly--having a long neck, a broad, flat head, +red hair, small, dull, sunken eyes, and the corners of his mouth hanging +down to his chin. So, among those court-bred people, "whenever M. +Brockdorf passed through the apartments, every one called out after him +'Pelican,'" because "this bird was the most hideous we knew of." But +what regard for the feelings of a person of inferior rank could be +expected from his enemies, in a court where the dearest ties and the +tenderest sorrows were dashed aside with the formal brutality recorded +by Catharine in the following remarkable paragraph?-- + +"A few days afterwards, the death of my father was announced to me. It +greatly afflicted me. For a week I was allowed to weep as much as I +pleased; but at the end of that time, Madame Tchoglokoff came to tell me +that I had wept enough,--that the Empress ordered me to leave off,--that +my father was not a king. I told her, I knew that he was not a king; and +she replied, that it was not suitable for a Grand Duchess to mourn for a +longer period a father who had not been a king. In fine, it was arranged +that I should go out on the following Sunday, and wear mourning for six +weeks." + +It is worthy of especial note that these people, though they led this +sensual, selfish, heartless life, trampling on natural affection and +doing as they would not be done by, prided themselves very much on the +orthodoxy of their faith, were sorely afraid of going to hell, and were +consequently very regular and rigid in the performance of their +religious duties. Catharine was no whit behind the rest in this respect. +Though bred a Lutheran, she was most exemplary in her observance of all +the requirements of the Greek Church; and even carried her hypocrisy so +far, that, when, on occasion of a dangerous and probably fatal illness, +it was proposed that she should see a Lutheran clergyman, she replied by +asking for Simon Theodorsky, a prelate of the Greek Church, who came and +had an edifying interview with her. And all this was done, as she says, +for effect, chiefly with the soldiers and common people, among whom it +made a sensation and was much talked of. This, by the way, is the only +reference which occurs in the Memoirs to any interest below that of the +highest nobility. As for the people of Russia, the right to draw their +blood with the knout and make them sweat roubles into the royal treasury +was taken as much for granted as the light and the air, by those who, +either through fraud or force, could sit in the seat of Peter the Great. +They regarded it as no less an appanage or perquisite of that seat than +the jewels in the imperial diadem, and would as soon have thought of +defending a title to the one as to the other. And the possession of the +throne, with the necessary consent of the dominant party of the high +nobility, seems to have been, and still to be, the only requisite for +the unquestioned exercise of this power; for, as to legitimacy and +divine dynastic right, was not Catharine I. a Livoman peasant? Catharine +II. a German princess, who dethroned and put to death the grandson of +Peter the Great? and does she not confess in these Memoirs that her son, +the Emperor Paul, was not the son of Peter's grandson, but of Sergius +Soltikoff? so that in the reigning house of Russia there is not a drop +of the blood of Romanoff. And Catharine's confession, which M. Herzen +emphasizes so strongly, conveys to the Russian nobles no new knowledge +on this subject; for an eminent Russian publicist being asked, on the +appearance of this book, if it were generally known in Russia that Paul +was the son of Soltikoff, replied,--"No one who knew anything ever +doubted it." And perhaps the descendants of the Boiards are quite +content that their sovereign should have illegally sprung from the loins +of a member of one of the oldest and noblest of the purely Russian +families, rather than from those of a prince of the petty house of +Holstein Gottorp. But then what is this principle of Czarism, which is +not a submission to divine right, but which causes one man to sustain, +perhaps to place, another in a position which puts his own life at the +mercy of the other's mere caprice? + +Catharine tells many trifling, but interesting incidents, of various +nature, in these Memoirs: of how, after the birth of her first child, +she was left utterly alone and neglected, so that she famished with +thirst for the lack of some one to bring her water; how her child was +taken from her at its birth, and kept from her, she hardly being allowed +even to see it; how it was always wrapped in fox-skins and seal-skins, +till it lay in a continual bath of perspiration; how the members of the +royal family itself were so badly accommodated, that sometimes they were +made ill by walking through passages open to wind and rain, and +sometimes stifled by over-crowded rooms; how at the imperial +masquerades, during one season, the men were ordered to appear in +women's dresses, and the women in the _propria quae maribus,_--the +former hideous in large whaleboned petticoats and high feathered +head-dresses, the latter looking like scrubby little boys with very +thick legs,--and all that the Empress Elizabeth might show her tall and +graceful figure and what beautiful things she used to walk with, which +Catharine says were the handsomest that she ever saw; how in this court, +where marriage was the mere shadow of a bond, it was yet deemed a matter +of the first nuptial importance that a lady of the court should have her +head dressed for the wedding by the hands of the Empress herself, or, if +she were too ill, by those of the Grand Duchess; how Catharine used, at +Oranienbaum, to dress herself from head to foot in male attire, and go +out in a skiff, accompanied only by an old huntsman, to shoot ducks and +snipe, sometimes doubling the Cape of Oranienbaum, which extends two +versts into the sea,--and how thus the fortunes of the Russian Empire, +during the latter half of the eighteenth century, were at the mercy of a +spring-tide, a gust of wind, or the tipping of a shallop. There is even +a recipe for removing tan and sunburn, which the beautiful Grand Duchess +used at the instance of the beautiful Empress; and, as both the imperial +belles testify to its great efficacy, it would be cruel not to give all +possible publicity to the fact that it was composed of white of egg, +lemon juice, and French brandy; but, alas! the proportion in which these +constituents are to be mixed is not recorded. + +Of the authenticity of these Memoirs there appears to be no reasonable +doubt, and we believe that none has been expressed. They were found, +after the death of Catharine, in a sealed envelope addressed to her son +Paul, in whose lifetime no one saw them but the friend of his childhood, +Prince Kourakine. He copied them; and, about twenty years after the +death of Paul, three or four copies were made from the Kourakine copy. +The Emperor Nicholas caused all these to be seized by the secret police, +and it is only since his death that one or two copies have again made +their appearance at Moscow (where the original is kept) and St. +Petersburg. From one of these M. Herzen made his transcript. They fail +to palliate any of Catharine's crimes, or in the least to brighten her +reputation, and add nothing to our knowledge of her sagacity and her +administrative talents; but they are yet not without very considerable +personal interest and historical value. + + +_Milch Cows and Dairy Farming_; comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and +Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and other Stock; the +Selection of Milch Cows, with a full Explanation of Guenon's Method; the +Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and +Cheese: embodying the most recent Improvements, and adapted to Farming +in the United States and British Provinces, with a Treatise upon the +Dairy Husbandry of Holland; to which is added Horsfall's System of Dairy +Management. By CHARLES L. FLINT, Secretary of the Massachusetts State +Board of Agriculture; Author of a Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants. +Liberally illustrated. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. pp. 416. + +This very useful treatise contains a full account of the best breeds of +cattle and of the most approved methods of crossing so as to develop +qualities particularly desirable; directions for choosing good milkers +by means of certain natural signs; a description of the most useful +grasses and other varieties of fodder; and very minute instructions for +the making of good butter and the proper arrangement and care of +dairies. The author has had the advantage of practical experience as a +dairyman, while his position as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of +Agriculture has afforded him more than common opportunity of learning +the experience of others. + +A volume of this kind cannot fail to commend itself to farmers and +graziers, and will be found valuable also by those who are lucky enough +to own a single cow. The production of good milk, butter, and meat is a +matter of interest to all classes in the community alike; and Mr. +Flint's book, by pointing out frankly the mistakes and deficiencies in +the present methods of our farmers and dairymen, and the best means of +remedying them, will do a good and much-needed service to the public. He +shows the folly of the false system of economy which thinks it good +farming to get the greatest quantity of milk with the least expenditure +of fodder, and which regards poor stock as cheaper because it costs less +money in the original outlay. + +If Dean Swift was right in saying that he who makes two blades of grass +grow where one grew before is of more service to mankind than he who +takes a city, we should be inclined to rank him hardly second as a +benefactor of his race who causes one pound of good butter to be made +where two pounds of bad were made before. We believe that more unsavory +and unwholesome grease is consumed in the United States under the +_alias_ of butter than in any other civilized country, and we trust that +a wide circulation of Mr. Flint's thoroughly executed treatise will tend +to reform a great and growing evil. The tendency in America has always +been to make a shift with what _will do_, rather than to insist on +having what is best; and we welcome this book as likely to act as a +corrective in one department, and that one of the most important. The +value of the volume is increased by numerous illustrations and a good +index. + + * * * * * + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + +The Young Housekeeper's Friend. By Mrs. Cornelius. Revised and Enlarged. +Boston. Brown, Taggard, & Chase. 12mo. pp. 254. 75 cts. + +The New and the Old; or California and India in Romantic Aspects. By +J.W. Palmer, M.D. With Thirteen Illustrations. New York. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9265] +[This file was first posted on September 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. IV, NO. 22, AUG., 1859 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Sandra Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. IV.--AUGUST, 1859.--NO. XXII. + + + + + + + + +THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN THE BIBLE. + + +We say dramatic element _in_ the Bible, not dramatic element _of_ the +Bible, since that of which we speak is not essential, but incidental; it +is an aspect of the form of the book, not an attribute of its +inspiration. + +By the use of the term _dramatic_ in this connection, let us, in the +outset, be understood to have no reference whatever to the theatre and +stage-effect, or to the sundry devices whereby the playhouse is made at +once popular and intolerable. Nor shall we anticipate any charge of +irreverence; since we claim the opportunity and indulge only the license +of the painter, who, in the treatment of Scriptural themes, seeks both +to embellish the sacred page and to honor his art,--and of the sculptor, +and the poet, likewise, each of whom, ranging divine ground, remarks +upon the objects there presented according to the law of his profession. +As the picturesque, the statuesque, the poetical in the Bible are +legitimate studies, so also the dramatic. + +But in the premises, is not the term _dramatic_ interdicted,--since it +is that which is not the Bible, but which is foreign to the Bible, and +even directly contradistinguished therefrom? The drama is +representation,--the Bible is fact; the drama is imitation,--the Bible +narrative; the one is an embodiment,--the other a substance; the one +transcribes the actual by the personal,--the other is a return to the +simplest originality; the one exalts its subjects by poetic +freedom,--the other adheres to prosaic plainness. + +Yet are there not points in which they meet, or in which, for the +purposes of this essay, they may be considered as coming together,--that +is, admitting of an artistical juxtaposition? + +In the first place, to take Shakspeare for a type of the drama, what, we +ask, is the distinguishing merit of this great writer? It is his +fidelity to Nature. Is not the Bible also equally true to Nature? "It is +the praise of Shakspeare," says Dr. Johnson, "that his plays are the +mirror of life." Was there ever a more consummate mirror of life than +the Bible affords? "Shakspeare copied the manners of the world then +passing before him, and has more allusions than other poets to the +traditions and superstitions of the vulgar." The Bible, perhaps, excels +all other books in this sort of description. "Shakspeare was an exact +surveyor of the inanimate world." The Bible is full of similar sketches. +An excellence of Shakspeare is the individuality of his characters. +"They are real beings of flesh and blood," the critics tell us; "they +speak like men, not like authors." How truly this applies to the persons +mentioned in sacred writ! Goethe has compared the characters of +Shakspeare to "watches with crystalline cases and plates, which, while +they point out with perfect accuracy the course of the hours and +minutes, at the same time disclose the whole combination of springs and +wheels whereby they are moved." A similar transparency of motive and +purpose, of individual traits and spontaneous action, belongs to the +Bible. From the hand of Shakspeare, "the lord and the tinker, the hero +and the valet, come forth equally distinct and clear." In the Bible the +various sorts of men are never confounded, but have the advantage of +being exhibited by Nature herself, and are not a contrivance of the +imagination. "Shylock," observes a recent critic, "seems so much a man +of Nature's making, that we can scarce accord to Shakspeare the merit of +creating him." What will you say of Balak, Nabal, Jeroboam? "Macbeth is +rather guilty of tempting the Weird Sisters than of being tempted by +them, and is surprised and horrified at his own hell-begotten +conception." Saul is guilty of tampering with the Witch of Endor, and is +alarmed at the Ghost of Samuel, whose words distinctly embody and +vibrate the fears of his own heart, and he "falls straightway all along +on the earth." "The exquisite refinement of Viola triumphs over her +masculine attire." The exquisite refinement of Ruth triumphs in the +midst of men. + +We see there are points in which dramatic representation and Scriptural +delineation mutually touch. + +A distinguished divine of Connecticut said he wanted but two books in +his library, the Bible and Shakspeare,--the one for religion, the other +to be his instructor in human nature. In the same spirit, St. Chrysostom +kept a copy of Aristophanes under his pillow, that he might read it at +night before he slept and in the morning when he waked. The strong and +sprightly eloquence of this father, if we may trust tradition, drew its +support from the vigorous and masculine Atticism of the old comedian. + +But human nature, in every stage of its development and every variety of +its operation, is as distinctly pronounced on the pages of Scripture as +in the scenes of the dramatist. Of Shakespeare it is said, "He turned +the globe round for his amusement, and surveyed the generations of men, +and the individuals as they passed, with their different concerns, +passions, follies, vices, virtues, actions, and motives." He has been +called the "thousand-minded," the "oceanic soul." The Bible creates the +world and peoples it, and gives us a profound and universal insight into +all its concerns. + +Another peculiarity of Shakspeare is his self-forgetfulness. In reading +what is written, you do not think of him, but of his productions. "The +perfect absence of himself from his own pages makes it difficult for us +to conceive of a human being having written them." This remark applies +with obvious force to the Bible. The authors of the several books do not +thrust themselves upon your notice, or interfere with your meditations +on what they have written; indeed, to such an extent is this +self-abeyance maintained, that it is impossible, at this period of time, +to determine who are the authors of some of the books. The narrative of +events proceeds, for the most part, as if the author had never existed. +How _naively_ and perspicuously everything is told, without the +colouring of prejudice, or an infusion of egotism on the part of the +writer! + +Coleridge says, Shakspeare gives us no moral highwaymen, no sentimental +thieves and rat-catchers, no interesting villains, no amiable +adulteresses. The Bible even goes farther than this, and is faithful to +the foibles and imperfections of its favorite characters, and describes +a rebellious Moses, a perjured David, a treacherous Peter. + +"In nothing does Shakspeare so deeply and divinely touch the heart of +humanity as in the representation of woman." We have the grandeur of +Portia, the sprightliness of Rosalind, the passion of Juliet, the +delicacy of Ophelia, the mournful dignity of Hermione, the filial +affection of Cordelia. How shall we describe the Pythian greatness of +Miriam, the cheerful hospitality of Sarah, the heroism of Rahab, the +industry of Dorcas, the devotion of Mary? And we might set off Lady +Macbeth with Jezebel, and Cleopatra with Delilah. + +But the Bible, it may be said, so far as the subject before us is +concerned, is chiefly historical, while Shakspeare is purely dramatic. +The one is description,--the other action; the one relates to +events,--the other to feelings; the department of the one is the general +course of human affairs,--that of the other, the narrower circle of +individual experience; the field of the one is that which the eye of +philosophy may embrace,--while that of the other is what the human frame +may portray. + +However this may apply to the average of history, it will be found that +the Bible, in its historical parts, is not so strictly historical as to +preclude associations of another sort. The Bible is remarkable for a +visual and embodied relief, a bold and vivid detail. We know of no book, +if we may except the compositions of professed dramatists, that contains +so much of personal feeling and incident. In simplicity and directness, +in freedom from exaggeration, and in the general unreserve of its +expression, it even exceeds the most of these. In it we may discover a +succession of little dramas of Nature that will affect us quite as +profoundly as those larger ones of Art. + +If the structure of the drama be dialogistic, we find the Bible formed +on the same model. If the writers of the former disappear under the +personages of their fancy, the writers of the latter disappear under the +personages of fact. As in the one, so in the other, strangers are +introduced to tell their own story, each in his own way. + +In the commencement of the Bible, after a brief prologue, the curtain +rises, and we, as spectators, look in upon a process of interlocution. +The scene is the green, sunny garden of Eden, that to which the memory +of humanity reverts as to its dim golden age, and which ever expresses +the bright dream of our youth, ere the rigor of misfortune or the +dulness of experience has spoilt it. The _dramatis personae_ are three +individuals, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. There are the mysterious tree, +with its wonderful fruit,--the beautiful, but inquisitive woman,--the +thoughtful, but too compliant man,--and the insinuating reptile. One +speaks, the other rejoins, and the third fills up the chasm of interest. +The plot thickens, the passions are displayed, and the tragedy hastens +to its end. Then is heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool +(the wind) of the garden, the impersonal presence of Jehovah is, as it +were, felt in the passing breeze, and a shadow falls upon the +earth,--but such a shadow as their own patient toil may dissipate, and +beyond the confines of which their hope, which has now taken the place +of enjoyment, is permitted ever to look. + +Without delaying on the moral of this passage, what we would remark upon +is the clearness and freedom of the dialogue,--a feature which we find +pervading the whole of the sacred writings. + +In the account of Cain, which immediately succeeds, the narrative is +inelaborate, casual, secondary; the dialogue is simple and touching. The +agony of the fratricide and his remorse are better expressed by his own +lips than could be done by any skill of the historian. + +In the deception which Abraham put upon the Egyptians, touching his +wife,--which it is no part of our present object to justify or to +condemn,--what a stroke of pathos, what a depth of conjugal sentiment, +is exhibited! "Thou art a fair woman to look upon, and the Egyptians, +when they see thee, will kill me and save thee alive. _Say, I pray thee, +thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my +soul shall live because of thee_." + +Viola appears very interesting and very innocent, when, in boy's +clothes, she wanders about in pursuit of a lover. Is not Sarah equally +interesting and equally innocent, when, under cover of an assumed name, +and that a sister's, she would preserve the love of one who has worthily +won it? + +Will it be said that the dialogue of the Bible lacks the charm of +poetry?--that its action and sentiment, its love and its sorrow, are not +heightened by those efforts of the fancy which delight us in dramatic +authors?--that its simplicity is bald, and its naturalness rough?--that +its excessive familiarity repels taste and disturbs culture? If we may +trust Wordsworth, simplicity is not inconsistent with the pleasures of +the imagination. The style of the Bible is not redundant,--there is +little extravagance in it, and it has no trickery of words. Yet this +does not prevent its being deep in sentiment, brilliant with intrinsic +thought or powerful effect. + +In the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Valentine thus utters himself touching +his betrothed:-- + + "What light is light, if Sylvia be not seen? + What joy is joy, if Sylvia be not by? + Except I see my Sylvia in the night, + There is no music in the nightingale. + Unless I look on Sylvia in the day, + There is no day for me to look upon. + She is my essence; and I cease to be, + If I be not by her fair influence + Fostered, illumined, cherished, kept alive." + +Compare with this the language of Abraham. "Thou art fair, my wife. Say, +I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy +sake, and my soul shall live because of thee." The first is an instance +of poetic amplification and _abandon_; we should contend, for the last, +that it expresses poetic tenderness and delicacy. In the one case, +passion is diffuse,--in the other, concentrated. Which is the more +natural, others must judge. + +"Euthanasy," "Theron and Aspasio," the "Phaedon" of Plato are dialogues, +but they are not dramatic. It may be, that, for a composition to claim +this distinction, it must embody great character or deep feeling,--that +it must express not only the individuality, but the strength of the +passions. + +Observing this criticism, we think we may find any quantity of dramatic +dialogue in Scripture. The story of Joseph, the march in the wilderness, +the history of David, are full of it. + +There are not only dramatic dialogue and movement, but dramatic +monologue and episode. For illustration, we might refer to Hagar in the +wilderness. Her tragic loneliness and shuddering despair alight upon the +page of Scripture with the interest that attends the introduction of the +veiled Niobe with her children into the Grecian theatre. + +There are those who say, that the truth of particular events, so far as +we are conscious of it, is a drawback on the pleasure as well as the +dignity of the drama,--in other words, that the Bible is too true to +afford what is called dramatic delight, while the semblance of truth in +Shakspeare is exactly graduated to this particular affection. Between +the advocates of this theory, and those who say that Shakspeare is true +as truth itself, we can safely leave the point. + +The subject has another aspect, which appears in the inquiry, What is +the true object of the drama? If, as has been asserted, the object of +the drama be the exhibition of the human character,--if, agreeably to +Aristotle, tragedy purifies the affections by terror and pity,--or if, +according to a recent writer, it interests us through the moral and +religious principles of our nature,--or even if, according to Dr. +Johnson, it be the province of comedy to bring into view the customs, +manners, vices, and the whole character of a people,--it is obvious that +the Bible and the drama have some correspondence. If, in the somewhat +heated language of Mrs. Jameson, "whatever in religion is holy and +sublime, in virtue amiable and grave, whatever hath passion or +admiration in the changes of fortune or the refluxes of feeling, +whatever is pitiful in the weakness, grand in the strength, or terrible +in the perversion of the human intellect," be the domain of tragedy, +this correspondence increases upon us. + +If, however, it be the object of the drama to divert, then it occupies a +wholly different ground from the Bible. If it merely gratifies curiosity +or enlivens pastime, if it awakens emotion without directing it to +useful ends, if it rallies the infirmities of human nature with no other +design than to provoke our derision or increase our conceit, it shoots +very, very wide of the object which the sacred writers propose. + +It is worthy to be remarked, that the Jews had no drama, or nothing that +answers to our idea of that term at the present time; they had no +theatres, no writers of tragedy or comedy. Neither are there any traces +of the dramatic art among the Egyptians, among whom the Jews sojourned +four hundred years, nor among the Arabs or the Persians, who are of +kindred stock with this people. On the other hand, by the Hindoos and +Chinese, the Greeks and Romans, histrionic representation was cultivated +with assiduity. + +How shall we explain this national peculiarity? Was it because the +religion of the Jews forbade creative imitation? Is it to be found in +the letter or the spirit of the second commandment, which interdicts the +making of graven images of any pattern in earth or heaven? We should +hardly think so, since the object of this prohibition is rather to +prevent idolatry than to discourage the gratification of taste. "Thou +shalt not bow down to them nor serve them." The Jews did have emblematic +observances, costume, and works of art. Yet, on the other hand, the Jews +possessed something resembling the drama, and that out of which the +dramatic institutions of all nations have sprung. The question, then, +why the Jews had no drama proper, and still preserved the semblance and +germ thereof, will be partially elucidated by a reference to the early +history of dramatic art. + +In its inception, the drama, among all nations, was a religious +observance. It came in with the chorus and the ode. The chorus, or, as +we now say, choir, was a company of persons who on stated occasions sang +sacred songs, accompanying their music with significant gesture, and an +harmonious pulsation of the feet, or the more deliberate march. The ode +or song they sang was of an elevated structure and impassioned tone, and +was commonly addressed to the Divinity. Instances of the ode are the +lyrics of Pindar and David. The chorus was also divided into parts, to +each of which was assigned a separate portion of the song, and which +answered one another in alternate measures. A good instance of the +chorus and its movement appears after the deliverance of the Jews from +the dangers of the Red Sea. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel +this song unto the Lord: 'I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously,'" etc. "And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel +in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with +dances; and Miriam answered them, 'Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously.'" At a later period, in Jewish as in Greek +history, choral exercises became a profession, and the choir constituted +a detached portion of men and women. + +"Those who have studied the history of Grecian antiquities," says +Archbishop Potter, "and collected the fragments which remain of the most +ancient authors, have all concurred in the opinion, that poetry was +first employed in celebrating the praises of the gods. The fragments of +the Orphic hymns, and those of Linus and Musaeus, show these poets +entertained sounder notions of the Supreme Being than many philosophers +of a later date. There are lyric fragments yet remaining that bear +striking resemblance to Scripture." + +So, says Bishop Horne, "The poetry of the Jews is clearly traceable to +the service of religion. To celebrate the praises of God, to decorate +his worship, and give force to devout sentiments, was the employment of +the Hebrew Muse." + +The choral song, that is, a sacred ode united with appropriate action, +distinguished the Jews and Greeks alike. At a later period of Jewish +history, the chorus became perfected, yet without receiving any organic +change. Among the Greeks, however, the chorus passed by degrees into the +drama. To simple singing and dancing they added a variety of imitative +action; from celebrating the praises of the Divinity, they proceeded to +represent the deeds of men, and their orchestras were enlarged to +theatres. They retained the chorus, but subordinated it to the action. +The Jews, on the other hand, did no more than dramatize the chorus. So, +Bishop Horsley says, the greater part of the Psalms are a sort of +dramatic ode, consisting of dialogues between certain persons sustaining +certain characters. In these psalms, the persons are the writer himself +and a band of Levites,--or sometimes the Supreme Being, or a personation +of the Messiah. + +We find, then, the Jews and the Greeks running parallel in respect of +the drama, or that out of which the drama sprung, the chorus, for a long +series of years. The practice of the two nations in this respect +exhibits a striking coincidence, indeed, Lowth conceives that the Song +of Solomon bears a strong resemblance to the Greek drama. "The chorus of +virgins," he says, "seems in every respect congenial to the tragic +chorus of the Greeks. They are constantly present, and prepared to +fulfil all the duties of advice and consolation; they converse +frequently with the different characters; they take part in the whole +business of the poem." They fulfilled, in a word, all the purpose of the +Greek chorus on the Greek stage. + +On certain occasions, the Greek chorus celebrated divine worship in the +vicinity of the great altar of their god. Clad in magnificent vestments, +they move to solemn measures about it; they ascend and descend the steps +that lead to it; they offer sacrifices upon it; they carry in their +hands lighted torches; they pour out lustral water; they burn incense; +they divide into antiphonal bands, and sing alternate stanzas of their +sacred songs. + +So, in their religious festivals, the Jewish chorus surrounded the high +altar of their worship, gorgeously dressed, and with an harmonious +tread; they mounted and remounted the steps; they offered sacrifices; +they bore branches of trees in their hands; they scattered the lustral +water; they burnt incense; they pealed the responsive anthem. + +But while we follow down the stream of resemblance to a certain point, +it divides at last: on the Greek side, it is diverted into the lighter +practice of the theatre; on the Jewish side, it seems to deepen itself +in the religious feeling of the nation. + +Aeschylus, the father of tragedy, seizing upon the chorus, elaborated it +into the drama. The religious idea, indeed, seems never to have deserted +the gentile drama; for, at a later period, we find the Romans appointing +theatrical performances with the special design of averting the anger of +the gods. A religious spirit, also, pervades all the writings of the +ancient dramatists; they bring the gods to view, and the terrors of the +next world, on their stage, are seen crowding upon the sins of this. + +On the other hand, David, who may be denominated the Alfred of the Jews, +seems to have contented himself with the chorus; he allotted its +members, disciplined its ranks, heightened its effect, and supplied new +lyrics for its use. + +Another exemplification of singular coincidence and diversity between +the two nations appears in this, that the goat was common in the +religious observances of both; a similar ritual required the sacrifice +of this animal: but with the Jews the creature was an emblem of +solemnity, while with the Greeks he was significant of joy; the Jews +sacrificed him on their fasts,--the Greeks in their feasts. And here we +may observe, that tragedy, the most dignified and the primitive form of +the drama, deduces its origin from the goat,--being, literally, the song +of the goat, that is, the song accompanying the sacrifice of the goat. + +Let us now endeavor to answer the question, Why, since the drama was +generally introduced among surrounding nations, and Jewish customs and +life comprised so many initial dramatic materials, this art was not +known among that people? + +It was owing to the earnestness and solemnity of their religious faith. +We find the cause in the simple, exalted, and comparatively spiritual +ideas they had of the Supreme Being; in a word, we shall state the whole +ground to be this,--that the Greeks were polytheists, and the Jews +monotheists. + +Let us bear in mind that the chorus, and the drama that was built upon +it, had a religious association, and were employed in religious +devotion. We may add, moreover, that the Greeks introduced their gods +upon the stage; this the Jews could not do. The Greeks, of course, had a +great deal of religious feeling, but they could not cherish that +profound reverence for the object of their worship which the Jews +entertained towards theirs. The Jews accompanied the Greeks in the use +of the chorus, but they could not go with them any farther. They both +united in employing music and the dance, and all the pomp of procession +and charm of ceremony, in divine worship; but when it came to displaying +the object of their adoration in personal form to the popular eye, and +making him an actor on the stage, however dignified that stage might be, +the Jews could not consent. + +This, we think, will explain, in part, why others of the ancient +nations, the Arabs and Persians, rich as they were in every species of +literature, had no theatre; they were monotheists. + +But there is the department of comedy, of a lighter sort, which does not +converse with serious subjects, or necessarily include reference to +Deity; why do we find no trace of this among the Jews? We may remember, +that all festivals, in very ancient time, of every description, the +grave and the gay, the penitential and the jubilant, had a religious +design, and were suggested by a religious feeling. We think the peculiar +cast of the Judaic faith would hardly embody itself in such a mode of +expression. Moreover, tragedy was the parent of comedy,--and since the +Jews had not the first, we should hardly expect them to produce the +last. It is not difficult to perceive how the Greeks could convert their +goat to dramatic, or even to comic purposes; but the Jews could not deal +so with theirs. + +We approach another observation, that there is no comedy in the Bible. +There is tragedy there,--not in the sense in which we have just denied +that the Jews had tragedy, but in the obvious sense of tragic elements, +tragic scenes, tragic feelings. In the same sense, we say, there are no +comic elements, or scenes, or feelings. There is that in the Bible to +make you weep, but nothing to move you to laughter. Why is this? Are +there not smiles as well as tears in life? Have we not a deep, joyous +nature, as well as aspiration, reverence, awe? Is there not a +free-and-easy side of existence, as well as vexation and sorrow? We +assent that these things are so. + +But comedy implies ridicule, sharp, corroding ridicule. The comedy of +the Greeks ridiculed everything,--persons, characters, opinions, +customs, and sometimes philosophy and religion. Comedy became, +therefore, a sort of consecrated slander, lyric spite, aesthetical +buffoonery. Comedy makes you laugh at somebody's expense; it brings +multitudes together to see it inflict death on some reputation; it +assails private feeling with all the publicity and powers of the stage. + +Now we doubt if the Jewish faith or taste would tolerate this. The Jews +were commanded to love their neighbor. We grant, their idea of neighbor +was excessively narrow and partial; but still it was their neighbor. +They were commanded not to bear false witness against their neighbor, +and he was pronounced accursed who should smite his neighbor secretly. +It might appear that comedy would violate each of these statutes. But +the Jews had their delights, their indulgences, their transports, +notwithstanding the imperfection of their benevolence, the meagreness of +their truth, and the cumbersomeness of their ceremonials. The Feast of +Tabernacles, for instance, was liberal and happy, bright and smiling; it +was the enthusiasm of pastime, the psalm of delectableness. They did not +laugh at the exposure of another's foibles, but out of their own merry +hearts. + +Will it be said, the Bible is not true to Nature, if it does not +represent the comical side of life, as well as Shakspeare does? We think +the comical parts of Shakspeare, his extreme comical parts, are rather +an exaggeration of individual qualities than a fair portraiture of the +whole species. There is no Falstaff in the Bible, yet the qualities of +Falstaff exist in the Bible and in Nature, but in combination, and this +combination modifies their aspect and effect. + +There is laughter in the Bible, but it is not uttered to make you laugh. +There are also events recorded, which, at the time, may have produced +effects analogous to comedy. The approach of the Gibeonites to the camp +of Israel in their mock-beggarly costume might be mentioned. Shimei's +cursing David has always seemed to us to border on the ludicrous. + +But to leave these matters and return to the general thread of thought. +Dramas have been formed on the Bible. We hardly need name "Paradise +Lost," or "Samson Agonistes," or the "Cain" of Byron, the "Hadad" of +Hillhouse, or Mrs. More's "David and Goliah." "Pilgrim's Progress" has a +Scriptural basis. + +Moreover, if we may trust the best critics, certain portions of the +sacred volume are conceived in a dramatic spirit, and are propounded to +a dramatic interpretation. These are the Book of Job, the Song of +Solomon, and, possibly, the Apocalypse of St. John. If we were disposed +to contend for this view, we need but mention such authorities as +Calmet, Carpzov, Bishops Warburton, Percy, Lowth, Bossuet. + +The Book of Job has a prose prologue and epilogue, the intermediate +portions being poetic dialogue. The characters are discriminated and +well supported. It does not preserve the unities of Aristotle, which, +indeed, are found neither in the Bible nor in Nature,--which Shakspeare +neglects, and which are to be met with only in the crystalline +artificialness of the French stage. "It has no plot, not even of the +simplest kind," says Dr. Lowth. It has a plot,--not an external and +visible one, but an internal and spiritual one; its incidents are its +feelings, its progress is the successive conditions of mind, and it +terminates with the triumph of virtue. If it be not a record of actual +conversation, it is an embodiment of a most wonderful ideality. The +eternity of God, the grandeur of Nature, the profundity of the soul, +move in silent panorama before you. The great and agitating problems of +human existence are depicted with astonishing energy and precision, and +marvellous is the conduct of the piece to us who behold it as a painting +away back on the dark canvas of antiquity. + +We said the Jews had no drama, no theatre, because they would not +introduce the Divinity upon the stage. Yet God appears speaking in the +Book of Job, not bodily, but ideally, and herein is all difference. This +drama addresses the imagination, not the eye. The Greeks brought their +divinities into sight, stood them on the stage,--or clothed a man with +an enormous mask, and raised him on a pedestal, giving him also +corresponding apparel, to represent their god. The Hebrew stage, if we +may share the ordinary indulgence of language in using that term, with +an awe and delicacy suitable to the dignity of the subject, permits the +Divinity to speak, but does not presume to employ his person; the +majesty of Infinitude utters itself, but no robe-maker undertakes to +dress it for the occasion. In the present instance, how exalted, how +inspiring, is the appearance of God! how free from offensive diminution +and costumal familiarity! "Then the Lord answered Job out of the +whirlwind, and said." Dim indeed is the representation, but very +distinct is the impression. The phenomenon conforms to the purity of +feeling, not to the grossness of sense. Devotion is kindled by the +sublime impalpableness; no applause is enforced by appropriate acting. +The Greeks, would have played the Book of Job,--the Jews were contented +to read it. + +And here we might remark a distinction between dramatic reading and +dramatic seeing; and in support of our theory we can call to aid so good +an authority as Charles Lamb. "I cannot help being of opinion," says +this essayist, "that the plays of Shakspeare are less calculated for +performance on a stage than those of almost any other dramatist +whatever." + +How are the love dialogues of Romeo and Juliet, by the inherent fault of +stage representation, sullied and turned from their very nature by being +exposed to a large assembly! How can the profound sorrows of Hamlet be +depicted by a gesticulating actor? So, to see Lear acted, to see an old +man tottering about the stage with a walking-stick, turned out of doors +by his daughters in a rainy night, has nothing in it but what is painful +and disgusting. The contemptible machinery by which they mimic the storm +in which he goes out is not more inadequate to represent the horrors of +the real elements than any actor can be to represent Lear. In the acted +Othello, the black visage of the Moor is obtruded upon you; in the +written Othello, his color disappears in his mind. When Hamlet compares +the two pictures of Gertrude's first and second husband, who wants to +see the pictures? But in the acting, a miniature must be lugged out. "The +truth is," he adds, "the characters of Shakspeare are more the objects +of meditation than of interest or curiosity as to their actions." + +All this applies with force to what we have been saying. The Jews, in +respect of their dramatic culture, seem more like one who enjoys +Shakspeare in the closet; the Greeks, like those who are tolled off to +the theatre to see him acted. The Greeks would have contrived a pair of +bellows to represent the whirlwind; mystic, vast, inaudible, it passes +before the imagination of the Jew, and its office is done. The Jew would +be shocked to see his God in a human form; such a thing pleased the +Greek. The source of the difference is to be sought in the theology of +the two nations. The theological development of the Jews was very +complete,--that of the Greeks unfinished. + +Yet the Jews were very deficient in art, and the Greeks perfect; both +failed in humanity. The Greeks had more ideality than the Jews; but +their ideality was very intense; it was continually, so to speak, +running aground; it must see its conceptions embodied; and more,--when +they were embodied, Pygmalion-like, it must seek to imbue them with +motion and sensibility. The conception of the Jews was more vague, +perhaps, but equally affecting; they were satisfied with carrying in +their minds the faint outline of the sublime, without seeking to chisel +it into dimension and tangibility. They cherished in their bosoms their +sacred ideal, and worshipped from far the greatness of the majesty that +shaded their imaginations. Hence we look to Athens for art, to Palestine +for ethics; the one produces rhetoricians,--the other, prophets. + +So, we see, the theologico-dramatic forms of the two nations--and there +were no other--are different. The one pleases the prurient eye,--the +other gratifies the longing soul; the one amuses,--the other inspires; +the one is a hollow pageant of divine things,--the other is a glad, +solemn intimation from the unutterable heart of the universe. + +The Song of Solomon, that stumbling-block of criticism and pill of +faith, a recent writer regards as a parable in the form of a drama, in +which the bride is considered as representing true religion, the royal +lover as the Jewish people, and the younger sister as the Gospel +dispensation. But it is evidently conceived in a very different spirit +from the Book of Job or the Psalms of David, and its theological +character is so obscured by other associations as to lead many to +inquire whether an enlightened religious sensibility dictated it. + +We cannot dismiss this part of our subject without allusion to a species +of drama that prevailed in the Middle Ages, called Mysteries, or +Moralities. These were a sort of scenical illustration of the Sacred +Scripture, and the subjects were events taken sometimes from the New +Testament and sometimes from the Old. It is said they were designed to +supply the place of the Greek and Roman theatre, which had been banished +from the Church. The plays were written and performed by the clergy. +They seem to have first been employed to wile away the dulness of the +cloister, but were very soon introduced to the public. Adam and Eve in +Paradise, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection were theatrized. The effect +could hardly be salutary. The different persons of the Trinity appeared +on the stage; on one side of the scene stretched the yawning throat of +an immense wooden dragon; masked devils ran howling in and out. + +"In the year 1437,"--we follow the literal history, as we find it quoted +in D'Israeli,--"when the Bishop of Metz caused the Mystery of the +Passion to be represented near that city, God was an old gentleman, a +curate of the place, and who was very near expiring on the cross, had he +not been timely assisted. He was so enfeebled that another priest +finished his part. At the same time this curate undertook to perform the +Resurrection, which being a less difficult task, he did it admirably +well. Another priest, personating Judas, had like to have been stifled +while he hung on the tree, for his neck slipped. This being at length +luckily perceived, he was cut down, and recovered." In another instance, +a man who assumed the Supreme Being becoming nearly suffocated by the +paint applied to his face, it was wisely announced that for the future +the Deity should be covered by a cloud. These plays, carried about the +country, taken up by the baser sort of people, descended through all +degrees of farce to obscenity, and, in England, becoming entangled in +politics, at length disappeared. It is said they linger in Italy, and +are annually reproduced in Spain. + +The Bible is incapable of representation. For a man to act the Supreme +Being would be as revolting in idea as profane in practice. One may in +words portray the divine character, give utterance to the divine will. +This every preacher does. But to what is the effect owing? Not to +proprieties of attitude or arrangement of muscle, but to the spirit of +the man magnified and flooding with the great theme, and to the thought +of God that surrounds and subdues all; in other words, the imagination +is addressed, not the sight,--the sentiments and affections are engaged, +not the senses. As Lamb says of the Lear of Shakspeare, it cannot be +acted; so, with greater force, we may say of the Bible, it cannot be +acted. When we read or hear of the Passion of the Saviour, it is the +thought, the emotion, burning and seething within it, at which by +invisible contact our own thought and emotion catch fire; and the +capabilities of impersonation and manufacture are mocked by such a +subject. + +But the Bible abounds in dramatic situation, action, and feeling. This +has already been intimated; it only remains that we indicate some +examples. The history of David fulfils all the demands of dramatic +composition. It has the severe grandeur of Aeschylus, the moving +tenderness of Euripides, and the individual fidelity of Shakspeare. +Could this last-named writer, who, while he counterfeited Nature with +such success, was equally commended for his historical integrity,--could +Shakspeare have performed that service on this history, which Milton, +More, and others have undertaken on other portions of the sacred +volume,--could he have digested it into a regular dramatic form,--he +would have accomplished a work of rare interest. It would include the +characters of Samuel and Saul; it would describe the magnanimous +Jonathan and the rebellious Absalom; Nathan, Nabal, Goliah, Shimei, +would impart their respective features; it would be enriched with all +that is beautiful in woman's love or enduring in parental affection. It +is full of incident, and full of pathos. It verges towards the terrible, +it is shaken with the passionate, it rises into the heroic. Pursued in +the true spirit of Jewish theology, the awful presence of God would +overhang and pervade it, while the agency of his providence should +attend on the evolutions of events. + +There is one effect which, in the present arrangement of the canon, is +entirely lost to view, and which could be revived only by the +synchronizing of the Psalms with their proper epochs. For instance, the +eighth Psalm is referable to the youth of David, when he was yet leading +a shepherd life. The dramatic form of his history would detach this from +its present place, and insert it amid the occasions and in the years to +which it belongs. What a scene we should then have! The youthful David, +ruddy he was, and, withal, of a beautiful countenance, (marginal +reading, fair of eyes,) and goodly to look to; and he was a cunning +player on the harp. There is the glow of poetic enthusiasm in his eyes, +and the fervor of religious feeling in all his moods; as he tends his +flock amid the quietness and beauty of his native hills, he joins to the +aspirations of his soul the melodies of music. So the night overtakes +him, the labors of the day are past, his meditations withdraw him from +the society of men, he is alone with Nature and with God;--at such a +moment the spirit of composition and utterance is upon him, and he hymns +himself in those lofty and touching stanzas,-- + + "O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth! + When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, + The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, + What is man that thou art mindful of him, + And the son of man that thou carest for him? + Yet thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, + Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor; + Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hand, + Thou hast put all things under his feet,-- + All sheep and oxen, + Yea, and the beasts of the forest, + The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, + And whatsoever passes through the deep. + O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth!" + +Again, the fifty-seventh Psalm is assigned, in respect of place, to the +cave of En-gedi, into which David fled from the vengeance of Saul. Here, +surrounded by lofty rocks, whose promontories screen a wide extent of +vale, he breaks forth,-- + + "Have pity upon me, O God, have pity upon me, + For in thee doth my soul seek refuge! + Yea, in the shadow of thy wings do I take shelter, + Until these calamities be overpast!" + +Dramatically touched, and disposed according to the natural unities of +the subject, these sublime and affecting songs would appear on their +motive occasions, and be surrounded by their actual accompaniments. + +The present effect may be compared to that which would be felt, if we +should detach the songs of the artificial drama from their original +impulse and feeling, (for instance, the willow dirge of Desdemona, and +the fantastic moans of Ophelia,) and produce them in a parlor. Not but +that these lyrics have a universal fitness, and a value which no time +can change or circumstance diminish; but as we are looking at them +simply in a dramatic view, we claim the right to suggest their dramatic +force and pertinency. This effect, we might remark, is particularly and +most truthfully regarded in the Lament of David over Saul and Jonathan. +That monody would be shorn of its interest, if it were inserted anywhere +else. The Psalms are more impersonal and more strictly religious than +that, and hence their universal application; only we say, we can easily +conceive that the revival of them in the order of their history, and in +all the purity of their native pathos, would render them more +attractive. + +In connection with what we would further observe of the Psalms of David, +let us again call attention to the ancient chorus,--how it was a species +of melodrama, how it sang its parts, and comprised distinct vocalists +and musicians, who pursued the piece in alternate rejoinder. What we +would observe is, that many of the Psalms were written for the chorus, +and, so to speak, were performed by it. There are some of them which it +is impossible to understand without attention to this dramatic method of +rehearsal. Psalm cxviii., for instance, includes several speakers. Psalm +xxiv. was composed on the occasion of the transfer of the ark to the +tabernacle on Mount Zion. And David, we read, and all the house of +Israel, brought up the ark with shouting and with the sound of the +trumpet. In the midst of the congregated nation, supported by a varied +instrumental accompaniment, with the smoke of the well-fed altar surging +into the skies, the chorus took up the song which had been prepared to +their hand,--one group calling out, "Who shall ascend into the hill of +the Lord?"--the other pealing their answer, "He that hath clean hands +and a pure heart." Meanwhile, they dance before the Lord,--that is, we +suppose, preserving with their feet the unities of the music. + +It was during a melodrama like this, in the midst of its exciting +grandeur and all-pervading transport, executed at the Feast of +Tabernacles, in the open area of the Temple, when the Jews were wont to +pour upon the altar water taken from the pool of Siloam, chanting at the +same time the twelfth chapter of Isaiah, and one division of the chorus +had just sung the words,-- + + "With joy we draw water from the wells of salvation," + +and before the other had replied,--it was at this moment, that Christ, +as Dr. Furness very reasonably conjectures, took up the response in his +own person, and overwhelmed attention by that memorable declaration, "If +any man thirst, let him come to me and drink; and from within him shall +flow rivers of living water." + +It is what we may term the dramatic proprieties that give to many of the +Psalms, in the language of a recent commentator, "a greater degree of +fitness, spirit, and grandeur"; and they impart to the history of David +a certain decorousness of illustration and perspicuity of feature which +it would not otherwise possess. They would produce upon it the same +result as is achieved by the sister arts on this and other portions of +the sacred volume, without marring the text or doing violence to truth. +Not, let us repeat, that the Bible can be theatrized. Neither church nor +playhouse can revive the forms of Judaism, without recalling its lost +spirit. And that must be a bold hand, indeed, that shall undertake to +mend again the shivered vail of the Temple, or collect from its ruins a +ritual which He that was greater than Solomon typically denounced in +foretelling the overthrow of that gorgeous pile. The Bible, as to its +important verities and solemn doctrine, is transparent to the +imagination and affections, and does not require the mediation of dumb +show or scenic travesty. + +It is not difficult to trace many familiar dramatic resemblances in the +Old Testament. Shakspeare, who was certainly well read in the Bible and +frequently quotes it, in the composition of Lear may have had David and +Absalom in mind; the feigned madness of Hamlet has its prototype in that +of David; Macbeth and the Weird Sisters have many traits in common with +Saul and the Witch of Endor. Jezebel is certainly a suggestive study for +Lady Macbeth. The whole story has its key in that verse where we read, +"There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work +wickedness in the sight of the Lord, _whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred +up_." As in the play, so in this Scripture, we have the unrestrained and +ferocious ambition of the wife conspiring with the equally cruel, but +less hardy ambition of the husband. When Macbeth had murdered sleep, +when he could not screw his courage to the sticking-point, when his +purpose looked green and pale, his wife stings him with taunts, scathes +him with sarcasm, and by her own energy of intellect and storm of will +arouses him to action. So Ahab came in heavy and displeased, and laid +him down on his bed, and turned away his face, and so his wife inflames +him with the sharpness of her rebuke. "Why art thou sad?" she asks. +"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, eat bread, and be +merry!" The lust of regal and conjugal pride, intermixed, works in both. +Jezebel, whose husband was a king, would crown him with kingly deeds. +Lady Macbeth, whose husband was a prince, would see him crowned a king. +Jezebel would aggrandize empire, which her unlawful marriage thereto had +jeoparded. Lady Macbeth will run the risk of an unlawful marriage with +empire, if she may thereby aggrandize it. Jezebel is insensible to +patriotic feelings,--Lady Macbeth to civil and hospitable duties. The +Zidonian woman braves the vengeance of Jehovah,--the Scotch woman dares +the Powers of Darkness; the one is incited by the oracles of Baal,--the +other by the predictions of witches. Lady Macbeth has more intellectual +force,--Jezebel more moral decision; Lady Macbeth exhibits great +imagination,--Jezebel a stronger will. As the character of Lady Macbeth +is said to be relieved by the affection she shows for her husband, so is +that of Jezebel by her tenderness for Ahab. The grandness of the +audacity with which Jezebel sends after the prophet Elisha, saying, "So +let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life +of one of them by to-morrow about this time," has its counterpart in the +lofty terror of the invocation which Lady Macbeth makes to the "spirits +that wait on mortal thoughts,"-- + + "Fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full + Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, + Stop up the access and the passage of remorse! + . . . . Come to my woman's breasts, + And take my milk for gall, ye murdering ministers!" + +But the last moments of these excessive characters are singularly +contrasted. Jezebel scoffs at approaching retribution, and, shining with +paint and dripping with jewels, is pitched to the dogs; Lady Macbeth +goes like a coward to her grave, and, curdled with remorse, receives the +stroke of doom. + +If Shakspeare and the Old Testament are a just manifestation of human +nature, the New is so different, its representation would seem to be +almost fanciful or fallacious; or if the latter be accepted, the former +would seem to be discarded. But both are faithful to the different ages +and phases of man. The one is a dispensation of force,--the other of +love; the one could make nothing perfect,--but the bringing in of a +better covenant makes all things perfect. Through the tempest and storm, +the brutality and lust of the Greek tragedians, and even of the +barbarous times on which Shakspeare builds many of his plays, through +the night of Judaical back-slidings, idolatry, and carnal commandments, +we patiently wait, and gladly hail the morning of the Sun of +Righteousness. The New Testament is a green, calm, island, in this +heaving, fearful ocean of dramatic interest. How delightful is +everything there, and how elevated! how glad, and how solemn! how +energetic, and how tranquil! What characters, what incident, what +feeling! Yet how different! So different, indeed, from what elsewhere +appears, that we are compelled to ask, Can this be that same old +humanity whose passions, they tell us, are alike in all ages, and the +emphatic turbulence of which constitutes so large a portion of history? + +But how shall we describe what is before us? The events open, if we may +draw a term from our subject, with a prologue spoken by angels,-- + + "Peace on earth, and good-will towards men." + +There had been Jezebels and Lady Macbeths enough; the memory of David +still smelt of blood; the Roman eagles were gorging their beaks on human +flesh; and the Samaritan everywhere felt the gnawing, shuddering sense +of hatred and scorn. No chorus appears answering to chorus, praising the +god of battles, or exulting in the achievements of arms; but the +sympathies of Him who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities +answer to the wants and woes of the race, and every thoughtful mind +ecstatically encores. The inexorable Fate of the Greeks does not appear, +but a good Providence interferes, and Heaven smiles graciously upon the +scene. There is passion, indeed, grief and sorrow, sin and +suffering,--but the tempest-stiller is here, who breathes tranquillity +upon the waters, and pours serenity into the turbid deep. The Niobe of +humanity, stiff and speechless, with her enmarbled children, that used +sometimes to be introduced on the Athenian stage for purposes of terror +or pity, is here restored to life, and she renders thanks for her +deliverance and participates in the general joy to which the piece gives +birth. No murderers of the prophets are hewn in pieces before the Lord; +but from the agonies of the cross and the depths of a preternatural +darkness, the tender cry is heard, on behalf of the murderers of the Son +of God, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" No +Alcestis is exhibited, doomed to destruction to save the life of her +husband,--but One appears, moving cheerfully, voluntarily, forwards, to +what may be termed the funeral pile of the world, from which, +phoenix-like, he rises, and gloriously ascends, drawing after him the +hearts, the love, the worship of millions of spectators. The key of the +whole piece is Redemption, the spirit that actuates is Love. The chief +actors, indeed, are Christ and Man; but innumerable subsidiary +personages are the Charities. The elements of a spiritualized existence +act their part. Humanity is not changed in its substance, but in its +tendencies; the sensibilities exist, but under a divine culture. Stephen +is as heroic as Agamemnon, Mary as energetic as Medea. Little children +are no longer dashed in pieces,--they are embraced and blessed. + +But let us select for attention, and for a conclusion to these remarks, +a particular scene. It shall be from Luke. This evangelist has been +fabled a painter, and in the apotheosis of the old Church he was made +the tutelar patron of that class of artists. If the individuality of his +conceptions, the skill of his groupings, and the graphicness gave rise +to such an idea, it would seem to have its foundation as well in Nature +as in superstition. Matthew has more detail, more thought; Luke is more +picturesque, more descriptive. John has more deep feeling; Luke more +action, more life. The Annunciation, the Widow of Nain, the Prodigal Son, +the Good Samaritan, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the incident to which +we shall presently advert, are found in Luke alone. + +The incident in question is the dining of Christ at the house of Simon +the Pharisee, and, while they were reclining at meat, the entrance of a +woman which was a sinner, who bathes the feet of Jesus with tears, and +wipes them with the hair of her head. The place is the city of Nain; the +hour noon. The _dramatis personae_ are three,--Jesus, Simon, and the +Woman,--and, if we choose to add them, the other guests, who are silent +spectators of what transpires. + +Let, us consider, first, the Woman. She "was a sinner." This is all, in +fact, that we know of her; but this is enough. The term "sinner," in +this instance, as in many others, does not refer to the general apostasy +in Adam; it is distinctive of race and habit. She was probably of +heathen extraction, as she was certainly of a dissolute life. The poetry +of sin and shame calls her the Magdalen, and there may be a convenience +in permitting this name to stand. The depth of her depravity Christ +clearly intimates in his allusion to the debtor who owed five hundred +pence, and the language of Simon teaches that the infamy of her life was +well understood among the inhabitants of the city. If a foreigner, she +had probably been brought into the country by the Roman soldiers and +deserted. If a native, she had fallen beneath the ban of respectability, +and was an outcast alike from hope and from good society. She was +condemned to wear a dress different from that of other people; she was +liable at any moment to be stoned for her conduct; she was one whom it +was a ritual impurity to touch. She was wretched beyond measure; but +while so corrupt, she was not utterly hardened. Incapable of virtue, she +was not incapable of gratitude. Weltering in grossness, she could still +be touched by the sight of purity. Plunged into extremest vice, she +retained the damning horror of her situation. If she had ever striven to +recover her lost position, there were none to assist her; the bigotry of +patriotism rejected her for her birth,--the scrupulousness of modesty, +for her history. The night, that consecrated so many homes and gathered +together so many families in innocence and repose, was to her blacker +than its own blackness in misery and turpitude; the morning, that +radiated gladness over the face of the world, revealed the extent and +exaggerated the sense of her own degradation. But the vision of Jesus +had alighted upon her; she had seen him speeding on his errands of +mercy; she hung about the crowd that followed his steps; his tender look +of pity may have sometimes gleamed into her soul. Stricken, smitten, +confounded, her yearnings for peace gush forth afresh. It was as if +Hell, moved by contrition, had given up its prey,--as if Remorse, tired +of its gnawing, felt within itself the stimulus of hope. But how shall +she see Jesus? Wherewithal shall she approach him? She has "nothing to +pay." She has tears enough, and sorrows enough,--but these are derided +by the vain, and suspected by the wise. She has an alabaster box of +ointment, which, shut out as she is from honorable gain, must be the +product and the concomitant of her guilt. But with these she must go. We +see her threading her lonely way through the streets, learning by hints, +since she would not dare to learn by questions, where Jesus is, and +stops before the vestibule of the elegant mansion of Simon the Pharisee. + +Who is Simon the Pharisee? Not necessarily a bad man. We associate +whatever is odious in hypocrisy or base in craft with the name Pharisee, +while really it was the most distinguished title among the Jews. Many of +the Pharisees were hypocrites; not all of them. The name is significant +of profession, not of character. He could not have been an unprincipled, +villanous man, or he would never have tendered to Jesus the +hospitalities of his house. Indeed, Christ allows him, in the sense of +moral indebtedness, to owe but fifty pence. He was probably a rich man, +which might appear from the generous entertainment he made. He was a +respectable man. The sect to which he belonged was the most celebrated +and influential among the Jews; and when not debased by positive crime, +a Pharisee was always esteemed for his learning and his piety. He had +some interest in Christ, either in his mission or his character,--an +interest beyond mere curiosity, or he would not have invited him to dine +with him. He betrays a sincere friendliness, also, in his apprehension +lest Christ should suffer any religious contamination. + +The third person in the scene is Christ, who, to speak of him not as +theology has interpreted him to us, but as he appeared to the eyes of +his contemporaries, was the reputed son of Joseph and Mary, the +Bethlehemites; who by his words and deeds had attracted much attention +and made some converts; now accused of breaking the Jewish Sabbath, now +of plotting against the Roman sovereignty; one who in his own person had +felt the full power of temptation, and who had been raised to the +grandeur of a transfiguration; so tender he would not bruise the broken +reed, so gentle his yoke was rest; raying out with compassion and love +wherever he went; healing alike the pangs of grief and the languor of +disease; whom some believed to be the Messiah, and others thought a +prophet; whom the masses followed, and the priests feared;--this is the +third member of the company. + +The two last, with the other guests, are engaged at their meal, and in +conversation. The door is darkened by a strange figure; all eyes are +riveted on the apparition; the Magdalen enters, faded, distressed, with +long dishevelled hair. She has no introduction; she says nothing; +indeed, in all this remarkable scene she never speaks; her silence is as +significant as it is profound. She goes behind the couch where Jesus, +according to Oriental custom, is reclined. She drops at his feet; there +her tears stream; there the speechless agony of her soul bursts. Observe +the workings of the moment. See how those people are affected. Surprise +on the part of Simon and his friends turns to scorn, and this shades +into indignation. Jesus is calm, collected, and intently thoughtful. The +woman is overwhelmed by her situation. The lip of Simon curls, his eye +flashes with fire of outraged virtue. Jesus meets his gaze with equal +fire, but it is all of pure heavenly feeling. Simon moves to have the +vagabond expelled; Christ interrupts the attempt. But the honor of the +house is insulted. Yes, but the undying interests of the soul are at +stake. But the breath of the woman is ritual poison, and her touch will +bring down the curses of the law. But the look of Christ indicates that +depth of spirituality before which the institutions of Moses flee away +as chaff before the wind. Simon has some esteem for Jesus, and in this +juncture his sensations take a turn of pity, spiced, perhaps, with a +little contempt, and he says with himself,--"Surely, this man cannot be +a prophet, as is pretended, or he would know who and what sort of woman +it is that touches him; for she is a sinner; she is unclean and +reprobate." + +"Simon!" says Jesus, with a tone that pierced to the worthy host's +heart, and arrested the force of his pious alarm,--"Simon!" + +"Sir, say on," is the reply of the Pharisee, who is awed by this appeal +into an humble listener. + +Whereupon Jesus relates the story of the two debtors, and, with +irresistible strength of illustration and delicacy of application, +breaks the prejudice and wins the composure of the Jew. "If, then," he +continues, "he loves much to whom much is forgiven, what shall we say of +one who loves so much?" + +"See," he goes on, pointing to the woman, "See this woman,--this wretch. +I entered thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she has +washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She kisses +my feet; she anoints them with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her +sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." + +This scene, however inadequately it may be set forth, contains all that +is sublime in tragedy, terrible in guilt, or intense in pathos. The +woman represents humanity, or the soul of human nature; Simon, the +world, or worldly wisdom; Christ, divinity, or the divine purposes of +good to us ward. Simon is an incarnation of what St. Paul calls the +beggarly elements; Christ, of spirituality; the woman, of sin. It is not +the woman alone,--but in her there cluster upon the stage all want and +woe, all calamity and disappointment, all shame and guilt. In Christ +there come forward to meet her, love, hope, truth, light, salvation. In +Simon are acted out doting conservatism, mean expediency, purblind +calculation, carnal insensibility. Generosity in this scene is +confronted with meanness, in the attempt to shelter misfortune. The +woman is a tragedy herself, such as Aeschylus never dreamed of. The +scourging Furies, dread Fate, and burning Hell unite in her, and, borne +on by the new impulse of the new dispensation, they come towards the +light, they ask for peace, they throng to the heaven that opens in +Jesus. Simon embodies that vast array of influences that stand between +humanity and its redemption. He is a very excellent, a very estimable +man,--but he is not shocked at intemperance, he would not have slavery +disturbed, he sees a necessity for war. Does Christ know who and what +sort of a woman it is that touches him? Will he defile himself by such a +contact? Can he expect to accomplish anything by familiarity with such +matters? Why is he not satisfied with a good dinner? "Simon!" "Simon!" + +The silence of the woman is wonderful, it is awful. What is most +profound, most agitating, most intense cannot speak; words are too +little for the greatness of feeling. So Job sat himself upon the ground +seven days and seven nights, speechless. Not in this case, as is said of +Schiller's Robbers, did the pent volcano find vent in power-words; not +in strong and terrible accents was uttered the hoarded wrath of long +centuries of misrule and oppression. The volcano, raging, aching, threw +itself in silence into the arms of one who could soothe and allay it. +The thunder is noisy and harmless. The lightning is silent,--and the +lightning splits, kills, consumes. Humanity had muttered its thunder for +ages. Its lightning, the condensed, fiery, fatal force of things, leaped +from the blackness of sin, threaded with terrific glare the vision of +man, and, in the person of the woman, fell hot and blasting at the feet +of Jesus, who quenched its fire, and of that destructive bolt made a +trophy of grace and a fair image of hope. She could not speak, and so +she wept,--like the raw, chilling, hard atmosphere, which is relieved +only by a shower of snow. How could she speak, guilty, remorseful +wretch, without excuse, without extenuation? In the presence of divine +virtue, at the tribunal of judgment, she could only weep, she could only +love. But, blessed be Jesus, he could forgive her, he can forgive all. +The woman departs in peace; Simon is satisfied; Jesus triumphs; we +almost hear the applauses with which the ages and generations of earth +greet the closing scene. From the serene celestial immensity that opens +above the spot we can distinguish a voice, saying, "This is my beloved +Son; hear ye him!" + +We speak of these things dramatically, but, after all, they are the only +great realities. Everything else is mimetic, phantasmal, tinkling. +Deeply do the masters of the drama move us; but the Gospel cleaves, +inworks, regenerates. In the theatre, the leading characters go off in +death and despair, or with empty conceits and a forced frivolity; in the +Gospel, tranquilly, grandly, they are dismissed to a serener life and a +nobler probation. Who has not pitied the ravings of Lear and the agonies +of Othello? The Gospel pities, but, by a magnificence of plot altogether +its own, by preserving, if we may so say, the unities of heaven and +earth, it also saves. + +Of all common tragedy, we may exclaim, in the words of the old play,-- + + "How like a silent stream shaded with night, + And gliding softly, with our windy sighs, + Moves the whole frame of this solemnity!" + +The Gospel moves by, as a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, +from the throne of God and the Lamb; on its surface play the sunbeams of +hope; in its valleys rise the trees of life, beneath the shadows of +which the weary years of human passion repose, and from the leaves of +the branches of which is exhaled to the passing breeze healing for the +nations. + + + + +THE RING FETTER. + + +A NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDY. + + +There are long stretches in the course of the Connecticut River, where +its tranquil current assumes the aspect of a lake, its sudden bends cut +off the lovely reach of water, and its heavily wooded banks lie silent +and green, undisturbed, except by the shriek of the passing steamer, +casting golden-green reflections into the stream at twilight, and +shadows of deepest blackness, star-pierced, at remoter depths of night. +Here, now and then, a stray gull from the sea sends a flying throb of +white light across the mirror below, or the sweeping wings of a hawk +paint their moth-like image on the blue surface, or a little flaw of +wind shudders across the water in a black ripple; but except for these +casual stirs of Nature, all is still, oppressive, and beautiful, as +earth seems to the trance-sleeper on the brink of his grave. + +In one of these reaches, though on either side the heavy woods sweep +down to the shore and hang over it as if deliberating whether to plunge +in, on the eastern bank there is a tiny meadow just behind the +tree-fringe of the river, completely hedged in by the deep woods, and +altogether hidden from any inland road; nor would the traveller on the +river discover it, except for the chimney of a house that peers above +the yellow willows and seems in that desolate seclusion as startling as +a daylight ghost. But this dwelling was built and deserted and +weather-beaten long before the date of our story. It had been erected +and inhabited during the Revolution, by an old Tory, who, foreseeing the +result of the war better than some of his contemporaries, and being +unwilling to expose his person to the chances of battle or his effects +to confiscation, maintained a strict neutrality, and a secret trade with +both parties; thereby welcoming peace and independence, fully stocked +with the dislike and suspicion of his neighbors, and a large quantity of +Continental "fairy-money." So, when Abner Dimock died, all he had to +leave to his only son was the red house on "Dimock's Meadow," and a +ten-acre lot of woodland behind and around the green plateau where the +house stood. These possessions he strictly entailed on his heirs +forever, and nobody being sufficiently interested in its alienation to +inquire into the State laws concerning the validity of such an entail, +the house remained in the possession of the direct line, and in the year +18-- belonged to another Abner Dimock, who kept tavern in Greenfield, a +town of Western Massachusetts, and, like his father and grandfather +before him, had one only son. In the mean time, the old house in Haddam +township had fallen into a ruinous condition, and, as the farm was very +small, and unprofitable chestnut-woodland at that, the whole was leased +to an old negro and his wife, who lived there in the most utter +solitude, scratching the soil for a few beans and potatoes, and in the +autumn gathering nuts, or in the spring roots for beer, with which Old +Jake paddled up to Middletown, to bring home a return freight of salt +pork and rum. + +The town of Greenfield, small though it was, and at the very top of a +high hill, was yet the county town, subject to annual incursions of +lawyers, and such "thrilling incidents" as arise from the location of a +jail and a court-room within the limits of any village. The scenery had +a certain summer charm of utter quiet that did it good service with some +healthy people of well-regulated and insensitive tastes. From Greenfield +Hill one looked away over a wide stretch of rolling country; low hills, +in long, desolate waves of pasturage and grain, relieved here and there +by a mass of black woodland, or a red farm-house and barns clustered +against a hill-side, just over a wooden spire in the shallow valley, +about which were gathered a few white houses, giving signs of life +thrice a day in tiny threads of smoke rising from their prim chimneys; +and over all, the pallid skies of New England, where the sun wheeled his +shorn beams from east to west as coldly as if no tropic seas mirrored +his more fervid glow thousands of miles away, and the chilly moon beamed +with irreproachable whiteness across the round gray hills and the +straggling pond, beloved of frogs and mud-turtles, that Greenfield held +in honor under the name of Squam Lake. + +Perhaps it was the scenery, perhaps the air, possibly the cheapness of +the place as far as all the necessaries of life went, that tempted Judge +Hyde to pitch his tent there, in the house his fathers had built long +ago, instead of wearing his judicial honors publicly, in the city where +he attained them; but, whatever the motive might be, certain it is that +at the age of forty he married a delicate beauty from Baltimore, and +came to live on Greenfield Hill, in the great white house with a gambrel +roof and dormer windows, standing behind certain huge maples, where +Major Hyde and Parson Hyde and Deacon Hyde had all lived before him. + +A brief Northern summer bloomed gayly enough for Adelaide Howard Hyde +when she made her bridal tour to her new home; and cold as she found the +aspect of that house, with its formal mahogany chairs, high-backed, and +carved in grim festoons and ovals of incessant repetition,--its +penitential couch of a sofa, where only the iron spine of a +Revolutionary heroine could have found rest,--its pinched, starved, and +double-starched portraits of defunct Hydes, Puritanic to the very ends +of toupet and periwig,--little Mrs. Hyde was deep enough in love with +her tall and handsome husband to overlook the upholstery of a home he +glorified, and to care little for comfort elsewhere, so long as she +could nestle on his knee and rest her curly head against his shoulder. +Besides, flowers grew, even in Greenfield; there were damask roses and +old-fashioned lilies enough in the square garden to have furnished a +whole century of poets with similes; and in the posy-bed under the front +windows were tulips of Chinese awkwardness and splendor, beds of pinks +spicy as all Arabia, blue hyacinths heavy with sweetness as well as +bells, "pi'nies" rubicund and rank, hearts-ease clustered against the +house, and sticky rose-acacias, pretty and impracticable, not to mention +the grenadier files of hollyhocks that contended with fennel-bushes and +scarlet-flowered beans for the precedence, and the hosts of wild flowers +that bloomed by wood-edges and pond-shores wherever corn or potatoes +spared a foot of soil for the lovely weeds. So in Judge Hyde's frequent +absences, at court or conclave, hither and yon, (for the Judge was a +political man,) it was his pretty wife's chief amusement, when her +delicate fingers ached with embroidery, or her head spun with efforts to +learn housekeeping from old Keery, the time-out-of-mind authority in the +Hyde family, a bad-humored, good-tempered old maid,--it was, indeed, the +little Southerner's only amusement,--to make the polish and mustiness of +those dreary front-parlors gay and fragrant with flowers; and though +Judge Hyde's sense of the ridiculous was not remarkably keen, it was too +much to expect of him that he should do otherwise than laugh long and +loud, when, suddenly returning from Taunton one summer day, he tracked +his wife by snatches of song into the "company rooms," and found her on +the floor, her hair about her ears, tying a thick garland of red +peonies, intended to decorate the picture of the original Hyde, a dreary +old fellow, in bands, and grasping a Bible in one wooden hand, while a +distant view of Plymouth Bay and the Mayflower tried to convince the +spectator that he was transported, among other antediluvians, by that +Noah's ark, to the New World. On either hand hung the little Flora's +great-grandmother-in-law, and her great-grandfather accordingly, Mrs. +Mehitable and Parson Job Hyde, peering out, one from a bushy ornament of +pink laurel-blossoms, and the other from an airy and delicate garland of +the wanton sweet-pea, each stony pair of eyes seeming to glare with +Medusan intent at this profaning of their state and dignity. "Isn't it +charming, dear?" said the innocent little beauty, with a satisfaction +half doubtful, as her husband's laugh went on. + +But for every butterfly there comes an end to summer. The flowers +dropped from the frames and died in the garden; a pitiless winter set +in; and day after day the mittened and mufflered schoolboy, dragging his +sled through drifts of heavy snow to school, eyed curiously the wan, +wistful face of Judge Hyde's wife pressed up to the pane of the south +window, its great restless eyes and shadowy hair bringing to mind some +captive bird that pines and beats against the cage. Her husband absent +from home long and often, full of affairs of "court and state,"--her +delicate organization, that lost its flickering vitality by every +exposure to cold,--her lonely days and nights,--the interminable sewing, +that now, for her own reasons, she would trust to no hands but her +own,--conscious incapacity to be what all the women about her were, +stirring, active, hardy housekeepers,--a vague sense of shame, and a +great dread of the future,--her comfortless and motherless +condition,--slowly, but surely, like frost, and wind, and rain, and +snow, beat on this frail blossom, and it went with the rest. June roses +were laid against her dark hair and in her fair hands, when she was +carried to the lonely graveyard of Greenfield, where mulleins and +asters, golden-rod, blackberry-vines, and stunted yellow-pines adorned +the last sleep of the weary wife and mother; for she left behind her a +week-old baby,--a girl,--wailing prophetically in the square bedroom +where its mother died. + +Judge Hyde did not marry again, and he named his baby Mehitable. She +grew up as a half-orphaned child with an elderly and undemonstrative +father would naturally grow,--shy, sensitive, timid, and extremely +grave. Her dress, thanks to Aunt Keery and the minister's wife, (who +looked after her for her mother's sake,) was always well provided and +neat, but no way calculated to cultivate her taste or to gratify the +beholder. A district school provided her with such education as it could +give; and the library, that was her resort at all hours of the day, +furthered her knowledge in a singular and varied way, since its lightest +contents were histories of all kinds and sorts, unless one may call the +English Classics lighter reading than Hume or Gibbon. + +But at length the district-schoolma'am could teach Mehitable Hyde no +more, and the Judge suddenly discovered that he had a pretty daughter of +fourteen, ignorant enough to shock his sense of propriety, and delicate +enough to make it useless to think of sending her away from home to be +buffeted in a boarding-school. Nothing was left for him but to undertake +her education himself; and having a theory that a thorough course of +classics, both Greek and Latin, was the foundation of all knowledge, +half a score of dusty grammars were brought from the garret, and for two +hours every morning and afternoon little Miss Hitty worried her innocent +soul over conjugations and declensions and particles, as perseveringly +as any professor could have desired. But the dreadful part of the +lessons to Hitty was the recitation after tea; no matter how well she +knew every inflection of a verb, every termination of a noun, her +father's cold, gray eye, fixed on her for an answer, dispelled all kinds +of knowledge, and, for at least a week, every lesson ended in tears. +However, there are alleviations to everything in life; and when the +child was sent to the garret after her school-books, she discovered +another set, more effectual teachers to her than Sallust or the "Graeca +Minora," even the twelve volumes of "Sir Charles Grandison," and the +fewer but no less absorbing tomes of "Clarissa Harlowe"; and every hour +she could contrive not to be missed by Keery or her father was spent in +that old garret, fragrant as it was with sheaves of all the herbs that +grow in field or forest, poring over those old novels, that were her +society, her friends, her world. + +So two years passed by. Mehitable grew tall and learned, but knew little +more of the outside world than ever; her father had learned to love her, +and taught her to adore him; still shy and timid, the village offered no +temptation to her, so far as society went; and Judge Hyde was beginning +to feel that for his child's mental health some freer atmosphere was +fast becoming necessary, when a relentless writ was served upon the +Judge himself, and one that no man could evade; paralysis smote him, and +the strong man lay prostrate,--became bedridden. + +Now the question of life seemed settled for Hitty; her father admitted +no nursing but hers. Month after month rolled away, and the numb grasp +gradually loosed its hold on flesh and sense, but still Judge Hyde was +bedridden. Year after year passed by, and no change for better or worse +ensued. Hitty's life was spent between the two parlors and the kitchen; +for the room her dead mother had so decorated was now furnished as a +bedroom for her father's use; and her own possessions had been removed +into the sitting-room next it, that, sleeping or waking, she might be +within call. All the family portraits held a conclave in the other +front-parlor, and its north and east windows were shut all the year, +save on some sultry summer day when Keery flung them open to dispel damp +and must, and the school-children stared in reverentially, and wondered +why old Madam Hyde's eyes followed them as far as they could see. +Visitors came now and then to the kitchen-door, and usurped Keery's +flag-bottomed chair, while they gossiped with her about village affairs; +now and then a friendly spinster with a budget of good advice called +Hitty away from her post, and, after an hour's vain effort to get any +news worth retailing about the Judge from those pale lips, retired full +of disappointed curiosity to tell how stiff that Mehitable Hyde was, and +how hard it was to make her speak a word to one! Friends were what Hitty +read of in the "Spectator," and longed to have; but she knew none of the +Greenfield girls since she left school, and the only companion she had +was Keery, rough as the east wind, but genuine and kind-hearted,--better +at counsel than consolation, and no way adapted to fill the vacant place +in Hitty's heart. + +So the years wore away, and Miss Hyde's early beauty went with them. She +had been a blooming, delicate girl,--the slight grace of a daisy in her +figure, wild-rose tints on her fair cheek, and golden reflections in her +light brown hair, that shone in its waves and curls like lost sunshine; +but ten years of such service told their story plainly. When Hitty Hyde +was twenty-six, her blue eyes were full of sorrow and patience, when the +shy lids let their legend be read; the little mouth had become pale, and +the corners drooped; her cheek, too, was tintless, though yet round; +nothing but the beautiful hair lasted; even grace was gone, so long had +she stooped over her father. Sometimes the unwakened heart within her +dreamed, as a girl's heart will. Stately visions of Sir Charles +Grandison bowing before her,--shuddering fascinations over the image of +that dreadful Lovelace,--nothing more real haunted Hitty's imagination. +She knew what she had to do in life,--that it was not to be a happy wife +or mother, but to waste by a bedridden old man, the only creature on +earth she loved as she could love. Light and air were denied the plant, +but it grew in darkness,--blanched and unblooming, it is true, but still +a growth upward, toward light. + +Ten years more of monotonous patience, and Miss Hyde was thirty-six. Her +hair had thinned, and was full of silver threads; a wrinkle invaded +either cheek, and she was angular and bony; but something painfully +sweet lingered in her face, and a certain childlike innocence of +expression gave her the air of a nun; the world had never touched nor +taught her. + +But now Judge Hyde was dead; nineteen years of petulant, helpless, +hopeless wretchedness were at last over, and all that his daughter cared +to live for was gone; she was an orphan, without near relatives, without +friends, old, and tired out. Do not despise me that I say "old," you +plump and rosy ladies whose life is in its prime of joy and use at +thirty-six. Age is not counted by years, nor calculated from one's +birth; it is a fact of wear and work, altogether unconnected with the +calendar. I have seen a girl of sixteen older than you are at forty. I +have known others disgrace themselves at sixty-five by liking to play +with children and eat sugar-plums! + +One kind of youth still remained to Hitty Hyde,--the freshness of +inexperience. Her soul was as guileless and as ignorant as a child's; +and she was stranded on life, with a large fortune, like a helmless +ship, heavily loaded, that breaks from its anchor, and drives headlong +upon a reef. + +Now it happened, that, within a year after Judge Hyde's death, Abner +Dimock, the tavern-keeper's son, returned to Greenfield, after years of +absence, a bold-faced, handsome man, well-dressed and "free-handed," as +the Greenfield vernacular hath it. Nobody knew where Abner Dimock had +spent the last fifteen years; neither did anybody know anything against +him; yet he had no good reputation in Greenfield. Everybody looked wise +and grave when his name was spoken, and no Greenfield girl cared to own +him for an acquaintance. His father welcomed him home with more surprise +than pleasure; and the whole household of the Greenfield Hotel, as +Dimock's Inn was new-named, learned to get out of Abner Dimock's way, +and obey his eye, as if he were more their master than his father. + +Left quite alone, without occupation or amusement, Miss Hyde naturally +grasped at anything that came in her way to do or to see to; the lawyer +who had been executor of her father's will had settled the estate and +gone back to his home, and Miss Hyde went with him, the first journey of +her life, that she might select a monument for her father's grave. It +was now near a year since Judge Hyde's death, and the monument was on +its way from Boston; the elder Dimock monopolized the cartage of freight +as well as passengers to the next town, and to him Miss Hyde intrusted +the care of the great granite pillar she had purchased; and it was for +his father that Abner Dimock called on the young lady for directions as +to the disposal of the tombstone just arrived. Hitty was in the garden; +her white morning-dress shone among the roses, and the morning air had +flushed her pale cheek; she looked fair and delicate and gracious; but +her helpless ignorance of the world's ways and usages attracted the +world-hardened man more than her face. He had not spent a _roue_ life in +a great city for nothing; he had lived enough with gentlemen, +broken-down and lost, it is true, but well-bred, to be able to ape their +manners; and the devil's instinct that such people possess warned him of +Hitty Hyde's weakest points. So, too, he contrived to make that first +errand lead to another, and still another,--to make the solitary woman +depend on his help, and expect his coming; fifty thousand dollars, with +no more incumbrance than such a woman, was worth scheming for, and the +prey was easily snared. + +It is not to be expected that any country village of two streets, much +less Greenfield, could long remain ignorant of such a new and amazing +phase as the devotion of any man to any woman therein; but, as nobody +liked to interfere too soon in what might only be, after all, a mere +business arrangement, Greenfield contented itself with using its eyes, +its ears, and its tongues, with one exception to the latter organ's +clatter, in favor of Hitty Hyde; _to_ her no one dared as yet approach +with gossip or advice. + +In the mean time Hitty went on her way, all regardless of the seraphs at +the gate. Abner Dimock was handsome, agreeable, gentlemanly to a certain +lackered extent;--who had cared for Hitty, in all her life, enough to +aid and counsel her as he had already done? At first she was half afraid +of him; then she liked him; then he was "so good to me!" and then--she +pitied him! for he told her, sitting on that hard old sofa, in the June +twilight, how he had no mother, how he had been cast upon the charities +of a cruel and evil world from his infancy; reminded her of the old red +school-house where they had been to school together, and the tyranny of +the big boys over him,--a little curly, motherless boy. So he enlarged +upon his life; talked a mildly bitter misanthropy; informed Miss Hyde by +gradual insinuations that she was an angel sent on earth to console and +reform a poor sinner like him; and before the last September rose had +droped, so far had Abner Dimock succeeded in his engineering, that his +angel was astounded one night by the undeniably terrestrial visitation +of an embrace and a respectfully fervid kiss. + +Perhaps it would have been funny, perhaps pathetic, to analyze the mixed +consternation and delight of Mehitable Hyde at such _bona-fide_ evidence +of a lover. Poor woman's heart!--altogether solitary and +desolate,--starved of its youth and its joy,--given over to the chilly +reign of patience and resignation,--afraid of life,--without strength, +or hope, or pleasure,--and all at once Paradise dawns!--her cold, +innocent life bursts into fiery and odorous bloom; she has found her +fate, and its face is keen with splendor, like a young angel's. Poor, +deluded, blessed, rapture-smitten woman! + +Blame her as you will, indignant maidens of Greenfield, Miss Flint, and +Miss Sharp, and Miss Skinner! You may have had ten lovers and twenty +flirtations apiece, and refused half-a-dozen good matches for the best +of reasons; you, no doubt, would have known better than to marry a man +who was a villain from his very physiognomy; but my heart must needs +grow tender toward Miss Hyde; a great joy is as pathetic as a sorrow. +Did you never cry over a doting old man? + +But when Mrs. Smith's son John, a youth of ten, saw, by the light of an +incautious lamp that illuminated a part of the south parlor, a +good-night kiss bestowed upon the departing Abner by Miss Hitty Hyde and +absolutely returned by said Abner, and when John told his mother, and +his mother revealed it to Miss Flint, Miss Flint to Miss Skinner, and so +forth, and so on, till it reached the minister's wife, great was the +uproar in Greenfield; and the Reverend Mrs. Perkins put on her gray +bonnet and went over to remonstrate with Hitty on the spot. + +Whether people will ever learn the uselessness of such efforts is yet a +matter for prophecy. Miss Hyde heard all that was said, and replied very +quietly, "I don't believe it." And as Mrs. Perkins had no tangible +proofs of Abner Dimock's unfitness to marry Judge Hyde's daughter, the +lady in question got the better of her adviser, so far as any argument +was concerned, and effectually put an end to remonstrance by declaring +with extreme quiet and unblushing front,-- + +"I am going to marry him next week. Will you be so good as to notify Mr. +Perkins?" + +Mrs. Perkins held up both hands and cried. Words might have hardened +Hitty; but what woman that was not half tigress ever withstood another +woman's tears? + +Hitty's heart melted directly; she sat down by Mrs. Perkins, and cried, +too. + +"Please, don't be vexed with me," sobbed she. "I love him, Mrs. Perkins, +and I haven't got anybody else to love,--and--and--I never shall have. +He's very good to love me,--I am so old and homely." + +"Very good!" exclaimed Mrs. Perkins, in great wrath, "_good_! to marry +Judge Hyde's daughter, and--fifty thousand dollars," Mrs. Perkins bit +off. She would not put such thoughts into Hitty's head, since her +marriage was inevitable. + +"At any rate," sighed Hitty, on the breath of a long-drawn sob, "nobody +else ever loved me, if I am Judge Hyde's daughter." + +So Mrs. Perkins went away, and declared that things had gone too far to +be prevented; and Abner Dimock came on her retreating steps, and Hitty +forgot everything but that he loved her; and the next week they were +married. + +Here, by every law of custom, ought my weary pen to fall flat and refuse +its office; for it is here that the fate of every heroine culminates. +For what are women born but to be married? Old maids are excrescences in +the social system,--disagreeable utilities,--persons who have failed to +fulfil their destiny,--and of whom it should have been said, rather than +of ghosts, that they are always in the wrong. But life, with +pertinacious facts, is too apt to transcend custom and the usage of +novel-writers; and though the one brings a woman's legal existence to an +end when she merges her independence in that of a man, and the other +curtails her historic existence at the same point, because the +novelist's catechism hath for its preface this creed,--"The chief end of +woman is to get married"; still, neither law nor novelists altogether +displace this same persistent fact, and a woman lives, in all capacities +of suffering and happiness, not only her wonted, but a double life, when +legally and religiously she binds herself with bond and vow to another +soul. + +Happy would it have been for Hitty Hyde, if with the legal fiction had +chimed the actual existent fact!--happy indeed for Abner Dimock's wife +to have laid her new joy down at the altar, and been carried to sleep by +her mother under the mulleins and golden-rods on Greenfield Hill! Scarce +was the allotted period of rapture past half its term, scarce had she +learned to phrase the tender words aloud that her heart beat and choked +with, before Abner Dimock began to tire of his incumbrance, and to +invent plans and excuses for absence; for he dared not openly declare as +yet that he left his patient, innocent wife for such scenes of vice and +reckless dissipation as she had not even dreamed could exist. + +Yet for week after week he lingered away from Greenfield; even months +rolled by, and, except for rare and brief visits home, Hitty saw no more +of her husband than if he were not hers. She lapsed into her old +solitude, varied only by the mutterings and grumblings of old Keery, who +had lifted up her voice against Hitty's marriage with more noise and +less effect than Mrs. Perkins, and, though she still staid by her old +home and haunts, revenged herself on fate in general and her mistress in +particular by a continual course of sulking, all the time hiding under +this general quarrel with life a heart that ached with the purest +tenderness and pity. So some people are made, like chestnuts; one gets +so scratched and wounded in the mere attempt to get at the kernel +within, that it becomes matter of question whether one does not suffer +less from wanting their affection than from trying to obtain it. Yet +Hitty Dimock had too little love given her to throw away even Keery's +habit of kindness to her, and bore with her snaps and snarls as meekly +as a saint,--sustained, it is true, by a hope that now began to solace +and to occupy her, and to raise in her oppressed soul some glimmer of a +bright possibility, a faint expectation that she might yet regain her +husband's love, a passion which she began in her secret heart to fear +had found its limit and died out. Still, Hitty, out of her meek, +self-distrusting spirit, never blamed Abner Dimock for his absence or +his coldness; rather, with the divine unselfishness that such women +manifest, did she blame herself for having linked his handsome and +athletic prime with her faded age, and struggle daily with the morbid +conscience that accused her of having forgotten his best good in the +indulgence of her own selfish ends of happiness. She still thought, "He +is so good to me!" still idealized the villain to a hero, and, like her +kind, predestined to be the prey and the accusing angel of such men, +prayed for and adored her husband as if he had been the best and +tenderest of gentlemen. Providence has its mysteries; but if there be +one that taxes faith and staggers patience more than another, it is the +long misery that makes a good woman cringe and writhe and agonize in +silence under the utter rule and life-long sovereignty of a bad man. +Perhaps such women do not suffer as we fancy; for after much trial every +woman learns that it is possible to love where neither respect nor +admiration can find foothold,--that it even becomes necessary to love +some men, as the angels love us all, from an untroubled height of pity +and tenderness, that, while it sees and condemns the sin and folly and +uncleanness of its object, yet broods over it with an all-shielding +devotion, laboring and beseeching and waiting for its regeneration, +upheld above the depths of suffering and regret by the immortal power of +a love so fervent, so pure, so self-forgetting, that it will be a +millstone about the necks that disregard its tender clasping now, to +sink them into a bottomless abyss in the day of the Lord. + +Now had one long and not unhappy autumn, a lingering winter, a desolate +spring, a weary summer, passed away, and from an all-unconscious and +protracted wrestling with death Hitty Dimock awoke to find her hope +fulfilled,--a fair baby nestled on her arm, and her husband, not +all-insensible, smiling beside her. + +It is true, that, had she died then, Abner Dimock would have regretted +her death; for, by certain provisions of her father's will, in case of +her death, the real estate, otherwise at her own disposal, became a +trust for her child or children, and such a contingency ill suited Mr. +Dimock's plans. So long as Hitty held a rood of land or a coin of silver +at her own disposal, it was also at his; but trustees are not women, +happily for the world at large, and the contemplation of that fact +brought Hitty Hyde's husband into a state of mind well fitted to give +him real joy at her recovery. + +So, for a little while, the sun shone on this bare New England +hill-side, into this grim old house. Care and kindness were lavished on +the delicate woman, who would scarce have needed either in her present +delight; every luxury that could add to her slowly increasing strength, +every attention that could quiet her fluttering and unstrung nerves, was +showered on her, and for a time her brightest hopes seemed all to have +found fruition. + +As she recovered and was restored to strength, of course these cares +ceased. But now the new instincts of motherhood absorbed her, and, +brooding over the rosy child that was her own, caressing its waking, or +hanging above its sleep, she scarce noted that her husband's absences +from home grew more and more frequent, that strange visitors asked for +him, that he came home at midnight oftener than at dusk. Nor was it till +her child was near a year old that Hitty discovered her husband's old +and rewakened propensity,--that Abner Dimock came home drunk,--not drunk +as many men are, foolish and helpless, mere beasts of the field, who +know nothing and care for nothing but the filling of their insatiable +appetite;--this man's nature was too hard, too iron in its moulding, to +give way to temporary imbecility; liquor made him savage, fierce, +brutal, excited his fiendish temper to its height, nerved his muscular +system, inflamed his brain, and gave him the aspect of a devil; and in +such guise he entered his wife's peaceful Eden, where she brooded and +cooed over her child's slumbers, with one gripe of his hard hand lifted +her from her chair, kicked the cradle before him, and, with an awful +though muttered oath, thrust mother and child into the entry, locked the +door upon them, and fell upon the bed to sleep away his carouse. + +Here was an undeniable fact before Hitty Dimock, one she could no way +evade or gloss over; no gradual lesson, no shadow of foreboding, +preluded the revelation; her husband was unmistakably, savagely drunk. +She did not sit down and cry;--drearily she gathered her baby in her +arms, hushed it to sleep with kisses, passed down into the kitchen, woke +up the brands of the ash-hidden fire to a flame, laid on more wood, and, +dragging old Keery's rush-bottomed chair in front of the blaze, held her +baby in her arms till morning broke, careless of anything without or +within but her child's sleep and her husband's drunkenness. Long and +sadly in that desolate night did she revolve this new misery in her +mind; the fact was face to face, and must be provided for,--but how to +do it? What could she do, poor weak woman, even to conceal this +disgrace, much more to check it? Long since she had discovered that +between her and her husband there was no community of tastes or +interests; he never talked to her, he never read to her, she did not +know that he read at all; the garden he disliked as a useless trouble; +he would not drive, except such a gay horse that Hitty dared not risk +her neck behind it, and felt a shudder of fear assail her whenever his +gig left the door; neither did he care for his child. Nothing at home +could keep him from his pursuits; that she well knew; and, hopeful as +she tried to be, the future spread out far away in misty horror and +dread. What might not, become of her boy, with such a father's +influence? was her first thought;--nay, who could tell but in some fury +of drink he might kill or maim him? A chill of horror crept over Hitty +at the thought,--and then, what had not she to dread? Oh, for some +loophole of escape, some way to fly, some refuge for her baby's innocent +life! No,--no,--no! She was his wife; she had married him; she had vowed +to love and honor and obey,--vow of fearful import now, though uttered +in all pureness and truth, as to a man who owned her whole heart! Love +him!--that was not the dread; love was as much her life as her breath +was; she knew no interval of loving for the brute fiend who mocked her +with the name of husband; no change or chance could alienate her divine +tenderness,--even as the pitiful blue sky above hangs stainless over +reeking battle-fields and pest-smitten cities, piercing with its sad and +holy star-eyes down into the hellish orgies of men, untouched and +unchanged by just or unjust, forever shining and forever pure. But honor +him! could that be done? What respect or trust was it possible to keep +for a self-degraded man like that? And where honor goes down, obedience +is sucked into the vortex, and the wreck flies far over the lonely sea, +historic and prophetic to ship and shore. + +No! there was nothing to do! her vow was taken, past the power of man to +break; nothing now remained but endurance. Perhaps another woman, with a +strong will and vivid intellect, might have set herself to work, backed +by that very vow that defied poor Hitty, and, by sheer resolution, have +dragged her husband up from the gulf and saved him, though as by fire; +or a more buoyant and younger wife might have passed it by as a first +offence, hopeful of its being also the only one. But an instinctive +knowledge of the man bereft Hitty of any such hope; she knew it was not +the first time; from his own revelations and penitent confessions while +she was yet free, she knew he had sinned as well as suffered, and the +past augured the future. Nothing was left her, she could not escape, she +must shut her eyes and her mouth, and only keep out of his way as far as +she could. So she clasped her child more tightly, and, closing her heavy +eyes, rocked back and forth till the half-waked boy slept again; and +there old Keery found her mistress, in the morning, white as the cold +drifts without, and a depth of settled agony in her quiet eyes that +dimmed the old woman's only to look at. + +Neither spoke; nor when her husband strode into the breakfast-room and +took his usual place, sober enough, but scarcely regretful of the +over-night development, did any word of reproach or allusion pass the +wife's white lips. A stranger would have thought her careless and cold. +Abner Dimock knew that she was heartbroken; but what was that to him? +Women live for years without that organ; and while she lived, so long as +a cent remained of the Hyde estate, what was it to him if she pined +away? She could not leave him; she was utterly in his power; she was +his,--like his boots, his gun, his dog; and till he should tire of her +and fling her into some lonely chamber to waste and die, she was bound +to serve him; he was safe. + +And she offered no sort of barrier to his full indulgence of his will to +drink. Had she lifted one of her slender fingers in warning, or given +him a look of reproachful meaning, or uttered one cry of entreaty, at +least the conscience within him might have visited him with a temporary +shame, and restrained the raging propensity for a longer interval; but +seeing her apparent apathy, knowing how timid and unresisting was her +nature,--that nothing on earth will lie still and be trodden on but a +woman,--Abner Dimock rioted and revelled to his full pleasure, while all +his pale and speechless wife could do was to watch with fearful eyes and +straining ears for his coming, and slink out of the way with her child, +lest both should be beaten as well as cursed; for faithful old Keery, +once daring to face him with a volley of reproaches from her shrill +tongue, was levelled to the floor by a blow from his rapid hand, and +bore bruises for weeks that warned her from interference. Not long, +however, was there danger of her meddling. When the baby was a year and +a half old. Keery, in her out-door labors,--now grown burdensome enough, +since Mr. Dimock neither worked himself nor allowed a man on the +premises,--Keery took a heavy cold, and, worn out with a life of hard +work, sank into rest quickly, her last act of life being to draw Hitty's +face down to her own, wrinkled and wan as it was, scarce so old in +expression as her mistress's, and with one long kiss and sob speak the +foreboding and anxious farewell she could not utter. + +"Only you now!" whispered Hitty to her child, as Keery's peaceful, +shrouded face was hidden under the coffin-lid and carried away to +Greenfield Hill. Pitiful whisper! happily all-unmeaning to the child, +but full of desolation to the mother, floating with but one tiny plank +amid the wild wrecks of a midnight ocean, and clinging as only the +desperate can cling to this vague chance of life. + +A rough, half-crazed girl, brought from the alms-house, now did the +drudgery of the family. Abner Dimock had grown penurious, and not one +cent of money was given for comfort in that house, scarce for need. The +girl was stupid and rude, but she worked for her board,--recommendation +enough in Mr. Dimock's eyes; and so hard work was added to the other +burdens loaded upon his silent wife. And soon came another, +all-mysterious, but from its very mystery a deeper fear. Abner Dimock +began to stay at home, to be visited at late hours by one or two men +whose faces were full of evil and daring; and when, in the dead of the +long nights, Hitty woke from her broken and feverish sleep, it was to +hear muffled sounds from the cellar below, never heard there before; and +once, wrapping a shawl about her, she stole down the stairways with bare +feet, and saw streams of red light through the chinks of the +cellar-door, and heard the ring of metal, and muttered oaths, all +carefully dulled by such devices as kept the sounds from chance passers +in the street, though vain as far as the inhabitants of the house itself +were concerned. Trembling and cold, she stole back to her bed, full of +doubts and fears, neither of which she dared whisper to any one, or +would have dared, had she possessed a single friend to whom she could +speak. Troubles thickened fast over Hitty; her husband was always at +home now, and rarely sober; the relief his absences had been was denied +her entirely; and in some sunny corner of the uninhabited rooms +up-stairs she spent her days, toiling at such sewing as was needful, and +silent as the dead, save as her life appealed to God from the ground, +and called down the curse of Cain upon a head she would have shielded +from evil with her own life. + +Keen human legislation! sightless justice of men!--one drunken wretch +smites another in a midnight brawl, and sends a soul to its account with +one sharp shudder of passion and despair, and the maddened creature that +remains on earth suffers the penalty of the law. Every sense sobered +from its reeling fury, weeks of terribly expectation heaped upon the +cringing soul, and, in full consciousness, that murderer is strangled +before men and angels, because he was drunk!--necessary enough, one +perceives, to the good of society, which thereby loses two worse than +useless members; but what, in the name of God's justice, should His +vicegerent, law, visit upon the man who wrings another life away by slow +tortures, and torments heart and soul and flesh for lingering years, +where the victim is passive and tenacious, and dies only after +long-drawn anguish that might fill the cup of a hundred sudden deaths? +Yet what escapes the vicegerent shall the King himself visit and judge. +"For He cometh! He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall +he judge the world, and the people with equity." + +Six months passed after Keery's death, and now from the heights of +Greenfield and her sunny window Hitty Dimock's white face looked out +upon a landscape of sudden glory; for October, the gold-bringer, had +come, pouring splendor over the earth, and far and wide the forests +blazed; scarlet and green maples, with erect heads, sentinelled the +street, gay lifeguards of autumn; through dark green cedars the crimson +creeper threaded its sprays of blood-red; birches, gilded to their tops, +swayed to every wind, and drooped their graceful boughs earthward to +shower the mossy sward with glittering leaves; heavy oaks turned +purple-crimson through their wide-spread boughs; and the stately +chestnuts, with foliage of tawny yellow, opened wide their stinging +husks to let the nuts fall for squirrel and blue-jay. Splendid sadness +clothed all the world, opal-hued mists wandered up and down the valleys +or lingered about the undefined horizon, and the leaf-scented south wind +sighed in the still noon with foreboding gentleness. + +One day, Abner Dimock was gone, and Hitty stole down to the garden-door +with her little child, now just trying to walk, that he might have a +little play on the green turf, and she cool her hot eyes and lips in the +air. As she sat there watching the pretty clumsiness of her boy, and +springing forward to intercept his falls, the influence of sun and air, +the playful joy of the child, the soothing stillness of all Nature, +stole into her heart till it dreamed a dream of hope. Perhaps the +budding blossom of promise might become floral and fruitful; perhaps her +child might yet atone for the agony of the past;--a time might come when +she should sit in that door, white-haired and trembling with age, but as +peaceful as the autumn day, watching the sports of his children, while +his strong arm sustained her into the valley of shadow, and his tender +eyes lit the way. + +As she sat dreaming, suddenly a figure intercepted the sunshine, and, +looking up, she saw Abner Dimock's father, the elder Abner, entering the +little wicket-gate of the garden. A strange, tottering old figure, his +nose and chin grimacing at each other, his bleared eyes telling +unmistakable truths of cider-brandy and New England rum, his scant locks +of white lying in confusion over his wrinkled forehead and cheeks, his +whole air squalid, hopeless, and degraded,--not so much by the poverty +of vice as by its demoralizing stamp penetrating from the inner to the +outer man, and levelling it even below the plane of brutes that perish. + +"Good-day! good-day!" said he to his son's wife, in a squeaking, +tremulous tone, that drove the child to his mother's arms,--"Abner to +home?" + +"No, Sir," said Hitty, with an involuntary shudder, that did not escape +the bleared blue eye that fixed its watery gaze upon her. + +"Cold, a'n't ye? Better go in, better go in! Come, come along! How d'e +do, little feller? don't know yer grandper, hey?" + +The child met his advances with an ominous scream, and Hitty hurried +into the house to give him to the servant's charge, while she returned +to the sitting-room, where the old man had seated himself in the +rocking-chair, and was taking a mental inventory of the goods and +chattels with a momentary keenness in his look that no way reassured +Hitty's apprehensive heart. + +"So, Abner a'n't to home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't know where he's gone, do ye?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't never know where he goes, I expect?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he comes home,--know when he's a-comin' home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he doos, you tell him 't some folks come to the tavern last +night, 'n' talked pretty loud, 'n' I heerd--Guess 'ta'n't best, though, +to tell what I heerd. Only you tell Abner 't I come here, and I said +he'd better be a-joggin'. He'll know, he'll know,--h'm, yes," said the +old man, passing his hand across his thin blue lips, as if to drive away +other words better left unsaid,--and then rising from his seat, by the +aid of either arm, gained his balance, and went on, while he fumbled for +his stick:-- + +"I'd ha' writ, but black and white's a hangin' matter sometimes, 'n' +words a'n't; 'n' I hadn't nobody to send, so I crawled along. Don't ye +forget now! don't ye! It's a pretty consider'ble piece o' business; 'n' +you'll be dreffully on't, ef you do forget. Now _don't_ ye forget!" + +"No, I won't," said Hitty, trembling as she spoke; for the old man's +words had showed her a depth of dreadful possibility, and an old +acquaintance with crime and its manoeuvres, that chilled the blood in +her veins. She watched him out of the gate with a sickening sense of +terror at her heart, and turned slowly into the house, revolving all +kinds of plans in her head for her husband's escape, should her fears +prove true. Of herself she did not think; no law could harm her child; +but, even after years of brutality and neglect, her faithful affection +turned with all its provident thoughtfulness and care at once to her +husband; all her wrongs were forgotten, all her sorrows obliterated by +this one fear. Well did St. Augustine say, "God is patient because He is +eternal": but better and truer would the saying have been, had it run, +"God is patient because He is love": a gospel that He publishes in the +lives of saints on earth, in their daily and hourly "anguish of +patience," preaching to the fearful souls that dare not trust His +long-suffering by the tenacious love of those who bear His image, +saying, in resistless human tones, "Shall one creature endure and love +and continually forgive another, and shall I, who am not loving, but +Love, be weary of thy transgressions, O sinner?" And so does the silent +and despairing life of many a woman weave unconsciously its golden +garland of reward in the heavens above, and do the Lord's work in a +strange land where it cannot sing His songs. + +The day crept toward sunset, and Hitty sat with her wan face pressed to +the window-pane, hushing her child in his cradle with one of those low, +monotoned murmurs that mothers know; but still her husband did not come. +The level sun-rays pierced the woods into more vivid splendor, burnished +gold fringed the heavy purple clouds in the west, and warm crimson +lights turned the purple into more triumphant glory; the sun set, +unstained with mist or tempest, behind those blue and lonely hills that +guard old Berkshire with their rolling summits, and night came fast, +steel-blue and thick with stars; but yet he did not come, the untouched +meal on the table was untouched still. Hour after hour of starry +darkness crept by, and she sat watching at the window-pane; overhead, +constellations marched across the heavens in relentless splendor, +careless of man or sorrow; Orion glittered in the east, and climbed +toward the zenith; the Pleiades clustered and sparkled as if they missed +their lost sister no more; the Hyades marked the celestial pastures of +Taurus, and Lyra strung her chords with fire. Hitty rested her weary +head against the window-frame and sent her wearier thoughts upward to +the stars; there were the points of light that the Chaldeans watched +upon their plains by night, and named with mystic syllables of their +weird Oriental tongue,--names that in her girlhood she had delighted to +learn, charmed by that nameless spell that language holds, wherewith it +plants itself ineradicably in the human mind, and binds it with fetters +of vague association that time and chance are all-powerless to +break,--Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgunebi, Bellatrix and Betelguese, +sonorous of Rome and Asia both, full of old echoes and the dry resonant +air of Eastern plains,--names wherein sounded the clash of Bellona's +armor, and the harsh stir of palm-boughs rustled by a hot wind of the +desert, and vibrant with the dying clangor of gongs, and shouts of +worshipping crowds reverberating through horrid temples of grinning and +ghastly idols, wet with children's blood. + +Far, far away, the heavenly procession and their well-remembered names +had led poor Hitty's thoughts; worn out with anxiety, and faint for want +of the food she had forgotten to take, sleep crept upon her, and her +first consciousness of its presence was the awakening grasp of a rough +hand and the hoarse whisper of her husband. + +"Get up!" said he. "Pick up your brat, get your shawl, and come!" + +Hitty rose quickly to her feet. One faculty wretchedness gives, the +power of sudden self-possession,--and Hitty was broad awake in the very +instant she was called. Her husband stood beside her, holding a lantern; +her boy slept in the cradle at her feet. + +"Have you seen your father?" said she, with quick instinct. + +"Yes, d--n you, be quick! do you want to hang me?" + +Quick as a spirit Hitty snatched her child, and wrapped him in the +blanket where he lay; her shawl was on the chair she had slept in, her +hood upon a nail by the door, and flinging both on, with the child in +her arms, she followed her husband down-stairs, across the back-yard, +hitting her feet against stones and logs in the darkness, stumbling +often, but never falling, till the shadow of the trees was past, and the +starlight showed her that they were traversing the open fields, now +crisp with frost, but even to the tread,--over two or three of these, +through a pine-wood that was a landmark to Hitty, for she well knew that +it lay between the turnpike-road and another, less frequented, that by +various windings went toward the Connecticut Hue,--then over a tiny +brook on its unsteady bridge of logs, and out into a lane, where a +rough-spoken man was waiting for them, at the head of a strong horse +harnessed to one of those wagons without springs that New-Englanders +like to make themselves uncomfortable in. Her husband turned to her +abruptly. + +"Get in," said he; "get in behind; there's hay enough; and don't breathe +loud, or I'll murder you!" + +She clambered into the wagon and seated herself on the hay, hushing her +child, who nestled and moaned in her arms, though she had carried him +with all possible care. A sharp cut of the whip sent the powerful horse +off at full speed, and soon this ill-matched party were fast traversing +the narrow road that wound about the country for the use of every farm +within a mile of its necessary course, a course tending toward the +Connecticut. + +Hour after hour crept by. Worn out with fatigue, poor Hitty dozed and +fell back on the soft hay; her child slept, too, and all her troubles +faded away in heavy unconsciousness, till she was again awakened by her +husband's grasp, to find that dawn was gathering its light roseate +fleeces in the east, and that their flight was for the present stayed at +the door of a tavern, lonely and rude enough, but welcome to Hitty as a +place of rest, if only for a moment. The sullen mistress of the house +asked no questions and offered no courtesy, but, after her guests had +eaten their breakfast, rapidly prepared, she led the way to a bedroom in +the loft, where Abner Dimock flung himself down upon the straw bed and +fell sound asleep, leaving Hitty to the undisturbed care of her child. +And occupation enough that proved; for the little fellow was fretful and +excited, so that no hour for thought was left to his anxious and timid +mother till the dinner-bell awoke her husband and took him downstairs. +She could not eat, but, begging some milk for her boy, tended, and fed, +and sung to him, till he slept; and then all the horrors of the present +and future thronged upon her, till her heart seemed to die in her +breast, and her limbs failed to support her when she would have dragged +herself out of doors for one breath of fresh air, one refreshing look at +a world untroubled and serene. + +So the afternoon crept away, and as soon as night drew on the journey +was resumed. But this night was chill with the breath of a sobbing east +wind, and the dim stars foreboded rain. Hitty shivered with bitter cold, +and the boy began to cry. With a fierce curse Abner bade her stop his +disturbance, and again the poor mother had hands and heart full to +silence the still recurring sobs of the child. At last, after the +midnight cocks had ceased to send their challenges from farm to farm, +after some remote church-clocks had clanged one stroke on the damp wind, +they began to pass through a large village; no lights burned in the +windows, but white fences gleamed through the darkness, and sharp gable +ends loomed up against the dull sky, one after another, and the horse's +hoofs flashed sparks from the paved street before the church, that +showed its white spire, spectre-like, directly in their path. Here, by +some evil chance, the child awoke, and, between cold and hunger and +fear, began one of those long and loud shrieks that no power can stop +this side of strangulation. In vain Hitty kissed, and coaxed, and +half-choked her boy, in hope to stop the uproar; still he screamed more +and more loudly. Abner turned round on his seat with an oath, snatched +the child from its mother's arms, and rolled it closely in the blanket. + +"Hold on a minute, Ben!" said he to his companion; "this yelp must be +stopped"; and stepping over to the back of the wagon, he grasped his +wife tightly with one arm, and with the other dropped his child into the +street. "Now drive, Ben," said he, in the same hoarse whisper,--"drive +like the Devil!"--for, as her child fell, Hitty shrieked with such a cry +as only the heart of a mother could send out over a newly-murdered +infant. Shriek on shriek, fast and loud and long, broke the slumbers of +the village; nothing Abner could do, neither threat nor force, short of +absolute murder, would avail,--and there was too much real estate +remaining of the Hyde property for Abner Dimock to spare his wife yet. +Ben drove fiend-fashion; but before they passed the last house in the +village, lights were glancing and windows grating as they were opened. +Years after, I heard the story of such a midnight cry borne past +sleeping houses with the quick rattle of wheels; but no one who heard it +could give the right clue to its explanation, and it dried into a +legend. + +Now Hitty Dimock became careless of good or evil, except one absorbing +desire to get away from her husband,--to search for her child, to know +if it had lived or died. For four nights more that journey was pursued +at the height of their horse's speed; every day they stopped to rest, +and every day Hitty's half-delirious brain laid plans of escape, only to +be balked by Abner Dimock's vigilance; for if he slept, it was with both +arms round her, and the slightest stir awoke him,--and while he woke, +not one propitious moment freed her from his watch. Her brain began to +reel with disappointment and anguish; she began to hate her husband; a +band of iron seemed strained about her forehead, and a ringing sound +filled her ears; her lips grew parched, and her eye glittered; the last +night of their journey Abner Dimock lifted her into the wagon, and she +fainted on the hay. + +"What in hell did you bring her for, Dimock?" growled his companion; +"women are d----d plagues always." + +"She'll get up in a minute," coolly returned the husband; "can't afford +to leave a goose that lays golden eggs behind; hold on till I lift her +up. Here, Hitty! drink, I tell you! drink!" + +A swallow of raw spirit certainly drove away the faintness, but it +brought fresh fire to the fever that burned in her veins, and she was +muttering in delirium before the end of that night's journey brought +them to a small village just above the old house on the river that +figured in the beginning of this history, and which we trust the patient +reader has not forgotten. Abner Dimock left his wife in charge of the +old woman who kept the hovel of a tavern where they stopped, and, giving +Ben the horse to dispose of to some safe purchaser, after he had driven +him down to the old house, returned at night in the boat that belonged +to his negro tenant, and, taking his unconscious wife from her bed, +rowed down the river and landed her safely, to be carried from the skiff +into an upper chamber of the old house, where Jake's wife, Aunt Judy, as +Mr. Dimock styled her, nursed the wretched woman through three weeks of +fever, and "doctored" her with herbs and roots. + +The tenacious Hyde constitution, that was a proverb in Greenfield, +conquered at last, and Hitty became conscious, to find herself in a +chamber whose plastered walls were crumbling away with dampness and +festooned with cobwebs, while the uncarpeted floor was checkered with +green stains of mildew, and the very old four-post bedstead on which she +lay was fringed around the rickety tester with rags of green moreen, +mould-rotted. + +Hitty sank back on her pillow with a sigh; she did not even question the +old negress who sat crooning over the fire, as to where she was, or what +had befallen her; but accepted this new place as only another misty +delirium, and in her secret heart prayed, for the hundredth time, to +die. + +Slowly she recovered; for prayers to die are the last prayers ever +answered; we live against our will, and tempt living deaths year after +year, when soul and body cry out for the grave's repose, and beat +themselves against the inscrutable will of God only to fall down before +it in bruised and bleeding acquiescence. So she lived to find herself +immured in this damp and crumbling house, with no society but a drinking +and crime-haunted husband, and the ignorant negroes who served +him,--society varied now and then by one or two men revolting enough in +speech and aspect to drive Hitty to her own room, where, in a creaking +chair, she rocked monotonously back and forth, watching the snapping +fire, and dreaming dreams of a past that seemed now but a visionary +paradise. + +For now it was winter, and the heavy drifts of snow that lay on Dimock's +meadow forbade any explorations which the one idea of finding her child +might have driven her to make; and the frozen surface of the river no +white-sailed ship could traverse now, nor the hissing paddle-wheels of a +steamer break the silence with intimations of life, active and salient, +far beyond the lonely precinct of Abner Dimock's home. + +So the winter passed by. The noises and lights that had awoke Hitty at +midnight in the house at Greenfield had become so far an institution in +this lonely dwelling that now they disturbed her sleep no more; for it +was a received custom, that, whenever Abner Dimock's two visitors should +appear, the cellar should resound all night with heavy blows and +clinking of metal, and red light as from a forge streamed up through the +doorway; but it disturbed Hitty no more; apathy settled down in black +mist on her soul, and she seemed to think, to care, for nothing. + +But spring awoke the dead earth, and sleeping roots aroused with fresh +forces from their torpor, and sent up green signals to the birds above. +A spark of light awoke in Hitty's eye; she planned to get away, to steal +the boat from its hidden cove in the bushes and push off down the +friendly current of the river,--anywhere away from him! anywhere! though +it should be to wreck on the great ocean, but still away from him! Night +after night she rose from her bed to hazard the attempt, but her heart +failed, and her trembling limbs refused their aid. At length moonlight +came to her aid, and when all the house slept she stole downstairs with +bare, noiseless feet, and sped like a ghost across the meadow to the +river-bank. Poor weak hands! vainly they fumbled with the knotted rope +that bound the skiff to a crooked elm over-hanging the water,--all in +vain for many lingering minutes; but presently the obdurate knot gave +way, and, turning to gather up her shawl, there, close behind her, so +close that his hot breath seemed to sear her cheek, stood her husband, +clear in the moonlight, with a sneer on his face, and the lurid glow of +drunkenness, that made a savage brute of a bad man, gleaming in his +deep-set eyes. Hitty neither shrieked nor ran; despair nerved +her,--despair turned her rigid before his face. + +"Well," said he, "where are you going?" + +"I am going away,--away from you,--anywhere in the world away from you!" +answered she, with the boldness of desperation. + +"Ha, ha! going away from me!--that's a d--d good joke, a'n't it? Away +from your husband! You fool! you can't get away from me! you're mine, +soul and body,--this world and the next! Don't you know that? Where's +your promise, eh?--'for better, for worse!'--and a'n't I worse, you +cursed fool, you? You didn't put on the handcuffs for nothing; heaven +and hell can't get you away from me as long as you've got on that little +shiny fetter on your finger,--don't you know that?" + +The maddened woman made a quick wrench to pull away from him her left +hand, which he held in his, taunting her with the ring that symbolized +their eternal bonds; but he was too quick for her. + +"Hollo!" laughed he; "want to get rid of it, don't you? No, no! that +won't do,--that won't do! I'll make it safe!" + +And lifting her like a child in his arms, he carried her across the +meadow, back to the house, and down a flight of crazy steps into the +cellar, where a little forge was all ablaze with white-hot coal, and the +two ill-visaged men she well knew by sight were busy with sets of odd +tools and fragments of metal, while on a bench near by, and in the seat +of an old chair, lay piles of fresh coin. They were a gang of +counterfeiters. + +Abner Dimock thrust his wife into the chair, sweeping the gilt eagles to +the floor as one of the men angrily started up, demanding, with an oath, +what he brought that woman there for to hang them all. + +"Be quiet, Bill, can't you?" interposed the other man. "Don't you see +he's drunk? you'll have the Devil to pay, if you cross a drunk Dimock!" + +But Abner had not heard the first speaker; he was too much occupied with +tying his wife's arms to the chair,--a proceeding she could nowise +interfere with, since his heavy foot was set upon her dress so as to +hold her own feet in helpless fixedness. He proceeded to take the ring +from her finger, and, searching through a box of various contents that +stood in one corner, extracted from it a delicate steel chain, finely +wrought, but strong as steel can be; then, at the forge, with sundry +tools, carefully chosen and skilfully used, he soldered one end of the +chain to the ring, and, returning to his wife, placed it again upon her +finger. + +"Here, Bill," growled he, "where's that padlock off the tool-chest, eh? +give it here! This woman's a fool,--ha, ha, ha!--she wanted to get away +from me, and she's my wife!" + +Another peal of dissonant laughter interrupted the words. + +"What a d----d good joke! I swear I haven't laughed before, this dog's +age! And then she was goin' to rid herself of the ring! as if that would +help it! Why, there's the promise in black and white,--'love, honor, and +obey,'--'I take thee, Abner,'--ha, ha! that's good! But fast bind, fast +find; she a'n't going to get rid of the ring. I'll make it as tight as +the promise; both of 'em 'll last to doomsday. Give me the padlock, you +scoundrel!" + +Bill, the man he addressed, knew too much to hesitate after the savage +look that sent home the last words,--and, drawing from a bag of tools +and dies a tiny padlock and key, he handed them to Dimock, who passed +the chain about Hitty's thin white wrist, and, fastening it with the +padlock, turned the key, and, withdrawing it from the lock, dropped it +into the silvery heat of the forge, and burst into a fit of laughter, so +savage and so inhuman that the bearded lips of his two comrades grew +white with horror to hear the devil within so exult in his possession of +a man. + +Hitty sat, statue-like, in her chair; stooping, the man unbound her, and +she rose slowly and steadily to her feet, looking him in the face. + +"Look!" said she, raising her shackled arm high in air,--"I shall carry +it to God!"--and so fled, up the broken stairway, out into the +moonlight, across the meadow,--the three men following fast,--over the +fallen boughs that winter had strewn along the shore, out under the +crooked elm, swift as light, poising on the stern of the boat, that had +swung out toward the channel,--and once more lifting her hand high into +the white light, with one spring she dropped into the river, and its +black waters rolled down to the sea. + + + + +THE END OF ALL. + + + Wandering along a waste + Where once a city stood, + I saw a ruined tomb, + And in that tomb an urn,-- + + A sacred funeral-urn, + Without a name or date, + And in its hollow depths + A little human dust! + + Whose dust is this, I asked, + In this forgotten urn? + And where this waste now lies + What city rose of old? + + None knows; its name is lost; + It was, and is no more: + Gone like a wind that blew + A thousand years ago! + + Its melancholy end + Will be the end of all; + For, as it passed away, + The universe will pass! + + Its sole memorial + Some ruined world, like ours; + A solitary urn, + Full of the dust of men! + + + + +BIRDS OF THE NIGHT. + + +There are numerous swarms of insects and many small quadrupeds, +requiring partial darkness for their security, that come abroad only +during the night or twilight. These would multiply almost without check, +but that certain birds are formed with the power of seeing in the dark, +and, on account of their partial blindness in the daytime, are forced by +necessity to seek their food by night. Many species of insects are most +active after dewfall,--such, especially, as spend a great portion of +their lifetime in the air. Hence the very late hour at which Swallows +retire to rest, the hour succeeding sunset providing them with a fuller +repast than any other part of the day. No sooner has the Swallow +disappeared, than the Whippoorwill and the Night-Jar come forth, to prey +upon the larger kinds of aerial insects. The Bat, an animal of an +antediluvian type, comes out at the same time, and assists in lessening +these multitudinous swarms. The little Owls, though they pursue the +larger beetles and moths, direct their efforts chiefly at the small +quadrupeds that steal out in the early evening to nibble the tender +herbs and grasses. Thus the night, except the hours of total darkness, +is with many species of animals, though they pursue their objects with +comparative stillness and silence, a period of general activity. + +In this sketch, I shall treat of the Birds of the Night under two heads, +including, beside the true nocturnal birds that go abroad in the night +to seek their subsistence, those diurnal birds that continue their songs +during a considerable portion of the night. Some species of birds are +partly nocturnal in their habits. Such is the Chimney Swallow. This bird +is seldom out at noonday, which it employs in sleep, after excessive +activity from the earliest morning dawn. It is seen afterwards circling +about in the decline of day, and is sometimes abroad in fine weather the +greater part of the night, when the young broods require almost +unremitted exertions, on the part of the old birds, to procure their +subsistence. + +The true nocturnal birds, of which the Owl and the Whippoorwill are +conspicuous examples, are distinguished by a peculiar sensibility of the +eye, that enables them to see clearly by twilight and in cloudy weather, +while they are dazzled by the broad light of day. Their organs of +hearing are proportionally delicate and acute. Their wing-feathers also +have a peculiar downy softness, so that they fly without the usual +fluttering sounds that attend the flight of other birds, and are able to +steal unawares upon their prey, and make their predal excursions without +disturbing the general silence of the hour. This noiseless flight is +very remarkable in the Owl, as may be observed, if a tame one be allowed +to fly about a room, when we can perceive his motions only by our sight. +It is a fact worthy of our attention, that this peculiar structure of +the wing-feathers does not exist in the Woodcock. Nature makes no +useless provisions for her creatures; and hence this nocturnal bird, +which obtains his food by digging into the soil, and gets no part of it +while on the wing, has no need of this contrivance. Neither stillness +nor stealth would assist him in securing his helpless prey. + +Among the nocturnal birds, the most notorious is the Owl, of which there +are many species, varying from the size of an Eagle down to the little +Acadian, which is no larger than a Robin. The resemblance of the Owl to +the feline quadrupeds has been a frequent subject of remark. Like the +cat, he sees most clearly by twilight or the light of the moon, seeks +his prey in the night, and spends the principal part of the day in +sleep. The likeness is made stronger by his tufts of feathers, that +correspond to the ears of the quadruped,--by his large head,--his round, +full, and glaring eyes, set widely apart,--by the extreme contractility +of the pupil,--and in his manners, by his lurking and stealthy habit of +surprising his victims. His eyes are partially encircled by a disk of +feathers that yields a peculiarly significant expression to his face. +His hooked bill turned downwards, so as to resemble the nose in a human +countenance, the general flatness of his features, and his upright +position, give him a grave and intelligent look; and it was this +expression that caused him to be selected by the ancients as the emblem +of wisdom, and consecrated to Minerva. + +The Owl is remarkable also for the acuteness of his hearing, having a +large ear-drum, and being provided with an apparatus by which he can +exalt this faculty, when under the necessity of listening with greater +attention. Hence, while he is silent in his own motions, he is able to +perceive the least sound from the motion of any other object, and +overtakes his prey by coming upon it in silence and darkness. The +stillness of his flight is one of the circumstances that add mystery to +his character, and which have assisted in rendering him an object of +superstitious dread. + +Aware of his defenceless condition in the bright daylight, when his +purblindness would prevent him from evading the attacks of his enemies, +he seeks some obscure retreat where he may pass the day without exposing +himself to observation. It is this necessity which has caused him to +make his abode in desolate and ruined buildings, in old towers and +belfries, and in the crevices of dilapidated walls. In these places he +hides himself from the sight of other birds, who regard him as their +common enemy, and who show him no mercy when he is discovered. Here also +he rears his offspring, and with these solitary haunts his image is +closely associated. In thinly settled and wooded countries, he selects +the hollows of old trees and the clefts of rocks for his retreats. All +the smaller Owls, however, seem to multiply with the increase of human +population, subsisting upon the minute animals that accumulate in +outhouses, orchards, and fallows. + +When the Owl is discovered in his hiding-place, the alarm is given, and +there is a general excitement among the small birds. They assemble in +great numbers, and with loud chattering commence assailing and annoying +him in various ways, and soon drive him out of his retreat. The Jay, +usually his first assailant, like a thief employed as a thief-taker, +attacks him with great zeal and animation; the Chickadee, the Nuthatch, +and the small Thrushes peck at his head and eyes; while other birds, +less bold, fly round him, and by their vociferation encourage his +assailants and help to terrify their victim. + +It is while sitting on the branch of a tree or on a fence, after his +misfortune and his escape, that he is most frequently seen in the +daytime; and here he has formed a subject for painters, who have +commonly introduced him into their pictures as he appears in one of +these open situations. He is likewise represented ensconced in his own +select retreats, apparently peeping out of his hiding-place while +half-concealed; and the fact of his being seen in these lonely places +has caused many superstitions to be attached to his image. His voice is +supposed to bode misfortune, and his spectral visits are regarded as the +forewarnings of death. His connection with deserted houses and ruins has +invested him with a peculiarly romantic character; while the poets, by +introducing him to deepen the force of their gloomy and pathetic +descriptions, have enlivened these associations; and he deserves, +therefore, in a special degree, to be named among those animals which we +call picturesque. + +The gravity of the Owl's general appearance, combined with a sort of +human expression in his countenance, undoubtedly caused him to be +selected by the ancients as the emblem of wisdom. The moderns have +practically renounced this idea, which had no foundation in the real +character of the bird, who possesses only the sly and sinister traits +that mark the feline race. A very different train of associations and a +new series of picturesque images are now suggested by the figure of the +Owl, who has been portrayed more correctly by modern poetry than by +ancient mythology. He is now universally regarded as the emblem of ruin +and desolation, true to his character and habits, which are intimately +allied to this description of scenery. + +I will not enter into a speculation concerning the nature and origin of +those agreeable emotions which are so generally produced by the sight of +objects that suggest the ideas of decay and desolation. It is happy for +us, that, by the alchemy of poetry, we are able to turn some of our +misfortunes into sources of melancholy pleasure, after the poignancy of +grief has been assuaged by time. Nature has beneficently provided, also, +that many an object, which is capable of communicating no direct +pleasure to our senses, shall affect us agreeably through the medium of +sentiment. The image of the Owl is calculated to awaken the sentiment of +ruin, and to this feeling of the human soul we may trace the pleasure we +derive from the sight of this bird in his appropriate scenery. Two Doves +upon the mossy branch of a tree in a wild and beautiful sylvan retreat +are the pleasing emblems of innocent love and constancy; but they are +not more suggestive of poetic fancies than an Owl sitting upon an old +gate-post near a deserted house. + +I have alluded, in another page, to the faint sounds we hear when the +Night Birds, on a still summer evening, are flying over short distances +in a neighboring wood. There is a feeling of mystery excited by these +sounds, that exalts the pleasure we derive from the delightful influence +of the hour and the season. But the emotions thus produced are of a +cheerful kind, and not equal in intensity to the effects of the scarcely +perceptible sound occasioned by the flight of the Owl, as he glides by +in the dusk of the evening or in the dim light of the moon. Similar in +its influence is the dismal voice of this bird, which is harmonized with +darkness, and, though in some cases not unmusical, is tuned, as it were, +to the terrors of that hour when he makes secret warfare upon the +sleeping inhabitants of the wood. + +One of the most interesting of this tribe of birds is the little Acadian +Owl, (_Strix Acadica_,) whose note has formerly excited a great deal of +curiosity. In "The Canadian Naturalist," an account is given of a rural +excursion in April, in the course of which the attention of one of the +party is called by his companion, just after sunset, to a peculiar sound +proceeding from a cedar swamp. It was compared to the measured tinkling +of a cow-bell, or regular strokes upon a piece of iron, quickly +repeated. The one appealed to is able to give no satisfactory +information about it, but remarks, that, "during the months of April and +May, and in the former part of June, we frequently hear, after +nightfall, the sound just described. From its regularity, it is thought +to resemble the whetting of a saw, and hence the bird from which it +proceeds is called the Saw-Whetter." The author could not identify the +bird that uttered this note, but conjectured that it might be a Heron or +a Bittern. It has since been ascertained that this singular note +proceeds from the Acadian Owl. It is like the sound produced by the +filing of a mill-saw, and is said to be the amatory note of the male, +being heard only during the season of incubation. + +Mr. S.P. Fowler, of Danvers, informs me that "the Acadian Owl has +another note, which we frequently hear in the autumn, after the breeding +season is over. The parent birds, then accompanied by their young, while +hunting their prey during a bright moonlight night, utter a peculiar +note, resembling a suppressed moan or a low whistle. The little Acadian, +to avoid the annoyance of the birds he would meet by day, and the +blinding light of the sun, retires in the morning, his feathers wet with +dew and rumpled by the hard struggles he has encountered in seizing his +prey, to the gloom of the forest or the thick swamp, where, perched on a +bough, near the trunk of the tree, he sleeps through a summer's day, the +perfect picture of a _used-up_ little fellow, suffering from the sad +effects of a night's carouse. But he is an honest bird, notwithstanding +his late hours and his idle sleeping days; he is also domestic in his +habits, and the father of an interesting family, close at hand, in a +hollow white-birch, and he is ever ready to give them his support and +protection." + +The Mottled Owl, (_Strix Asio_) or Screech Owl, is somewhat larger than +the Acadian or Whetsaw, and not so familiar as the Barn Owl of Europe, +though resembling it in general habits. He commonly builds in the hollow +of an old tree, also in deserted buildings, whither he resorts in the +daytime to find repose and to escape annoyance. His voice is heard most +frequently in the latter part of summer, when the young Owlets are +abroad, and use their cries for purposes of mutual salutation and +recognition. This wailing note is singularly wild, and not unmusical. It +is not properly a screech or a scream, like that of the Hawk or the +Peacock, but rather a sort of moaning melody, half music and half +bewailment. This wailing song is far from disagreeable, though it has a +cadence which is expressive of dreariness and melancholy. It might be +performed on a small flute, by commencing with D octave and running down +by semitones to a fifth below, and frequently repeating the notes, for +the space of a minute, with occasional pauses and slight variations, +sometimes ascending as well as descending the scale. The bird does not +slur the passages, but utters them with a sort of trembling _staccato_. +The separate notes may be distinctly perceived, with intervals of about +a semitone. + +The Owl is not properly regarded as a useful bird. The generality of the +tribe deserve to be considered only as mischievous birds of prey, and no +more entitled to mercy and protection than the Falcons, to which they +are allied. All the little Owls, however, though guilty of destroying +small birds, are very serviceable in ridding our fields and premises of +mischievous animals. They likewise destroy multitudes of large nocturnal +insects, flying above the summits of the trees in pursuit of them, while +at other times their flight is low, when watching for the small animals +that run upon the ground. It is probably on account of its low flight +that the Owl is seldom seen on the wing. Bats, which are employed by +Nature for the same kind of services, fall victims in large numbers to +the Owls of different species, who are the principal means of preventing +their multiplication. + +I should wander from my present purpose, were I to attempt a sketch of +the large Owls, as I design only to treat of those birds which +contribute, either as poetic or picturesque objects, to improve the +charms of Nature. I shall say but a passing word, therefore, of the +Great Snowy Owl, almost exclusively an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, +where he frightens both man and beast with his dismal hootings,--or of +the Cat Owl, the prince of these monsters, who should be consecrated to +Pluto,--or of his brother monster, the Gray Owl, that will carry off a +full-grown rabbit. There are several other species, more or less +interesting, ridiculous, or frightful. I will leave them, to speak of +birds of more pleasing habits and a more innocent character. + +The next remarkable family of nocturnal birds comprises the +_Moth-Hunters_, including, in New England, only two species,--the +Whippoorwill and the Night-Hawk, or Piramidig. These birds resemble the +Owls in some of their habits; but in their structure, in their mode of +subsistence, and in their general traits of character, they are like +Swallows. They are shy and solitary, take their food while on the wing, +abide chiefly in deep woods, and come abroad only at twilight or in +cloudy weather. They remain, like the Dove, permanently paired, lay +their eggs on the bare ground, and, when perched upon the branch of a +tree, sit upon it lengthwise, unlike other birds. They are remarkable +for their singular voices, of which that of only one species, the +Whippoorwill, can be considered musical. They are known in all parts of +the world, but are particularly numerous in the warmer parts of America. + +The Whippoorwill (_Caprimulgus vociferus_) is well known to the +inhabitants of this part of the world, on account of his nocturnal song. +This is heard only in densely wooded and retired situations, and is +associated with the solitude of the forest, as well as the silence of +night. The Whippoorwill is, therefore, emblematic of the rudeness of +primitive Nature, and his voice always reminds us of seclusion and +retirement. Sometimes he wanders away from the wood into the precincts +of the town, and sings near some dwelling-house. Such an incident was +formerly the occasion of superstitious alarm, being regarded as an omen +of some evil to the inmates of the dwelling. The true cause of these +irregular visits is probably the accidental abundance of a particular +kind of insects, which the bird has followed from his retirement. + +I believe the Whippoorwill, in this part of the country, is first heard +in May, and continues vocal until the middle of July. He begins to sing +at dusk, and we usually hear his note soon after the Veery, the Philomel +of our summer evenings, has become silent. His song consists of three +notes, in a sort of triple or waltz time, with a slight pause after the +first note in the bar, as given below:-- + +[Illustration: SONG OF THE WHIPPOORWILL. Whip-poor-Will Whip-p'r-Will +Whip-p'r-Will Whip-] + +I should remark, that the bird usually commences his song with the +second syllable of his name, or the second note in the bar. Some birds +fall short of these intervals; but there seems to be an endeavor, on the +part of each individual, to reach the notes as they are written on the +scale. A few sliding notes are occasionally introduced, and an +occasional preluding cluck is heard when we are near the singer. + +The note of the Quail so closely resembles that of the Whippoorwill, +that I have thought it might be interesting to compare the two. + +[Illustration: NOTE OF THE QUAIL. Bob White. More Wet.] + +So great is the general similarity of the notes of these two birds, that +those of the Quail need only to be repeated several times in succession, +without pause, to be mistaken for those of the Whippoorwill. They are +uttered with similar intonations; but the voice of the nocturnal bird is +more harsh, and his song consists of three notes instead of two. + +The song of the Whippoorwill, though wanting in mellowness of tone, as +may be perceived when he is only a short distance from us, is to most +people very agreeable, notwithstanding the superstitions associated with +it. Some persons are not disposed to rank the Whippoorwill among +singing-birds, regarding him as more vociferous than musical. But it +would be difficult to determine in what respect his notes differ from +the songs of other birds, except that they approach more nearly to the +precision of artificial music. Yet it will be admitted that considerable +distance is required to "lend enchantment" to the sound of his voice. In +some retired and solitary districts, the Whippoorwills are often so +numerous as to be annoying by their vociferations; but in those places +where only two or three individuals are heard during the season, their +music is the source of a great deal of pleasure, and is a kind of +recommendation to the place. + +I was witness of this, some time since, in one of my botanical rambles +in the town of Beverly, which is, for the most part, too densely +populated to suit the habits of these solitary birds. On one of these +excursions, after walking several hours over a rather unattractive +region, I arrived at a very romantic spot, known by the unpoetical name +of Black Swamp. Nature uses her most ordinary materials to form her most +delightful landscapes, and often keeps in reserve prospects of +enchanting beauty, and causes them to rise up, as it were, by magic, +where we should least expect them. Here I suddenly found myself +encompassed by a charming amphitheatre of hills and woods, and in a +valley so beautiful that I could not have imagined anything equal to it. +A neat cottage stood alone in this spot, without a single architectural +decoration, which I am confident would have dissolved the spell that +made the whole scene so attractive. It was occupied by a shoemaker, whom +I recognized as an old acquaintance and a worthy man, who resided here +with his wife and children. I asked them if they could live contented so +far from other families. The wife of the cottager replied, that they +suffered in the winter from their solitude, but in the spring and summer +they preferred it to the town,--"for in this place we hear all the +singing-birds, early and late, and the Whippoorwill sings here every +night during May and June." It was the usual practice of these birds, +they told me, to sing both in the morning and the evening twilight; but +if the moon rose late in the evening, after they had become silent, they +would begin to sing anew, as if to welcome her rising. May the birds +continue to sing to this happy family, and may the voice of the +Whippoorwill never bode them any misfortune! + +The Night-Hawk, or Piramidig, (_Caprimulgus Americanus_,) is similar in +many points to the Whippoorwill, and the two species were formerly +considered identical. The former, however, is a smaller bird; he has no +song, and exhibits more of the ways of the Swallow. He is marked by a +white spot on his wings, which is very apparent during his flight. He +takes his prey in a higher part of the atmosphere,--being frequently +seen, at twilight and in cloudy weather, soaring above the house-tops in +quest of insects. The Whippoorwill finds his subsistence chiefly in the +woods, and takes a part of it from the branches of trees, while poising +himself on the wing, like a Humming-Bird. I believe he is never seen +circling aloft like the Night-Hawk. + +The movements of the Night-Hawk, during this flight, are performed, for +the most part, in circles, and are very picturesque. The birds are +usually seen in pairs, at such times, but occasionally there are numbers +assembled together; and one might suppose they were engaged in a sort of +aerial dance, or that they were emulating each other in their attempts +at soaring to a great height. It is evident that these evolutions +proceed in part from the pleasure of motion; but they are also connected +with their courtship. While they are soaring and circling in the air, +they occasionally utter the shrill and broken note which has been +supposed to resemble the word Piramidig, whence the name is +derived,--and now and then they dart suddenly aside, to seize a passing +insect. + +While performing these circumvolutions, the male frequently dives almost +perpendicularly downwards, a distance of forty feet or more, uttering, +when he turns at the bottom of his descent, a singular note, resembling +the twang of a viol-string. This sound has been supposed to proceed from +the action of the air, as the bird dives swiftly through it with open +mouth; but this supposition is rendered improbable by the fact that the +European species makes a similar sound while sitting on its perch. It +has also been alleged that the diving motion of this bird is an act +designed to intimidate those who seem to be approaching his nest; but +this cannot be true, because the bird performs the manoeuvre when he has +no nest to defend. This habit is peculiar to the male, and it is +probably one of those fantastic motions which are noticeable among the +males of the gallinaceous birds, and are evidently their artifices to +attract the attention of the female; very many of these motions may be +observed in the manners of tame Pigeons. + +The twanging note produced during the precipitate descent of the +Night-Hawk is one of the picturesque sounds of Nature, and is heard most +frequently in the morning twilight, when the birds are busy collecting +their repast of insects. During an early morning walk, while they are +circling about, we may hear their cry frequently repeated, and +occasionally the booming sound, which, if one is not accustomed to it, +and is not acquainted with this habit of the bird, affects him with a +sensation of mystery, and excites his curiosity in an extraordinary +degree. + +The sound produced by the European species is a sort of drumming or +whizzing note, like the hum of a spinning-wheel. The male commences this +performance about dusk, and continues it at intervals during a great +part of the night. It is effected while the breast is inflated with air, +like that of a cooing Dove. The Piramidig has the power of inflating +himself in the same manner, and he utters this whizzing note when one +approaches his nest. + +The American Woodcock (_Scolopax minor_) is a more interesting bird than +we should infer from his general appearance and physiognomy. He is +mainly nocturnal in his habits, and his ways are worthy of study and +observation. He obtains his food by scratching up the leaves and rubbish +that lie upon the surface of the ground in damp and wooded places, and +by boring into the earth for worms. He remains concealed in the wood +during the day, and comes out to feed at twilight, choosing the open +ploughed lands where worms are abundant; though it is probable that in +the shade of the wood he is more or less busy in scratching among the +leaves in the daytime. + +The Woodcock does not commonly venture abroad in the open day, unless he +be disturbed and driven from his retreats. He makes his first appearance +here in the latter part of April, and at this season we may observe that +soaring habit which renders him one of the picturesque objects of +Nature. This soaring takes place soon after sunset, continues during +twilight, and is repeated at the corresponding hour in the morning. If +you listen at this time near the places of his resort, he will soon +reveal himself by a lively peep, frequently uttered, from the ground. +While repeating this note, he may be seen strutting about, like a +turkey-cock, with fantastic jerkings of the tail and a frequent bowing +of the head; and his mate, I believe, is at this time not far off. +Suddenly he springs upward, and with a wide circular sweep, uttering at +the same time a rapid whistling note, he rises in a spiral course to a +great height in the air. At the summit of his ascent, he hovers about +with irregular motions, chirping a medley of broken notes, like +imperfect warbling. This continues about ten or fifteen seconds, when it +ceases, and he descends rapidly to the ground. We seldom hear him while +in his descent, but receive the first intimation of it by hearing a +repetition of his peep, resembling the sound produced by those minute +wooden trumpets sold at the German toy-shops. + +No person could watch this playful flight of the Woodcock without +interest; and it is remarkable that a bird with short wings and +difficult flight should be capable of mounting to so great an altitude. +It affords me a vivid conception of the pleasure with which I should +witness the soaring and singing of the Skylark, known to me only by +description. I have but to imagine the chirruping of the Woodcock to be +a melodious series of notes, to feel that I am listening to that bird, +which is so familiarized to our imaginations by English poetry that in +our early days we always expect his greetings with a summer sunrise. It +is with sadness that we first learn in our youth that the Skylark is not +an inhabitant of the New World; and our mornings seem divested of a +great portion of their charms, for the want of this poetical +accompaniment. + +There is another circumstance connected with the habits of the Woodcock +which increases his importance as an actor in the melodrame of Nature. +When we stroll away from the noise and din of the town, where the +stillness permits us to hear distinctly all those faint sounds which are +turned by the silence of night into music, we may hear at frequent +intervals the hum produced by the irregular flights of the Woodcock, as +he passes over short distances in the wood, where he is collecting his +repast. It resembles the sound of the wings of Doves, rendered distinct +by the stillness of all other things, and melodious by the distance. +There is a feeling of mystery attached to these musical nights that +yields a savor of romance to the quiet voluptuousness of a summer +evening. + +It is on such occasions, if we are in a moralizing mood, that we may be +keenly impressed with the truth of the saying, that the secret of +happiness consists in keeping alive our susceptibilities by frugal +indulgences, rather than by seeking a multitude of pleasures, that pall +in exact proportion to their abundance. The stillness and darkness of a +quiet night produce this enlivening effect upon our minds. Our +susceptibility is then awakened to such a degree, that slight sounds and +feeble sparks of light convey to our souls an amount of pleasure which +we seldom experience in the daytime from sights and sounds of the most +pleasing description. Thus the player in an orchestra can enjoy such +music only as would deafen common ears by its crash of sounds, in which +they perceive no connection or harmony; while the simple rustic listens +to the rude notes of a flageolet in the hands of a clown with feelings +of ineffable delight. Nature, if the seekers after luxurious and +exciting pleasures could but understand her language, would say to them, +"Except ye become as this simple rustic, ye cannot enter into my +paradise." + +The American Snipe has some of the nocturnal habits of the Woodcock, and +the same habit of soaring at twilight, when he performs a sort of +musical medley, which Audubon has very graphically described in the +following passage:--"The birds are met with in meadows and low grounds, +and, by being on the spot before sunrise, you may see both (male and +female) mount high, in a spiral manner, now with continuous beats of the +wings, now in short sailings, until more than a hundred yards high, when +they whirl round each other with extreme velocity, and dance, as it +were, to their own music; for, at this juncture, and during the space of +five or six minutes, you hear rolling notes mingled together, each more +or less distinct, perhaps, according to the state of the atmosphere. The +sounds produced are extremely pleasing, though they fall faintly on the +ear. I know not how to describe them; but I am well assured that they +are not produced simply by the beatings of their wings, as at this time +the wings are not flapped, but are used in sailing swiftly in a circle, +not many feet in diameter. A person might cause a sound somewhat similar +by blowing rapidly and alternately, from one end to another, across a +set of small pipes, consisting of two or three modulations. This +performance is kept up till incubation terminates; but I have never +observed it at any other period." + +Among the Heron family we discover a few nocturnal birds, which, though +not very well known, have some ways that are singular and interesting. +Goldsmith considered one of these birds worthy of introduction into his +"Deserted Village," as contributing to the poetic conception of +desolation. Thus, in his description of the grounds which were the +ancient site of the village, we read,-- + + "Along its glades, a solitary guest, + The hollow-sounding Bittern guards its nest." + +"The Bittern is a shy and solitary bird; it is never seen on the wing in +the daytime, but sits, generally with the head erect, hid among the +reeds and rushes of extensive marshes, from whence it will not stir, +unless disturbed by the sportsman. When it changes its haunts, it +removes in the dusk of the evening, and then, rising in a spiral +direction, soars to a vast height. It flies in the same heavy manner as +the Heron, and might be mistaken for that bird, were it not for the +singularly resounding cry which it utters, from time to time, while on +the wing: but this cry is feeble when compared with the hollow booming +noise which it makes during the night, in the breeding season, from its +swampy retreats. From the loudness and solemnity of its note, an +erroneous notion prevails with the vulgar, that it either thrusts its +head into a reed, which serves as a pipe for swelling its note beyond +its natural pitch, or that it immerges its head in water, and then +produces its boomings by blowing with all its might." + +The American Bittern is a smaller bird, but is probably a variety of the +European species. It exhibits the same nocturnal habits, and has +received at the South the name of _Dunkadoo_, from the resemblance of +its common note to these syllables. This is a hollow-sounding noise, but +not so loud as the voice of the Bittern to which Goldsmith alludes. I +have heard it by day proceeding from the wooded swamps, and am at a loss +to explain how so small a bird can produce so low and hollow a note. +Among this family of birds are one or two other nocturnal species, +including the Qua-Bird, which is common to both continents; but there is +little to be said of it that would be interesting in this connection. +The Herons, however, and their allied species, are birds of remarkable +habits, the enumeration and account of which would occupy a considerable +space. In an essay on the flight of birds in particular, the Herons +would furnish a multitude of very interesting facts. + + +Let us now turn our attention to those diurnal birds that sing in the +night as well as in the day, and which might be comprehended under the +general appellation of Nightingales. These birds do not confine their +singing to the night, like the true nocturnal birds, and are most vocal +when inspired by the light of the moon. Europe has several of these +minstrels of the night. Beside the true Philomel of poetry and romance, +the Reed-Thrush and the Woodcock are of this character. In the United +States, the Mocking-Bird enjoys the greatest reputation; the +Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the New York Thrush are also nocturnal +songsters. + +The Mocking-Bird (_Turdus polyglottus_) is well known in the Middle and +Southern States, but seldom passes a season in New England, except in +the southern part of Rhode Island and Connecticut, which seem to be the +northern limit of its migrations. Probably, like the Rose-breasted +Grosbeak, which is constantly extending its limits in an eastern +direction, the Mocking-Bird may be gradually making progress +northwardly, so that fifty years hence both of these birds may be common +in Massachusetts. The Mocking-Bird is familiar in his habits, +frequenting gardens and orchards, and perching on the roofs of houses +when singing, like the common Robin. Like the Robin, too, who sings at +all hours excepting those of darkness, he is a persevering songster, and +seems to be inspired by living in the vicinity of man. In his manners, +however, he bears more resemblance to the Red Thrush, being +distinguished by his vivacity, and the courage with which he repels the +attacks of his enemies. + +The Mocking-Bird is celebrated throughout the world for his musical +powers; but it is difficult to ascertain precisely the character and +quality of his original notes. Hence some naturalists have contended +that he has no song of his own, but confines himself to imitations. That +this is an error, all persons who have listened to him in his native +wild-wood can testify. I should say, from my own observations, not only +that he has a distinct song, peculiarly his own, but that his imitations +are far from being equal to his original notes. Yet it is seldom we hear +him except when he is engaged in mimicry. In his native woods, and +especially at an early hour in the morning, when he is not provoked to +imitation by the voices of other birds and animals, he sometimes pours +forth his own wild notes with full fervor. Yet I have often listened +vainly for hours to hear him utter anything but a few idle repetitions +of monotonous sounds, interspersed with some ludicrous varieties. Why he +should neglect his own pleasing notes, to tease the listener with his +imitations of all imaginable discords, is not easily explained. + +Though his imitations are the cause of his notoriety, they are not the +utterances upon which his true merit is based. He would be infinitely +more valuable as a songster, if he were incapable of imitating a single +sound. I would add, that as an imitator of the songs of other birds he +is very imperfect, and in this respect has been greatly overrated by our +ornithologists, who seem to vie with one another in their exaggerations +of his powers. He cannot utter the notes of the rapid singers; he is +successful only in his imitations of those birds whose notes are simple +and moderately delivered. He is, indeed, more remarkable for his +indefatigable propensity than for his powers. Single sounds, from +whatever source they may come, from birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, or +machines, he gives very accurately; but I have heard numbers of +Mocking-Birds in confinement attempt to imitate the Canary, and always +without success. There is a common saying, that the Mocking-Bird will +die of chagrin, if placed in a cage by the side of a caged Bobolink, +mortified because he cannot give utterance to his rapid notes. If this +were the cause of his death, he would also die when caged in a room with +a Canary, a Goldfinch, or any of the rapidly singing Finches. It is also +an error to say of his imitations, as the generality of writers assert, +that they are improvements upon the originals. When he utters the notes +of the Red-Bird, the Golden Robin, or the Common Robin, he does not +improve them; and when he gives us the screaming of the Jay or the +mewing of the Cat, he does not change them into music. + +As an original songster, judging him by what he is capable of +performing, however unfrequently he may exercise his powers to the best +advantage, the Mocking-Bird is probably equalled only by two or three of +our singing-birds. His notes are loud, varied, melodious, and of great +compass. They may be compared to those of the Red Thrush, more rapidly +delivered, and having more flute notes and fewer guttural notes and +sudden transitions. He also sings on the wing and with fervor, like the +Linnet, while the other Thrushes sing only from their perch. But his +song has less variety than that of the Red Thrush, and falls short of it +in as many respects as it surpasses it. For the greater part of the +time, the only notes of the Mocking-Bird, when he is not engaged in +mimicry, are a sort of melodious whistle, consisting of two notes about +a fourth apart, uttered in quick, but not rapid, succession, and hardly +to be distinguished from those of the Red-Bird of Virginia. + +I heard the notes of the Mocking-Bird the first time in his native +wilds, during a railroad journey by night, through the Pine Barrens of +North Carolina, in the month of June. The journey was very tiresome and +unpleasant, nothing being seen, when looking out upon the landscape, but +a gloomy stretch of level forest, consisting of tall pines, thinly +scattered, without any branches, except at their tops. The dusky forms +of these trees, pictured against the half-luminous sky, seemed like so +many giant spectres watching the progress of our journey, and increased +the loneliness of the hour. Before daylight, when the sky was faintly +crimsoned around the place where the sun was to come forth, the train +made a pause of half an hour, at one of the stations, and the passengers +alighted. While I was looking at the dreary prospect of desert, tired of +my journey and longing for day, suddenly the notes of the Mocking-Bird +came to my ear, and changed all my gloomy feelings into delight. + +It is seldom I have felt so vividly the power of one little incident to +change the tone of one's feelings and the humor of the occasion. As a +few drops of oil, cast upon the surface of the waters, will quiet the +troubled waves, so did the glad voice of this merry bird suddenly dispel +all those sombre feelings which had been fostered by dismal scenes and a +lonely journey. Nature never seemed so lovely as when the rising dawn, +with its tearful beams and purple radiance, was greeted by this warbling +salutation, as from some messenger of light, who came to announce that +Morning was soon to step forth from her throne, and extend over all +things her smiles and her beneficence. + +Of the other American birds that sing in the night I can say nothing +from my own observation. The most important of these is the New York +Thrush, (_Turdus aquaticus_,) which is said to resemble the River +Nightingale of Europe. This bird, which is common in the Western States, +is said to sing melodiously night and day. Wilson remarks of this +species, "They are eminently distinguished by the loudness, sweetness, +and expressive vivacity of their notes, which begin very high and clear, +falling with an almost imperceptible gradation, till they are scarcely +articulated. At these times the musician is perched on the middle +branches of a tree, over a brook or river-bank, pouring out his charming +melody, that may be distinctly heard for nearly half a mile. The voice +of this little bird appeared to me so exquisitely sweet and expressive, +that I was never tired listening to it." This description is exactly +applicable to the song of the Veery, supposed to be silent by Wilson, +who could not have fallen into such an error, except by having confined +his researches chiefly to the Middle and Southern States. + +The Rose-breasted Grosbeak (_Loxia rosea_) is said to be an excellent +songster, passing the greater part of the night in singing, and +continuing vocal in confinement. This bird is common in the Western +States, but until lately has seldom been seen in New England. I learn, +however, from Mr. Fowler, that "the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is found in +Essex County, and, though formerly seldom seen, is becoming every year +more common. Like the Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager, it is retiring in +its habits, and is usually found in the most sheltered part of the wood, +where, perched about midway on a tree, in fancied concealment, it +warbles its soft, clear, and melodious notes." He thinks this bird is +not heard so frequently by night as by day, though it often sings in the +light of the moon. + +In connection with this theme, we cannot help feeling a sense of regret, +almost like melancholy, when we reflect that the true Nightingale and +the Skylark, the classical birds of European literature, are strangers +to our fields and woods. In May and June there is no want of sylvan +minstrels to wake the morn and to sing the vespers of a sweet summer +evening. A flood of song wakes us at the earliest daylight; and the shy +and solitary Veery, after the Vesper-Bird has concluded his evening +hymn, pours his few pensive notes into the very bosom of twilight, and +makes the hour sacred by his melody. But after twilight is sped, and the +moon rises to shed her meek radiance over the sleeping earth, the +Nightingale is not here to greet her rising, and to turn her melancholy +beams into the cheerfulness of daylight. And when the Queen Moon is on +her throne, + + "Clustered around by all her starry Fays," + +the Whippoorwill alone brings her the tribute of his monotonous song, +and soothes the dull ear of Night with sounds which, however delightful, +are not of heaven. We have become so familiar with the Lark and the +Nightingale, by the perusal of the romance of rural life, that "neither +breath of Morn, when she ascends" without the charm of this her earliest +harbinger, "nor silent Night" without her "solemn bird," seems holy, as +when we contemplate them in the works of pastoral song. Poetry has +hallowed to our minds the pleasing objects of the Old World; those of +the New have to be cherished in song yet many more years, before they +will be equally sacred to our imaginations. + +By some of our writers the Mocking-Bird is put forward as equal in song +to the Nightingale. This assumption might be worthy of consideration, if +the American bird were not a mimic. But his mocking habits almost +annihilate his value as a songster,--as the effect of a good concert +would be spoiled, if the players were constantly introducing, in the +midst of their serious performances, snatches of ridiculous tunes and +uncouth sounds. I have never heard the Nightingale; but if I may judge +from descriptions of its song, and from the notes of those Canaries +which are said to give us perfect imitations of it, we have no bird in +America that equals this classical songster. The following description, +by Pliny, which is said to be superior to any other, may afford us some +idea of the extent of its powers:--"The Nightingale, that for fifteen +days and nights, hid in the thickest shades, continues her note without +intermission, deserves our attention and wonder. How surprising that so +great a voice can reside in so small a body! Such perseverance in so +minute an animal! With what musical propriety are the sounds it produces +modulated! The note at one time drawn out with a long breath, now +stealing off into a different cadence, now interrupted by a break, then +changing into a new note by an unexpected transition, now seeming to +renew the same strain, then deceiving expectation. She sometimes seems +to murmur within herself; full, deep, sharp, swift, drawling, trembling; +now at the top, the middle, and the bottom of the scale. In short, in +that little bill seems to reside all the melody which man has vainly +labored to bring from a variety of musical instruments. Some even seem +to be possessed of a different note from the rest, and contend with each +other with great ardor. The bird, overcome, is then seen to discontinue +its song only with its life." + +The cause of the nocturnal singing of birds that do not go abroad during +the night and are strictly diurnal in all their other habits has never +been satisfactorily explained. It is natural that the Whippoorwill, +which is a nocturnal bird, should sing during his hours of wakefulness +and activity. There is also no difficulty in explaining why Ducks and +Geese, and some other social birds, should utter their loud alarm-notes, +when they meet with any midnight disturbance. These birds usually have a +sentinel who keeps awake; and if he give an alarm, the others reply to +it. The crowing of the Cock bears more analogy to the song of a bird, +for it does not seem to be an alarm-note. This domestic bird may be +considered, therefore, a nocturnal songster, if his crowing can be +called a song; though it is remarkable that we seldom hear it during +evening twilight. The Cock sings his matins, but not his vespers; he +crows at the earliest dawn of day, and at midnight upon the rising of +the moon, and whenever he is awakened by artificial light. Many +singing-birds are accustomed to prolong their notes after sunset to a +late hour, and become silent only to commence again at the earliest +daybreak. But the habit of singing in the night is peculiar to a small +number of birds, and the cause of it forms a curious subject of inquiry. + +By what means are they enabled to sustain such constant watchfulness, +singing and providing subsistence for their offspring during the day, +and still continuing wakeful and musical while it is night? Why do they +take pleasure in singing, when no one will come in answer to their call? +Have they their worship, like religious beings, and are their midnight +lays but the outpouring of the fervency of their spirits? Do they +rejoice, like the clouds, in the presence of the moon, hailing her beams +as a pleasant relief from the darkness that has surrounded them? Or in +the silence of night, are their songs but responses to the sounds of the +trees, when they bow their heads and shake their rustling leaves in the +wind? When they listen to the streamlet, that makes audible melody only +in the hush of night, do they not answer to it from their leafy perch? +And when the moth flies hummingly through the recesses of the wood, and +the beetle sounds his horn, what are their notes but cheerful responses +to these sounds, that break sweetly upon the quiet of their slumbers? + +Wilson remarks, that the hunters in the Southern States, when setting +out on an excursion by night, as soon as they hear the Mocking-Bird +sing, know that the moon is rising. He quotes a writer who supposes that +it may be fear that operates upon the birds when they perceive the Owls +flitting among the trees, and that they sing, as a timid person whistles +in a lonely place, to quiet their fears. But the musical notes of birds +are never used by them to express their fears; they are the language of +love, sometimes animated by jealousy. It must be admitted that the +moonlight awakes these birds, and may be the most frequent exciting +cause of their nocturnal singing; but it is not true that they always +wait for the rising of the moon; and if this were the fact, the question +may still be asked, why these few species alone should be thus affected. + +Since Philosophy can give no explanation of this instinct, let Fancy +come to her aid, and assist us in our dilemma,--as when we have vainly +sought from Reason an explanation of the mysteries of Religion, we +humbly submit to the guidance of Faith. With Fancy for our interpreter, +we may suppose that Nature has adapted the works of creation to our +moral as well as our physical wants; and while she has instituted the +night as a time for general rest, she has provided means that shall +soften the gloomy effects of darkness. The birds, which are the +harbingers of all rural delights, are hence made to sing during +twilight; and when they cease, the nocturnal songsters become vocal, +bearing pleasant sensations to the sleepless, and by their lulling +melodies preparing us to be keenly susceptible of all agreeable +emotions. + + +TO THE MOCKING-BIRD. + + + Carolling bird, that merrily, night and day, + Tellest thy raptures from the rustling spray, + And wakest the morning with thy varied lay, + Singing thy matins,-- + When we have come to hear thy sweet oblation + Of love and joyance from thy sylvan station, + Why, in the place of musical cantation, + Balk us with pratings? + + We stroll by moonlight in the dusky forest, + Where the tall cypress shields thee, fervent chorist! + And sit in haunts of Echoes, when thou pourest + Thy woodland solo. + Hark! from the next green tree thy song commences: + Music and discord join to mock the senses, + Repeated from the tree-tops and the fences, + From hill and hollow. + + A hundred voices mingle with thy clamor; + Bird, beast, and reptile take part in thy drama; + Out-speak they all in turn without a stammer,-- + Brisk Polyglot! + Voices of Killdeer, Plover, Duck, and Dotterel; + Notes bubbling, hissing, mellow, sharp, and guttural; + Of Cat-Bird, Cat, or Cart-Wheel, thou canst utter all, + And all-untaught. + + The Raven's croak, the chirping of the Sparrow, + The scream of Jays, the creaking of Wheelbarrow, + And hoot of Owls,--all join the soul to harrow, + And grate the ear. + We listen to thy quaint soliloquizing, + As if all creatures thou wert catechizing, + Tuning their voices, and their notes revising, + From far and near. + + Sweet bird! that surely lovest the noise of folly; + Most musical, but never melancholy; + Disturber of the hour that should be holy, + With sound prodigious! + Fie on thee, O thou feathered Paganini! + To use thy little pipes to squawk and whinny, + And emulate the hinge and spinning-jenny, + Making night hideous! + + Provoking melodist! why canst thou breathe us + No thrilling harmony, no charming pathos, + No cheerful song of love without its bathos? + The Furies take thee,-- + Blast thy obstreperous mirth, thy foolish chatter,-- + Gag thee, exhaust thy breath, and stop thy clatter, + And change thee to a beast, thou senseless prater!-- + Nought else can check thee! + + A lengthened pause ensues:--but hark again! + From the new woodland, stealing o'er the plain, + Comes forth a sweeter and a holier strain!-- + Listening delighted, + The gales breathe softly, as they bear along + The warbled treasure,--the delicious throng + Of notes that swell accordant in the song, + As love is plighted. + + The Echoes, joyful from their vocal cell, + Leap with the winged sounds o'er hill and dell, + With kindling fervor, as the chimes they tell + To wakeful Even:-- + They melt upon the ear; they float away; + They rise, they sink, they hasten, they delay, + And hold the listener with bewitching sway, + Like sounds from heaven! + + + + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + + +HAVANA--THE JESUIT COLLEGE. + + +The gentlemen of our party go one day to visit the Jesuit College in +Havana, yclept "Universidad de Belen." The ladies, weary of dry goods, +manifest some disposition to accompany them. This is at once frowned +down by the unfairer sex, and Can Grande, appealed to by the other side, +shakes his shoulders, and replies, "No, you are only miserable women, +and cannot be admitted into any Jesuit establishment whatever." And so +the male deputation departs with elation, and returns with airs of +superior opportunity, and is more insufferable than ever at dinner, and +thereafter. + +They of the feminine faction, on the other hand, consult with more +direct authorities, and discover that the doors of Belen are in no wise +closed to them, and that everything within those doors is quite at their +disposition, saving and excepting the sleeping-apartments of the Jesuit +fathers,--to which, even in thought, they would on no account draw near. +And so they went and saw Belen, whereof one of them relates as follows. + +The building is spacious, inclosing a hollow square, and with numerous +galleries, like European cloisters, where the youth walk, study, and +play. We were shown up-stairs, into a pleasant reception-room, where two +priests soon waited on us. One of these, Padre Doyaguez, seemed to be +the decoy-duck of the establishment, and soon fastened upon one of our +party, whose Protestant tone of countenance had probably caught his +attention. Was she a Protestant? Oh, no!--not with that intelligent, +physiognomy!--not with that talent! What was her name? Julia (pronounced +_H_ulia). Hulia was a Roman name, a Catholic name; he had never heard of +a Hulia who was a Protestant;--very strange, it seemed to him, that a +Hulia could hold to such unreasonable ideas. The other priest, Padre +Lluc, meanwhile followed with sweet, quiet eyes, whose silent looks had +more persuasion in them than all the innocent cajoleries of the elder +man. Padre Doyaguez was a man eminently qualified to deal with the sex +in general,--a coaxing voice, a pair of vivacious eyes, whose cunning +was not unpleasing, tireless good-humor and perseverance, and a savor of +sincerity. Padre Lluc was the sort of man that one recalls in quiet +moments with a throb of sympathy,--the earnest eyes, the clear brow, the +sonorous voice. One thinks of him, and hopes that he is satisfied,--that +cruel longing and more cruel doubt shall never spring up in that +capacious heart, divorcing his affections and convictions from the +system to which his life is irrevocably wedded. No, keep still, Padre +Lluc I think ever as you think now, lest the faith that seems a fortress +should prove a prison, the mother a step-dame,--lest the high, +chivalrous spirit, incapable of a safe desertion, should immolate truth +or itself on the altar of consistency. + +Between those two advocates of Catholicity, Hulia Protestante walks +slowly through the halls of the University. She sees first a Cabinet of +Natural History, including minerals, shells, fossils, and insects, all +well-arranged, and constituting a very respectable beginning. Padre Lluc +says some good words on the importance of scientific education. Padre +Doyaguez laughs at the ladies' hoops, which he calls Malakoffs, as they +crowd through the doorways and among the glass cases; he repeats +occasionally, "_Hulia Protestante_?" in a tone of mock astonishment, and +receives for answer, "_Si, Hulia Protestante_." Then comes a very +creditable array of scientific apparatus,--not of the order employed by +the judges of Galileo,--electric and galvanic batteries, an orrery, and +many things beside. The library interests us more, with some luxurious +classics, a superb Dante, and a prison-cage of forbidden works, of which +Padre Lluc certainly has the key. Among these were fine editions of +Rousseau and Voltaire, which appeared to be intended for use; and we +could imagine a solitary student, dark-eyed and pale, exploring their +depths at midnight with a stolen candle, and endeavoring, with +self-torment, to reconcile the intolerance of his doctrine with the +charities of his heart. We imagine such a one lost in the philosophy and +sentiment of the "Nouvelle Heloise," and suddenly summoned by the +convent-bell to the droning of the Mass, the mockery of Holy Water, the +fable of the Real Presence. Such contrasts might be strange and +dangerous. No, no, Padre Lluc! keep these unknown spells from your +heart,--let the forbidden books alone. Instead of the Confessions of +Jean Jacques, read the Confessions of St. Augustine,--read the new book, +in three volumes, on the Immaculate Conception, which you show me with +such ardor, telling me that Can Grande, which, in the vernacular, is +Parker, has spoken of it with respect. Beyond the Fathers you must not +get, for you have vowed to be a child all your life. Those clear eyes of +yours are never to look up into the face of the Eternal Father; the +show-box of the Church must content them, with Mary and the saints seen +through its dusty glass,--the august figure of the Son, who sometimes +reproved his mother, crowded quite out of sight behind the woman, whom +it is so much easier to dress up and exhibit. What is this other book +which Parker has read? Padre Doyaguez says, "Hulia, if you read this, +you must become a Catholic." Padre Lluc says, "If Parker has read this +book, I cannot conceive that he is not a Catholic." The quick Doyaguez +then remarks, "Parker is going to Rome to join the Romish Church." Padre +Lluc rejoins, "They say so." Hulia Protestante is inclined to cry out, +"The day that Parker becomes a Catholic, I, too, will become one"; but, +remembering the rashness of vows and the fallibility of men, she does +not adopt that form of expressing _Never_. Parker might, if it pleased +God, become a Catholic, and then the world would have two Popes instead +of one. + +We leave at last the disputed ground of the library and ascend to the +observatory, which commands a fine view of the city, and a good sweep of +the heavens for the telescope, in which Padre Lluc seemed especially to +delight. The observatory is commodious, and is chiefly directed by an +attenuated young priest, with a keen eye and hectic cheek; another was +occupied in working out mathematical tables;--for these Fathers observe +the stars, and are in scientific correspondence with astronomers in +Europe. This circumstance gave us real pleasure on their account,--for +science, in all its degrees, is a positive good, and a mental tonic of +the first importance. Earnestly did we, in thought, commend it to those +wearied minds which have undergone the dialectic dislocations, the +denaturalizations of truth and of thought, which enable rational men to +become first Catholics and then Jesuits. For let there be no illusions +about strength of mind, and so on,--this is effected by means of a vast +machinery. As, in the old story, the calves were put in at one end of +the cylinder and taken out leather breeches at the other, or as glass is +cut and wood carved, so does the raw human material, put into the +machine of the Catholic Church, become fashioned according to the will +of those who guide it. Hulia Protestante! you have a free step and a +clear head; but once go into the machine, and you will come out carved +and embossed according to the old traditional pattern,--you as well as +another. Where the material is hard, they put on more power,--where it +is soft, more care; wherefore I caution you here, as I would in a mill +at Lowell or Lawrence,--Don't meddle with the shafts,--don't go too near +the wheel,--in short, keep clear of the machinery. And Hulia does so; +for, at the last attack of Padre Doyaguez, she suddenly turns upon him +and says, "Sir, you are a Doctrinary and a Propagandist." And the good +Father suffers her to depart in peace. But first there is the chapel to +be seen, with its tawdry and poor ornamentation,--and the dormitories of +the scholars, with long double rows of beds and mosquito-nettings. There +are two of these, and each of them has at one end a raised platform, +with curtains and a bed, where rests and watches the shepherd of the +little sheep. Lastly, we have a view of the whole flock, assembled in +their play-ground, and one of them, looking up, sees his mother, who has +kindly accompanied our visit to the institution. Across the distance +that separates us, we see his blue eyes brighten, and, as soon as +permission is given, he bounds like a young roe to her arms, shy and +tender, his English blood showing through his Spanish skin,--for he is a +child of mixed race. We are all pleased and touched, and Padre Lluc +presently brings us a daguerreotype, and says, "It is my mother." To us +it is an indifferent portrait of an elderly Spanish woman,--but to him, +how much! With kindest mutual regard we take leave,--a little surprised, +perhaps, to see that Jesuit priests have mothers, and remember them. + + + + +SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BANOS. + + + "Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone!" + +However enchanting Havana may prove, when seen through the moonlight of +memory, it seems as good a place to go away from as any other, after a +stifling night in a net, the wooden shutters left open in the remote +hope of air, and admitting the music of a whole opera-troupe of dogs, +including bass, tenor, soprano, and chorus. Instead of bouquets, you +throw stones, if you are so fortunate as to have them,--if not, +boot-jacks, oranges, your only umbrella. You are last seen thrusting +frantic hands and feet through the iron bars, your wife holding you back +by the flannel night-gown which you will persist in wearing in this +doubtful climate. At last it is over,--the fifth act ends with a howl +which makes you hope that some one of the performers has come to grief. +But, alas! it is only a stage _denouement_, whose hero will die again +every night while the season lasts. You fall asleep, but the welcome +cordial has scarcely been tasted when you are aroused by a knock at the +door. It is the night-porter, who wakes you at five by appointment, that +you may enjoy your early coffee, tumble into a hired _volante_, and +reach, half dead with sleep, the station in time for the train that goes +to San Antonio. + +Now, whether you are a partisan of early rising or not, you must allow +that sunrise and the hour after is the golden time of the day in Cuba. +So this hour of starting,--six o'clock,--so distasteful in our +latitudes, is a matter of course in tropical climates. Arriving at the +station, you encounter new tribulations in the registering and payment +of luggage, the transportation of which is not included in the charge +for your ticket. Your trunks are recorded in a book, and, having paid a +_real_ apiece for them, you receive a paper which entitles you to demand +them again at your journey's end. The Cuban railways are good, but +dear,--the charge being ten cents a mile; whereas in our more favored +land one goes for three cents, and has the chance of a collision and +surgeon's services without any extra payment. The cars have windows +which are always open, and blinds which are always closed, or nearly so. +The seats and backs of seats are of cane, for coolness,--hardness being +secured at the same time. One reaches San Antonio in an hour and a half, +and finds a pleasant village, with a river running through it, several +streets of good houses, several more of bad ones, a cathedral, a +cockpit, a _volante_, four soldiers on horseback, two on foot, a market, +dogs, a bad smell, and, lastly, the American Hotel,--a house built in a +hollow square, as usual,--kept by a strong-minded woman from the States, +whose Yankee thrift is unmistakable, though she has been long absent +from the great centres of domestic economy. + +Mrs. L----, always on the watch for arrivals, comes out to receive us. +We are very welcome, she hints, as far as we go; but why are there not +more of us? The smallest favors should be thankfully received, but she +hears that Havana is full of strangers, and she wonders, for her part, +why people will stay in that hot place, and roast, and stew, and have +the yellow fever, when she could make them so comfortable in San +Antonio. This want of custom she continues, during our whole visit, to +complain of. Would it be uncharitable for us to aver that we found other +wants in her establishment which caused us more astonishment, and which +went some way towards accounting for the deficiency complained of? wants +of breakfast, wants of dinner, wants of something good for tea, wants of +towels, wants of candles, wants of ice, or, at least, of the cooling +jars used in the country. Charges exorbitant,--the same as in Havana, +where rents are an ounce a week, and upwards; _volantes_ +difficult,--Mrs. L. having made an agreement with the one livery-stable +that they shall always be furnished at most unreasonable prices, of +which she, supposably, pockets half. On the other hand, the village is +really cool, healthy, and pretty; there are pleasant drives over +dreadful roads, if one makes up one's mind to the _volante_, and +delightful river-baths, shaded by roofs of palm-tree thatch. One of the +best of these is at the foot of Mrs. L.'s inclosure, and its use is +included in the privileges of the house. The water is nearly tepid, +clear, and green, and the little fish float hither and thither in +it,--though men of active minds are sometimes reduced to angle for them, +with crooked pins, for amusement. At the hour of one, daily, the ladies +of the house betake themselves to this refreshment; and there is +laughing, and splashing, and holding of hands, and simulation of all the +Venuses that ever were, from the crouching one of the bath, to the +triumphant Cytherea, springing for the first time from the wave. + +Such are the resources of the house. Those of the neighborhood are +various. Foremost among them is the _cafetal_, or coffee-plantation, of +Don Juan Torres, distant a league from the village, over which league of +stone, sand, and rut you rumble in a _volante_ dragged by three horses. +You know that the _volante_ cannot upset; nevertheless you experience +some anxious moments when it leans at an obtuse angle, one wheel in air, +one sticking in a hole, the horses balking and kicking, and the +postilion swearing his best. But it is written, the _volante_ shall not +upset,--and so it does not. Long before you see the entrance to the +plantation, you watch the tall palms, planted in a line, that shield, +its borders. An avenue of like growth leads you to the house, where +barking dogs announce you, and Don Juan, an elderly gentleman in +slippers and a Panama hat, his hair, face, and eyes all faded to one hue +of grayness, comes out to accost us. Here, again, Hulia Protestante +becomes the subject of a series of attacks, in a new kind. Don Juan +first exhausts his flower-garden upon her, and explains all that is new +to her. Then she must see his blind Chino, a sightless Samson of a +Cooly, who is working resolutely in a mill. "_Canta!_" says the master, +and the poor slave gives tongue like a hound on the scent. "_Baila!_" +and, a stick being handed him, he performs the gymnastics of his +country, a sort of war-dance without accompaniment. "_El can!_" and, +giving him a broom, they loose the dog upon him. A curious tussle then +ensues,--the dog attacking furiously, and the blind man, guided by his +barking, defending himself lustily. The Chino laughs, the master laughs, +but the visitor feels more inclined to cry, having been bred in those +Northern habits which respect infirmity. A _real_ dismisses the poor +soul with a smile, and then begins the journey round the _cafetal_. The +coffee-blossom is just in its perfection, and whole acres in sight are +white with its flower, which nearly resembles that of the small white +jasmine. Its fragrance is said to be delicious after a rain; but, the +season being dry, it is scarcely discernible. As shade is a great +object in growing coffee, the grounds are laid out in lines of fruit- +trees, and these are the ministers of Hulia's tribulation; for Don +Juan, whether in kindness or in mischief, insists that she shall taste +every unknown fruit,--and as he cuts them and hands them to her, she +is forced to obey. First, a little negro shins up a cocoa-nut-tree, +and flings down the nut, whose water she must drink. One cocoa-nut she +endures,--two,--but three? no, she must rebel, and cry out,--"_No mi +gusta!_" Then she must try a bitter orange, then a sour bitter one, then +a sweet lemon, then a huge fruit of triple verjuice flavor. "What is it +good for?" she asks, after a shuddering plunge into its acrid depths. +"Oh," says the Don, "they eat it in the castors instead of vinegar." +Then come _sapotas, mamey_, Otaheite gooseberries. "Does she like +bananas?" he cuts a tree down with his own hand, and sends the bunch of +fruit to her _volante_;--"Sugar-cane?" he bestows a huge bundle of +sticks for her leisurely rodentation;--he fills her pocket with coral +beans for her children. Having, at last, exhausted every polite +attention, and vainly offered gin, rum, and coffee, as a parting +demonstration, Hulia and her partner escape, bearing with them many +strange flavors, and an agonizing headache, the combined result of sun +and acids. Really, if there exist anywhere on earth a society for the +promotion and encouragement of good manners, it should send a diploma to +Don Juan, admonishing him only to omit the vinegar-fruit in his further +walks of hospitality. + +We take the Sunday to visit the nearest sugar-plantation, belonging to +Don Jacinto Gonzales. Sun, not shade, being the desideratum in +sugar-planting, there are few trees or shrubs bordering the +sugar-fields, which resemble at a distance our own fields of Indian +corn, the green of the leaves being lighter, and a pale blue blossom +appearing here and there. The points of interest here are the machinery, +the negroes, and the work. Entering the sugar-house, we find the +_maquinista_ (engineer) superintending some repairs in the machinery, +aided by another white man, a Cooly, and an imp of a black boy, who +begged of all the party, and revenged himself with clever impertinence +on those who refused him. The _maquinista_ was a fine-looking man, from +the Pyrenees, very kind and obliging. He told us that Don Jacinto was +very old, and came rarely to the plantation. We asked him how the +extreme heat of his occupation suited him, and for an answer he opened +the bosom of his shirt, and showed us the marks of innumerable leeches. +The machinery is not very complicated. It consists of a wheel and band, +to throw the canes under the powerful rollers which crush them, and +these rollers, three in number, all moved by the steam-engine. The juice +flows into large copper caldrons, where it is boiled and skimmed. As +they were not at work, we did not see the actual process. Leaving the +sugar-house, we went in pursuit of the _mayoral_, or overseer, who +seemed to inhabit comfortable quarters, in a long, low house, shielded +from the sun by a thick screen of matting. We found him a powerful, +thick-set man, of surly and uncivil manners, girded with a sword, and +further armed with a pistol, a dagger, and a stout whip. He was much too +important a person to waste his words upon us, but signified that the +major-domo would wait on us, which he presently did. We now entered the +negro quarter, a solid range of low buildings, formed around a hollow +square, whose strong entrance is closed at nightfall, and its inmates +kept in strict confinement till the morning hour of work comes round. +Just within the doorway we encountered the trader, who visits the +plantations every Sunday, to tempt the stray cash of the negroes by +various commodities, of which the chief seemed to be white bread, +calicoes, muslins, and bright cotton handkerchiefs. He told us that +their usual weekly expenditure amounted to about twenty-five dollars. +Bargaining with him stood the negro-driver, a tattooed African, armed +with a whip. All within the court swarmed the black bees of the +hive,--the men with little clothing, the small children naked, the women +decent. All had their little charcoal fires, with pots boiling over +them; the rooms within looked dismally dark, close, and dirty; there are +no windows, no air and light save through the ever-open door. The beds +are sometimes partitioned off by a screen of dried palm-leaf, but I saw +no better sleeping-privilege than a board with a blanket or coverlet. +From this we turned to the nursery, where all the children incapable of +work are kept; the babies are quite naked, and sometimes very handsome +in their way, black and shining, with bright eyes and well-formed limbs. +No great provision is made for their amusement, but the little girls +nurse them tenderly enough, and now and then the elders fling them a bit +of orange or _chaimito_, for which they scramble like so many monkeys. +Appeals are constantly made to the pockets of visitors, by open hands +stretched out in all directions. To these "_Nada_"--"Nothing"--is the +safe reply; for, if you give to one, the others close about you with +frantic gesticulation, and you have to break your way through them with +some violence, which hurts your own feelings more than it does theirs. +On _strict_ plantations this is not allowed; but Don Jacinto, like Lord +Ashburton at the time of the Maine treaty, is an old man,--a very old +man; and where discipline cannot be maintained, peace must be secured on +any terms. We visit next the sugar-house, where we find the desired +condiment in various stages of color and refinement. It is whitened with +clay, in large funnel-shaped vessels, open at the bottom, to allow the +molasses to run off. Above are hogsheads of coarse, dark sugar; below is +a huge pit of fermenting molasses, in which rats and small negroes +occasionally commit involuntary suicide, and from which rum is made.--N. +B. Rum is not a wicked word in Cuba; in Boston everybody is shocked when +it is named, and in Cuba nobody is shocked when it is drunk. + +And here endeth the description of our visit to the sugar-plantation of +Don Jacinto, and in good time, too,--for by this it had grown so hot, +that we made a feeble rush for the _volante_, and lay back in it, +panting for breath. Encountering a negress with a load of oranges on her +head, we bought and ate the fruit with eagerness, though the oranges +were bitter. The jolting over three miles of stone and rut did not +improve the condition of our aching heads. Arriving at San Antonio, we +thankfully went to bed for the rest of the morning, and dreamed, only +dreamed, that the saucy black boy in the boiling-house had run after us, +had lifted the curtain of the _volante_, screeched a last impertinence +after us, and kissed his hand for a good-bye, which, luckily for him, is +likely to prove eternal. + + + + +THE MORRO FORTRESS--THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA--THE BENEFICENZA. + + +The Spanish government experiences an unwillingness to admit foreigners +into the Morro, their great stronghold, the causes of which may not be +altogether mysterious. Americans have been of late especially excluded +from it, and it was only by a fortunate chance that we were allowed to +visit it. A friend of a friend of ours happened to have a friend in the +garrison, and, after some delays and negotiations, an early morning hour +was fixed upon for the expedition. + +The fort is finely placed at the entrance of the harbor, and is in +itself a picturesque object. It is built of a light, yellowish stone, +which is seen, as you draw near, in strong contrast with the vivid green +of the tropical waters. We approached it by water, taking a rowboat from +the Alameda. As we passed, we had a good view of a daily Havana +spectacle, the washing of the horses. This being by far the easiest and +most expeditious way of cleaning the animals, they are driven daily to +the sea in great numbers, those of one party being tied together; they +disport themselves in the surge and their wet backs glisten in the sun. +Their drivers, nearly naked, plunge in with them, and bring them safely +back to the shore. + +But for the Morro. We entered without difficulty, and began at once a +somewhat steep ascent, which the heat, even at that early hour, made +laborious. After some climbing, we reached the top of the parapet, and +looked out from the back of the fortress. On this side, if ever on any, +it will be taken,--for, standing with one's back to the harbor, one +sees, nearly on the right hand, a point where trenches could be opened +with advantage. The fort is heavily gunned and garrisoned, and seems to +be in fighting order. The outer wall is separated from the inner by a +paved space some forty feet in width. The height of both walls makes +this point a formidable one; but scaling-ladders could be thrown across, +if one had possession of the outer wall. The material is the coralline +rock common in this part of the island. It is a soft stone, and would +prove, it is feared, something like the cotton-bag defence of New +Orleans memory,--as the balls thrown from without would sink in, and not +splinter the stone, which for the murderous work were to be wished. A +little perseverance, with much perspiration, brought us to a high point, +called the Lantern, which is merely a small room, where the telescope, +signal-books, and signals are kept. Here we were received by an official +in blue spectacles and with a hole in his boot, but still with that air +of being the chiefest thing on God's earth common to all Spaniards. The +best of all was that we brought a sack of oranges with us, and that the +time was now come for their employment. With no other artillery than +these did we take the very heart of the Morro citadel,--for, on offering +them to the official with the hole, he surrendered at once, smiled, gave +us seats, and sitting down with us, indeed, was soon in the midst of his +half-dozenth orange. Having refreshed ourselves, examined the flags of +all nations, and made all the remarks which our limited Spanish allowed, +we took leave, redescended, and reembarked. One of our party, an old +soldier, had meanwhile been busily scanning the points and angles of the +fortress, pacing off distances, etc., etc. The result of his +observations would, no doubt, be valuable to men of military minds. But +the writer of this, to be candid, was especially engaged with the heat, +the prospect, the oranges, and the soldiers' wives and children, who +peeped out from windows here and there. Such trifling creatures do come +into such massive surroundings, and trifle still! + +Our ladies, being still in a furious mood of sight-seeing, desired to +visit the University of Havana, and, having made appointment with an +accomplished Cuban, betook themselves to the College buildings with all +proper escort. Their arrival in the peristyle occasioned some +excitement. One of the students came up, and said, in good English, +"What do you want?" Others, not so polite, stared and whispered in +corners. A message to one of the professors was attended with some +delay, and our Cuban friend, having gone to consult with him, returned +to say, with some embarrassment, that the professor would be happy to +show the establishment to the ladies on Sunday, at two, P.M., when every +male creature but himself would be out of it; but as for their going +through the rooms while the undergraduates were about, that was not to +be thought of. "Why not?" asked the ladies. "For your own sake," said +the messenger, and proceeded to explain that the appearance of the +_skirted_ in these halls of learning would be followed by such +ill-conduct and indignity of impertinence on the part of the _shirted_ +as might be intolerable to the one and disadvantageous to the other. Now +there be women, we know, whose horrid fronts could have awed these saucy +little Cubans into decency and good behavior, and some that we know, +whether possessing that power or not, would have delighted in the +fancied exercise of it. What strong-minded company, under these +circumstances, would have turned back? What bolting, tramping, and +rushing would they not have made through the ranks of the astonished +professors and students? The Anniversary set, for example, who sweep the +pews of men, or, coming upon one forlorn, crush him as a boa does a +sheep. Our silly little flock only laughed, colored, and retreated to +the _volantes_, where they held a council of war, and decided to go +visit some establishment where possibly better manners might prevail. + +Returning on the Sunday, at the hour appointed, they walked through the +deserted building, and found spacious rooms, the pulpits of the +professors, the benches of the students, the Queen's portrait, a very +limited library, and, for all consolation, some pleasant Latin sentences +over the doors of the various departments, celebrating the solace and +delights of learning. This was seeing the College, literally; but it was +a good deal like seeing the lion's den, the lion himself being absent on +leave,--or like visiting the hippopotamus in Regent's Park on those days +in which he remains steadfastly buried in his tank, and will show only +the tip of a nostril for your entrance-fee. Still, it was a pleasure to +know that learning was so handsomely housed; and as for the little +rabble who could not be trusted in the presence of the sex, we forgave +them heartily, knowing that soberer manners would one day come upon +them, as inevitably as baldness and paternity. + +Let me here say, that a few days in Havana make clear to one the +seclusion of women in the East, and its causes. Wherever the animal +vigor of men is so large in proportion to their moral power, as in those +countries, women must be glad to forego their liberties for the +protection of the strong arm. One master is better for them than many. +Whatever tyranny may grow out of such barbarous manners, the institution +springs from a veritable necessity and an original good intention. The +Christian religion should change this, which is justifiable only in a +Mohammedan country. But where that religion is so loosely administered +as in Cuba, where its teachers themselves frequent the cock-pit and the +gaming-table, one must not look for too much of its power in the manners +and morals of men. + +The Beneficenza was our next station. It is, as its name signifies, an +institution with a benevolent purpose, an orphan asylum and foundling +hospital in one. The State here charitably considers that infants who +are abandoned by their parents are as much orphaned as they can become +by the interposition of death,--nay, more. The death of parents oftenest +leaves a child with some friend or relative; but the foundling is cut +off from all human relationship,--he belongs only to the hand that takes +him up, when he has been left to die. Despite the kind cruelty of modern +theories, which will not allow of suitable provision for the sufferer, +for fear of increasing the frequency of the crime by which he suffers, +our hearts revolt at the miserable condition of those little creatures +in our great cities, confounded with hopeless pauperism in its desolate +asylums, or farmed out to starve and die. They belong to the State, and +the State should nobly retrieve the world's offence against them. Their +broken galaxy shows many a bright star here and there. Such a little +wailing creature has been found who has commanded great actions and done +good service among men. Let us, then, cherish the race of foundlings, of +whom Moses was the first and the greatest. The princess who reared him +saw not the glorious destiny which lay hid, as a birth-jewel, in his +little basket of reeds. She saw only, as some of us have seen, a +helpless, friendless babe. When he dedicated to her his first edition of +the Pentateuch--But, nay, he did not; for neither gratitude nor +dedications were in fashion among the Jews. + +We found the Beneficenza spacious, well-ventilated, and administered +with great order. It stands near the sea, with a fine prospect in view, +and must command a cool breeze, if there be any. The children enjoy +sea-bathing in summer. The superintendent received us most kindly, and +presented us to the sisters who have charge of the children, who were +good specimens of their class. We walked with them through the neat +dormitories, and observed that they were much more airy than those of +the Jesuit College, lately described. They all slept on the sackings of +the cots, beds being provided only in the infirmary. In the latter place +we found but two inmates,--one suffering from ordinary Cuban fever, the +other with ophthalmia.--N.B. Disease of the eyes does not seem to be +common in Cuba, in spite of the tropical glare of the sun; nor do people +nurse and complain of their eyes there, as with us. We found a separate +small kitchen for the sick, which was neat and convenient. The larger +kitchen, too, was handsomely endowed with apparatus, and the +superintendent told us, with a twinkle in his eye, that the children +lived well. Coffee at six, a good breakfast at nine, dinner at the usual +hour, bread and coffee before bed-time;--this seemed very suitable as to +quantity, though differing from our ideas of children's food; but it +must be remembered that the nervous stimulus of coffee is not found to +be excessive in hot climates; it seems to be only what Nature +demands,--no more. The kind nun who accompanied us now showed us, with +some pride, various large presses, set in the wall, and piled to the top +with clean and comfortable children's clothing. We came presently to +where the boys were reciting their catechism. An ecclesiastic was +hearing them;--they seemed ready enough with their answers, but were +allowed to gabble off the holy words in a manner almost unintelligible, +and quite indecorous. They were bright, healthy-looking little fellows, +ranging apparently from eight to twelve in age. They had good +play-ground set off for them, and shady galleries to walk up and down +in. Coming from their quarter, the girls' department seemed quiet +enough. Here was going on the eternal task of needlework, to which the +sex has been condemned ever since Adam's discovery of his want of +wardrobe. Oh, ye wretched, foolish women! why will ye forever sew? "We +must not only sew, but be thankful to sew; that little needle being, as +the sentimental Curtis has said, the only thing between us and the worst +that may befall." + +These incipient women were engaged in various forms of sewing,--the most +skilful in a sort of embroidery, like that which forms the border of +_pina_ handkerchiefs. A few were reading and spelling. One poor blind +girl sat amongst them, with melancholy arms folded, and learned +nothing,--they told us, nothing; for the instruction of the blind is not +thought of in these parts. This seemed piteous to us, and made us +reflect how happy are _our_ blinds, to say nothing of our deafs and +dumbs. Idiocy is not uncommon here, and is the result of continual +intermarriage between near relations; but it will be long before they +will provide it with a separate asylum and suitable instruction. + +But now came the saddest part of the whole exhibition,--a sight common +enough in Europe, but, by some accident, hitherto unseen by us. Here is +a sort of receptacle, with three or four compartments, which turns on a +pivot. One side of it is open to the street, and in it the wretched +parent lays the more wretched baby,--ringing a small bell, at the same +time, for the new admittance; the parent vanishes, the receptacle turns +on its pivot,--the baby is within, and, we are willing to believe, in +merciful hands. + +The sight of this made, for the first time, the crime real to me. I saw, +at a flash, the whole tragedy of desertion,--the cautious approach, the +frightened countenance, the furtive act, and the great avenging pang of +Nature after its consummation. What was Hester Prynne's pillory, +compared to the heart of any of those mothers? I thought, too, of +Rousseau, bringing to such a place as this children who had the right to +inherit divine genius, and deserting them for the sordid reason that he +did not choose to earn their bread,--the helpless mother weeping at +home, and begging, through long years, to be allowed to seek and reclaim +them. + +Well, here were the little creatures kindly cared for; yet what a +piteous place was their nursery! Some of the recent arrivals looked as +if ill-usage had been exhausted upon them before they were brought +hither. Blows and drugs and starvation had been tried upon them, but, +with the tenacity of infancy, they clung to life. They would not +die;--well, then, they should live to regret it. Some of them lay on the +floor, deformed and helpless; the older ones formed a little class, and +were going through some elementary exercise when we passed. The babies +had a large room allotted to them, and I found the wet-nurses +apportioned one to each child. This appeared a very generous provision, +as, in such establishments elsewhere, three and even four children are +given to one nurse. They had comfortable cribs, on each of which was +pinned the name of its little inmate, and the date of its +entrance;--generally, the name and age of the child are found written on +a slip of paper attached to its clothing, when it is left in the +receptacle. I saw on one, "Cecilio, three weeks old." He had been but a +few days in the establishment. + +Of course, I lingered longest in the babies' room, and longest of all +near the crib of the little Cecilio. He was a pretty baby, and seemed to +me the most ill-used of all, because the youngest. "Could they not bear +with you three weeks, little fellow?" I said. "I know those at whose +firesides such as you would have been welcome guests. That New York +woman whom I met lately, young, rich, and childless,--I could commend +you to her in place of the snarling little spaniel fiend who was her +constant care and companion." + +But here the superintendent made a polite bow, saying,--"And now your +Worships have seen all; for the chapel is undergoing repairs, and cannot +be visited." And so we thanked, and departed. + + + + +DANIEL GRAY. + + + If I shall ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray, + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + I knew him well; in fact, few knew him better; + For my young eyes oft read for him the Word, + And saw how meekly from the crystal letter + He drank the life of his beloved Lord. + + Old Daniel Gray was not a man who lifted + On ready words his freight of gratitude, + And was not called upon among the gifted, + In the prayer-meetings of his neighborhood. + + He had a few old-fashioned words and phrases, + Linked in with sacred texts and Sunday rhymes; + And I suppose, that, in his prayers and graces, + I've heard them all at least a thousand times. + + I see him now,--his form, and face, and motions, + His homespun habit, and his silver hair,-- + And hear the language of his trite devotions + Rising behind the straight-backed kitchen-chair. + + I can remember how the sentence sounded,-- + "Help us, O Lord, to pray, and not to faint!" + And how the "conquering-and-to-conquer" rounded + The loftier aspirations of the saint. + + He had some notions that did not improve him: + He never kissed his children,--so they say; + And finest scenes and fairest flowers would move him + Less than a horseshoe picked up in the way. + + He could see nought but vanity in beauty, + And nought but weakness in a fond caress, + And pitied men whose views of Christian duty + Allowed indulgence in such foolishness. + + Yet there were love and tenderness within him; + And I am told, that, when his Charley died, + Nor Nature's need nor gentle words could win him + From his fond vigils at the sleeper's side. + + And when they came to bury little Charley, + They found fresh dew-drops sprinkled in his hair, + And on his breast a rose-bud, gathered early,-- + And guessed, but did not know, who placed it there. + + My good old friend was very hard on fashion, + And held its votaries in lofty scorn, + And often burst into a holy passion + While the gay crowds went by, on Sunday morn. + + Yet he was vain, old Gray, and did not know it! + He wore his hair unparted, long, and plain, + To hide the handsome brow that slept below it, + For fear the world would think that he was vain! + + He had a hearty hatred of oppression, + And righteous words for sin of every kind; + Alas, that the transgressor and transgression + Were linked so closely in his honest mind! + + Yet that sweet tale of gift without repentance, + Told of the Master, touched him to the core, + And tearless he could never read the sentence: + "Neither do I condemn thee: sin no more." + + Honest and faithful, constant in his calling, + Strictly attendant on the means of grace, + Instant in prayer, and fearful most of falling, + Old Daniel Gray was always in his place. + + A practical old man, and yet a dreamer, + He thought that in some strange, unlooked-for way, + His mighty Friend in heaven, the great Redeemer, + Would honor him with wealth some golden day. + + This dream he carried in a hopeful spirit + Until in death his patient eye grew dim, + And his Redeemer called him to inherit + The heaven of wealth long garnered up for him. + + So, if I ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The Doctor sat at his study-table. It was evening, and the slant beams +of the setting sun shot their golden arrows through the healthy purple +clusters of lilacs that veiled the windows. There had been a shower that +filled them with drops of rain, which every now and then tattooed, with +a slender rat-tat, on the window-sill, as a breeze would shake the +leaves and bear in perfume on its wings. Sweet, fragrance-laden airs +tripped stirringly to and fro about the study-table, making gentle +confusions, fluttering papers on moral ability, agitating treatises on +the great end of creation, mixing up subtile distinctions between +amiable instincts and true holiness, and, in short, conducting +themselves like very unappreciative and unphilosophical little breezes. + +The Doctor patiently smoothed back and rearranged, while opposite to him +sat Mary, bending over some copying she was doing for him. One stray +sunbeam fell on her light brown hair, tinging it to gold; her long, +drooping lashes lay over the wax-like pink of her cheeks, as she wrote +on. + +"Mary," said the Doctor, pushing the papers from him. + +"Sir," she answered, looking up, the blood just perceptibly rising in +her cheeks. + +"Do you ever have any periods in which your evidences seem not +altogether clear?" + +Nothing could show more forcibly the grave, earnest character of thought +in New England at this time than the fact that this use of the term +"evidences" had become universally significant and understood as +relating to one's right of citizenship in a celestial, invisible +commonwealth. + +So Mary understood it, and it was with a deepening flush she answered +gently, "No, Sir." + +"What! never any doubts?" said the Doctor. + +"I am sorry," said Mary, apologetically; "but I do not see how I _can_ +have; I never could." + +"Ah!" said the Doctor, musingly, "would I could say so! There are times, +indeed, when I hope I have an interest in the precious Redeemer, and +behold an infinite loveliness and beauty in Him, apart from anything I +expect or hope. But even then how deceitful is the human heart! how +insensibly might a mere selfish love take the place of that +disinterested complacency which regards Him for what He is in Himself, +apart from what He is to us! Say, my dear friend, does not this thought +sometimes make you tremble?" + +Poor Mary was truth itself, and this question distressed her; she must +answer the truth. The fact was, that it had never come into her blessed +little heart to tremble, for she was one of those children of the +bride-chamber who cannot mourn, because the bridegroom is ever with +them; but then, when she saw the man for whom her reverence was almost +like that for her God thus distrustful, thus lowly, she could not but +feel that her too calm repose might, after all, be the shallow, +treacherous calm of an ignorant, ill-grounded spirit, and therefore, +with a deep blush and a faltering voice, she said,-- + +"Indeed, I am afraid something must be wrong with me. I _cannot_ have +any fears,--I never could; I try sometimes, but the thought of God's +goodness comes all around me, and I am so happy before I think of it!" + +"Such exercises, my dear friend, I have also had," said the Doctor; "but +before I rest on them as evidences, I feel constrained to make the +following inquiries:--Is this gratitude that swells my bosom the result +of a mere natural sensibility? Does it arise in a particular manner +because God has done me good? or do I love God for what He is, as well +as for what He has done? and for what He has done for others, as well as +for what He has done for me? Love to God which is built on nothing but +good received is not incompatible with a disposition so horrid as even +to curse God to His face. If God is not to be loved except when He does +good, then in affliction we are free. If doing _us_ good is all that +renders God lovely to us, then not doing us good divests Him of His +glory, and dispenses us from obligation to love Him. But there must be, +undoubtedly, some permanent reason why God is to be loved by all; and if +not doing us good divests Him of His glory so as to free _us_ from our +obligation to love, it equally frees the universe; so that, in fact, the +universe of happiness, if ours be not included, reflects no glory on its +Author." + +The Doctor had practised his subtile mental analysis till his +instruments were so fine-pointed and keen-edged that he scarce ever +allowed a flower of sacred emotion to spring in his soul without picking +it to pieces to see if its genera and species were correct. Love, +gratitude, reverence, benevolence,--which all moved in mighty tides in +his soul,--were all compelled to pause midway while he rubbed up his +optical instruments to see whether they were rising in right order. +Mary, on the contrary, had the blessed gift of womanhood,--that vivid +life in the soul and sentiment which resists the chills of analysis, as +a healthful human heart resists cold; yet still, all humbly, she thought +this perhaps was a defect in herself, and therefore, having confessed, +in a depreciating tone, her habits of unanalyzed faith and love, she +added,-- + +"But, my dear Sir, you are my best friend. I trust you will be faithful +to me. If I am deceiving myself, undeceive me; you cannot be too severe +with me." + +"Alas!" said the Doctor, "I fear that I may be only a blind leader of +the blind. What, after all, if I be only a miserable self-deceiver? What +if some thought of self has come in to poison all my prayers and +strivings? It is true, I think,--yes, I _think_," said the Doctor, +speaking very slowly and with intense earnestness,--"I think, that, if I +knew at this moment that my name never would be written among those of +the elect, I could still see God to be infinitely amiable and glorious, +and could feel sure that He _could_ not do me wrong, and that it was +infinitely becoming and right that He should dispose of me according to +His sovereign pleasure. I _think_ so;--but still my deceitful +heart!--after all, I might find it rising in rebellion. Say, my dear +friend, are you sure, that, should you discover yourself to be forever +condemned by His justice, you would not find your heart rising up +against Him?" + +"Against _Him_?" said Mary, with a tremulous, sorrowful expression on +her face,--"against my Heavenly Father?" + +Her face flushed, and faded; her eyes kindled eagerly, as if she had +something to say, and then grew misty with tears. At last she said,-- + +"Thank you, my dear, faithful friend! I will think about this; _perhaps_ +I may have been deceived. How very difficult it must be to know one's +self perfectly!" + +Mary went into her own little room, and sat leaning for a long time with +her elbow on the window-seat, watching the pale shells of the +apple-blossoms as they sailed and fluttered downward into the grass, and +listened to a chippering conversation in which the birds in the nest +above were settling up their small housekeeping accounts for the day. + +After a while, she took her pen and wrote the following, which the +Doctor found the next morning lying on his study-table:-- + +"MY DEAR, HONORED FRIEND,--How can I sufficiently thank you for your +faithfulness with me? All you say to me seems true and excellent; and +yet, my dear Sir, permit me to try to express to you some of the many +thoughts to which our conversation this evening has given rise. To love +God because He is good to me you seem to think is not a right kind of +love; and yet every moment of my life I have experienced His goodness. +When recollection brings back the past, where can I look that I see not +His goodness? What moment of my life presents not instances of merciful +kindness to me, as well as to every creature, more and greater than I +can express, than my mind is able to take in? How, then, can I help +loving God because He is good to me? Were I not an object of God's mercy +and goodness, I cannot have any conception what would be my feeling. +Imagination never yet placed me in a situation not to experience the +goodness of God in some way or other; and if I do love Him, how can it +be but because He is good, and to me good? Do not God's children love +Him because He first loved them? + +"If I called nothing goodness which did not happen to suit my +inclination, and could not believe the Deity to be gracious and merciful +except when the course of events was so ordered as to agree with my +humor, so far from imagining that I had any love to God, I must conclude +myself wholly destitute of anything good. A love founded on nothing but +good received is not, you say, incompatible with a disposition so horrid +as even to curse God. I am not sensible that I ever in my life imagined +anything _but_ good could come from the hand of God. From a Being +infinite in goodness everything _must_ be good, though we do not always +comprehend how it is so. Are not afflictions good? Does He not even in +judgment remember mercy? Sensible that 'afflictions are but blessings in +disguise,' I would bless the hand that, with infinite kindness, wounds +only to heal, and love and adore the goodness of God equally in +suffering as in rejoicing. + +"The disinterested love to God, which you think is alone the genuine +love, I see not how we can be certain we possess, when our love of +happiness and our love of God are so inseparably connected. The joys +arising from a consciousness that God is a benefactor to me and my +friends, (and when I think of God, every creature is my friend,) if +arising from a selfish motive, it does not seem to me possible could be +changed into hate, even supposing God my enemy, whilst I regarded Him as +a Being infinitely just as well as good. If God is my enemy, it must be +because I deserve He should be such; and it does not seem to me +_possible_ that I should hate Him, even if I knew He would always be so. + +"In what you say of willingness to suffer eternal punishment, I don't +know that I understand what the feeling is. Is it wickedness in me that +I do not feel a willingness to be left to eternal sin? Can any one +joyfully acquiesce in being thus left? When I pray for a new heart and a +right spirit, must I be willing to be denied, and rejoice that my prayer +is not heard? Could any real Christian rejoice in this? But he fears it +not,--he knows it will never be,--he therefore can cheerfully leave it +with God; and so can I. + +"Such, my dear friend, are my thoughts, poor and unworthy; yet they seem +to me as certain as my life, or as anything I see. Am I unduly +confident? I ask your prayers that I may be guided aright. + +"Your affectionate friend, + +"MARY." + +There are in this world two kinds of natures,--those that have wings, +and those that have feet,--the winged and the walking spirits. The +walking are the logicians: the winged are the instinctive and poetic. +Natures that must always walk find many a bog, many a thicket, many a +tangled brake, which God's happy little winged birds flit over by one +noiseless flight. Nay, when a man has toiled till his feet weigh too +heavily with the mud of earth to enable him to walk another step, these +little birds will often cleave the air in a right line towards the bosom +of God, and show the way where he could never have found it. + +The Doctor paused in his ponderous and heavy reasonings to read this +real woman's letter; and being a loving man, he felt as if he could have +kissed the hem of her garment who wrote it. He recorded it in his +journal, and after it this significant passage from Canticles:-- + +"I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the +hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake this lovely one till +she please." + +Mrs. Scudder's motherly eye noticed, with satisfaction, these quiet +communings. "Let it alone," she said to herself; "before she knows it, +she will find herself wholly under his influence." Mrs. Scudder was a +wise woman. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +In the course of a day or two, a handsome carriage drew up in front of +Mrs. Scudder's cottage, and a brilliant party alighted. They were +Colonel and Madame de Frontignac, the Abbe Lefon, and Colonel Burr. Mrs. +Scudder and her daughter, being prepared for the call, sat in afternoon +dignity and tranquillity, in the best room, with their knitting-work. + +Madame de Frontignac had divined, with the lightning-like tact which +belongs to women in the positive, and to French women in the superlative +degree, that there was something in the cottage-girl, whom she had +passingly seen at the party, which powerfully affected the man whom she +loved with all the jealous intensity of a strong nature, and hence she +embraced eagerly the opportunity to see her,--yes, to see her, to study +her, to dart her keen French wit through her, and detect the secret of +her charm, that she, too, might practise it. + +Madame de Frontignac was one of those women whose beauty is so striking +and imposing, that they seem to kindle up, even in the most prosaic +apartment, an atmosphere of enchantment. All the pomp and splendor of +high life, the wit, the refinements, the nameless graces and luxuries of +courts, seemed to breathe in invisible airs around her, and she made a +Faubourg St. Germain of the darkest room into which she entered. Mary +thought, when she came in, that she had never seen anything so splendid. +She was dressed in a black velvet riding-habit, buttoned to the throat +with coral; her riding-hat drooped with its long plumes so as to cast a +shadow over her animated face, out of which her dark eyes shone like +jewels, and her pomegranate cheeks glowed with the rich shaded radiance +of one of Rembrandt's pictures. Something quaint and foreign, something +poetic and strange, marked each turn of her figure, each article of her +dress, down to the sculptured hand on which glittered singular and +costly rings,--and the riding-glove, embroidered with seed-pearls, that +fell carelessly beside her on the floor. + +In Antwerp one sees a picture in which Rubens, who felt more than any +other artist the glory of the physical life, has embodied his conception +of the Madonna, in opposition to the faded, cold ideals of the Middle +Ages, from which he revolted with such a bound. _His_ Mary is a superb +Oriental sultana, with lustrous dark eyes, redundant form, jewelled +turban, standing leaning on the balustrade of a princely terrace, and +bearing on her hand, _not_ the silver dove, but a gorgeous paroquet. The +two styles, in this instance, were both in the same room; and as Burr +sat looking from one to the other, he felt, for a moment, as one would +who should put a sketch of Overbeck's beside a splendid painting of +Titian's. + +For a few moments, everything in the room seemed faded and cold, in +contrast with the tropical atmosphere of this regal beauty. Burr watched +Mary with a keen eye, to see if she were dazzled and overawed. He saw +nothing but the most innocent surprise and delight. All the slumbering +poetry within her seemed to awaken at the presence of her beautiful +neighbor,--as when one, for the first time, stands before the great +revelations of Art. Mary's cheek glowed, her eyes seemed to grow deep +with the enthusiasm of admiration, and, after a few moments, it seemed +as if her delicate face and figure reflected the glowing loveliness of +her visitor, just as the virgin snows of the Alps become incarnadine as +they stand opposite the glorious radiance of a sunset sky. + +Madame de Frontignac was accustomed to the effect of her charms; but +there was so much love in the admiration now directed towards her, that +her own warm, nature was touched, and she threw out the glow of her +feelings with a magnetic power. Mary never felt the cold, habitual +reserve of her education so suddenly melt, never felt herself so +naturally falling into language of confidence and endearment with a +stranger; and as her face, so delicate and spiritual, grew bright with +love, Madame de Frontignac thought she had never seen anything so +beautiful, and, stretching out her hands towards her, she exclaimed, in +her own language,-- + +"_Mais, mon Dieu! mon enfant, que tu es belle_!" + +Mary's deep blush, at her ignorance of the language in which her visitor +spoke, recalled her to herself;--she laughed a clear, silvery laugh, and +laid her jewelled little hand on Mary's with a caressing movement. + +"_He_ shall not teach you French, _ma toute belle_" she said, indicating +the Abbe, by a pretty, wilful gesture; "_I_ will teach you;--and you +shall teach me English. Oh, I shall try _so_ hard to learn!" she said. + +There was something inexpressibly pretty and quaint in the childish lisp +with which she pronounced English. Mary was completely won over. She +could have fallen into the arms of this wondrously beautiful fairy +princess, expecting to be carried away by her to Dream-land. + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Scudder was gravely discoursing with Colonel Burr and M. +de Frontignac; and the Abbe, a small and gentlemanly personage, with +clear black eye, delicately-cut features, and powdered hair, appeared to +be absorbed in his efforts to follow the current of a conversation +imperfectly understood. Burr, the while, though seeming to be entirely +and politely absorbed in the conversation he was conducting, lost not a +glimpse of the picturesque aside which was being enacted between the two +fair ones whom he had thus brought together. He smiled quietly when he +saw the effect Madame de Frontignac produced on Mary. + +"After all, the child has flesh and blood!" he thought, "and may feel +that there are more things in heaven and earth than she has dreamed of +yet. A few French ideas won't hurt her." + +The arrangements about lessons being completed, the party returned to +the carriage. Madame de Frontignac was enthusiastic in Mary's praise. + +"_Cependant_" she said, leaning back, thoughtfully, after having +exhausted herself in superlatives,--"_cependant elle est devote,--et a +dix-neuf comment cela se peut il_?" + +"It is the effect of her austere education," said Burr. "It is not +possible for you to conceive how young people are trained in the +religious families of this country." + +"But yet," said Madame, "it gives her a grace altogether peculiar; +something in her looks went to my heart. I could find it very easy to +love her, because she is really good." + +"The Queen of Hearts should know all that is possible in loving," said +Burr. + +Somehow, of late, the compliments which fell so readily from those +graceful lips had brought with them an unsatisfying pain. Until a woman +really _loves_, flattery and compliment are often like her native air; +but when that deeper feeling has once awakened in her, her instincts +become marvellously acute to detect the false from the true. Madame de +Frontignac longed for one strong, unguarded, real, earnest word from the +man who had stolen from her her whole being. She was beginning to feel +in some dim wise what an untold treasure she was daily giving for tinsel +and dross. She leaned back in the carriage, with a restless, burning +cheek, and wondered why she was born to be so miserable. The thought of +Mary's saintly face and tender eyes rose before her as the moon rises on +the eyes of some hot and fevered invalid, inspiring vague yearnings +after an unknown, unattainable peace. + +Could some friendly power once have made her at that time clairvoyant +and shown her the _reality_ of the man whom she was seeing through the +prismatic glass of her own enkindled ideality! Could she have seen the +calculating quietness in which, during the intervals of a restless and +sleepless ambition, he played upon her heart-strings, as one uses a +musical instrument to beguile a passing hour,--how his only +embarrassment was the fear that the feelings he was pleased to excite +might become too warm and too strong, while as yet his relations to her +husband were such as to make it dangerous to arouse his jealousy! And if +he could have seen that pure ideal conception of himself which alone +gave him power in the heart of this woman,--that spotless, glorified +image of a hero without fear, without reproach,--would he have felt a +moment's shame and abasement at its utter falsehood? + +The poet says that the Evil Spirit stood abashed when he saw virtue in +an angel form! How would a man, then, stand, who meets face to face his +own glorified, spotless ideal, made living by the boundless faith of +some believing heart? The best must needs lay his hand on his mouth at +this apparition; but woe to him who feels no redeeming power in the +sacredness of this believing dream,--who with calculating shrewdness +_uses_ this most touching miracle of love only to corrupt and destroy +the loving! For him there is no sacrifice for sin, no place for +repentance. His very mother might shrink in her grave to have him laid +beside her. + +Madame de Frontignac had the high, honorable nature of the old blood of +France, and a touch of its romance. She was strung heroically, and +educated according to the notions of her caste and church, purely and +religiously. True it is, that one can scarcely call _that_ education +which teaches woman everything except herself,--_except_ the things that +relate to her own peculiar womanly destiny, and, on plea of the holiness +of ignorance, sends her without one word of just counsel into the +temptations of life. Incredible as it may seem, Virginie de Frontignac +had never read a romance or work of fiction of which love was the +staple; the _regime_ of the convent in this regard was inexorable; at +eighteen she was more thoroughly a child than most American girls at +thirteen. On entrance into life, she was at first so dazzled and +bewildered by the mere contrast of fashionable excitement with the +quietness of the scenes in which she had hitherto grown up, that she had +no time for reading or thought,--all was one intoxicating frolic of +existence, one dazzling, bewildering dream. + +He whose eye had measured her for his victim verified, if ever man did, +the proverbial expression of the iron hand under the velvet glove. Under +all his gentle suavities there was a fixed, inflexible will, a calm +self-restraint, and a composed philosophical measurement of others, that +fitted him to bear despotic rule over an impulsive, unguarded nature. +The position, at once accorded to him, of her instructor in the English +language and literature, gave him a thousand daily opportunities to +touch and stimulate all that class of finer faculties, so restless and +so perilous, and which a good man approaches always with certain awe. It +is said that he once asserted that he never beguiled a woman who did not +come half-way to meet him,--an observation much the same as a serpent +might make in regard to his birds. + +The visit of the morning was followed by several others. Madame de +Frontignac seemed to conceive for Mary one of those passionate +attachments which women often conceive for anything fair and +sympathizing, at those periods when their whole inner being is made +vital by the approaches of a grand passion. It took only a few visits to +make her as familiar as a child at the cottage; and the whole air of the +Faubourg St. Germain seemed to melt away from her, as, with the +pliability peculiar to her nation, she blended herself with the quiet +pursuits of the family. Sometimes, in simple straw hat and white +wrapper, she would lie down in the grass under the apple-trees, or join +Mary in an expedition to the barn for hen's eggs, or a run along the +sea-beach for shells; and her childish eagerness and delight on these +occasions used to arouse the unqualified astonishment of Mrs. Katy +Scudder. + +The Doctor she regarded with a _naive_ astonishment, slightly tinctured +with apprehension. She knew he was very religious, and stretched her +comprehension to imagine what he might be like. She thought of Bossuet's +sermons walking about under a Protestant coat, and felt vaguely alarmed +and sinful in his presence, as she used to when entering under the +shadows of a cathedral. In her the religious sentiment, though vague, +was strong. Nothing in the character of Burr had ever awakened so much +disapprobation as his occasional sneers at religion. On such occasions +she always reproved him with warmth, but excused him in her heart, +because he was brought up a heretic. She held a special theological +conversation with the Abbe, whether salvation were possible to one +outside of the True Church,--and had added to her daily prayer a +particular invocation to the Virgin for him. + +The French lessons, with her assistance, proceeded prosperously. She +became an inmate in Mrs. Marvyn's family also. The brown-eyed, sensitive +woman loved her as a new poem; she felt enchanted by her; and the +prosaic details of her household seemed touched to poetic life by her +innocent interest and admiration. The young Madame insisted on being +taught to spin at the great wheel; and a very pretty picture she made of +it, too, with her earnest gravity of endeavor, her deepening cheek, her +graceful form, with some strange foreign scarf or jewelry waving and +flashing in odd contrast with her work. + +"Do you know," she said, one day, while thus employed in the north room +at Mrs. Marvyn's,--"do you know Burr told me that princesses used to +spin? He read me a beautiful story from the 'Odyssey,' about how +Penelope cheated her lovers with her spinning, while she was waiting for +her husband to come home;--_he_ was gone to sea, Mary,--her _true_ +love,--you understand." + +She turned on Mary a wicked glance, so full of intelligence that the +snowdrop grew red as the inside of a sea-shell. + +"_Mon enfant_! thou hast a thought _deep in here_!" she said to Mary, +one day, as they sat together in the grass under the apple-trees. + +"Why, what?" said Mary, with a startled and guilty look. + +"Why, what? _petite_!" said the fairy princess, whimsically mimicking +her accent. "_Ah! ah! ma belle_! you think I have no eyes;--Virginie +sees deep in here!" she said, laying her hand playfully on Mary's heart. +"_Ah, petite_!" she said, gravely, and almost sorrowfully, "if you love +him, wait for him,--_don't marry another_. It is dreadful not to have +one's heart go with one's duty." + +"I shall never marry anybody," said Mary. + +"Nevare marrie anybodie!" said the lady, imitating her accents in tones +much like those of a bobolink. "Ah! ah! my little saint, you cannot +always live on nothing but the prayers, though prayers are verie good. +But, _ma chere_," she added, in a low tone, "don't you ever marry that +good man in there; priests should not marry." + +"Ours are not priests,--they are ministers," said Mary. "But why do you +speak of him?--he is like my father." + +"Virginie sees something!" said the lady, shaking her head gravely; "she +sees he loves little Mary." + +"Of course he does!" + +"Of-course-he-does?--ah, yes; and by-and-by comes the mamma, and she +takes this little hand, and she says, 'Come, Mary!' and then she gives +it to him; and then the poor _jeune homme_, when he comes back, finds +not a bird in his poor little nest. _Oh, c'est ennuyeux cela_!" she +said, throwing herself back in the grass till the clover-heads and +buttercups closed over her. + +"I do assure you, dear Madame!"-- + +"I do assure you, dear Mary, _Virginie knows_. So lock up her words in +your little heart; you will want them some day." + +There was a pause of some moments, while the lady was watching the +course of a cricket through the clover. At last, lifting her head, she +spoke very gravely,-- + +"My little cat! it is _dreadful_ to be married to a good man, and want +to be good, and want to love him, and yet never like to have him take +your hand, and be more glad when he is away than when he is at home; and +then to think how different it would all be, if it was only somebody +else. That will be the way with you, if you let them lead you into this; +so don't you do it, _mon enfant_." + +A thought seemed to cross Mary's mind, as she turned to Madame de +Frontignac, and said, earnestly,-- + +"If a good man were my husband, I would never think of another,--I +wouldn't let myself." + +"How could you help it, _mignonne_? Can you stop your thinking?" + +Mary said, after a moment's blush,-- + +"I can _try_!" + +"Ah, yes! But to try all one's life,--oh, Mary, that is too hard! Never +do it, darling!" + +And then Madame de Frontignac broke out into a carolling little French +song, which started all the birds around into a general orchestral +accompaniment. + +This conversation occurred just before Madame de Frontignac started for +Philadelphia, whither her husband had been summoned as an agent in some +of the ambitious intrigues of Burr. + +It was with a sigh of regret that she parted from her friends at the +cottage. She made them a hasty good-bye call,--alighting from a splendid +barouche with two white horses, and filling their simple best-room with +the light of her presence for a last half-hour. When she bade good-bye +to Mary, she folded her warmly to her heart, and her long lashes drooped +heavily with tears. + +After her absence, the lessons were still pursued with the gentle, quiet +little Abbe, who seemed the most patient and assiduous of teachers; but, +in both houses, there was that vague _ennui_, that sense of want, which +follows the fading of one of life's beautiful dreams! We bid her adieu +for a season;--we may see her again. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The summer passed over the cottage, noiselessly, as our summers pass. +There were white clouds walking in saintly troops over blue mirrors of +sea,--there were purple mornings, choral with bird-singing,--there were +golden evenings, with long, eastward shadows. Apple-blossoms died +quietly in the deep orchard grass, and tiny apples waxed and rounded and +ripened and gained stripes of gold and carmine; and the blue eggs broke +into young robins, that grew from gaping, yellow-mouthed youth to +fledged and outflying maturity. Came autumn, with its long Indian +summer, and winter, with its flinty, sparkling snows, under which all +Nature lay a sealed and beautiful corpse. Came once more the spring +winds, the lengthening days, the opening flowers, and the ever-renewing +miracle of buds and blossoms on the apple-trees around the cottage. A +year had passed since the June afternoon when first we showed you Mary +standing under the spotty shadows of the tree, with the white dove on +her hand--a year in which not many outward changes have been made in the +relations of the actors of our story. + +Mary calmly spun and read and thought; now and then composing with care +very English-French letters, to be sent to Philadelphia to Madame de +Frontignac, and receiving short missives of very French-English in +return. + +The cautions of Madame, in regard to the Doctor, had not rippled the +current of their calm, confiding intercourse; and the Doctor, so very +satisfied and happy in her constant society and affection, scarcely as +yet meditated distinctly that he needed to draw her more closely to +himself. If he had a passage to read, a page to be copied, a thought to +express, was she not ever there, gentle, patient, unselfish? and scarce +by the absence of a day did she let him perceive that his need of her +was becoming so absolute that his hold on her must needs be made +permanent. + +As to his salary and temporal concerns, they had suffered somewhat for +his unpopular warfare with reigning sins,--a fact which had rather +reconciled Mrs. Scudder to the dilatory movement of her cherished hopes. +Since James was gone, what need to press imprudently to new +arrangements? Better give the little heart time to grow over before +starting a subject which a certain womanly instinct told her might be +met with a struggle. Somehow she never thought without a certain +heart-sinking of Mary's look and tone the night she spoke with her about +James; she had an awful presentiment that that tone of voice belonged to +the things that cannot be shaken. But yet, Mary seemed so even, so +quiet, her delicate form filled out and rounded so beautifully, and she +sang so cheerfully at her work, and, above all, she was so entirely +silent about James, that Mrs. Scudder had hope. + +Ah, that silence! Do not listen to hear whom a woman praises, to know +where her heart is! do not ask for whom she expresses the most earnest +enthusiasm! but if there be one she once knew well, whose name she never +speaks,--if she seem to have an instinct to avoid every occasion of its +mention,--if, when you speak, she drops into silence and changes the +subject,--why, look there for something! just as, when going through +deep meadow-grass, a bird flies ostentatiously up before you, you may +know her nest is not there, but far off, under distant tufts of fern and +buttercup, through which she has crept with a silent flutter in her +spotted breast, to act her pretty little falsehood before you. + +Poor Mary's little nest was along the sedgy margin of the sea-shore, +where grow the tufts of golden-rod, where wave the reeds, where crimson, +green, and purple sea-weeds float up, like torn fringes of Nereid +vestures, and gold and silver shells lie on the wet wrinkles of the +sands. + +The sea had become to her like a friend, with its ever-varying monotony. +Somehow she loved this old, fresh, blue, babbling, restless giant, who +had carried away her heart's love to hide him in some far-off palmy +island, such as she had often heard him tell of in his sea-romances. +Sometimes she would wander out for an afternoon's stroll on the rocks, +and pause by the great spouting cave, now famous to Newport +_dilettanti_, but then a sacred and impressive solitude. There the +rising tide bursts with deafening strokes through a narrow opening into +some inner cavern, which, with a deep thunder-boom, like the voice of an +angry lion, casts it back in a high jet of foam into the sea. + +Mary often sat and listened to this hollow noise, and watched the +ever-rising columns of spray as they reddened with the transpiercing +beams of the afternoon sun; and thence her eye travelled far, far off +over the shimmering starry blue, where sails looked no bigger than +miller's wings; and it seemed sometimes as if a door were opening by +which her soul might go out into some eternity,--some abyss, so wide and +deep, that fathomless lines of thought could not sound it. She was no +longer a girl in a mortal body, but an infinite spirit, the adoring +companion of Infinite Beauty and Infinite Love. + +As there was an hour when the fishermen of Galilee saw their Master +transfigured, his raiment white and glistening, and his face like the +light, so are there hours when our whole mortal life stands forth in a +celestial radiance. From our daily lot falls off every weed of +care,--from our heart-friends every speck and stain of earthly +infirmity. Our horizon widens, and blue, and amethyst, and gold touch +every object. Absent friends and friends gone on the last long journey +stand once more together, bright with an immortal glow, and, like the +disciples who saw their Master floating in the clouds above them, we +say, "Lord, it is good to be here!" How fair the wife, the husband, the +absent mother, the gray-haired father, the manly son, the bright-eyed +daughter! Seen in the actual present, all have some fault, some flaw; +but absent, we see them in their permanent and better selves. Of our +distant home we remember not one dark day, not one servile care, nothing +but the echo of its holy hymns and the radiance of its brightest +days,--of our father, not one hasty word, but only the fulness of his +manly vigor and noble tenderness,--of our mother, nothing of mortal +weakness, but a glorified form of love,--of our brother, not one +teasing, provoking word of brotherly freedom, but the proud beauty of +his noblest hours,--of our sister, our child, only what is fairest and +sweetest. + +This is to life the true ideal, the calm glass, wherein looking, we +shall see, that, whatever defects cling to us, they are not, after all, +permanent, and that we are tending to something nobler than we yet +are;--it is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the +purchased possession." In the resurrection we shall see our friends +forever as we see them in these clairvoyant hours. + +We are writing thus on and on, linking image and thought and feeling, +and lingering over every flower, and listening to every bird, because +just before us there lies a dark valley, and we shrink and tremble to +enter it. + +But it _must_ come, and why do we delay? + + +Towards evening, one afternoon in the latter part of June, Mary returned +from one of these lonely walks by the sea, and entered the kitchen. It +was still in its calm and sober cleanness;--the tall clock ticked with a +startling distinctness. From the half-closed door of her mother's +bedroom, which stood ajar, she heard the chipper of Miss Prissy's voice. +She stayed her light footsteps, and the words that fell on her ear were +these:-- + +"Miss Marvyn fainted dead away;--she stood it till he came to _that_; +but then she just clapped both hands together, as if she'd been shot, +and fell right forward on the floor in a faint!" + +What could this be? There was a quick, intense whirl of thoughts in +Mary's mind, and then came one of those awful moments when the powers of +life seem to make a dead pause and all things stand still; and then all +seemed to fail under her, and the life to sink down, down, down, till +nothing was but one dim, vague, miserable consciousness. + +Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy were sitting, talking earnestly, on the +foot of the bed, when the door opened noiselessly, and Mary glided to +them like a spirit,--no color in check or lip,--her blue eyes wide with +calm horror; and laying her little hand, with a nervous grasp, on Miss +Prissy's arm, she said,-- + +"Tell me,--what is it?--is it?--is he--dead?" + +The two women looked at each other, and then Mrs. Scudder opened her +arms. + +"My daughter!" + +"Oh! mother! mother!" + +Then fell that long, hopeless silence, broken only by hysteric sobs from +Miss Prissy, and answering ones from the mother; but _she_ lay still and +quiet, her blue eyes wide and clear, making an inarticulate moan. + +"Oh! are they _sure_?--_can_ it be?--_is_ he dead?" at last she gasped. + +"My child, it is too true; all we can say is, 'Be still, and know that I +am God!'" + +"I shall _try_ to be still, mother," said Mary, with a piteous, hopeless +voice, like the bleat of a dying lamb; "but I did not think he _could_ +die! I never thought of that!--I never _thought_ of it!--Oh! mother! +mother! mother! oh! what shall I do?" + +They laid her on her mother's bed,--the first and last resting-place of +broken hearts,--and the mother sat down by her in silence. Miss Prissy +stole away into the Doctor's study, and told him all that had happened. + +"It's the same to her," said Miss Prissy, with womanly reserve, "as if +he'd been an own brother." + +"What was his spiritual state?" said the Doctor, musingly. + +Miss Prissy looked blank, and answered mournfully,-- + +"I don't know." + +The Doctor entered the room where Mary was lying with closed eyes. Those +few moments seemed to have done the work of years,--so pale, and faded, +and sunken she looked; nothing but the painful flutter of the eyelids +and lips showed that she yet breathed. At a sign from Mrs. Scudder, he +kneeled by the bed, and began to pray,--"Lord, thou hast been our +dwelling-place in all generations,"--prayer deep, mournful, upheaving +like the swell of the ocean, surging upward, under the pressure of +mighty sorrows, towards an Almighty heart. + +The truly good are of one language in prayer. Whatever lines or angles +of thought may separate them in other hours, _when they pray in +extremity_, all good men pray alike. The Emperor Charles V. and Martin +Luther, two great generals of opposite faiths, breathed out their dying +struggle in the self-same words. + +There be many tongues and many languages of men,--but the language of +prayer is one by itself, _in_ all and _above_ all. It is the inspiration +of that Spirit that is ever working with our spirit, and constantly +lifting us higher than we know, and, by our wants, by our woes, by our +tears, by our yearnings, by our poverty, urging us, with mightier and +mightier force, against those chains of sin which keep us from our God. +We speak not of _things_ conventionally called prayers,--vain mutterings +of unawakened spirits talking drowsily in sleep,--but of such prayers as +come when flesh and heart fail, in mighty straits;--_then_ he who prays +is a prophet, and a Mightier than he speaks in him; for the "_Spirit_ +helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we +ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings +which cannot be uttered." + +So the voice of supplication, upheaving from that great heart, so +childlike in its humility, rose with a wisdom and a pathos beyond what +he dreamed in his intellectual hours; it uprose even as a strong angel, +whose brow is solemnly calm, and whose wings shed healing dews of +paradise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The next day broke calm and fair. The robins sang remorselessly in the +apple-tree, and were answered by bobolink, oriole, and a whole tribe of +ignorant little bits of feathered happiness that danced among the +leaves. Golden and glorious unclosed those purple eyelids of the East, +and regally came up the sun; and the treacherous sea broke into ten +thousand smiles, laughing and dancing with every ripple, as +unconsciously as if no form dear to human hearts had gone down beneath +it. Oh! treacherous, deceiving beauty of outward things! beauty, wherein +throbs not one answering nerve to human pain! + +Mary rose early and was about her morning work. Her education was that +of the soldier, who must know himself no more, whom no personal pain +must swerve from the slightest minutiae of duty. So she was there, at +her usual hour, dressed with the same cool neatness, her brown hair +parted in satin bands, and only the colorless cheek and lip differing +from the Mary of yesterday. + +How strange this external habit of living! One thinks how to stick in a +pin, and how to tie a string,--one busies one's self with folding robes, +and putting away napkins, the day after some stroke that has cut the +inner life in two, with the heart's blood dropping quietly at every +step. + +Yet it is better so! Happy those whom stern principle or long habit or +hard necessity calls from the darkened room, the languid trance of pain, +in which the wearied heart longs to indulge, and gives this trite prose +of common life, at which our weak and wearied appetites so revolt! Mary +never thought of such a thing as self-indulgence;--this daughter of the +Puritans had her seed within her. Aerial in her delicacy, as the +blue-eyed flax-flower with which they sowed their fields, she had yet +its strong fibre, which no stroke of the flail could break; bruising and +hackling only made it fitter for uses of homely utility. Mary, +therefore, opened the kitchen-door at dawn, and, after standing one +moment to breathe the freshness, began spreading the cloth for an early +breakfast. Mrs. Scudder, the mean while, was kneading the bread that had +been set to rise over-night; and the oven was crackling and roaring with +a large-throated, honest garrulousness. + +But, ever and anon, as the mother worked, she followed the motions of +her child anxiously. + +"Mary, my dear," she said, "the eggs are giving out; hadn't you better +run to the barn and get a few?" + +Most mothers are instinctive philosophers. No treatise on the laws of +nervous fluids could have taught Mrs. Scudder a better _role_ for this +morning, than her tender gravity, and her constant expedients to break +and ripple, by changing employments, that deep, deadly under-current of +thoughts which she feared might undermine her child's life. + +Mary went into the barn, stopped a moment, and took out a handful of +corn to throw to her hens, who had a habit of running towards her and +cocking an expectant eye to her little hand, whenever she appeared. All +came at once flying towards her,--speckled, white, and gleamy with hues +between of tawny orange-gold,--the cocks, magnificent with the bladelike +waving of their tails,--and, as they chattered and cackled and pressed +and crowded about her, pecking the corn, even where it lodged in the +edge of her little shoes, she said, "Poor things, I am glad they enjoy +it!"--and even this one little act of love to the ignorant fellowship +below her carried away some of the choking pain which seemed all the +while suffocating her heart. Then, climbing into the hay, she sought the +nest and filled her little basket with eggs, warm, translucent, +pinky-white in their freshness. She felt, for a moment, the customary +animation in surveying her new treasures; but suddenly, like a vision +rising before her, came a remembrance of once when she and James were +children together and had been seeking eggs just there. He flashed +before her eyes, the bright boy with the long black lashes, the dimpled +cheeks, the merry eyes, just as he stood and threw the hay over her when +they tumbled and laughed together,--and she sat down with a sick +faintness, and then turned and walked wearily in. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER III. + + +BEGGARS IN ROME. + + +Directly above the Piazza di Spagna and opposite to the Via di Condotti, +rise the double towers of the Trinita de' Monti. The ascent to them is +over one hundred and thirty-five steps, planned with considerable skill, +so as to mask the steepness of the Pincian, and forming the chief +feature of the Piazza. Various landings and dividing walls break up +their monotony; and a red granite obelisk, found in the gardens of +Sallust, crowns the upper terrace in front of the church. All day long, +these steps are flooded with sunshine, in which, stretched at length, or +gathered in picturesque groups, models of every age and both sexes bask +away the hours when they are free from employment in the studios. Here, +in a rusty old coat and long white beard and hair, is the _Padre +Eterno_, so called from his constantly standing as model for the First +Person of the Trinity in religious pictures. Here is the ferocious +bandit, with his thick black beard and conical hat, now off duty, and +sitting with his legs wide apart, munching in alternate bites an onion, +which he holds in one hand, and a lump of bread, which he holds in the +other. Here is the _contadina_, who is always praying at a shrine with +upcast eyes, or lifting to the Virgin the little child, among whose dark +curls, now lying tangled in her lap, she is on a vigorous hunt for the +animal whose name denotes love. Here is the invariable pilgrim, with his +scallop-shell, who has been journeying to St. Peter's and reposing by +the way near aqueducts or broken columns so long that the memory of man +runneth not to the contrary, and who is now fast asleep on his back, +with his hat pulled over his eyes. When the _forestieri_ come along, the +little ones run up and thrust out their hands for _baiocchi_; and so +pretty are they, with their large, black, lustrous eyes, and their +quaint, gay dresses, that new comers always find something in their +pockets for them. Sometimes a group of artists, passing by, will pause +and steadily examine one of these models, turn him about, pose him, +point out his defects and excellences, give him a _baiocco_, and pass +on. It is, in fact, the model's exchange. [Footnote: During this last +winter, the government have prohibited the models, for I know not what +reason, from gathering upon these steps; and they now congregate at the +corner of the Via Sistina and Capo le Case, near the Pizzicheria, from +which they supply themselves with groceries.] + +All this is on the lower steps, close to the Piazza di Spagna; but as +one ascends to the last platform, before reaching the upper piazza in +front of the Trinita de' Monti, a curious squat figure, with two +withered and crumpled legs, spread out at right angles and clothed in +long stockings, comes shuffling along on his knees and hands, which are +protected by clogs. As it approaches, it turns suddenly up from its +quadrupedal position, takes off its hat, shows a broad, stout, legless +_torso_, with a vigorous chest and a ruddy face, as of a person who has +come half-way up from below the steps through a trap-door, and with a +smile whose breadth is equalled only by the cunning which lurks round +the corners of the eyes, says, in the blandest and most patronizing +tones, with a rising inflection, "_Buon giorno, Signore! Oggi fa bel +tempo_," or "_fa cattivo tempo_," as the case may be. This is no less a +person than Beppo, King of the Beggars, and permanent bore of the Scale +di Spagna. He is better known to travellers than the Belvedere Torso of +Hercules at the Vatican, and has all the advantage over that wonderful +work, of having an admirable head and a good digestion. Hans Christian +Andersen has celebrated him in "The Improvvisatore," and unfairly +attributed to him an infamous character and life; but this account is +purely fictitious, and is neither _vero_ nor _ben trovato_. Beppo, like +other distinguished personages, is not without a history. The Romans say +of him, "_Era un Signore in paese suo_"--"He was a gentleman in his own +country,"--and this belief is borne out by a certain courtesy and style +in his bearing which would not shame the first gentleman in the land. He +was undoubtedly of a good family in the provinces, and came to Rome, +while yet young, to seek his fortune. His crippled condition cut him off +from any active employment, and he adopted the profession of a +mendicant, as being the most lucrative and requiring the least exertion. +Remembering Belisarius, he probably thought it not beneath his own +dignity to ask for an _obolus_. Should he be above doing what a general +had done? However this may be, he certainly became a mendicant, after +changing his name,--and, steadily pursuing this profession for more than +a quarter of a century, by dint of his fair words, his bland smiles, and +his constant "_Fa buon tempo_" and "_Fa cattivo tempo_," which, together +with his withered legs, were his sole stock in starting, he has finally +amassed a very respectable little fortune. He is now about fifty-five +years of age, has a wife and several children; and a few years ago, on +the marriage of a daughter to a very respectable tradesman, he was able +to give her what was considered in Rome a more than respectable dowry. +The other day, a friend of mine met a tradesman of his acquaintance +running up the Spanish steps. + +"_Dove andate in una tanta affretta?_" he inquired. + +"_Al Banchiere mio._" + +"_Al Banchiere? Ma quale Banchiere sta in su le scale?_" + +"_Ma Beppo_," was the grave answer. "_Ho bisogna di sessanta scudi, e +lui mele prestera senza difficolta._" + +"_Da vero?_" said my friend. + +"_Eh sicuro, come gli pare_," said the other, as he went on to his +banker. [Footnote: "Where are you going in such haste?"] + +"To my banker." + +"To your banker? But what banker is there above the steps?" + +"Only Beppo. I want sixty _scudi_, and he can lend them to ma without +difficulty." + +"Really?" + +"Of course." + +Beppo hires his bank--which is the upper platform of the steps--of the +government, at a small rent _per annum_; and woe to any poor devil of +his profession who dares to invade his premises! Hither, every fair day, +at about noon, he comes mounted on his donkey and accompanied by his +valet, a little boy, who, though not lame exactly, wears a couple of +crutches as a sort of livery,--and as soon as twilight begins to thicken +and the sun is gone, he closes his bank, (it is purely a bank of +deposit,) crawls up the steps, mounts a stone post, and there +majestically waits for his valet to bring the donkey. But he no more +solicits deposits. His day is done; his bank is closed; and from his +post he looks around, with a patronizing superiority, upon the poorer +members of his profession, who are soliciting, with small success, the +various passers by, as a king smiles down upon his subjects. The donkey +being brought, he shuffles on to its crupper and makes a joyous and +triumphant passage down through the streets of the city to his home. The +bland business smile is gone. The wheedling subserviency of the day is +over. The cunning eye opens largely. He is calm, dignified, and +self-possessed. He mentions no more the state of the weather. What's +Hecuba to him, at this free moment of his return? It is the large style +in which all this is done that convinces me that Beppo was a "_Signore +in paese suo_." He has a bank, and so has Sir Francis Baring. What of +that? He is a gentleman still. The robber knights and barons demanded +toll of those who passed their castles, with violence and threats, and +at the bloody point of their swords. Whoso passes Beppo's castle is +prayed in courtesy to leave a remembrance, and receives the blandest bow +and thanks in return. Shall we, then, say, the former are nobles and +gentlemen,--the other is a miserable beggar? Is it worse to ask than to +seize? Is it meaner to thank than to threaten? If he who is supported by +the public is a beggar, our kings are beggars, our pensions are charity. +Did not the Princess Royal hold out her hand, the other day, to the +House of Commons? and does any one think the worse of her for it? We are +all, in measure, beggars; but Beppo, in the large style of kings and +robber-barons, asks for his _baiocco_, and, like the merchant-princes, +keeps his bank. I see dukes and _guardie nobili_, in shining helmets, +spurs, and gigantic boots, ride daily through the streets on horseback, +and hurry to their palaces; but Beppo, erectly mounted on his donkey in +his short-jacket, (for he disdains the tailored skirts of a fashionable +coat, though at times over his broad shoulders a great blue cloak is +grandly thrown, after the manner of the ancient emperors,) is far more +impressive, far more princely, as he slowly and majestically moves at +nightfall towards his august abode. The shadows close around him as he +passes along; salutations greet him from the damp shops; and darkness at +last swallows up for a time the great square _torso_ of the "King of the +Beggars." + +Begging, in Rome, is as much a profession as praying and shop-keeping. +Happy is he who is born _stroppiato_, with a withered limb, or to whom +Fortune sends the present of a hideous accident or malady; it is a stock +to set up trade upon. St. Vitus's dance is worth its hundreds of _scudi_ +annually; epileptic fits are also a prize; and a distorted leg and +hare-lip have a considerable market value. Thenceforth the creature who +has the luck to have them is absolved from labor. He stands or lies in +the sun, or wanders through the Piazza, and sings his whining, +lamentable strophe of, "_Signore, povero stroppiato, datemi qualche cosa +per amor di Dio!_"--and when the _baiocco_ falls into his hat, like ripe +fruit from the tree of the stranger, he chants the antistrophe, "_Dio la +benedica, la Madonna e tutti santi!_" [Footnote: Signore, a poor +cripple; "give me something, for the love of God!--May God bless you, +the Madonna, and all the saints!"] No refusal but one does he recognize +as final,--and that is given, not by word of mouth, but by elevating the +fore-finger of the right hand, and slowly wagging it to and fro. When +this finger goes up he resigns all hope, as those who pass the gate of +the Inferno, replaces his hat and lapses into silence, or turns away to +some new group of sunny-haired foreigners. The recipe to avoid beggars +is, to be black-haired, to wear a full beard, to smoke in the streets, +speak only Italian, and shake the fore-finger of the right hand when +besieged for charity. Let it not be supposed from this that the Romans +give nothing to the beggars, but pass them by on the other side. This is +quite a mistake. On the contrary, they give more than the foreigners; +and the poorest class, out of their little, will always find something +to drop into their hats for charity. + +The ingenuity which the beggars sometimes display in asking for alms is +often humoristic and satirical. Many a woman on the cold side of thirty +is wheedled out of a _baiocco_ by being addressed as _Signorina._ Many a +half-suppressed exclamation of admiration, or a prefix of _Bella_, +softens the hearts of those to whom compliments on their beauty come +rarely. The other day, as I came out of the city gate of Siena, a ragged +wretch, sitting, with one stump of a leg thrust obtrusively forward, in +the dust of the road, called out, "_Una buona passeggiata, Signorino +mio!_" (and this although my little girl, of thirteen years, accompanied +me.) Seeing, however, that I was too old a bird for that chaff, he +immediately added, "_Ma prima pensi alia conservazione dell' anima +sua._" [Footnote: "A pleasant walk, young gentleman!"--"But first pay +heed to the salvation of your soul."] A great many _baiocchi_ are also +caught, from green travellers of the middle class, by the titles which +are lavishly squandered by these poor fellows. _Illustrissimo, +Eccellenza, Altezza_, will sometimes open the purse, when plain +"_Mosshoe_" will not. + +The profession of a beggar is by no means an unprofitable one. A great +many drops finally make a stream. The cost of living is almost nothing +to them, and they frequently lay up money enough to make themselves very +comfortable in their old age. A Roman friend of mine, Conte C., speaking +of them one day, told me this illustrative anecdote:-- + +"I had occasion," he said, "a few years ago, to reduce my family," (the +servants are called, in Rome, the family,) "and having no need of the +services of one under-servant, named Pietro, I dismissed him. About a +year after, as I was returning to my house, after nightfall, I was +solicited by a beggar, who whiningly asked me for charity. There was +something in the voice which struck me as familiar, and, turning round +to examine the man more closely, I found it was my old servant, Pietro. +'Is that you, Pietro?' I said; 'you begging here in the streets! what +has brought you to this wretched trade?' He gave me, however, no very +clear account of himself, but evidently desired to avoid me when he +recognized who I was. But, shocked to find him in so pitiable a +condition, I pressed my questions, and finally told him I could not bear +to see any one who had been in my service reduced to beggary; and though +I had no actual need of his services, yet, rather than see him thus, he +might return to his old position as servant in my house, and be paid the +same wages as he had before. He hesitated, was much embarrassed, and, +after a pause, said,--'A thousand thanks, your Excellency, for your +kindness; but I cannot accept your proposal, because, to tell you the +truth, I make more money by this trade of begging.'" + +But though the beggars often lay by considerable sums of money, so that +they might, if they chose, live with a certain degree of comfort, yet +they cannot leave off the habit of begging after having indulged it for +many years. They get to be avaricious, and cannot bring their minds to +spend the money they have. The other day, an old beggar, who used to +frequent the steps of the Gesu, when about to die, ordered the hem of +her garment to be ripped up, saying that there was money in it. In fact, +about a thousand _scudi_ were found there, three hundred of which she +ordered to be laid out upon her funeral, and the remainder to be +appropriated to masses for her soul. This was accordingly done, and her +squalid life ended in a pompous procession to the grave. + +The great holidays of the beggars are the country _festas_. Thronging +out of the city, they spread along the highways, and drag, drive, roll, +shuffle, hobble, as they can, towards the festive little town. +Everywhere along the road they are to be met,--perched on a rock, seated +on a bank, squatted beneath a wall or hedge, and screaming, with +outstretched hand, from the moment a carriage comes in sight until it is +utterly passed by. As one approaches the town where the _festa_ is held, +they grow thicker and thicker. They crop up along the road like +toadstools. They hold up every hideous kind of withered arm, distorted +leg, and unsightly stump. They glare at you out of horrible eyes, that +look like cranberries. You are requested to look at horrors, all without +a name, and too terrible to be seen. All their accomplishments are also +brought out. They fall into improvised fits; they shake with sudden +palsies; and all the while keep up a chorus, half whine, half scream, +which suffers you to listen to nothing else. It is hopeless to attempt +to buy them all off, for they are legion in number, and to pay one +doubles the chorus of the others. The clever scamps, too, show the +utmost skill in selecting their places of attack. Wherever there is a +sudden rise in the road, or any obstacle which will reduce the gait of +the horses to a walk, there is sure to be a beggar. But do not imagine +that he relies on his own powers of scream and hideousness alone,--not +he! He has a friend, an ambassador, to recommend him to your notice, and +to expatiate on his misfortunes. Though he himself can scarcely move, +his friend, who is often a little ragged boy or girl, light of weight +and made for a chase, pursues the carriage and prolongs the whine, +repeating, with a mechanical iteration, "_Signore! Signore! datemi +qualche cosa, Signore!_" until his legs, breath, and resolution give out +at last; or, what is still commoner, your patience is wearied out or +your sympathy touched, and you are glad to purchase the blessing of +silence for the small sum of a _baiocco_. When his whining fails, he +tries to amuse you; and often resorts to the oddest freaks to attract +your notice. Sometimes the little rascal flings himself heels over head +into the dust, and executes somersets without number, as if they had +some hidden influence on the sentiment of compassion. Then, running by +the side of the carriage, he will play upon his lips with both hands, +making a rattling noise, to excite your curiosity. If you laugh, you are +lost, and he knows it. + +As you reach the gates of the town, the row becomes furious. There are +scores of beggars on either side the road, screaming in chorus. No +matter how far the town be from the city, there is not a wretched, +maimed cripple of your acquaintance, not one of the old stumps who have +dodged you round a Roman corner, not a ragged baron who has levied toll +for passage through the public squares, a privileged robber who has shut +up for you a pleasant street or waylaid you at an interesting church, +but he is sure to be there. How they got there is as inexplicable as how +the apples got into the dumplings in Peter Pindar's poem. But at the +first ring of a _festa_-bell, they start up from under ground, (those +who are legless getting only half-way up,) like Roderick Dhu's men, and +level their crutches at you as the others did their arrows. An English +lady, a short time since, after wintering at Rome, went to take the +baths at Siena in the summer. On going out for a walk, on the first +morning after her arrival, whom should she meet but King Beppo, whom she +had just left in Rome! He had come with the rest of the nobility for +recreation and bathing, and of course had brought his profession with +him. + +Owing to a great variety of causes, the number of beggars in Rome is +very large. They grow here as noxious weeds in a hot-bed. The government +neither favors commerce nor stimulates industry. Its policy is averse to +change of any kind, even though it be for the development of its own +resources or of the energies of the people. The Church is Brahmanic, +contemplating only its own navel. Its influence is specially restrictive +in Rome, because it is also the State there. It restrains not only +trade, but education; it conserves exploded ideas and usages; it prefers +not to grow, and looks with abhorrence upon change. + +Literature may be said to be dead in Rome. There is not only no free +press there, but no press at all. The "Diario Romano" contains about as +much news as the "Acta Diurna" of the ancient Romans, and perhaps less. +I doubt whether at present such facts as those given by Petronius, in an +extract from the latter, would now be permitted to be published. +However, we know that Augustus prohibited the "Acta Diurna,"--and the +"Diario Romano" exists still; so that some progress has been made. And +it must be confessed that Tuscany is scarcely in advance of Rome in this +respect; and Naples is behind both. Even the introduction of foreign +works is so strictly watched and the censorship so severe, that few +liberal books pass the cordon. The arguments in favor of a censorship +are very plain, but not very conclusive. The more compressed the +energies and desires of a people, the more danger of their bursting into +revolution. There is no safety-valve to passions and desires like the +utterance of them,--no better corrective to false ideas than the free +expression of them. Freedom of thought can never be suppressed, and +ideas kept too long pent up in the bosom, when heated by some sudden +crisis of passion, will explode into license and fury. Let me put a +column from Milton here into my own weak plaster; the words are well +known, but cannot be too well known. "Though all the winds of doctrine," +he says, "were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the +field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her +strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the +worse in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest +suppressing." Here in Rome genius rots. The saddest words I almost ever +heard were from a young Italian of ability and _esprit_. + +"Why," said I, in conversation with him, one day, "do you not devote +your talents to some worthy object, instead of frittering them away in +dancing, chatting, fencing, and morning-calls?" + +"What would you have me do?" he answered. + +"Devote yourself to some course of study. Write something." + +"_Mio caro_" was his reply, "it is useless. How can I write what I +think? How can I publish what I write? I have now manuscript works begun +in my desk, which it would be better to burn. Our only way to be happy +is to be idle and ignorant. The more we know, the unhappier we must be. +There is but one avenue for ambition,--the Church. I was not made for +that." + +This restrictive policy of the Church makes itself felt everywhere, high +and low; and by long habit the people have become indolent and supine. +The splendid robes of ecclesiastical Rome have a draggled fringe of +beggary and vice. What a change there might be, if the energies of the +Italians, instead of rotting in idleness, could have a free scope! +Industry is the only purification of a nation; and as the fertile and +luxuriant Campagna stagnates into malaria, because of its want of +ventilation and movement, so does this grand and noble people. The +government makes what use it can, however, of the classes it exploits by +its system; but things go in a vicious circle. The people, kept at a +stand-still, become idle and poor; idleness and poverty engender vice +and crime; crime fills the prisons; and the prisons afford a body of +cheap slaves to the government. + +To-day, as I am writing, some hundreds of _forcats_, in their striped +brown uniforms, are tugging at their winches and ropes to drag the +column of the Immaculate Virgin to its pedestal on the Piazza di Spagna. +By the same system of compulsory labor, the government, despite its +limited financial resources, is enabled to carry out public projects +which, with well-paid workmen, would be too expensive to be feasible. In +this manner, for instance, for an incredibly small sum, was built the +magnificent viaduct which spans with its triple tier of arches the +beautiful Val di L'Arriccia. But, for my own part, I cannot look upon +this system as being other than very bad, in every respect. And when, +examining into the prisons themselves, I find that the support of these +poor criminal slaves is farmed out by the government to some responsible +person at the lowest rate that is offered, generally for five or six +_baiocchi_ apiece _per diem_, and often refarmed by him at a still lower +rate, until the poor wretches are reduced to the very minimum of +necessary food as to quantity and quality, I confess that I cannot look +with pleasure on the noble viaduct at L'Arriccia, or the rich column to +the Immaculate Virgin, erected by the labor of their hands. + +Within a few years the government seemed to become conscious of the +great number of beggars in Rome, and of the reproach they offered to the +wise and paternal regulations of the priestcraft. Accordingly, for a +short time, they carried on a move in the right direction, which had +been begun by the Triumvirate of 1849, during their short career. Some +hundreds of the beggars were hired at the rate of a few _baiocchi_ a day +to carry on excavations in the Forum and in the Baths of Caracalla. The +selection was most appropriate. Only the old, decrepit, and broken-down +were taken,--the younger and sturdier were left. Ruined men were in +harmony with the ruined temples. Such a set of laborers was never before +seen. Falstaff's ragged regiment was a joke to them. Each had a +wheelbarrow, a spade, or pick, and a cloak; but the last was the most +important part of their equipment. Some of them picked at the earth with +a gravity that was equalled only by the feebleness of the effort and the +poverty of the result. Three strokes so wearied them that they were +forced to pause and gather strength, while others carried away the +ant-hills which the first dug up. It seemed an endless task to fill the +wheelbarrows. Fill, did I say? They were never filled. After a bucketful +of earth had been slowly shovelled in, the laborer paused, laid down his +spade carefully on the little heap, sighed profoundly, looked as if to +receive congratulations on his enormous success, then, flinging, with a +grand sweep, the tattered old cloak over his left shoulder, lifted his +wheelbarrow-shafts with dignity, and marched slowly and measuredly +forward towards the heap of deposit, as Belisarius might have moved at a +funeral in the intervals of asking for _oboli_. But reduced gentlemen, +who have been accustomed to carry round the hat as an occupation, always +have a certain air of condescension when they work for pay, and, by +their dignity of deportment, make you sensible of their former superior +state. Occasionally, in case a _forestiere_ was near, the older, idler, +and more gentlemanlike profession would be resumed for a moment, (as by +parenthesis,) and if without success, a sadder dignity would be seen in +the subsequent march. Very properly for persons who had been reduced +from beggary to work, they seemed to be anxious both for their health +and their appearance in public, and accordingly a vast deal more time +was spent in the arrangement of the cloak than in any other part of the +business. It was grand in effect, to see these figures, incumbered in +their heavy draperies, guiding their wheelbarrows through the great +arches of Caracalla's Baths or along the Via Sacra. It often reminded me +of modern _bassi-rilievi_ and portrait statues, in which gentlemen +looking sideways with very modern faces, and both hands full of swords, +pens, or books, stand impotently swaddled up in ancient togas or the +folds of similar enormous cloaks. The antique treatment with the modern +subject was evident in both. If sometimes, with a foolish spirit of +innovation, one felt inclined to ask what purpose in either case these +heroic mantles subserved, and whether, in fact, they could not be +dispensed with to advantage, he was soon made to know that his inquiry +indicated ignorance, and a desire to debase in the one case Man, in the +other Art. + +It would, however, be a grievous mistake to suppose that all the beggars +in the streets of Rome are Romans. In point of fact, the greater number +are strangers, who congregate in Rome during the winter from every +quarter. Naples and Tuscany send them by thousands. Every little country +town of the Abruzzi Mountains yields its contribution. From north, +south, east, and west they flock here as to a centre where good pickings +may be had of the crumbs that fall from the rich men's tables. In the +summer season they return to their homes with their earnings, and not +one in five of those who haunted the churches and streets in the winter +is to be seen. + +It is but justice to the Roman government to say that its charities are +very large. If, on the one hand, it does not encourage commerce and +industry, on the other, it liberally provides for the poor. In +proportion to its means, no government does more, if so much. Every +church has its _Cassa dei Poveri_. Numerous societies, such as the +_Sacconi_, and other confraternities, employ themselves in accumulating +contributions for the relief of the poor and wretched. Well-endowed +hospitals exist for the care of the sick and unfortunate; and there are +various establishments for the charge and education of poor orphans. A +few figures will show how ample are these charities. The revenue of +these institutions is no less than eight hundred and forty thousand +_scudi_ annually, of which three hundred thousand are contributed by the +Papal treasury, forty thousand of which are a tax upon the Lottery. The +hospitals, altogether, accommodate about four thousand patients, the +average number annually received amounting to about twelve thousand; and +the foundling hospitals alone are capable of receiving upwards of three +thousand children annually. Besides the hospitals for the sick, there is +also a hospital for poor convalescents at Sta Trinita dei Pellegrini, a +lunatic asylum containing about four hundred patients, one for +incurables at San Giacomo, a lying-in hospital at San Rocco, and a +hospital of education and industry at San Michele. There are also +thirteen societies for bestowing dowries on poor young girls on their +marriage; and from the public purse, for the same object, are expended +every year no less than thirty-two thousand _scudi_. In addition to +these charities, are the sums collected and administered by the various +confraternities, as well as the sum of one hundred and seventy-two +thousand _scudi_ distributed to the poor by the commission of subsidies. +But though so much money is thus expended, it cannot be said that it is +well administered. The proportion of deaths at the hospitals is very +large; and among the foundlings, it amounted, between the years 1829 and +1833, to no less than seventy-two _per cent_. + +The arrangements at these institutions were very much improved during +the career of the Triumvirate, and, under the auspices of the Princess +Belgiojoso, cleanliness, order, and system were introduced. The heroism +of this noble-hearted woman during the trying days of the Roman siege +deserves a better record than I can give. She gave her whole heart and +body to the regeneration of the hospitals, and the personal care of the +sick and wounded. Her head-quarters were at the Hospital _dei +Pellegrini_. Day after day and night after night she was at her post, +never moving from her chair, except to visit the various wards, and to +comfort with tender words the sufferers in their beds. Their faces, +contorted with pain, smoothed at her approach; and her hand and voice +carried consolation wherever she went. Many a scene have I witnessed +there more affecting than any tragedy, in which I knew not which most to +admire, the heroism of the sufferers or the tender humanity of the +consoler and nurse. In all her arrangements she showed that masterly +administrative faculty in which women are far superior to men. When she +came to the Pellegrini, all was in disorder; but a few days sufficed to +reduce a chaotic confusion to exact and admirable system. Hers was the +brain that regulated all the hospitals. Always calm, she distributed her +orders with perfect tact and precision, and with a determination of +purpose and clearness of perception which commanded the minds of all +about her. The care, fatigue, and labor which she underwent would have +broken down a less determined spirit. Nothing moved except from her +touch. In a little damp cell, a pallet of straw was laid on the brick +floor, and there, when utterly overcome, she threw herself down to sleep +for a couple of hours,--no more; all the rest of the time she sat at her +desk, writing orders, giving directions, and supervising the new +machinery which owed its existence to her. + +With the return of the Papal government came the old system. Certain it +is that _that_ system does not work well. Despite the enormous sums +expended in charity, the people are poor, the mortality in the hospitals +is very large. "Something is rotten in the state of" Rome. + +There is one noble exception not to be forgotten. To the Hospital of San +Michele Cardinal Tosti has given a new life and vigor, and set an +example worthy of his elevated position in the Church. This foundation +was formerly an asylum for poor children and infirm and aged persons; +but of late years an industrial and educational system has been +ingrafted upon it, until it has become one of the most enlarged and +liberal institutions that can anywhere be found. It now embraces not +only an asylum for the aged, a house of correction for juvenile +offenders and women, and a house of industry for children of both sexes, +but also a school of arts, in which music, painting, drawing, +architecture, and sculpture are taught gratuitously to the poor, and a +considerable number of looms, at which from eight hundred to one +thousand persons are employed for the weaving of woollen fabrics for the +government. A stimulus has thus been given to education and to industry, +and particularly to improvements in machinery and manufacture. Once a +year, during the holy week, religious dramas and operas, founded on some +Biblical subject, are creditably performed by the pupils in a private +theatre connected with the establishment. I was never present but at one +of these representations, when the tragical story of Shadrach, Meshach, +and Ahednego was performed. Honor to Cardinal Tosti for his successful +efforts in this liberal direction! + +At many of the convents in Rome, it is the custom at noon to distribute, +gratis, at the door, a quantity of soup, and any poor person may receive +a bowlful on demand. Many of the beggars thus become pensioners of the +convents, and may be seen daily at the appointed hour gathering round +the door with their bowl and wooden spoon, in expectation of the _Frate_ +with the soup. This is generally made so thick with cabbage that it +might be called a cabbage-stew; but Soyer himself never made a dish more +acceptable to the palate of the guests than this. No nightingales' +tongues at a banquet of Tiberius, no edible birds-nests at a Chinese +feast, were ever relished with more gusto. The figures and actions of +these poor wretches, after they have obtained their soup, make one sigh +for human nature. Each, grasping his portion as if it were a treasure, +separates himself immediately from his brothers, flees selfishly to a +corner, if he can find one empty, or, if not, goes to a distance, turns +his back on his friends, and, glancing anxiously at intervals all +around, as if in fear of a surprise, gobbles up his cabbage, wipes out +his bowl, and then returns to companionship or disappears. The idea of +sharing his portion with those who are portionless occurs to him only as +the idea of a robber to the mind of a miser. + +Any account of the beggars of Rome without mention of the Capuchins and +Franciscans would be like performing the "Merchant of Venice" with no +Shylock; for these orders are founded in beggary and supported by +charity. The priests do not beg; but their ambassadors, the +lay-brothers, clad in their long, brown serge, a cord around their +waist, and a basket on their arm, may be seen shuffling along at any +hour and in every street, in dirty sandalled feet, to levy contributions +from shops and houses. Here they get a loaf of bread, there a pound of +flour or rice, in one place fruit or cheese, in another a bit of meat, +until their basket is filled. Sometimes money is given, but generally +they are paid in articles of food. There is another set of these +brothers who enter your studio or ring at your bell and present a little +tin box with a slit in it, into which you are requested to drop any sum +you please, for the holidays, for masses, for wax candles, etc. As a big +piece of copper makes more ring than gold, it is generally given, and +always gratefully received. Sometimes they will enter into conversation, +and are always pleased to have a little chat about the weather. They are +very poor, very good-natured, and very dirty. It is a pity they do not +baptize themselves a little more with the material water of this world. +But they seem to have a hydrophobia. Whatever the inside of the platter +may be, the outside is far from clean. They walk by day and they sleep +by night in the same old snuffy robe, which is not kept from contact +with the skin by any luxury of linen, until it is worn out. Dirt and +piety seem to them synonymous. Sometimes I have deemed, foolishly +perhaps, but after the manner of my nation, that their goodness would +not wash off with the soil of the skin,--that it was more than +skin-deep; but as this matter is above reason, in better moods I have +faith that it would. Still, in disbelieving moments, I cannot help +applying to them Charles Lamb's famous speech,--"If dirt were trumps, +what a hand they would have of it!" Yet, beggars as they are, they have +the reputation at Rome of being the most inoffensive of all the +conventual orders, and are looked upon by the common people with +kindliness, as being thoroughly sincere in their religious professions. +They are, at least, consistent in many respects in their professions and +practice. They really mortify the flesh by penance, fasting, and +wretched fare, as well as by dirt. They do not proclaim the virtues and +charms of poverty, while they roll about in gilded coaches dressed in +"purple and fine linen," or gloat over the luxuries of the table. Their +vices are not the cardinal ones, whatever their virtues may be. The +"Miracles of St. Peter," as the common people call the palaces of Rome, +are not wrought for them. Their table is mean and scantily provided with +the most ordinary food. Three days in the week they eat no meat; and +during the year they keep three _Quaresime_. But, good as they are, +their sour, thin wine, on empty, craving stomachs, sometimes does a mad +work; and these brothers in dirt and piety have occasionally violent +rows and disputes in their refectories over their earthen bottles. It is +only a short time since that my old friends the Capuchins got furious +together over their wine, and ended by knocking each other about the +ears with their earthen jars, after they had emptied them. Several were +wounded, and had time to repent and wash in their cells. But one should +not be too hard on them. The temper will not withstand too much fasting. +A good dinner puts one at peace with the world, but an empty stomach is +the habitation often of the Devil, who amuses himself there with pulling +all the nerve-wires that reach up into the brain. I doubt whether even +St. Simeon Stylites always kept his temper as well as he did his fast. + +As I see them walking up and down the alleys of their vegetable garden, +and under the sunny wall where oranges glow and roses bloom, without the +least asceticism, during the whole winter, I do not believe in their +doctrine, nor envy them their life. And I cannot but think that the one +hundred and fifty thousand _Frati_ who are in the Roman States would do +quite as good service to God and man, if they were an army of laborers +on the Campagna, or elsewhere, as in their present life of beggary and +self-contemplation. I often wonder, as I look at them, hearty and stout +as they are, despite their mode of life, what brought them to this pass, +what induced them to enter this order,--and recall, in this connection, +a little anecdote current here in Rome, to the following effect:--A +young fellow, from whom Fortune had withheld her gifts, having become +desperate, at last declared to a friend that he meant to throw himself +into the Tiber, and end a life which was worse than useless. "No, no," +said his friend, "don't do that. If your affairs are so desperate, +retire into a convent, become a Capuchin." _"Ah, non!_" was the +indignant answer; "I am desperate; but I have not yet arrived at such a +pitch of desperation." + +Though the Franciscans live upon charity, they have almost always a +garden connected with their convent, where they raise multitudes of +cabbages, cauliflowers, _finocchi_, peas, beans, artichokes, and +lettuce. Indeed, there is one kind of the latter which is named after +them,--_capuccini_. But their gardens they do not till themselves; they +hire gardeners, who work for them. Now I cannot but think that working +in a garden is just as pious an employment as begging about the streets, +though perhaps scarcely as profitable. The opinion, that, in some +respects, it would be better for them to attend to this work themselves, +was forced upon my mind by a little farce I happened to see enacted +among their cabbages, the other day, as I was looking down out of my +window. My attention was first attracted by hearing a window open from a +little three-story-high _loggia_, opposite, hanging over their garden. A +woman came forth, and, from amid the flower-pots which half-concealed +her, she dropped a long cord to the ground. "_Pst, Pst_," she cried to +the gardener at work below. He looked up, executed a curious pantomime, +shrugged his shoulders, shook his fore-finger, and motioned with his +head and elbow sideways to a figure, visible to me, but not to her, of a +brown Franciscan, who was amusing himself in gathering some _finocchi_, +just round the corner of the wall. The woman, who was fishing for the +cabbages, immediately understood the predicament, drew up her cord, +disappeared from the _loggia_, and the curtain fell upon the little +farce. The gardener, however, evidently had a little soliloquy after she +had gone. He ceased working, and gazed at the unconscious Franciscan for +some time, with a curious grimace, as if he were not quite satisfied at +thus losing his little perquisite. + +These brown-cowled gentlemen are not the only ones who carry the tin +box. Along the curbstones of the public walks, and on the steps of the +churches, sit blind old creatures, and shake at you a tin box, outside +of which is a figure of the Madonna, and inside of which are two or +three _baiocchi_, as a rattling accompaniment to an unending invocation +of aid. Their dismal chant is protracted for hours and hours, increasing +in loudness whenever the steps of a passer-by are heard. It is the old +strophe and antistrophe of begging and blessing, and the singers are so +wretched that one is often softened into charity. Those who are not +blind have often a new _Diario_ or _Lunario_ to sell towards the end of +the year, and at other times they vary the occupation of shaking the box +by selling lives of the saints, which are sometimes wonderful enough. +One sad old woman, who sits near the Quattro Fontane, and says her +prayers and rattles her box, always touches my heart, there is such an +air of forlornness and sweetness about her. As I was returning, last +night, from a mass at San Giovanni in Laterano, an old man glared at us +through great green goggles,--to which Jealousy's would have yielded in +size and color,--and shook his box for a _baiocco_. "And where does this +money go?" I asked. "To say masses for the souls of those who die over +opposite," said he, pointing to the Hospital of San Giovanni, through +the open doors of which we could see the patients lying in their beds. + +Nor are these the only friends of the box. Often in walking the streets +one is suddenly shaken in your ear, and, turning round, you are startled +to see a figure entirely clothed in white from head to foot, a rope +round his waist, and a white _capuccio_ drawn over his head and face, +and showing, through two round holes, a pair of sharp black eyes behind +them. He says nothing, but shakes his box at you, often threateningly, +and always with an air of mystery. This is a penitent _Saccone_; and as +this _confraternita_ is composed solely of noblemen, he may be one of +the first princes or cardinals in Rome, performing penance in expiation +of his sins; or, for all you can see, it may be one of your intimate +friends. The money thus collected goes to various charities. They always +go in couples,--one taking one side of the street, the other the +opposite,--never losing sight of each other, and never speaking. Clothed +thus in secresy, these _Sacconi_ can test the generosity of any one they +please with complete impunity, and they often amuse themselves with +startling foreigners. Many a group of English girls, convoyed by their +mother, and staring into some mosaic or cameo shop, is scared into a +scream by the sudden jingle of the box, and the apparition of the +spectre in white who shakes it. And many a simple old lady retains to +the end of her life a confused impression, derived therefrom, of +Inquisitions, stilettos, tortures, and banditti, from which it is vain +to attempt to dispossess her mind. The stout old gentleman, with a bald +forehead and an irascibly rosy face, takes it often in another +way,--confounds the fellows for their impertinence, has serious notions, +first, of knocking them down on the spot, and then of calling the +police, but finally concludes to take no notice of them, as they are +nothing but _Eye_-talians, who cannot be expected to know how to behave +themselves in a rational manner. Sometimes a _santa elemosina_ is +demanded after the oddest fashion. It was only yesterday that I met one +of the _confraternita_, dressed in a shabby red suit, coming up the +street, with the invariable oblong tin begging-box in his hand,--a +picture of Christ on one side, and of the Madonna on the other. He went +straight to a door, opening into a large, dark room, where there was a +full cistern of running water, at which several poor women were washing +clothes, and singing and chatting as they worked. My red acquaintance +suddenly opens the door, letting in a stream of light upon this +Rembrandtish interior, and, lifting his box with the most wheedling of +smiles, he says, with a rising inflection of voice, as if asking a +question,--"_Prezioso sangue di Gesu Christo?_"--( Precious blood of +Jesus Christ?) + +The last, but by no means the meanest, of the tribe of pensioners whom I +shall mention, is my old friend, "Beefsteak,"--now, alas! gone to the +shades of his fathers. He was a good dog,--a mongrel, a Pole by +birth,--who accompanied his master on a visit to Rome, where he became +so enamored of the place that he could not be persuaded to return to his +native home. Bravely he cast himself on the world, determined to live, +like many of his two-legged countrymen, upon his wits. He was a dog of +genius, and his confidence in the world was rewarded by its +appreciation. He had a sympathy for the arts. The crowd of artists who +daily and nightly flocked to the Lepre and the Caffe Greco attracted his +notice. He introduced himself to them, and visited them at their studios +and rooms. A friendship was struck between them and him, and he became +their constant visitor and their most attached ally. Every day, at the +hour of lunch, or at the more serious hour of dinner, he lounged into +the Lepre, seated himself in a chair, and awaited his friends, confident +of his reception. His presence was always hailed with a welcome, and to +every new comer he was formally presented. His bearing became, at last, +not only assured, but patronizing. He received the gift of a +chicken-bone or a delicate titbit as if he conferred a favor. He became +an epicure, a _gourmet_. He did not eat much; he ate well. With what a +calm superiority and gentle contempt he declined the refuse bits a +stranger offered from his plate! His glance, and upturned nose, and +quiet refusal, seemed to say,--"Ignoramus! know you not I am Beefsteak?" +His dinner finished, he descended gravely, and proceeded to the Caffe +Greco, there to listen to the discussions of the artists, and to partake +of a little coffee and sugar, of which he was very fond. At night, he +accompanied some one or other of his friends to his room, and slept upon +the rug. He knew his friends, and valued them; but perhaps his most +remarkable quality was his impartiality. He dispensed his favors with an +even hand. He had few favorites, and called no man master. He never +outstayed his welcome "and told the jest without the smile," never +remaining with one person for more than two or three days at most. A +calmer character, a more balanced judgment, a better temper, a more +admirable self-respect,--in a word, a profounder sense of what belongs +to a gentleman, was never known in any dog. But Beefsteak is now no +more. Just after the agitations of the Revolution of '48, with which he +had little sympathy,--he was a conservative by disposition,--he +disappeared. He had always been accustomed to make a _villegratura_ at +L'Arriccia during a portion of the summer months, returning only now and +then to look after his affairs in Rome. On such visits he would often +arrive towards midnight, and rap at the door of a friend to claim his +hospitality, barking a most intelligible answer to the universal Roman +inquiry of "_Chi e_?" "One morn we missed him at the accustomed" place, +and thenceforth he was never seen. Whether a sudden homesickness for his +native land overcame him, or a fatal accident befell him, is not known. +Peace to his manes! There "rests his head upon the lap of earth" no +better dog. + +In the Roman studio of one of his friends and admirers, Mr. Mason, I had +the pleasure, a few days since, to see, among several admirable and very +spirited pictures of Campagna life and incidents, a very striking +portrait of Beefsteak. He was sitting in a straw-bottomed chair, as we +have so often seen him in the Lepre, calm, dignified in his deportment, +and somewhat obese. The full brain, the narrow, fastidious nose, the +sagacious eye, were so perfectly given, that I seemed to feel the actual +presence of my old friend. So admirable a portrait of so distinguished a +person should not be lost to the world. It should be engraved, or at +least photographed. + + + + +ENCELADUS. + + + Under Mount Etna he lies; + It is slumber, it is not death; + For he struggles at times to arise, + And above him the lurid skies + Are hot with his fiery breath. + + The crags are piled on his breast, + The earth is heaped on his head; + But the groans of his wild unrest, + Though smothered and half suppressed, + Are heard, and he is not dead. + + And the nations far away + Are watching with eager eyes; + They talk together and say, + "To-morrow, perhaps to-day, + Enceladus will arise!" + + And the old gods, the austere + Oppressors in their strength, + Stand aghast and white with fear, + At the ominous sounds they hear, + And tremble, and mutter, "At length!" + + Ah, me! for the land that is sown + With the harvest of despair! + Where the burning cinders, blown + From the lips of the overthrown + Enceladus, fill the air! + + Where ashes are heaped in drifts + Over vineyard and field and town, + Whenever he starts and lifts + His head through the blackened rifts + Of the crags that keep him down! + + See, see! the red light shines! + 'Tis the glare of his awful eyes! + And the storm-wind shouts through the pines + Of Alps and of Apennines, + "Enceladus, arise!" + + + + +THE ZOUAVES. + + +The decree of October 1, 1830, approved by a royal ordinance, March 21, +1831, created two battalions of Zouaves. To perceive the necessity for +this body of troops, to understand the nature of the service required of +them, and to obtain a just notion of their important position in African +affairs, it will be necessary to glance, for a moment, at the previous +history of Algeria under the Deys, and especially at the history of that +Turkish militia which they were to replace,--a body of irresponsible +tyrants, which, since 1516, had exercised the greatest power in Africa, +and had rendered their name hated and feared by the most distant tribes. + +Algeria was settled in 1492, by Moors driven from Spain. They recognized +a kind of allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey, which was, however, only +nominal; he appointed their Emirs, but further than this there was no +restraint on their actions. Hard pressed by the Spaniards in 1509, the +Emirs sent in haste to Turkey for aid; and Barbarossa, a noted pirate, +sailed to their help, drove out the Christians, but fixed upon the Moors +the yoke of Turkish sovereignty. In 1516, he declared himself Sultan, or +Dey, of Algiers; and his brother succeeding him, the Ottoman power was +firmly established in the Northwest of Africa. Hated by the people of +this great territory, both Moors and Arabs, menaced not only by their +dissensions, but frequently attacked by the Christians from the North, +there was but one method by which the Dey could maintain his power. He +formed a large body of mercenary soldiers, drawn entirely from Turkey, +united with himself and each other by a feeling of mutual dependence and +common danger, and bound by no feeling of interest or affection to the +inhabitants of the soil. Brave they were, as they proved in 1541, +against Charles the Fifth, whose forces they defeated and nearly +destroyed at Haratsch,--in 1565, at the siege of Malta,--in 1572, in the +seafight of Lepanto,--in many smaller combats at different times, +defending their land triumphantly in 1775 against the Spaniards under +O'Reilly and Castejon. Hardy and ready they were, from the very +necessity of the case; for they were hated and dreaded beyond measure by +the Arabs, and theirs was a life of constant exertion. Other than united +they could not be; for they were in continual warfare of offence or of +defence; they suppressed rebellion and anarchy,--for without a leader +and union they had been cut off by the restless foe, whose piercing eyes +watched, and whose daggers waited only _for the time_. In constant +danger, they could not sink into that sloth that eats out the heart of +Eastern and Southern nations; for it was only in unrest that safety +lay;--he who slumbered on those burning plains, no less than the sleeper +on Siberian ice, was lost utterly and without remedy. + +This body of troops, called the _Odjack_, elected or deposed Deys at +pleasure; the Dey, nominally their ruler, was in reality their tool. In +one period of twenty years there were six Deys, of whom four were +decapitated, one abdicated through fear, and one died peacefully in the +exercise of his governing functions. [Footnote: _Voyage pour la +Redemption des Captifs aux Royaumes d'Alger et de Tunis, fait en 1720._ +Paris, 1721.] In 1629, they declared the kingdom free from the +domination of Turkey; soon after, they expelled the Koulouglis, or +half-breed Turks, and enslaved the Moors. Admitting some of the latter +to service in the militia, they never allowed them to hope for +advancement in the State, or, what was the same thing, the army. Only +Turks, or in some instances renegade Christians, could lead the +soldiers, whom thus no feeling of local patriotism mollified in their +course of savage cruelty, grinding the face of the poor natives till +spirit and hope were lost and resistance ceased to be a settled idea in +their minds. + +Now when the French navy came up to the port of Algiers, June 12, 1830, +the unity between the soldiers and their master, Hussein Pacha, was +tottering on the verge of dissolution; a plot against his life had just +been discovered, he had punished the ringleaders with death, and many +who had been concerned in the conspiracy felt that there was no safety +for them with him. Beaten constantly in every skirmish or battle, they +conceived a high respect for the military genius of the invaders, and, +ere the close of the summer campaign, offered their services in a body +to General Clausel; this offer he promptly declined, and they thereupon +withdrew, carrying their swords to the aid of other powers less +scrupulous. + +The news, however, that the terrible Odjack had offered themselves to +serve under the French spread a lively terror through the Arab tribes, +who, believing themselves about to suffer an aggravation of their +already intolerable oppression, experienced a sensation of relief and an +elevation of spirit no less marked, on hearing that the newly formed +government had rejected their services. Perceiving the fear in which +these Algerine Praetorians were held by the tribes, Marshal Clausel +conceived the plan of replacing them by a corps of light infantry, +consisting of two battalions, to perform the services of household +troops, and to receive some name as significant as that held by their +predecessors under the old _regime_. Consequently, after some +consideration, the newly constituted body was called by the name of +_Zouaves_, from the Arabic word _Zouaoua_. + +The Zouaoua are a tribe, or rather a confederation of tribes, of the +Kabyles, who inhabit the gorges of the Jurjura Mountains, the boundary +of Algeria on the east, separating it from the province of Constantine. +They are a brave, fierce, laborious people, whose submission to the +Turks was never more than nominal; yet they were well known in the city +of Algiers, whither they came frequently to exchange the products of +their industry for the luxuries of comparative civilization. As they had +the reputation of being the best soldiers in the Regency, and had +occasionally lent their services to the Algerine princes, their name was +given to the new military force; while, to give it the character of a +French corps, the number of native soldiers received into its ranks was +limited, and all its officers, from the highest to the lowest grade, +were required to be native-born Frenchmen. The service in this corps was +altogether voluntary, none being appointed to the Zouaves who did not +seek the place; but there were found enough young and daring spirits who +embraced with enthusiasm this life, so harassing, so full of privation, +of rude labor, of constant peril. The first battalion was commanded by +Major Maumet; the second by Captain Duvivier, (since General,) who died +in Paris, 1848, of wounds received in the African service. Levaillant, +(since General of Division,) Verge, (now General of Brigade,) and +Molliere, who died Colonel, of wounds received at the siege of Rome, +were officers in these first two battalions. + +Scarcely six weeks had elapsed since their formation, when the Zouaves +took the field under Marshal Clausel, marching against Medeah, an +important station in the heart of Western Algeria. On the hill of +Mouzaia they fought their first battle, in which they were completely +successful. They remained two months as a garrison in Medeah. Here they +showed proofs of a valor and patience most extraordinary. Left alone in +a frontier post, constantly in the vicinity of a savage foe, watching +and fighting night and day, leaving the gun only to take up the spade, +compelled to create everything they needed, reduced to the last +extremities for food, cut off from all communications,--it was a rough +trial for this little handful of new soldiers. The place was often +attacked; they were always at their posts; till in the last days of +April they were recalled, and the fortress yielded up to the feeble Bey +whom the French had decided to establish there. In June, troubles having +again arisen, General Berthezene conducted some troops of the regular +army to Medeah, to which was added the second battalion of Zouaves, +under its gallant captain, Duvivier. On his return, the troops were +attacked with fury on the hill of Mouzaia, the spot where the Zouaves +had in February of the same year received their baptism of fire. Wearied +with the long night-march, borne down by insupportable heat, stretched +in a long straggling line through mountain-passes, the commander of the +van severely wounded at the first discharge, they themselves separated, +without chiefs, and surrounded by enemies, the French troops recoiled; +when Duvivier, seeing the peril that menaced the army, advanced with his +battalion. Shouting their war-cry, they rushed on the Kabyles, supported +by the Volunteers of the Chart, or French Zouaves, thundering forth the +Marseillaise; turning the pursuers into pursued, they covered the +retreat of their associates to the farm of Mouzaia, where the army +rallied and proceeded without further loss to Algiers. This retreat, and +its attendant circumstances, made the Zouaves, before regarded, if not +with contempt, at least with dislike, _free of the camp_. + +But now the losses sustained by the two battalions began to be seriously +felt,--for the growing hostility of the Arabs rendered it difficult to +recruit from native sources; and an ordinance of the king, dated March +7,1833, united the two battalions into one, consisting of ten companies, +eight of which were to be exclusively European, and two to be _not_ +exclusively Algerine,--it being required that in each native company +there should be at least twelve Frenchmen. Duvivier was called to +Bougie; Maumet was compelled by his wounds to return to Paris; Captain +Lamoriciere was, therefore, appointed chief of the united battalion, +having given proof of his capacity in every way,--whether as soldier, +linguist, or negotiator,--being a wise and prudent man. It is to the +training the Zouaves received under this remarkable man that much of +their subsequent success must be ascribed. In his dealings with the +Arabs he had shown himself the first who could treat with them by other +means than the rifle or bayonet. [Footnote: _Annales Algeriennes_, Tom. +ii. p. 72.] In his capacity of Lieutenant-Colonel of Zouaves he showed +talents of a high order. He infused into them the spirit, the activity, +the boldness and impetuosity which he himself so remarkably possessed, +with a certain independence of character which demanded from those who +commanded them a resolute firmness on essential, and a dignified +indulgence on unessential points. [Footnote: _Conquete d'Alger_. Par A. +Nettement. p. 546.] To the course of discipline used by him, and still +maintained in this arm of the service, are due their tremendous working +power, their tirelessness, their self-dependence, and all their +qualities differing from those of other soldiers; so that by his means +one of the most irregular species of warfare has produced a body of +irresistible regular soldiers, and border combats have given rise to the +most rigid discipline in the world. + +The post of Dely Ibrahim was assigned to the Zouaves. At this place they +were obliged to work laboriously, making for themselves whatever was +needed; whether as masons, ditchers, blacksmiths, carpenters, or +farmers,--whatever business was to be performed, they were, or learned +to be, sufficient for it. No idlers in that camp,--each must earn his +daily bread. What time was not devoted to labor was given to the +practice of arms and the acquisition of instruction in all departments +of military science; so that many a soldier was there fitted for the +position he afterwards acquired, of officer, colonel, or general. To +fence with the mounted bayonet, to wrestle, to leap, to climb, to run +for miles, to swim, to make and to destroy temporary bridges, to throw +up earth-walls, to carry great weights, to do, in short, what Indians +learn to do, and much that they do not learn,--these served as the +relaxations of the unwearied Zouaves. To vary the monotony of such a +life, there was enough adventure to be found for the seeking,--now an +incursion into the Sahel, or into the plains of Mitidja, or a wild foray +through the northern gorges of the Atlas. Day by day progress appeared; +they learned to march rapidly and long, to sustain the extremes of +hunger, thirst, and weather, and to manoeuvre with intelligent +precision; diligently fitting themselves, in industry, discipline, and +warlike education, for the position they had to fill. Their costume and +equipment were brought near perfection; they wore the Turkish dress, +slightly modified,--a dress perfectly suited to the changes of that +climate, and without which their movements would have been cramped and +constrained. Only the officers retained the uniform of the hussars, +which is rich and easy to wear. The cost of a suitable Turkish uniform +would have been too heavy for them, besides that the dress of a Turk of +rank is somewhat ridiculous. Certain officers on the march used, +however, to wear the _fez_, or, as the Arabs called it, the _chechia_. +Lamoriciere was known in Algeria as _Bou Chechia_, or _Papa with the +Cap_,--as he was known later in Oran as _Bou Araoua, Papa with the +Stick_. One finds, however, nothing of Orientalism in the regulations of +this body of troops; not the least negligence or slovenliness is allowed +in the most trifling detail. In fine, the care, and that descending to +note the smallest minutiae, which brought this race of soldiers to such +a pitch of perfection, leaving them their gayety and sprightliness, and, +notwithstanding the rigidness of the discipline, giving solidity and +precision to irregular troops, was rewarded by success unparalleled in +history. It was the best practical school for soldiers and officers; and +many of the best generals in the French army began their military career +in the wild guerrilla combats or the patient camp-life of this band of +heroes. + +Nearly two years had passed away in this training, when Marshal Clausel +returned to Africa, and led the Zouaves, whose fitness for the service +he well knew, into Oran. Here they added fresh laurels to those already +acquired. In the expedition of Mascara, where they fought under the eye +of the Duke of Orleans, they covered themselves with glory; insomuch +that on his return to Paris he procured a decree, 1835, constituting the +First Regiment of Zouaves, of two battalions, of six companies each, +and, should occasion justify the measure, of ten companies. Lamoriciere +continued in command. + +In 1836 the Zouaves again took the hill of Mouzaia. This time they razed +its fortifications even with the ground, and returned to Algiers, where +they remained during General Clausel's first and unfortunate expedition +into Constantine, the eastern province of French Africa. In 1837 the +second expedition was made, and in this the Zouaves took part. One of +the divisions of the army was under the command of the Duke of Nemours. +In this division were the Zouaves under Lamoriciere, who here showed +themselves worthy of their renown. Fighting by the side of the most +excellent soldiers in the regular army, they proved themselves bravest +where all were brave. They were placed at the head of the first column +of attack. Lamoriciere was the first officer on the breach, and carried +all before him. The soldiers whom he had trained supported him nobly; +but when they had won the day, they found that many companies were +decimated, some nearly annihilated; numbers of their officers were dead +in the breach, "Those who are not mortally wounded rejoice at this great +success," said an officer to the Duke; and it was a significant +sentence. [Footnote: Verbal report of Colonel Combes to the Duke of +Nemours,--conclusion.] + +To form some notion of those troops, among whom the Zouaves showed +themselves like the gods in the war of Troy, one anecdote will suffice, +chosen from many which prove the valor of the army my generally. The +rear-guard at Mansourah was under the command of Changarnier; it was +reduced to three hundred men; he halted this little troop and said, +"Come, my men, look these fellows in the face; they are six thousand, +you are three hundred; surely the match is even." This speech was +sufficient. The Frenchmen awaited the onset till the enemy was within +pistol-shot; then, after a murderous volley, they charged on the Arabs, +who broke and fled in dismay. During the remainder of the day they would +not approach this band nearer than long rifle range. [Footnote: +_Moniteur_, December 16, 1833; report of Marshal Clausel.] + +The siege of Constantine may properly be said to have ended the war of +occupation in Africa. Hitherto we have seen the Zouaves only in time of +active war, or in the defence of hill-forts, obliged to unity through +fear of an ever-menacing foe, and laboring for their own preservation or +comfort only; but now commenced a new training for them, no less severe +and dangerous, in which they showed themselves equally willing and +competent,--a war against stubborn Nature in all her most forbidding +aspects. Under the blazing suns of that tropical climate they +recommenced at Coleah the work already begun at Dely Ibrahim; ditches +were to be dug, works thrown up, roads made, draining accomplished, +farms tended, all that was necessary for the establishment of those +permanent colonies which France was so anxious to settle in Algeria was +to be done by the Zouaves; yet, despite that terrible labor, the danger +and hardship, the sickness and death, the ranks of the regiment filled +up rapidly; and, joined by the wrecks of the battalion of Mechouar, they +were kept full to overflowing. This battalion of Mechouar was a troop +left by Clausel in the _mechouar_, or citadel, of Tlemcen, in the West +of Oran, under the command of Captain Cavaignac; on the conclusion of +the war, in 1837, they, of course, returned to their regiment at Coleah. + +This deceitful peace lasted only till 1839. In this year the vigilant +colonel of Zouaves perceived in his native troops alarming symptoms of +mutiny, and learned, to his surprise, that they were in a ripe condition +for revolt. Wild Santons of the desert, emissaries, doubtless, of +Abd-el-Kader, held secret meetings near the camp; many soldiers attended +them, and were seduced by artfully prepared inflammatory harangues and +prophecies. In the month of December, 1839, at the raising of the +standard of Islam, the natives flocked in vast numbers to rid the land +of the Christians; and most of the native Zouaves deserted to join the +fortunes of the prince whom they reverenced as a prophet. Old soldiers, +trained in the French service to a thorough acquaintance with European +tactics, and gray with battling long for Lamoriciere, suddenly left him, +and by their knowledge of the art of war gave great advantage to the +Arab force. In their combats with the Sultan, the Zouaves not +infrequently found that a sharp resistance or a masterly retreat on the +part of the enemy was executed under the direction of one of their +former comrades in arms. It was a critical moment for the Zouaves; but +at the announcement of the renewal of hostilities volunteers flowed in +on all sides, whether of young men full of ardor and excitement, or, as +in many instances, of old soldiers who had already served their time. +After a winter of petty skirmishing and reestablishing in Algeria the +semblance of security, the Duke of Orleans led the army, considerably +reinforced, in a raid against the Arabs under Abd-el-Kader in their own +territory. The Zouaves accompanied this expedition, and whether in their +charges against the mountaineers, who, with the aid of the Arab +regulars, defended each pass, or sustaining the shock of the provincial +cavalry, or even standing unmoved before the attack of Abd-el-Kader's +terrible "Reds," [Footnote: The mounted body-guard of Abd-el-Kader, so +called by the French from their complete red uniform.] they maintained +their character of rapid, intrepid, and successful soldiers. What names +we find in this regiment! Lamoriciere, Regnault, Renault, (now General +of Division,) Cavaignac, Leflo, (now General of Brigade,) and St. +Arnaud, who died Marshal of France two days after the victory of the +Alma. + +A singular instance of the _handiness_ of the Zouaves is found in the +notice of their forced march on this campaign, undertaken May 20th, to +support the retreating Seventeenth Light Infantry. Their cartridges were +fired away, the regulars of Abd-el-Kader were upon them, and nothing +seemed to remain but an heroic death, when, "Comrades," cried one, "see, +here are stones!" Not a word more; each caught the hint, and, with +simultaneous volleys of stones, drove off the charging enemy, and broke +their way to where the remains of the Seventeenth rallied under Colonel +Bedeau, after a retreat more properly to be called a continual attack! + +Hard at work during the winter of 1840-41, General Bugeaud found these +indefatigable soldiers in perfect condition to take the field again, +when he landed in April. There had been sharp fighting during the past +year at Mouzaia, in which the Zouaves always led the van, and were, as +in every engagement they ever fought, covered with honor. "The Second, +electrified by the example of its officers, and led by Colonel +Changarnier, flung itself on the intrenchments; the redoubts were +carried, etc. At the same time, in the other column, Lamoriciere led the +way with his Zouaves, followed by the other troops. The Zouaves +surmounted the almost impassable cliffs, attacked and carried two lines +of intrenchment, and, in the teeth of a murderous fire, forced a third; +a few moments later the two columns joined, and, rushing up the +acclivity, planted the flag of France on the highest peak of the Atlas." +[Footnote: Report of Marshal Valee: _Moniteur_.] Little variation is +found in the reports of generals concerning the Zouaves at this time; +they say of these troops always, "The First," or "The Second, was +covered with glory." + +But now, with the arrival of Bugeaud, the war in Africa was changed; +hitherto it had been a mere war of occupation,--a holding of the ground +already French against the attacking Arabs; now it was to be a duel, a +war of devastation; thus only could France hope to tame the +indefatigable Abd-el-Kader, and permanently hold her own. The trouble +was not so much to fight him as to get near enough to fight him; for he +pursued a truly Fabian policy, and being lighter armed, was consequently +swifter than the invaders. Under Marshal Clausel, the French, drawing +with them the heavy wagons and munitions of European warfare, were +obliged to follow the high-roads, and the Arabs could never be taken by +surprise; scouts gave information of their numbers, and after harassing +marches they would find that the foe had either retreated to unknown +fastnesses or assembled on the spot in prodigious force. Now Lamoriciere +proposed a plan, in the execution of which he was eminently successful. +Bugeaud's design was, to follow the Arabs into the desert, to climb the +steep mountains, to plunge into their chasms, to storm every hill-fort, +and to drive, step by step, the swift Abd-el-Kader far from the land +which his presence so troubled; but how? for swift troops are +light-armed, carry no luggage, and but little provision; and to follow +without food the Arabs who concealed food in _silos_, _caches_ in the +ground, seemed hopeless. Lamoriciere required but his Zouaves, who +carried only four days' provisions, and no baggage of any sort; when +they drew near any of these _silos_, which were always, of course, in +the vicinity of the deserted villages, he spread out his troops in a +long crescent, and they advanced slowly, rooting up the ground with +their bayonets till some one struck on the stone or pebbles covering the +precious deposit. Thus, without wagons, trained to tireless activity, +they could follow the Arabs from _douar_ to _douar_ with little delay, +and with fatal effect. + +Great reinforcements were sent to Africa, and the Zouaves were not +forgotten; for, in the royal ordinance of September 8th, 1841, the +regiment was raised to three battalions of nine companies; only one of +the nine, however, could receive natives, so that but three native +companies now existed, and few Algerines were found even in these. The +reasons seem to have been threefold: first, the danger from mutiny; +second, the evils arising from the mixture of the two races, which had +augmented their vices, without a corresponding improvement in their good +qualities; third, and perhaps most important of all, the discontent very +properly felt by the French Zouaves, who were compelled to work at the +trenches, to dig, to plant, etc., while the Mussulmans utterly refused +to take part in this, to their mind, degrading toil. The Gordian knot +was cut, and all difficulty done away, by making the regiment, in +effect, exclusively European. Thus reorganized and reinforced, the +regiment, on receiving the standard sent it by the king, immediately +separated,--one battalion marching for Oran, one for Constantine, while +the other remained at Blidah, in Algeria. + +The year 1842 was full of great results; the new system worked well, +great numbers of tribes laid down their arms and swore fealty to France, +and the provinces were more than nominally in the hands of the French. +Still many of the more distant and powerful tribes held to their +allegiance to the Prophet Sultan. The war gradually took on itself the +form of a civil contest, and mutual animosities gave rise to many +occasions for sanguinary combats; one of these, in the valley of the +Cheliff, September, 1842, lasted unintermittingly for thirty-six hours! +In this battle, and that of Oued Foddah, and, in fact, in almost every +battle of those years, the Zouaves took an honorable part. In mountain +fights, long marches over burning sands, repulses of cavalry, at +Jurjura, Ouarsanis, among the Beni Menasser, at the Smalah, in the +struggles of Bedeau with the Moroccan cavalry, and in the memorable +battle of Isly, they did good service; their history was but a narrative +of brilliant exploits. In many of their hill fights, the deserters of +1839 gave much trouble. In a skirmish, 1844, on the south side of the +Aures, in which Captain Espinasse (died General of Division, Magenta, +June 6th, 1859) was concerned, and wounded four times, an old native +Zouave commanded the Kabyles, and defended their principal position with +much skill. + +In fine, to recount the hundredth part of their deeds,--to make out a +list of their soldiers, sub-officers, or officers who have been since +promoted to high honors,--to trace minutely each step by which they +mounted to their present position, would be to write, not an article, +but a book. In 1842 the natives disappeared finally from their ranks; +the best and bravest soldiers of the African army eagerly sought their +places, attracted by the uniform, the manner of life, the constant +danger and no less constant excitement, the liberty allowed, the glory +ever open to all. As their numbers were decimated by the continual +warfare, the ranks were immediately filled by the descendants of those +brave Gauls who once said, "If the heavens fall, what care we? We will +support them on the points of our lances!" In 1848, the Zouaves received +a large accession from Paris; the _gamins_ of the Revolution were sent +to them in great numbers; out of this unpromising, rebellious material, +some of the finest of these admirable troops have been made. And now, +when the entry into this regiment was longed for by so many, as a +species of promotion, on the 13th of February, 1852, Louis Napoleon, +then President of the Republic, decreed that three regiments of Zouaves +be formed, each on one of the three battalions as a nucleus, taking the +number of the battalion as its own. Thus the first regiment was formed +at Blidah, in Algiers; the second at Oran, in Oran; the third at +Constantine, in the province of Constantine. Officers of the corps of +infantry were eligible to the new regiments, holding the same grade; the +men were to be drawn from any infantry corps in the army, on their own +application, if the Minister of War saw proper. None were accepted but +men physically and morally in excellent condition; the officers had, for +the most part, already served with credit; the under-officers and +soldiers had been many years in the service; and even many corporals, +and not a few ensigns and lieutenants, voluntarily relinquished their +positions to serve in the rank-and-file of the new corps. So, occupied +in pacificating and securing the three provinces, the regiments lost +nothing of their former renown; obedient to orders, and fearless of +danger, it was no idle compliment paid them by Louis Napoleon, when, in +the winter of 1853-4, be said, "If the war break out, we must show our +Zouaves to the Russians." They were a body trained in the school of a +terrible experience of twenty-four years; they had learned, like the +lion-hunter, Gerard, to take death by the mane, and look into his fiery +eyes without blenching; they were fit for this service, which demanded +the best nerve of the two most powerful nations of the world. What they +did there is known to all; at the battle of the Alma, Marshal St. Arnaud +was unable to repress his admiration, calling them "the bravest soldiers +in the world." All Europe, at first wondering at these strange troops, +with their wild dress, their half-savage manners, and strange method of +warfare, found speedy cause to admire their courage and success; France +was proud of their renown, and they became immensely popular in Paris, +sure proof of their remarkable qualities. Their oddities, their courage, +their imperfect knowledge of the distinctions of _meum_ and _tuum_, +their wondering, childlike simplicity, furnished themes for endless +songs and caricatures; the comedy of "Les Zouaves" met with great +success; and the cant name for them, "Zouzou," is to be heard at any +time in the streets. In 1855, the Fourth Zouaves was created, consisting +of but two battalions, and enrolled in the Imperial Guard; they are +distinguished from the others by wearing a white turban, while that of +the other regiments is green; since the formation of this regiment, no +new corps have been added. The peace with Russia, in 1856, was not peace +for the Zouaves, who returned, desiring nothing better, to Africa, +where, in the continued war, they found congenial employment till the +final submission of the last tribes, July 15, 1857, dissolved the army +of Kabylia, and made them, perforce, peaceful, till the 26th of April of +this year brought them to win fresh laurels on a new field. + +Vague reports, assertions without proof, have been not infrequently +made, to the effect that the Zouaves are in character cruel, dissolute, +and excessively given to hard drinking. That they are absolutely free +from the first charge I shall not attempt to deny; that they are more so +than other men, in like circumstances, there is no proof; there is even +good reason to state the contrary, if we may judge by instances, of +which, for want of space, one shall suffice here. The Zouaves were in +the van of the army, on their march toward the Tell; in their charge was +a large body of prisoners, wounded, and helpless women, old men, and +children, whom they were conducting to the Tell, to restore them to +their homes. The weather was intensely hot, even for Africa; the nearest +well was eleven leagues distant; and the sufferings of the poor people +must have been dreadful indeed. Mothers flung down their infants on the +burning sand, and pressed madly on to save themselves from the most +horrible of deaths; old men and boys sunk exhausted, panting, declaring +they could go no farther. "Then it was," says an eyewitness, "that the +Zouaves behaved like very Sisters of Charity, rather than rough bearded +soldiers; they divided their last morsel with these unfortunates, gave +them drink from their own scanty stores, and, putting their canteens to +the mouths of the dying, revived them with the precious draught. They +raised the screaming infants, overturned and held ewes, that they might +suckle the poor creatures, abandoned in despair by their mothers, and, +in many instances, carried them the whole distance in their arms. At +night they ate nothing, giving their food to the helpless prisoners, +whose lives they thus saved at the risk of their own." If in war they +"imitate the action of the tiger," we have every reason to believe that +in peace they are, to say the least, not less humane than others. + +The author of "Recollections of an Officer" [Footnote: _Souvenirs d'un +Officier du 2me de Zouaves_. Paris, 1859.] sums up the character of the +Zouaves in a few words which clear them from the other two charges, +those of dissoluteness and drunkenness. He says,--"Beside the condition +of success resulting from the first organization, it must be said, that, +somewhat later, the happy idea came to be adopted, of giving to the +Zouaves destined to fight in the light-armed troops the costume of +_Chasseurs-a-pied_. The recruitment added also not a little to the +reputation which the Zouaves so rapidly acquired; the soldiers are all +drawn, not from conscripts, but from applicants for the service. Many +are Parisians, or, at all events, inhabitants of the other great French +cities; most have already served,--are therefore inured to the +work,--accustomed to privations, which they undergo gayly,--to fatigues, +at which they joke,--to dangers in battle, which they treat as mere +play. They are proud of their uniform, which does not resemble that of +any other corps,--proud of that name, _Zouave_, of mysterious +origin,--proud of the splendid actions with which each succeeding day +enriches the history of their troops,--happy in the liberty they +experience, both in garrison and on expeditions. It is said that the +Zouaves love wine; it is true; but they are rarely seen intoxicated; +they seek the pleasures of conviviality, not the imbrutement of +drunkenness. These regiments count in their ranks officers, who, +_ennuied_ by a lazy life, have taken up the musket and the +_chechia_,--under-officers, who, having already served, brave, even +rash, seek to win their epaulettes anew in this hard service, and gain +either a glorious position or a glorious death,--old officers of the +_garde mobile_,--broad-shouldered marines, who have served their time on +shipboard, accustomed to cannon and the thunderings of the +tempest,--young men of family, desirous to replace with the red ribbon +of the Legion of Honor, bought and colored with their blood, the +dishonor of a life gaped wearily away on the pavements of Paris. + +"Composed of such elements, one can scarcely imagine the body of Zouaves +other than brilliant in the field of battle. The officers are generally +chosen from the regiments of the line, men remarkable for strength, +courage, and prudence; full of energy, pushing the love of their colors +to its last limit, always ready to confront death and to run up to meet +danger, they seek glory rather than promotion. To train up their +soldiers, to give them an example, in their own persons, of all the +military virtues,--such are their only cares. Our ancestors said, +'_Noblesse, oblige_'; these choose the same motto. _Their_ nobility is +not that of old family-titles, but the uniform in which they are +clothed, the title of officer of Zouaves. _Esprit de corps_, that +religion of the soldier, is carried by the Zouaves to its highest pitch; +the common soldiers would not consent to change their turban for the +epaulettes of an ensign in the other service; and many an ensign, and +not a few captains, have preferred to await their advancement in the +Zouaves rather than immediately obtain it by entering other regiments. +There exists, moreover, between the soldiers and officers, a military +fraternity, which, far from destroying discipline, tends rather to draw +more closely its bonds. The officer sees in his men rather companions in +danger and in glory than inferiors; he willingly attends to their +complaints, and strives to spare them all unnecessary privations. Where +they are exposed to difficulties, he does not hesitate to employ all the +means in his power to aid them. In return, the soldier professes for his +officer an affection, a devotion, a sort of filial respect. Discipline, +he knows, must be severe, and he does not grumble at its penalties. In +battle, he does not abandon his chief; he watches over him, will die for +his safety, will not let him fall into the hands of the enemy if +wounded. At the bivouac he makes the officer's fire, though his own +should die for want of fuel; cares for his horse, arranges his +furniture; if any delicacy in the way of food can be procured, he brings +it to the chief. Convinced of the desire of their master that the +soldiers shall be well fed, the Zouaves often insist that a part of +their pay be expended for procuring the provisions of the tribe. +[Footnote: In accordance with Arab customs, the Zouaves, who (to use the +ordinary expression) "live in common," compose a circle to which they +give the name of _tribe_. In the tribe, each one has his allotted task: +one attends to making the fires and procuring wood; another draws water +and does the cooking; another makes the coffee and arranges the camp, +etc.] The colonel is the man most venerated by these soldiers, who look +upon him as the father of the family. They are proud of the colonel's +success, and happy to have contributed to his honor or advancement. When +an order comes directly from him, be sure it will be religiously obeyed. +'When _papa_ says anything,' they repeat, one to another, 'it must be +done. Papa knows it is _already_ done; be wants us to be the best +children possible.' In critical moments, the colonel can use the +severest Draconian code, without having anything to fear from the +disapprobation of his men." + + + + +MY PSALM. + + + I mourn no more my vanished years: + Beneath a tender rain, + An April rain of smiles and tears, + My heart is young again. + + The west winds blow, and, singing low, + I hear the glad streams run; + The windows of my soul I throw + Wide open to the sun. + + No longer forward nor behind + I look in hope or fear; + But, grateful, take the good I find, + The best of now and here. + + I plough no more a desert land, + To harvest weed and tare; + The manna dropping from God's hand + Rebukes my painful care. + + I break my pilgrim staff, I lay + Aside the toiling oar; + The angel sought so far away + I welcome at my door. + + The airs of Spring may never play + Among the ripening corn, + Nor freshness of the flowers of May + Blow through the Autumn morn;-- + + Yet shall the blue-eyed gentian look + Through fringed lids to heaven, + And the pale aster in the brook + Shall see its image given;-- + + The woods shall wear their robes of praise, + The south wind softly sigh, + And sweet, calm days in golden haze + Melt down the amber sky. + + Not less shall manly deed and word + Rebuke an age of wrong; + The graven flowers that wreathe the sword + Make not the blade less strong. + + But smiting hands shall learn to heal, + To build as to destroy; + Nor less my heart for others feel + That I the more enjoy. + + All as God wills, who wisely heeds + To give or to withhold, + And knoweth more of all my needs + Than all my prayers have told! + + Enough that blessings undeserved + Have marked my erring track,-- + That, wheresoe'er my feet have swerved, + His chastening turned me back,-- + + That more and more a Providence + Of love is understood, + Making the springs of time and sense + Sweet with eternal good,-- + + That death seems but a covered way + Which opens into light, + Wherein no blinded child can stray + Beyond the Father's sight,-- + + That care and trial seem at last, + Through Memory's sunset air, + Like mountain-ranges overpast, + In purple distance fair,-- + + That all the jarring notes of life + Seem blending in a psalm, + And all the angles of its strife + Slow rounding into calm. + + And so the shadows fall apart, + And so the west winds play; + And all the windows of my heart + I open to the day! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +There has been a sort of stillness in the atmosphere of our +boarding-house since my last record, as if something or other were going +on. There is no particular change that I can think of in the aspect of +things; yet I have a feeling as if some game of life were quietly +playing and strange forces were at work, underneath this smooth surface +of every-day boarding-house life, which would show themselves some fine +morning or other in events, if not in catastrophes. I have been +watchful, as I said I should be, but have little to tell as yet. You may +laugh at me, and very likely think me foolishly fanciful to trouble +myself about what is going on in a middling-class household like ours. +Do as you like. But here is that terrible fact to begin with,--a +beautiful young girl, with the blood and the nerve-fibre that belong to +Nature's women, turned loose among live men. + +--_Terrible_ fact? + +Very terrible. Nothing more so. Do you forget the angels who lost heaven +for the daughters of men? Do you forget Helen, and the fair women who +made mischief and set nations by the ears before Helen was born? If +jealousies that gnaw men's hearts out of their bodies,--if pangs that +waste men to shadows and drive them into raving madness or moping +melancholy,--if assassination and suicide are dreadful possibilities, +then there is always something frightful about a lovely young woman.--I +love to look at this "Rainbow," as her father used sometimes to call +her, of ours. Handsome creature that she is in forms and colors,--the +very picture, as it seems to me, of that "golden blonde" my friend whose +book you read last year fell in love with when he was a boy, (as you +remember, no doubt,)--handsome as she is, fit for a sea-king's bride, it +is not her beauty alone that holds my eyes upon her. Let me tell you one +of my fancies, and then you will understand the strange sort of +fascination she has for me. + +It is in the hearts of many men and women--let me add children--that +there is a _Great Secret_ waiting for them,--a secret of which they get +hints now and then, perhaps oftener in early than in later years. These +hints come sometimes in dreams, sometimes in sudden startling +flashes,--second wakings, as it were,--a waking out of the waking state, +which last is very apt to be a half-sleep. I have many times stopped +short and held my breath, and felt the blood leaving my cheeks, in one +of these sudden clairvoyant flashes. Of course I cannot tell what kind +of a secret this is; but I think of it as a disclosure of certain +relations of our personal being to time and space, to other +intelligences, to the procession of events, and to their First Great +Cause. This secret seems to be broken up, as it were, into fragments, so +that we find here a word and there a syllable, and then again only a +letter of it; but it never is written out for most of us as a complete +sentence, in this life. I do not think it could be; for I am disposed to +consider our beliefs about such a possible disclosure rather as a kind +of premonition of an enlargement of our faculties in some future state +than as an expectation to be fulfilled for most of us in this life. +Persons, however, have fallen into trances,--as did the Reverend William +Tennent, among many others,--and learned some things which they could +not tell in our human words. + +Now among the visible objects which hint to us fragments of this +infinite secret for--which our souls are waiting, the faces of women are +those that carry the most legible hieroglyphics of the great mystery. +There are women's faces, some real, some ideal, which contain something +in them that becomes a positive element in our creed, so direct and +palpable a revelation is it of the infinite purity and love. I remember +two faces of women with wings, such as they call angels, of Fra +Angelico,--and I just now came across a print of Raphael's Santa +Apollina, with something of the same quality,--which I was sure had +their prototypes in the world above ours. No wonder the Catholics pay +their vows to the Queen of Heaven! The unpoetical side of Protestantism +is, that it has no women to be worshipped. + +But mind you, it is not every beautiful face that hints the Great Secret +to us, nor is it only in beautiful faces that we find traces of it. +Sometimes it looks out from a sweet sad eye, the only beauty of a plain +countenance; sometimes there is so much meaning in the lips of a woman, +not otherwise fascinating, that we know they have a message for us, and +wait almost with awe to hear their accents. But this young girl has at +once the beauty of feature and the unspoken mystery of expression. Can +she tell me anything? Is her life a complement of mine, with the missing +element in it which I have been groping after through so many +friendships that I have tired of, and through--Hush! Is the door fast? +Talking loud is a bad trick in these curious boarding-houses. + +You must have sometimes noted this fact that I am going to remind you of +and to use for a special illustration. Riding along over a rocky road, +suddenly the slow monotonous grinding of the crushing gravel changes to +a deep heavy rumble. There is a great hollow under your feet,--a huge +unsunned cavern. Deep, deep beneath you, in the core of the living rock, +it arches its awful vault, and far away it stretches its winding +galleries, their roofs dripping into streams where fishes have been +swimming and spawning in the dark until their scales are white as milk +and their eyes have withered out, obsolete and useless. + +So it is in life. We jog quietly along, meeting the same faces, grinding +over the same thoughts,--the gravel of the soul's highway,--now and then +jarred against an obstacle we cannot crush, but must ride over or round +as we best may, sometimes bringing short up against a disappointment, +but still working along with the creaking and rattling and grating and +jerking that belong to the journey of life, even in the +smoothest-rolling vehicle. Suddenly we hear the deep underground +reverberation that reveals the unsuspected depth of some abyss of +thought or passion beneath us.---- + +I wish the girl would go. I don't like to look at her so much, and yet I +cannot help it. Always that same expression of something that I ought to +know,--something that she was made to tell and I to hear,--lying there +ready to fall off from her lips, ready to leap out of her eyes and make +a saint of me, or a devil or a lunatic, or perhaps a prophet to tell the +truth and be hated of men, or a poet whose words shall flash upon the +dry stubble-field of worn-out thoughts and burn over an age of lies in +an hour of passion. + +It suddenly occurs to me that I may have put you on the wrong track. The +Great Secret that I refer to has nothing to do with the Three Words. Set +your mind at ease about that,--there are reasons I could give you which +settle all that matter. I don't wonder, however, that you confounded the +Great Secret with the Three Words. + +I LOVE YOU is all the secret that many, nay, most women have to tell. +When that is said, they are like China-crackers on the morning of the +fifth of July. And just as that little patriotic implement is made with +a slender train which leads to the magazine in its interior, so a sharp +eye can almost always see the train leading from a young girl's eye or +lip to the "I love you" in her heart. But the Three Words are not the +Great Secret I mean. No, women's faces are only one of the tablets on +which that is written in its partial, fragmentary symbols. It lies +deeper than Love, though very probably Love is a part of it. Some, I +think,--Wordsworth might be one of them,--spell out a portion of it from +certain beautiful natural objects, landscapes, flowers, and others. I +can mention several poems of his that have shadowy hints which seem to +me to come near the region where I think it lies. I have known two +persons who pursued it with the passion of the old alchemists,--all +wrong evidently, but infatuated, and never giving up the daily search +for it until they got tremulous and feeble, and their dreams changed to +visions of things that ran and crawled about their floor and ceilings, +and so they died. The vulgar called them drunkards. + +I told you that I would let you know the mystery of the effect this +young girl's face produces on me. It is akin to those influences a +friend of mine has described, you may remember, as coming from certain +voices. I cannot translate it into words,--only into feelings; and these +I have attempted to shadow by showing that her face hinted that +revelation of something we are close to knowing, which all imaginative +persons are looking for either in this world or on the very threshold of +the next. + +You shake your head at the vagueness and fanciful incomprehensibleness +of my description of the expression in a young girl's face. You forget +what a miserable surface-matter this language is in which we try to +reproduce our interior state of being. Articulation is a shallow trick. +From the light Poh! which we toss off from our lips as we fling a +nameless scribbler's impertinences into our waste-baskets, to the +gravest utterance which comes from our throats in our moments of deepest +need, is only a space of some three or four inches. Words, which are a +set of clickings, hissings, lispings, and so on, mean very little, +compared to tones and expression of the features. I give it up; I +thought I could shadow forth in some feeble way, by their aid, the +effect this young girl's face produces on my imagination; but it is of +no use. No doubt your head aches, trying to make something of my +description. If there is here and there one that can make anything +intelligible out of my talk about the Great Secret, and who has spelt +out a syllable or two of it on some woman's face, dead or living, that +is all I can expect. One should see the person with whom he converses +about such matters. There are dreamy-eyed people to whom I should say +all these things with a certainty of being understood;-- + + That moment that his face I see, + I know the man that must hear me: + To him my tale I teach. + +----I am afraid some of them have not got a spare quarter for this +August number, so that they will never see it. + +----Let us start again, just as if we had not made this ambitious +attempt, which may go for nothing, and you can have your money refunded, +if you will make the change. + +This young girl, about whom I have talked so unintelligibly, is the +unconscious centre of attraction to the whole solar system of our +breakfast-table. The little gentleman, leans towards her, and she again +seems to be swayed as by some invisible gentle force towards him. That +slight inclination of two persons with a strong affinity towards each +other, throwing them a little out of plumb when they sit side by side, +is a physical fact I have often noticed. Then there is a tendency in all +the men's eyes to converge on her; and I do firmly believe, that, if all +their chairs were examined, they would be found a little obliquely +placed, so as to favor the direction in which their occupants love to +look. + +That bland, quiet old gentleman, of whom I have spoken as sitting +opposite to me, is no exception to the rule. She brought down some +mignonette one morning, which she had grown in her chamber. She gave a +sprig to her little neighbor, and one to the landlady, and sent another +by the hand of Bridget to this old gentleman. + +----Sarvant, Ma'am! Much obleeged,--he said, and put it gallantly in his +button-hole.--After breakfast he must see some of her drawings. Very +fine performances,--very fine!--truly elegant productions,--truly +elegant!--Had seen Miss Linley's needle-work in London, in the year +(eighteen hundred and little or nothing, I think he said,)--patronized +by the nobility and gentry, and Her Majesty,--elegant, truly elegant +productions, very fine performances; these drawings reminded him of +them;--wonderful resemblance to Nature; an extraordinary art, painting; +Mr. Copley made some very fine pictures that he remembered seeing when +he was a boy. Used to remember some lines about a portrait written by +Mr. Cowper, beginning,-- + + "Oh that those lips had language! Life has past + With me but roughly since I saw thee last." + +And with this the old gentleman fell to thinking about a dead mother of +his that he remembered ever so much younger than he now was, and +looking, not as his mother, but as his daughter should look. The dead +young mother was looking at the old man, her child, as she used to look +at him so many, many years ago. He stood still as if cataleptic, his +eyes fixed on the drawings till their outlines grew indistinct and they +ran into each other, and a pale, sweet face shaped itself out of the +glimmering light through which he saw them.--What is there quite so +profoundly human as an old man's memory of a mother who died in his +earlier years? Mother she remains till manhood, and by-and-by she grows, +as it were, to be as a sister; and at last, when, wrinkled and bowed and +broken, he looks back upon her in her fair youth, he sees in the sweet +image he caresses, not his parent, but, as it were, his child. + +If I had not seen all this in the old gentleman's face, the words with +which he broke his silence would have betrayed his train of thought. + +----If they had only taken pictures then as they do now!--he said.--All +gone! all gone! nothing but her face as she leaned on the arms of her +great chair; and I would give a hundred pound for the poorest little +picture of her, such as you can buy for a shilling of anybody that you +don't want to see.--The old gentleman put his hand to his forehead so as +to shade his eyes. I saw he was looking at the dim photograph of memory, +and turned from him to Iris. + +How many drawing-books have you filled,--I said,--since you began to +take lessons?--This was the first,--she answered,--since she was here; +and it was not full, but there were many separate sheets of large size +she had covered with drawings. + +I turned over the leaves of the book before us. Academic studies, +principally of the human figure. Heads of sibyls, prophets, and so +forth. Limbs from statues. Hands and feet from Nature. What a superb +drawing of an arm! I don't remember it among the figures from Michel +Angelo, which seem to have been her patterns mainly. From Nature, I +think, or after a cast from Nature.--Oh!---- + +----Your smaller studies are in this, I suppose,--I said, taking up the +drawing-book with a lock on it.----Yes,--she said.--I should like to see +her style of working on a small scale.--There was nothing in it worth +showing,--she said; and presently I saw her try the lock, which proved +to be fast. We are all caricatured in it, I haven't the least doubt. I +think, though, I could tell by her way of dealing with us what her +fancies were about us boarders. Some of them act as if they were +bewitched with her, but she does not seem to notice it much. Her +thoughts seem to be on her little neighbor more than on anybody else. +The young fellow John appears to stand second in her good graces. I +think he has once or twice sent her what the landlady's daughter calls +bo-kays of flowers,--somebody has, at any rate.--I saw a book she had, +which must have come from the divinity-student. It had a dreary +title-page, which she had enlivened with a fancy portrait of the +author,--a face from memory, apparently,--one of those faces that small +children loathe without knowing why, and which give them that inward +disgust for heaven so many of the little wretches betray, when they hear +that these are "good men," and that heaven is full of such.--The +gentleman with the "diamond"--the Koh-i-noor, so called by us--was not +encouraged, I think, by the reception of his packet of perfumed soap. He +pulls his purple moustache and looks appreciatingly at Iris, who never +sees him, as it should seem. The young Marylander, who I thought would +have been in love with her before this time, sometimes looks from his +corner across the long diagonal of the table, as much as to say, I wish +you were up here by me, or I were down there by you,--which would, +perhaps, be a more natural arrangement than the present one. But nothing +comes of all this,--and nothing has come of my sagacious idea of finding +out the girl's fancies by looking into her locked drawing-book. + +Not to give up all the questions I was determined to solve, I made an +attempt also to work into the little gentleman's chamber. For this +purpose, I kept him in conversation, one morning, until he was just +ready to go up-stairs, and then, as if to continue the talk, followed +him as he toiled back to his room. He rested on the landing and faced +round toward me. There was something in his eye which said, Stop there! +So we finished our conversation on the landing. The next day, I mustered +assurance enough to knock at his door, having a pretext ready.--No +answer.--Knock again. A door, as if of a cabinet, was shut softly and +locked, and presently I heard the peculiar dead beat of his thick-soled, +misshapen boots. The bolts and the lock of the inner door were +unfastened,--with unnecessary noise, I thought,--and he came into the +passage. He pulled the inner door after him and opened the outer one at +which I stood. He had on a flowered silk dressing-gown, such as "Mr. +Copley" used to paint his old-fashioned merchant-princes in; and a +quaint-looking key in his hand. Our conversation was short, but long +enough to convince me that the little gentleman did not want my company +in his chamber, and did not mean to have it. + +I have been making a great fuss about what is no mystery at all,--a +schoolgirl's secrets and a whimsical man's habits. I mean to give up +such nonsense and mind my own business.--Hark! What the deuse is that +odd noise in his chamber? + +----I think I am a little superstitious. There were two things, when I +was a boy, that diabolized my imagination,--I mean, that gave me a +distinct apprehension of a formidable bodily shape which prowled round +the neighborhood where I was born and bred. The first was a series of +marks called the "Devil's footsteps." These were patches of sand in the +pastures, where no grass grew, where even the low-bush blackberry, the +"dewberry," as our Southern neighbors call it, in prettier and more +Shakspearian language, did not spread its clinging creepers,--where even +the pale, dry, sadly-sweet "everlasting" could not grow, but all was +bare and blasted. The second was a mark in one of the public buildings +near my home,--the college dormitory named after a Colonial Governor. I +do not think many persons are aware of the existence of this +mark,--little having been said about the story in print, as it was +considered very desirable, for the sake of the institution, to hush it +up. In the northwest corner, and on the level of the third or fourth +story, there are signs of a breach in the walls, mended pretty well, but +not to be mistaken. A considerable portion of that corner must have been +carried away, from within outward. It was an unpleasant story; and I do +not care to repeat the particulars; but some young men had been using +sacred things in a profane and unlawful way, when the occurrence, which +was variously explained, took place. The story of the Appearance in the +chamber was, I suppose, invented afterwards; but of the injury to the +building there could be no question; and the zig-zag line, where the +mortar is a little thicker than before, is still distinctly visible. The +queer burnt spots, called the "Devil's footsteps," had never attracted +attention before this time, though there is no evidence that they had +not existed previously, except that of the late Miss M., a "Goody," so +called, or sweeper, who was positive on the subject, but had a strange +horror of referring to an affair of which she was thought to know +something.--I tell you it was not so pleasant for a little boy of +impressible nature to go up to bed in an old gambrel-roofed house, with +untenanted, locked upper-chambers, and a most ghostly garret,--with the +"Devil's footsteps" in the fields behind the house, and in front of it +the patched dormitory where the unexplained occurrence had taken place +which startled those godless youths at their mock devotions, so that one +of them was an idiot from that day forward, and another, after a +dreadful season of mental conflict, took holy orders and became renowned +for his ascetic sanctity. + +There were other circumstances that kept up the impression produced by +these two singular facts I have just mentioned. There was a dark +storeroom, on looking through the keyhole of which, I could dimly see a +heap of chairs and tables, and other four-footed things, which seemed to +me to have rushed in there, frightened, and in their fright to have +huddled together and climbed up on each other's backs,--as the people +did in that awful crush where so many were killed, at the execution of +Holloway and Haggerty. Then the Lady's portrait, up-stairs, with the +sword-thrusts through it,--marks of the British officers' rapiers,--and +the tall mirror in which they used to look at their red coats,--confound +them for smashing its mate!--and the deep, cunningly wrought arm-chair +in which Lord Percy used to sit while his hair was dressing;--he was a +gentleman, and always had it covered with a large _peignoir_, to save +the silk covering my grandmother embroidered. Then the little room +down-stairs, from which went the orders to throw up a bank of earth on +the hill yonder, where you may now observe a granite obelisk,--"the +study," in my father's time, but in those days the council-chamber of +armed men,--sometimes filled with soldiers;--come with me, and I will +show you the "dents" left by the butts of their muskets all over the +floor.--With all these suggestive objects round me, aided by the wild +stories those awful country-boys that came to live in our service +brought with them,--of contracts written in blood and left out over +night, not to be found the next morning,--removed by the Evil One, who +takes his nightly round among our dwellings, and filed away for future +use,--of dreams coming true,--of death-signs,--of apparitions,--no +wonder that my imagination got excited, and I was liable to +superstitious fancies. + +Jeremy Bentham's logic, by which he proved that he couldn't possibly see +a ghost, is all very well--in the day-time. All the reason in the world +will never get those impressions of childhood, created by just such +circumstances as I have been telling, out of a man's head. That is the +only excuse I have to give for the nervous kind of curiosity with which +I watch my little neighbor, and the obstinacy with which I lie awake +whenever I hear anything going on in his chamber after midnight. + +But whatever further observations I may have made must be deferred for +the present. You will see in what way it happened that my thoughts were +turned from spiritual matters to bodily ones, and how I got my fancy +full of material images,--faces, heads, figures, muscles, and so +forth,--in such a way that I should have no chance in this number to +gratify any curiosity you may feel, if I had the means of so doing. + +Indeed, I have come pretty near omitting my periodical record this time. +It was all the work of a friend of mine, who would have it that I should +sit to him for my portrait. When a soul draws a body in the great +lottery of life, where every one is sure of a prize, such as it is, the +said soul inspects the said body with the same curious interest with +which one who has ventured into a "gift enterprise" examines the +"massive silver pencil-case" with the coppery smell and impressible +tube, or the "splendid gold ring" with the questionable specific +gravity, which it has been his fortune to obtain in addition to his +purchase. + +The soul, having studied the article of which it finds itself +proprietor, thinks, after a time, it knows it pretty well. But there is +this difference between its view and that of a person looking at us:--we +look from within, and see nothing but the mould formed by the elements +in which we are incased; other observers look from without, and see us +as living statues. To be sure, by the aid of mirrors, we get a few +glimpses of our outside aspect; but this occasional impression is always +modified by that look of the soul from within outward which none but +ourselves can take. A portrait is apt, therefore, to be a surprise to +us. The artist looks only from without. He sees us, too, with a hundred +aspects on our faces we are never likely to see. No genuine expression +can be studied by the subject of it in the looking-glass. + +More than this; he sees us in a way in which many of our friends or +acquaintances never see us. Without wearing any mask we are conscious +of, we have a special face for each friend. For, in the first place, +each puts a special reflection of himself upon us, on the principle of +assimilation referred to in my last record, if you happen to have read +that document. And secondly, each of our friends is capable of seeing +just so far, and no farther, into our face, and each sees in it the +particular thing that he looks for. Now the artist, if he is truly an +artist, does not take any one of these special views. Suppose he should +copy you as you appear to the man who wants your name to a +subscription-list, you could hardly expect a friend who entertains you +to recognize the likeness to the smiling face which sheds its radiance +at his board. Even within your own family, I am afraid there is a face +which the rich uncle knows, that is not so familiar to the poor +relation. The artist must take one or the other, or something compounded +of the two, or something different from either. What the daguerreotype +and photograph do is to give the features and one particular look, the +very look which kills all expression, that of self-consciousness. The +artist throws you off your guard, watches you in movement and in repose, +puts your face through its exercises, observes its transitions, and so +gets the whole range of its expression. Out of all this he forms an +ideal portrait, which is not a copy of your exact look at any one time +or to any particular person. Such a portrait cannot be to everybody what +the ungloved call "as nat'ral as life." Every good picture, therefore, +must be considered wanting in resemblance by many persons. + +There is one strange revelation which comes out, as the artist shapes +your features from his outline. It is that you resemble so many +relatives to whom you yourself never had noticed any particular likeness +in your countenance. + +He is at work at me now, when I catch some of these resemblances, +thus:-- + +There! that is just the look my father used to have sometimes; I never +thought I had a sign of it. The mother's eyebrow and grayish-blue eye, +those I knew I had. But there is a something which recalls a smile that +faded away from my sister's lips--how many years ago! I thought it so +pleasant in her, that I love myself better for having a trace of it. + +Are we not young? Are we not fresh and blooming? Wait a bit. The artist +takes a mean little brush and draws three fine lines, diverging outwards +from the eye over the temple. Five years.--The artist draws one +tolerably distinct and two faint lines, perpendicularly between the +eyebrows. Ten years.--The artist breaks up the contours round the mouth, +so that they look a little as a hat does that has been sat upon and +recovered itself, ready, as one would say, to crumple up again in the +same creases, on smiling or other change of feature.--Hold on! Stop +that! Give a young fellow a chance! Are we not whole years short of that +interesting period of life when Mr. Balzac says that a man, etc., etc., +etc.? + +There now! That is ourself, as we look after finishing an article, +getting a three-mile pull with the ten-foot sculls, redressing the +wrongs of the toilet, and standing with the light of hope in our eye and +the reflection of a red curtain on our cheek. Is he not a POET that +painted us? + + "Blest be the art that can immortalize!" + +COWPER + +----Young folks look on a face as a unit; children who go to school with +any given little John Smith see in his name a distinctive appellation, +and in his features as special and definite an expression of his sole +individuality as if he were the first created of his race. As soon as we +are old enough to get the range of three or four generations well in +hand, and to take in large family histories, we never see an individual +in a face of any stock we know, but a mosaic copy of a pattern, with +fragmentary tints from this and that ancestor. The analysis of a face +into its ancestral elements requires that it should be examined in the +very earliest infancy, before it has lost that ancient and solemn look +it brings with it out of the past eternity; and again in that brief +space when Life, the mighty sculptor, has done his work, and Death, his +silent servant, lifts the veil and lets us look at the marble lines he +has wrought so faithfully; and lastly, while a painter who can seize all +the traits of a countenance is building it up, feature after feature, +from the slight outline to the finished portrait. + +----I am satisfied, that, as we grow older, we learn to look upon our +bodies more and more as a temporary possession, and less and less as +identified with ourselves. In early years, while the child "feels its +life in every limb," it lives in the body and for the body to a very +great extent. It ought to be so. There have been many very interesting +children who have shown a wonderful indifference to the things of earth +and an extraordinary development of the spiritual nature. There is a +perfect literature of their biographies, all alike in their essentials; +the same "disinclination to the usual amusements of childhood"; the same +remarkable sensibility; the same docility; the same conscientiousness; +in short, an almost uniform character, marked by beautiful traits, which +we look at with a painful admiration. It will be found that most of +these children are the subjects of some constitutional unfitness for +living, the most frequent of which I need not mention. They are like the +beautiful, blushing, half-grown fruit that falls before its time because +its core is gnawed out. They have their meaning,--they do not live in +vain,--but they are windfalls. I am convinced that many healthy children +are injured morally by being forced to read too much about these little +meek sufferers and their spiritual exercises. Here is a boy that loves +to run, swim, kick football, turn somersets, make faces, whittle, fish, +tear his clothes, coast, skate, fire crackers, blow squash "tooters," +cut his name on fences, read about Robinson Crusoe and Sinbad the +Sailor, eat the widest-angled slices of pie and untold cakes and +candies, crack nuts with his back teeth and bite out the better part of +another boy's apple with his front ones, turn up coppers, "stick" +knives, call names, throw stones, knock off hats, set mousetraps, chalk +doorsteps, "cut behind" anything on wheels or runners, whistle through +his teeth, "holler" Fire! on slight evidence, run after soldiers, +patronize an engine-company, or, in his own words, "blow for tub No. +11," or whatever it may be;--isn't that a pretty nice sort of a boy, +though he has not got anything the matter with him that takes the taste +of this world out? Now, when you put into such a hot-blooded, +hard-fisted, round-cheeked little rogue's hand a sad-looking volume or +pamphlet, with the portrait of a thin, white-faced child, whose life is +really as much a training for death as the last month of a condemned +criminal's existence, what does he find in common between his own +overflowing and exulting sense of vitality and the experiences of the +doomed offspring of invalid parents? The time comes when we have learned +to understand the music of sorrow, the beauty of resigned suffering, the +holy light that plays over the pillow of those who die before their +time, in humble hope and trust. But it is not until he has worked his +way through the period of honest, hearty animal existence, which every +robust, child should make the most of,--not until he has learned the use +of his various faculties, which is his first duty,--that a boy of +courage and animal vigor is in a proper state to read these tearful +records of premature decay. I have no doubt that disgust is implanted in +the minds of many healthy children by early surfeits of pathological +piety. I do verily believe that He who took children in His arms and +blessed them loved the healthiest and most playful of them just as well +as those who were richest in the tuberculous virtues. I know what I am +talking about, and there are more parents in this country who will be +willing to listen to what I say than there are fools to pick a quarrel +with me. In the sensibility and the sanctity which often accompany +premature decay I see one of the most beautiful instances of the +principle of compensation which marks the Divine benevolence. But to get +the spiritual hygiene of robust natures out of the exceptional regimen +of invalids is just simply what we Professors call "bad practice"; and I +know by experience that there are worthy people who not only try it on +their own children, but actually force it on those of their neighbors. + +----Having been photographed, and stereographed, and chromatographed, or +done in colors, it only remained to be phrenologized. A polite note from +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane, requesting our attendance at their +Physiological Emporium, was too tempting to be resisted. We repaired to +that scientific Golgotha. + +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane are arranged on the plan of the man and the +woman in the toy called a "weather-house," both on the same wooden arm +suspended on a pivot,--so that when one comes to the door, the other +retires backwards, and _vice versa_. The more particular speciality of +one is to lubricate your entrance and exit,--that of the other to polish +you off phrenologically in the recesses of the establishment. Suppose +yourself in a room full of casts and pictures, before a counter-full of +books with taking titles. I wonder if the picture of the brain is there, +"approved" by a noted Phrenologist, which was copied from _my_, the +Professor's, folio plate in the work of Gall and Spurzheim. An extra +convolution, No. 9, _Destructiveness_, according to the list beneath, +which was not to be seen in the plate, itself a copy of Nature, was very +liberally supplied by the artist, to meet the wants of the catalogue of +"organs." Professor Bumpus is seated in front of a row of +women,--horn-combers and gold-beaders, or somewhere about that range of +life,--looking so credulous, that, if any Second-Advent Miller or Joe +Smith should come along, he could string the whole lot of them on his +cheapest lie, as a boy strings a dozen "shiners" on a stripped twig of +willow. + +The Professor (meaning ourselves) is in a hurry, as usual; let the +horn-combers wait,--he shall be bumped without inspecting the +antechamber. + +Tape round the head,--22 inches. (Come on, old 23 inches, if you think +you are the better man!) + +Feels of thorax and arm, and nuzzles round among muscles as those horrid +old women poke their fingers into the salt-meat on the provision-stalls +at the Quincy Market. Vitality, No. 5 or 6, or something or other. +_Victuality_, (organ at epigastrium,) some other number equally +significant. + +Mild champooing of head now commences. Extraordinary revelations! +Cupidipbilous, 6! Hymeniphilous, 6+! Paediphilous, 5! Deipniphilous, 6! +Gelasmiphilous, 6! Muslkiphilous, 5! Uraniphilous, 5! Glossiphilous, 8!! +and so on. Meant for a linguist.--Invaluable information. Will invest in +grammars and dictionaries immediately.--I have nothing against the grand +total of my phrenological endowments. + +I never set great store by my head, and did not think Messrs. Bumpus and +Crane would give me so good a lot of organs as they did, especially +considering that I was a _dead_-head on that occasion. Much obliged to +them for their politeness. They have been useful in their way by calling +attention to important physiological facts. (This concession is due to +our immense bump of Candor.) + +_A short Lecture on Phrenology, read to the Boarders at our +Breakfast-Table._ + +I shall begin, my friends, with the definition of a _Pseudo-science_. A +Pseudo-science consists of _a nomenclature_, with a self-adjusting +arrangement, by which all positive evidence, or such as favors its +doctrines, is admitted, and all negative evidence, or such as tells +against it, is excluded. It is invariably connected with some lucrative +practical application. Its professors and practitioners are usually +shrewd people; they are very serious with the public, but wink and laugh +a good deal among themselves. The believing multitude consists of women +of both sexes, feeble-minded inquirers, poetical optimists, people who +always get cheated in buying horses, philanthropists who insist on +hurrying up the millennium, and others of this class, with here and +there a clergyman, less frequently a lawyer, very rarely a physician, +and almost never a horse-jockey or a member of the detective police.--I +did not say that Phrenology was one of the Pseudo-sciences. + +A Pseudo-science does not necessarily consist wholly of lies. It may +contain many truths, and even valuable ones. The rottenest bank starts +with a little specie. It puts out a thousand promises to pay on the +strength of a single dollar, but the dollar is very commonly a good one. +The practitioners of the Pseudo-sciences know that common minds, after +they have been baited with a real fact or two, will jump at the merest +rag of a lie, or even at the bare hook. When we have one fact found us, +we are very apt to supply the next out of our own imagination. (How many +persons can read Judges xv. 16 correctly the first time?) The +Pseudo-sciences take advantage of this.--I did not say that it was so +with Phrenology. + +I have rarely met a sensible man who would not allow that there was +_something_ in Phrenology. A broad, high forehead, it is commonly +agreed, promises intellect; one that is "villanous low" and has a huge +hind-head back of it, is wont to mark an animal nature. I have as rarely +met an unbiassed and sensible man who really believed in the bumps. It +is observed, however, that persons with what the Phrenologists call +"good heads" are more prone than others toward plenary belief in the +doctrine. + +It is so hard to prove a negative, that, if a man should assert that the +moon was in truth a green cheese, formed by the coagulable substance of +the Milky Way, and challenge me to prove the contrary, I might be +puzzled. But if he offer to sell me a ton of this lunar cheese, I call +on him to prove the truth of the caseous nature of our satellite, before +I purchase. + +It is not necessary to prove the falsity of the phrenological statement. +It is only necessary to show that its truth is not proved, and cannot +be, by the common course of argument. The walls of the head are double, +with a great air-chamber between them, over the smallest and most +closely crowded "organs." Can you tell how much money there is in a +safe, which also has thick double walls, by kneading its knobs with your +fingers? So when a man fumbles about my forehead, and talks about the +organs of _Individuality_, _Size_, etc., I trust him as much as I should +if he felt of the outside of my strong-box and told me that there was a +five-dollar- or a ten-dollar-bill under this or that particular rivet. +Perhaps there is; _only he doesn't know anything about it_. But this is +a point that I, the Professor, understand, my friends, or ought to, +certainly, better than you do. The next argument you will all +appreciate. + +I proceed, therefore, to explain the self-adjusting mechanism of +Phrenology, which is _very similar_ to that of the Pseudo-sciences. An +example will show it most conveniently. + +A. is a notorious thief. Messrs. Bumpus and Crane examine him and find a +good-sized organ of Acquisitiveness. Positive fact for Phrenology. Casts +and drawings of A. are multiplied, and the bump _does not lose_ in the +act of copying.--I did not Hay it gained.--What do you look so for? (to +the boarders.) + +Presently B. turns up, a bigger thief than A. But B. has no bump at all +over Acquisitiveness. Negative fact; goes against Phrenology.--Not a bit +of it. Don't you see how small Conscientiousness is? _That's_ the reason +B. stole. + +And then comes C., ten times as much a thief as either A. or B.,--used +to steal before he was weaned, and would pick one of his own pockets and +put its contents in another, if he could find no other way of committing +petty larceny. Unfortunately, C. has a _hollow_, instead of a bump, over +Acquisitiveness. Ah, but just look and see what a bump of +Alimentiveness! Did not C. buy nuts and ginger-bread, when a boy, with +the money he stole? Of course you see why he is a thief, and how his +example confirms our noble science. + +At last comes along a case which is apparently a _settler_, for there is +a little brain with vast and varied powers,--a case like that of Byron, +for instance. Then comes out the grand reserve-reason which covers +everything and renders it simply impossible ever to corner a +Phrenologist. "It is not the size alone, but the _quality_ of an organ, +which determines its degree of power." + +Oh! oh! I see.--The argument may be briefly stated thus by the +Phrenologist: "Heads I win, tails you lose." Well, that's convenient. + +It must be confessed that Phrenology has a certain resemblance to the +Pseudo-sciences. I did not say it was a Pseudo-science. + +I have often met persons who have been altogether struck up and amazed +at the accuracy with which some wandering Professor of Phrenology had +read their characters written upon their skulls. Of course the Professor +acquires his information solely through his cranial inspections and +manipulations.--What are you laughing at? (to the boarders).--But let us +just _suppose_, for a moment, that a tolerably cunning fellow, who did +not know or care anything about Phrenology, should open a shop and +undertake to read off people's characters at fifty cents or a dollar +apiece. Let us see how well he could get along without the "organs." + +I will suppose myself to set up such a shop. I would invest one hundred +dollars, more or less, in casts of brains, skulls, charts, and other +matters that would make the most show for the money. That would do to +begin with. I would then advertise myself as the celebrated Professor +Brainey, or whatever name I might choose, and wait for my first +customer. My first customer is a middle-aged man. I look at him,--ask +him a question or two, so as to hear him talk. When I have got the hang +of him, I ask him to sit down, and proceed to fumble his skull, +dictating as follows:-- + + + SCALE FROM I TO 10. + + LIST OF FACULTIES FOR CUSTOMER. PRIVATE NOTES FOR MY PUPIL: + _Each to be accompanied with a wink._ + + _Amativeness_, 7. Most men love the conflicting sex, and all + men love to be told they do. + + _Alimentiveness_, 8. Don't you see that he has burst off his + lowest waistcoat-button with feeding,--hay? + + _Acquisitiveness_, 8. Of course. A middle-aged Yankee. + + _Approbativeness_, 7+. Hat well brushed. Hair ditto. Mark the + effect of that _plus_ sign. + + _Self-esteem_, 6. His face shows that. + + _Benevolence_, 9. That'll please him + + _Conscientiousness_, 8-1/2. That fraction looks first-rate. + + _Mirthfulness_, 7. Has laughed twice since he came in. + + _Ideality_, 9. That sounds well. + + _Form, Size, Weight, Color, } + Locality, Eventuality, etc.,} 4 to 6. Average everything that + etc.,_ } can't be guessed. + + And so of the other faculties. + + +Of course, you know, that isn't the way the Phrenologists do. They go +only by the bumps.--What do you keep laughing so for? (to the boarders.) +I only said that is the way _I_ should practise "Phrenology" for a +living. + +_End of my Lecture._ + +----The Reformers have good heads generally. Their faces are commonly +serene enough, and they are lambs in private intercourse, even though +their voices may be like + + The wolf's long howl from Oonalaska's shore, + +when heard from platform. Their greatest spiritual danger is from the +perpetual _flattery of abuse_ to which they are exposed. These lines are +meant to caution them. + + + + +SAINT ANTHONY THE REFORMER. + + +HIS TEMPTATION. + + + No fear lest praise should make us proud! + We know how cheaply that is won; + The idle homage of the crowd + Is proof of tasks as idly done. + + A surface-smile may pay the toil + That follows still the conquering Right, + With soft, white hands to dress the spoil + That sunbrowned arms have clutched in fight. + + Sing the sweet song of other days, + Serenely placid, safely true, + And o'er the present's parching ways + Thy verse distils like evening dew. + + But speak in words of living power,-- + They fall like drops of scalding rain + That plashed before the burning shower + swept o'er the cities of the plain! + + Then scowling Hate turns deadly pale,-- + Then Passion's half-coiled adders spring, + And, smitten through their leprous mail, + Strike right and left in hope to sting. + + If thou, unmoved by poisoning wrath, + They feet on earth, they heart above, + Canst walk in peace they kingly path, + Unchanged in trust, unchilled in love,-- + + Too kind for bitter words to grieve, + Too firm for clamor to dismay, + When Faith forbids thee to believe, + And Meekness calls to disobey,-- + + Ah, then beware of mortal pride! + The smiling pride that calmly scorns + Those foolish fingers, crimson dyed + In laboring on thy crown of thorns! + + + + +THE ITALIAN WAR. + + +War has been pronounced the condition of humanity; and it is certain +that conflict of some kind rages everywhere and at all times. The most +combative people on earth are the advocates of universal and perpetual +peace. There is something essentially defiant in the action of men who +avowedly seek the abolition of a custom that has existed since the days +of Cain, and which was well known to those magnificent beasts that +ranged over the earth's face long before man began to dream or was +dreamed of. To fight seems a necessity of the animal nature, whether the +animal be called tiger, bull, or man. Those who have fought assure us +that there is a positive pleasure in battle. That clever young woman, +Miss Flora Mac-Ivor, who passed most of her life in the very highest +fighting society, assures us, that men, when confronted with each other, +have a certain instinct for strife, as we see in other male animals, +such as dogs, bulls, and so forth. It is even so; and, further, the +fondness that men have for accounts and details of battles is another +evidence of the popularity of war, and an absolute stumbling-block in +the way of the Peace Society, which has the hardest of combats to fight. + +The journals of the world are at this time full of the details of a war +such as that world has not witnessed since 1815, and in comparison with +which even the Russian War was but a second-rate contest. The old +quarrel between Austria and France, which has repeatedly caused the +peace of Europe to be broken since the days of Frederick III. and Louis +XI., has been renewed in our time with a fierceness and a vehemence and +on a scale that would have astonished Francis I., Charles V., Richelieu, +Turenne, Conde, Louis XIV., Eugene, and even Napoleon himself, the most +mighty of whose contests with Austria alone cannot be compared with that +which his nephew is now waging with the House of Lorraine. For, in 1805 +and in 1809, Napoleon was not merely the ruler of France, but had at his +control the resources of many other countries. Belgium and Holland were +then at the command of France, and now they are independent monarchies, +holding strictly the position of neutrals. In 1809, Napoleon had those +very German States for his active allies that now threaten Napoleon +III.; and some of the hardest fighting on the French side, in the first +days of the campaign, was the work of Bavarians and other German +soldiers. That part of Poland which then constituted the Grand Duchy of +Warsaw was among his dependent principalities; and Russia sent an army +to his aid. In 1805, Napoleon I. had far more of Italian assistance than +Napoleon III. has had at the time we write; and in 1809, the entire +Peninsula obeyed his decrees as implicitly as they were obeyed by +France. Napoleon III. entered upon the war with the hereditary rival of +his country with no other ally than Sardinia, though it is now evident +that there was an "understanding" between him and the Czar, not pointing +to an attack on England, but to prevent the intervention of the Germans +in behalf of Austria, by holding out the implied threat of an attack on +Germany by Russia, should its rulers or people move against the allies. + +Whatever may be thought of the motives of the French Emperor, and +however little most men may be disposed to believe in his generosity, it +is impossible to refrain from admiring the promptness and skill with +which he has acted, or to deny to him the merit of courage in daring to +pronounce so decidedly against the Austrians at a time when he could not +have reasonably reckoned upon a single ally beyond the limits of Italy, +when England, under Tory rule, was more disposed to act against him than +with him, and when the hostility of Germany, and its readiness to +support the Slavonic empire of Austria, were unequivocally expressed. So +great indeed, were the odds against him, that we find in that fact the +chief reason for the indisposition of the world to believe in the +possibility of war, and its extraordinary surprise when war actually +broke out. + +To those who had closely scanned the affairs of Europe, and who observed +them by the light of the history of nearly four centuries, the coming of +war was no surprise. They foresaw it, and predicted its occurrence some +time before that famous lecture which the Emperor of the French +administered to the Emperor of Austria in the person of Baron Huebner. +With them, the question was not, Shall there be a war?--but it was, When +will the war break out? They reasoned from the _cause_ of the quarrel +between the two empires; while those who so long clung to the belief +that peace would be preserved, and who so plausibly argued in support of +their theory as to impose upon wellnigh the whole world, concerned +themselves only with its _occasion_. The former referred to things that +lay beyond the range of temporary politics, and, while admitting that +the shock of actual conflict might be postponed even for a few years, +were certain that such conflict must come, even if in the interval there +should happen an entire change of government in France. France might be +imperial, or royal, or republican, she might be Bonapartean, or +Henriquist, or Orleansist, or democratic,--tri-color, white, blue or +red,--but the quarrel would come, and cause new campaigns. The latter +thinking that the dispute was on the Italian question only, and knowing +that that was susceptible of diplomatic settlement, and believing that +there would be a union of European powers to accomplish such settlement, +rather than allow peace to be disturbed, never could suppose that the +balance of probabilities would be found on the side of war. It is due to +them to say, that a variety of causes conduced not merely to make them +firm in their faith, but to win for their views the general approbation +on mankind. Prominent among these was the striking fact, that there had +been no European was, strictly so called, with the single exception of +the Russian contest,--and that was highly exceptional in its +character,--for four-and-forty years. The generation that is passing +away, and the generation that is most active in discharging the business +of the world, never had seen a grand conflict between Christian states, +in which mighty armies had operated on vast and various fields. Old men +recollected the wars of Napoleon, but the number of such men is not +large, and their influence on opinion is small. Of quarrels and threats +of war all had seen enough; but this only tended to make them slow to +believe that war was really at hand. If so many quarrels had taken +place, and had been settled without resort to arms, assuredly the new +quarrel might be settled, and Europe get on peaceably for a few years +more without warfare. Neither the invasion of Spain in 1823, nor the +revolution of 1830, nor the Eastern question of 1840, nor the universal +outbreaks of 1848-9, nor the threats of Russia against Turkey when she +sought to compel the Sultan to give up those who had eaten his salt to +the gallows of Arad, nor the repeated discussions of the practicability +of a French conquest of England had led to a general war. If so many and +so black clouds had been dispersed without storms, it was not reasonable +to believe that the cloud which rose in the beginning of 1859 might also +break, and leave again a serene sky. It may be added that we have all of +us come to the conclusion that this is the best age the world has ever +known, as in most respects it is; and it seemed scarcely compatible with +our estimate of the age's excellence to believe that it _could_ send a +couple of million of men into the field for the purpose of cutting one +another's throats, except clearly as an act of self-defence. Man is the +same war-making animal now that he was in the days of Marathon, but he +readily admits the evils of war, and is peremptory in demanding that +they shall not be incurred save for good and valid reasons. He is as +ready to fight as ever he was, but he must fight for some definite +cause,--for a cause that will bear examination: and it did not seem +possible that a mere dispute concerning the manner in which Austria +governed her Italian dominions was of sufficient moment to light up the +flames of war anew on a scale as gigantic as ever they were made to +blaze during the days of Napoleon. Then, so far as the Russian War threw +any light upon the policy of France, the fair inference was that she at +least was not disposed to fight. France made the peace by which that war +was brought to a sudden end. She dictated that peace, much to the +disgust of the English, who had just become thoroughly roused, and who, +little anticipating the Indian mutiny, were for carrying on the contest +until Russia should be thoroughly humiliated. Considering all these +things, it was not unreasonable to believe that peace could be +maintained, and that Austria, far from taking the initiative in the war, +would be found ready to make such concessions as should lead to the +indefinite postponement of hostilities. + +Those who reasoned from the mere occasion of the war were perfectly +right, from their point of view. Unfortunately for their reputation for +sagacity, their premises were entirely wrong, and hence the viciousness +of their conclusion. If we would know the cause of the war, we must +banish from our minds all that is said about the desire of Napoleon III +for vengeance on the conquerors of his uncle, all that we are told of +his sentimental wish for the elevation of the Italian people to a +national position, and all that is predicated of his ambitious longings +for the reconstruction of the First Empire. We must regard Napoleon III +in the light of what he really is, namely, one of the greatest statesmen +that ever lived, or we shall never be able to understand what are his +purposes. We have nothing to do with his morals, but have to regard him +only as the chief of France, pursuing the policy he believes best +calculated to advance that country's interests, and doing so in strict +accordance with her historical traditions, and in the same manner in +which it was pursued by the ablest of the Valois kings, by Henry IV. and +Sully, by Richelieu and Mazarin, by Louis XIV., by the chiefs of the +First Republic, and by Napoleon I. He may be a good man or a bad man, +but his character is entirely aside from the question, the nature and +merits of which have no necessary connection with the nature and merits +of the men engaged in effecting its solution. Let us examine the +subject, and see if we cannot find an intelligent, reasonable cause for +Napoleon's course of action, that shall harmonize with the duties, we +might almost say the instincts, of a great French statesman. The +examination will embrace nothing recondite, but we are confident it will +show that the French Emperor is no Quixote, and that he has been forced +into the war by the necessities of his situation, and by the very +natural desire he feels to prevent France from being compelled to +descend to a secondary place in the scale of European nations. + +Modern Europe, in the sense in which we understand the term, dates from +the last quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Then England ceased to +attempt permanent conquests on the continent. Then Spain assumed +European rank and definite position. But two powers then began +especially to show themselves, and to play parts which both have +maintained down to the present time. The one was France, which then +ceased to dread English invasions, from the effects of which she was +rapidly recovering, whereby she was left to employ her energies on +foreign fields. The other was the _House of Austria_, which, by a series +of fortunate marriages, became, in the short period of forty years, the +most powerful family the modern world has ever known. On the day when +Maximilian, son of Frederick III., Emperor of Germany, wedded Mary of +Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, the rivalry between France and +the Austrian family began. Philip, son of that marriage, married Juana, +daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; and their son, Charles I. of the +Spains, became Charles V. of Germany. Thus there centred in his person a +degree of power such as no other sovereign could boast, and which alone +would have sufficed to make him the rival of the King of France, Francis +I., had no personal feeling entered into the relations between them. But +such feeling existed, and grew out of their competition for the imperial +crown. The previous ill-will between the Valois and the Hapsburg was +greatly increased, and assumed such force as permanently to color the +course of European history from that day to this. The rivalry of Charles +and Francis was the cause of many contests, and the French monarch, +though he was "The Most Christian King," in the opinion of some, more +than once aided, or offered to aid, the German Protestants against the +Emperor. To Philip II. and Henry II. the rivalry of their fathers +descended as an inheritance. It was in their warfare that the Battle of +St. Quentin was fought. The progress of the Reformation led monarchs in +those days to take a view of affairs not much unlike that which monarchs +of this century took in the days of the Holy Alliance, and after the +revolution of 1830. The hatred of Protestantism led the two kings to +draw together, though Henry II. had had no mean part in that work which +had enabled the Protestant Maurice of Saxony to render abortive all the +plans of Charles V. for the full restoration of Catholicism in Germany. +During the thirty years that followed the death of Henry II., the +dissensions of France had rendered her unable to contend with the House +of Austria, then principally represented by the Spanish branch of that +family; and Philip II. at one time thought of obtaining the crown of +that country for a member of his own house. But no sooner had Henry IV. +ascended the French throne, and established himself firmly thereon, than +the rivalry of France and Austria became as clearly pronounced as it had +been in the reign of Francis I.; and at the time of his death that most +popular of the Bourbon kings was engaged on a plan having for its object +the subversion of the Austrian power. His assassination changed the +course of events for a few years; but Richelieu became the ally of the +Swedes and Protestant Germans in the Thirty Years' War, though he was a +Cardinal, had destroyed the political power of the Huguenots, and might +have aspired to the Papacy. Mazarin, another Cardinal, followed +Richelieu's policy. Louis XIV. was repeatedly at war with the House of +Austria, though he was the son of an Austrian princess, and was married +to another. His last war with that house was for the throne of Spain, +when the elder branch of the Hapsburgs died out, in 1700. Louis XV. had +two contests with Austria; but in 1756, under the lead of Count Kaunitz, +France and Austria were united, and acted together in the Seven Years' +War, the incidents and effects of which were by no means calculated to +reconcile the French to the departure of their government from its +ancient policy. One of the causes of the French Revolution was the +Austrian alliance, and one of its effects was the complete rupture of +that alliance. Austria was the most determined foe that the French +Republic and Empire ever encountered. Including the war of 1815, there +were six contests between Austria and republican and imperial France. In +all these wars Austria was the aggressor, and showed herself to be the +enemy of _France_ as well as of those _French principles_ which so +frightened the conservatives of the world in those days. In the first +war, she took possession of French places for herself, and not for the +House of Bourbon; and in the last she purposed a partition of France, +long after Louis XVIII. had been finally restored, and when Napoleon was +at or near St. Helena. She demanded that Alsace and Lorraine should be +made over to her, in the autumn of 1815. She sought to induce Prussia to +unite with her by offering to support any demand that she might make for +French territory; and, failing to move that power, endeavored to get the +smaller German States to act with her,--the same States, indeed, that +are now so hostile to France, and which talk of a march upon Paris, and +of a reduction of French territorial strength. Nothing prevented the +Austrian idea from being reduced to practice but the opposition of +Russia and England, neither of which had any interest in the spoliation +of France, while both had no desire to see Austria rendered stronger +than she was. It was to England that Austria owed her Italian +possessions, which, in 1814, she at first had the sense not to wish to +be cumbered with; and to make her still more powerful north of the Alps +was not to be thought of even by the Liverpools and Castlereaghs. The +Czar, too, had in his thoughts a closer connection with France than it +suited him then to avow, and for purposes of his own; and therefore he +could not desire the sensible diminution of the power of a country the +resources of which he expected to employ. Nicholas inherited his +brother's ideas and designs, and we are to attribute much of the +ill-feeling that he exhibited towards the Orleans dynasty to his +disappointment; for the revolution that elevated that dynasty to the +French throne destroyed the hope that he had entertained of having +French aid to effect the conquest of Turkey. There never would have been +a siege of Sebastopol, if the elder branch of the Bourbons had continued +to rule in France. It required even a series of revolutions to bring +France to that condition in which the Western Alliance was possible. But +there would have been something more than "an understanding" between +France and Russia concerning Austria, had the government of the +Restoration endured a few years beyond 1830. It suited the Austrian +government to show considerable coldness towards the Orleans dynasty; +but assuredly so wise a man as Prince Metternich, and who had such +excellent means of information, never could have believed otherwise than +that the establishment of that dynasty saved Austria from being assailed +by both Russia and France. + +The rivalry of France and Austria being understood, and that rivalry +leading to war whenever occasion therefor chances to arise, it remains +to inquire what is the occasion of the existing contest. When Napoleon +III. became head of France, as Prince-President, at the close of 1848, +Austria was the last power with which he could have engaged in war, +supposing that he had then been strong enough to control the policy of +France, and it had suited him to make an occasion for war. She was then +engaged in her death-and-life struggles with Hungarians, Italians, and +others of her subjects who that year threw off her yoke, while the +Sardinians had endeavored to obtain possession of Lombardy and Venice. +Francis Joseph became chief of the Austrian Empire at the same time that +Louis Napoleon ascended to the same point in France. Certainly, if the +object of France had been the mere weakening and spoliation of Austria, +then was the time to assail her, when one half her subjects were +fighting the other half, when the Germans outside of her empire were by +no means her friends, and when it was far from clear that she could rely +upon assistance from Russia. Austria was then in a condition of +helplessness apparently so complete, that many thought her hour had +come; but those who knew her history, and were aware how often she had +recovered from just such crises, held no belief of the kind. Yet if +France had assailed her at that time, Austria must have lost all her +Italian provinces; and it is now generally admitted, that, if Cavaignac +had sent a French army into Italy immediately after the victory won by +Radetzky over Charles Albert at Somma Campagna, (July 26th, 1848,) the +"Italian question" would then have been settled in a manner that would +have been satisfactory to the greater part of Europe, and have rendered +such a war as is now waging in Italy quite impossible. Russia could have +done nothing to prevent the success of the French arms, and it is +probable that Austria would have abandoned the contest without fighting +a battle. At an earlier period she had signified her readiness to allow +the incorporation of most of Lombardy with Sardinia, she to retain the +country beyond the Mincio, and to hold the two great fortresses of +Peschiera (at the southern extremity of the Lago di Garda, and at the +point where the river issues from the lake) and Mantua. She even asked +the aid of France and England to effect a peace on this basis, but +unsuccessfully. Cavoignac's anomalous political position prevented him +from aiding the Italians. He was a Liberal, but the actual head of the +reactionists in France of all colors, of men who looked upon the +Italians as ruffians wedded to disorder, while Austria, in their eyes, +was the champion of order. France did nothing, and in December Louis +Napoleon became President. An opportunity was soon afforded him to +interfere in Italian affairs. The armistice that had existed between the +Austrians and the Sardinians after the 9th of August, 1848, was +denounced on the 12th of March, 1849, by the latter; and Radetzky closed +the order of the day, issued immediately after this denunciation was +made, with the words,--"Forward, soldiers, to Turin!" The intentions of +the Sardinians must have been known to Louis Napoleon, but he took no +measures to aid them. He saw Piedmont conquered in a campaign of +"hours." He saw Brescia treated by Haynau as Tilly treated Magdeburg. He +saw the long and heroical defence of Venice against the Austrians, +during the dreary spring and summer of '49,--a defence as worthy of +immortality as the War of Chiozza, and indicating the presence of the +spirit of Zeno, and Contarini, and Pisani in the old home of those +patriots. But nothing moved him. He would not even mediate in behalf of +the Venetians; and it was by the advice of the French consul and the +French admiral on the station that Venice finally surrendered, but not +until she had exhausted the means of defence and life. At that time, few +men in America but were in the habit of denouncing the French President +for his indifference to the Italian cause. He was charged with having +been guilty of a blunder and a crime. His consent to the expedition to +Rome aggravated his offence, for it was an act of intervention on the +wrong side. But the passage of ten years enables us to be more just to +him than it was possible for us to be in 1849. He was not firm in his +seat. He was but a temporary chief of the State. He was surrounded by +enemies, political and personal, who were seeking his overthrow, without +any regard for the tenure of his office. He knew not his power. His +object was the restoration of internal peace to France, her recovery +from the weakness info which she had fallen or had been precipitated. He +dared not offend the Catholics, who saw then, as they see now, a +champion in Austria. He was the victim of circumstances, and he had to +bow before them, in order that he might finally become their master. +Then he had no occasion for a quarrel with Austria. She was at the +lowest ebb her fortunes had known since the day that the Turks appeared +for the second time before Vienna. She could not have maintained herself +in Italy, even after the successes of Radetzky, had not Nicholas sent +one hundred and fifty thousand men to her assistance in Hungary. What +had France to fear from her? No more than she had to fear from her on +the day after Austerlitz. + +Years rolled on, and brought with them great changes; and the greatest +of those changes was to be seen in Italy, in reference to the position +of Austria there, and its effect upon France. Austria rapidly +reestablished her power in Italy, not only over Lombardy and Venice, but +over every part of the Peninsula, excepting Sardinia. Tuscany was +connected with her by various ties, and was ruled as she wished it to be +ruled. Parma and Modena were hers in every sense. She was the patron and +protector of the abominable Bomba, and her support alone enabled him to +defy the sentiment of the civilized world, and to indulge in cruelties +such as would have added new infamy to the name of Ezzelino. She upheld +the misgovernment of the Papal States, which has made Rome the scandal +of Europe. All the nominal rulers of the Italian States, with the +honorable exception of the King of Sardinia, were her vassal princes, +and were no more free to act without her consent than were the kings the +Roman Republic and Empire allowed to exist within their dominions free +to act without the consent of the proconsuls. What the proconsul of +Syria was to the little potentates mentioned in the New Testament, the +Austrian viceroy in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom was to the nominal +rulers of the various Italian States. It only remained to bring Sardinia +within this ring-fence of sea and mountains to convert all Italy into an +Austrian dependency. There is nothing like this in history, we verily +believe. In the short period of ten years after the capture of Milan by +Radetzky, (August 4, 1848,) the Austrians had established themselves +completely in nearly every part of Italy. Of the twenty-seven millions +of people that compose her population, twenty-two millions were as much +at the command of Austria as were the Hungarians and Bohemians. Had she +had the sense to use her power, not with mildness only, but beneficially +to this great mass of men, and had nothing occurred to disturb her +plans, she would have nearly doubled the number of her subjects, and +have more than doubled her resources. She would have become a great +maritime state, and have converted the Mediterranean into an Austrian +lake. Had they been well governed, the Italians might, and most probably +would, have accepted their condition, and have become loyal subjects of +the House of Lorraine. Foreign rule is no new thing to them, nor have +they ever been impatient under its existence, when it has existed for +their good. The people rarely are hostile to any government that is +conducted with ordinary fairness. There is no greater error than that +involved in the idea that revolutions or changes of any kind originate +from below, that they proceed from the people. Almost invariably they +come from above, from governmental action; and it is ever in the power +of a government to make itself perpetual. The term of its existence is +in its own hands. At the very worst for Austria, she might have +accomplished in Italy what was accomplished there three centuries ago by +Spain, then ruled by the elder branch of the Hapsburgs. She might have +commanded almost everything within its limits, with Sardinia to play +some such part as was then played by Venice. + +This is said on the supposition, first, that her government should have +been mild and conciliatory, active only for good, and that all her +interference with local rule should have been on the side of humanity; +and, second, that no foreign power should have interfered to prevent the +full development of her policy. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately +for other nations, and especially so for Italy, she not only did _not_ +govern well, but governed badly; and there was a great power which was +deeply, vitally interested--moved by the all-controlling principle of +self-preservation--in watching all her movements, and in finding +occasion to drive her out of Italy. She was not content with upholding +misgovernment in Naples, Rome, Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and elsewhere, +but she meant to subvert the constitutional polity established in the +Sub-Alpine Kingdom of Sardinia. The enemy of constitutionalism and +freedom everywhere, she was especially hostile to their existence in the +little state that bordered on a portion of her Italian possessions, +whence they always threatened Lombardy with a plague she detests far +more heartily than she detests cholera. No natural boundary or _cordon +militaire_ could suffice to stay the march of principles. Nothing would +answer but the subversion of the Sardinian constitution and the bringing +of that nation's government into harmony with the admirable rule that +existed, under the double-headed eagle's protection, in Naples and +Modena. Unless all Austrian history be false, Austria's object for years +has been a revolution in Sardinia, and Rome has aided her. This is the +necessity of her moral situation with reference to her little neighbor. +The world has smiled at Austria's late complaint that Sardinia menaced +her, it seemed so like the wolf's protestation that the lamb was doing +him an injury; but it was really well founded, though not entitled to +much respect. Sardinia _did_ menace Austria. She menaced her by the +force of her example,--as the honest man menaces the rogue, as the +peaceful man menaces the ruffian, as the charitable man menaces the +miser, as the Good Samaritan menaced the priest and Levite. In the sense +that virtue ever menaces vice, and right constantly menaces wrong, +Sardinia was a menace to Austria;--and as we often find the wrongdoer +denouncing the good as subverters of social order, we ought not to be +astonished at the plaintive whine of the master of thrice forty legions +at the conduct of the decorous, humane, and enlightened Victor Emanuel. + +The only foreign power that had a direct, immediate, positive interest +in preventing the establishment of Austrian power over Italy was France. +Several other powers had some interest adverse to the success of the +Austrian scheme, but it was so far below that which France felt, that it +is difficult to make any comparison between the several cases. England, +speaking generally, might not like the idea of a new naval power coming +into existence in the Mediterranean, which, with great fleets and +greater armies, might come to have a controlling influence in the East, +and prevent the establishment of her power in Egypt and Syria. She might +see with some jealousy the further development of Austrian commerce, +which has been so successfully pursued in the Mediterranean and the +Levant since 1815. But then England is not very remarkable for +forethought, and she has a just confidence in her own naval power. +Besides, would not Austria, in the event of her adding Italy virtually +to her dominions, become the ally of England in the business of +supporting Turkey against Russia, and in preventing the further +extension of Russian power to the South and the East? The old +traditionary policy of England pointed to an Austrian alliance, and +nations are tenacious of their traditions. The war in Italy was +unquestionably precipitated by Austria's belief that in the last resort +she could rely upon English support; and she made a fatal delay in her +military movements in deference to English interposition. Prussia could +not be expected to see the increase of the power of the House of Austria +with pleasure; but it was possible that the extension of its dominions +to the South, by giving it new objects of ambition, and forcing upon it +a leading part in Eastern affairs, might cause that house to pay less +regard to German matters, leaving them to be managed by the House of +Hohenzollern. Russia, under the system that Nicholas pursued, could not +have seen Austria absorb Italy without resisting the process at any +cost; but Alexander IV., [Footnote: I call the present czar Alexander +the _Fourth_, as there have been three other Alexanders _sovereigns_ of +Russia; but he is generally styled Alexander the _Second_.] a wiser man +than his father was, never would have gone to war to prevent it, his +views being directed to those internal reforms the success of which is +likely to create a _Russian People_, and to place his empire in a far +higher position than it has ever yet occupied. Yet Russia could not have +witnessed Austria's success with pleasure; and the readiness with which +she has agreed to aid France, should the Germans aid Austria, is proof +sufficient that she is desirous that Austria should not merely be +prevented from extending her territory, but actually reduced in extent +and in means. From no part of Europe have come more decided +condemnations of the course of Austria than from the Russian capital. +The language of the St. Petersburg journals touching the Treaties of +Vienna has been absolutely contemptuous; and that language is all the +more oracular and significant because we know that the editors of those +journals must have been inspired by the government. It has been justly +regarded as expressing the views of the Czar, and of the statesmen who +compose his cabinet. Though not disposed for war, and probably sincerely +desirous of the preservation of peace everywhere, the rulers of Russia +are quite ready to support France in all proper measures that she may +adopt to drive the Austrians from every part of the Italian Peninsula. +They are too sagacious not to see that France cannot hold a league of +Italian territory, and the reduction of Austrian power is just so much +gained towards the ultimate realization of their Oriental policy. + +Of the other European powers, and of their opinions respecting the +effect of Austrian supremacy, little need be said. Such countries as +Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal have little weight in +the European system, individually or collectively. Even Spain, though +she is not the feeble nation many of our countrymen are pleased to +represent her, when seeking to find a _reason_ for the seizure of +Cuba,--even Spain, we say, could not be much moved by the prospect of +Austria's reaching to that condition of vast strength which would +necessarily follow from her undisputed ascendency in Italy. The lesser +German States would probably have seen Austria's increase with pleasure, +partly because it would have helped to remove their fears of France and +Russia, and partly because it would have been flattering to their pride +of race, the House of Austria being Germanic in its character, though +ruling directly over but few Germans,--few, we mean, in comparison with +the Slaves, Magyars, Italians, and other races that compose the bulk of +its subjects. Turkey alone had a direct interest in Austria's success, +as promising her protection against all the other great European powers; +but Turkey is not, properly speaking, a member of the European +Commonwealth. + +But the case was very different with France. She is the first nation of +Continental Europe,--a position she has held for nearly four centuries, +though sometimes her fortunes have been reduced very low, as during the +closing days of the Valois dynasty, and in 1815; but even in 1815 she +had the melancholy consolation of knowing that it required the combined +exertions of all Europe to conquer her. Her wonderful elasticity in +rising superior to the severest visitations has often surprised the +world, and those who remember 1815 will be most astonished at her +present position in Europe, or rather in Christendom. Her position, +however, has always been the result of indefatigable exertions, and a +variety of circumstances have made those exertions necessary on several +occasions. Great as France is now, and great as she has been at several +periods of her history since the death of Mazarin, it may be doubted if +she is so great as she was at the date of the Treaty of Westphalia, the +work of her arms and her diplomacy (1648). At that time, and for many +years afterwards, several nations had no pronounced political existence +that now are powers of the first class. Russia had no weight in Europe +until the last years of Louis XIV., and her real importance commenced +fifty years after that monarch was placed in his grave. Prussia, though +she attained to a respectable position at the close of the seventeenth +century, the date of the creation of her monarchy, did not become a +first-class power until two generations later, and as the result of the +Seven Years' War. The United States count but eighty-three years of +national life; and they have had international influence less than half +of that time. England, which the restoration of the Stuarts caused to +sink so low in those very years during which Louis XIV. was at the +zenith of his greatness, has been for one hundred and seventy years the +equal of France. On the other hand, the two nations with which France +was formerly much connected, Turkey and Sweden, have ceased to influence +events. France allied herself with Turkey in the early years of her +struggle with the House of Austria, to the offence of Christian peoples; +and the relations between Paris and Constantinople were long maintained +on the basis of common interest, the only tie that has ever sufficed to +bind nations. Both countries were the enemies of Austria. The second +half of the Thirty Years' War was maintained, on the part of the enemies +of Austria, by the alliance of France and Sweden; and between these +countries a good understanding frequently prevailed in after-times, the +growth of Russia serving to force Sweden into the arms of France. Poland +has disappeared from the list of nations, and her territory has +augmented the resources of two countries that had no political weight in +the first century of the Bourbon kings, and those of France's rival. +Thus France has relatively fallen. That ancient international system of +which she was the centre for nearly one hundred and fifty years--say +from the middle of the reign of Henry IV. to the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle, (1599-1748)--has passed entirely away from the world, +and never can be restored. France has seldom seriously thought of +attempting its restoration, though some of her statesmen, and probably a +large majority of the more intelligent of her people, have from time to +time warmly favored the idea of the reconstruction of Poland; and of all +the errors of Napoleon I., his failure to realize that idea was +unquestionably the greatest. The turn that things took in the French +Revolution enabled France to establish an hegemony in Europe, which +might have been long preserved but for the disasters of 1812; but the +empire of Napoleon I. was never a political empire, being only of a +military character. France then led Europe, but she lost her ascendency +on the first reverse, like Sparta after Leuctra. History has no parallel +to the change that the France of 1814 presented to the France of 1812. +On the 1st of October, 1812, the French were at Moscow; on the 1st of +April, 1814, the allies were in Paris. Eighteen months had done work +that no man living at the first date had expected to see accomplished. +What happened in 1815 was but the complement of 1814. Then France was +struck down, trampled upon, spoiled, insulted, and mulcted in immense +sums of money; and finally forced to pay the cost of an armed police, +headed by Wellington himself, which held her chief fortresses for three +years, and saw that her chains were kept bright and strong. Never, since +Lysander demolished the Long Walls of Athens to the music of the Spartan +flute, had the world seen so bitter a spectacle of national humiliation, +so absolute a reversal of fortune,--the long-conquering legions +perishing by the sword, and him who had headed so many triumphal +processions perishing as it were in the Mamertine dungeon. + +It was from the nadir to which she had thus fallen, that the rulers of +France, acting as the agents of its people, have been laboring to raise +her ever since 1815. They have had a twofold object in view. They have +sought territory, in order that France might not be driven into the list +of second-class nations,--and military glory, to make men forget +Vittoria, and Leipzig, and Waterloo. All the governments of France have +been alike in this respect, no matter how much they have differed in +other respects. The legitimate Bourbons,--of whom an American is bound +to speak well, for they were our friends, and often evinced a feeling +towards us that exceeded largely anything that is required by the terms +or the spirit of a political alliance,--the solitary Orleans King, the +shadowy Republic of '48, and the imperial government, all have +endeavored to do something to elevate France, to win for her new +glories, and to regain for her her old position. The expedition into +Spain, in 1823, ostensibly made in the interest of Absolutism, was +really undertaken for the purpose of rebaptizing the white flag in fire. +Charles X. and M. de Polignac were engaged in a great scheme of foreign +policy when they fell, the chief object of which, on their side, was the +restoration to France of the provinces of the Rhine,--and which Russia +favored, because she knew, that, unless the Bourbons could do something +to satisfy their people, they must remain powerless, and it did not +answer her purpose that they should be otherwise than powerful. The +conquest of Algiers was made for the purpose of gratifying the French +people, and with the intention of spreading French dominion over +Northern Africa. It was a step towards the acquisition of Egypt, for +which land France has exhibited a strange longing. In this way the loss +of French India and French America, things of the old monarchy, were to +be compensated. The government of Louis Philippe expended mines of gold +and seas of blood in Africa, much to the astonishment of prudent men, +who had no idea of the end upon which its eyes were fixed. When the +Republic of 1848 was improvised, even Lamartine, not an unjust man, +could talk of the rights of France in Italy, and of her proper influence +there; and the wicked attack on the Romans, in 1849, was prompted by a +desire to make French influence felt in that country in a manner that +should be clear to the sense of mankind. + +When Louis Napoleon became President of France, it was impossible for +him to devote much attention to foreign affairs. His aim was to make +himself Emperor, to restore the Napoleon dynasty. This, after a hard +struggle, he effected in 1851-'52. It must be within the recollection of +all that the French invasion question was never more vehemently +discussed in England than during the ten or twelve months that followed +the _coup d'etat_. This happened because it was assumed that the Emperor +_must_ do something to revenge the injuries his house and France had +suffered from that alliance of which England was the chief member and +the purse-holder. Whether he ever thought of assailing England, no man +can say; for he never yet communicated his thoughts on any important +subject to any human being. We may assume, however, that he would not +have attacked England without having made extensive preparations for +that purpose; and long before such preparations could have been +perfected, the Eastern question was forced upon the attention of Europe, +and the two nations which were expected to engage in war as foes united +their immense armaments to thwart the plans of Russia. Blinded by his +feelings, and altogether mistaking the character of the English people, +the Czar treated Napoleon III. contemptuously, and sought to bring about +the partition of Turkey by the aid of England alone. It will always +furnish material for the ingenious writers of the history of things that +might have been, whether the French Emperor would have accepted the +Czar's proposition, had it been made to him. Certainly it would have +enabled him to do great things for France, while by the same course of +action he could have struck heavy blows at both England and Austria. As +it was, he joined England to oppose Russia, and the English have borne +full and honorable testimony to his fidelity to his engagements. The war +concluded, his attention was directed to Italy, and he sought to +meliorate the condition of that country; but Austria would not hear even +of the discussion of Italian affairs. The events that marked the course +of things in Paris, in the spring of 1856, showed that nothing could be +hoped for Italy from Austria. She spoke, through Count Buol, as if she +regarded the whole Peninsula as peculiarly her property, meddling with +which on the part of other powers was sheer impertinence, and not to be +borne with good temper, or even the show of it. + +The twenty-second meeting of the Congress of Paris, held the 8th of +April, was long, exciting, and important; for then several European +questions were discussed, among them being the affairs of Italy. The +protocol of that day proves the sensitiveness of the Austrian +plenipotentiaries and the earnestness of those of Sardinia. Eight days +later, the Sardinian plenipotentiaries, Cavour and De Villa Marina, +addressed to the governments of France and England a Memorial relating +to the affairs of Italy, in the course of which occur expressions that +must have had a strong effect on the mind of Napoleon III. "Called by +the sovereigns of the small states of Italy, who are powerless to +repress the discontent of their subjects," says the Memorial, "Austria +occupies militarily the greater part of the Valley of the Po and of +Central Italy, and makes her influence felt in an irresistible manner, +_even in the countries where she has no soldiers_. Resting on one side +on Ferrara and Bologna, her troops extend themselves to Ancona, the +length of the Adriatic, which has become in a manner an Austrian lake; +on the other, mistress of Piacenza, which, contrary to the spirit, if +not to the letter, of the Treaties of Vienna, she labors to transform +into a first-class fortress, she has a garrison at Parma, and makes +dispositions to deploy her forces all along the Sardinian frontier, from +the Po to the summit of the Apennines. This permanent occupation by +Austria of territories which do not belong to her _renders her absolute +mistress of nearly all Italy_, destroys the equilibrium established by +the Treaties of Vienna, and is a continual menace to Piedmont." In +conclusion, the plenipotentiaries say,--"Sardinia is the only state in +Italy that has been able to raise an impassable barrier to the +revolutionary spirit, and at the same time remain independent of +Austria. It is the counterpoise to her invading influence. If Sardinia +succumbed, exhausted of power, abandoned by her allies,--if she also was +obliged to submit to Austrian domination, _then the conquest of Italy by +this power would be achieved_; and Austria, after having obtained, +without its costing her the least sacrifice, the immense benefit of the +free navigation of the Danube, and the neutralization of the Black Sea, +_would acquire a preponderating influence in the West_. This is what +France and England would never wish,--this they will never permit." + +These are grave and weighty words, and were well calculated to produce +an effect on the mind of Napoleon III.; and we are convinced that they +furnish a key to his conduct toward Austria, and set forth the occasion +of the Italian War. The supremacy of Austria once completely asserted +over Italy, France would necessarily sink in the European scale in +precisely the same proportion in which Austria should rise in it. The +subjects of Francis Joseph would number sixty millions, while those of +Napoleon III. would remain at thirty-six millions. The sinews of war +have never been much at the command of Austria, but possession of Italy +would render her wealthy, and enable her to command that gold which +moves armies and renders them effective. Her commerce would be increased +to an incalculable extent, and she would have naval populations from +which to conscribe the crews for fleets that she would be prompt to +build. Her voice would be potential in the East, and that of France +would there cease to be heard. She would become the first power of +Europe, and would exercise an hegemony far more decided than that which +Russia held for forty years after 1814. It was to be expected that the +Italians would cease fruitlessly to oppose her, and, their submission +leading to her abandonment of the repressive system, they might become a +bold and an adventurous people, helping to increase and to consolidate +her power. They might prove as useful to her as the Hungarians and +Bohemians have been, whom she had conquered and misruled, but whose +youth have filled her armies. All these things were not only possible, +but they were highly probable; and once having become facts, what +security would France have that she would not be attacked, conquered, +and partitioned? With sixty millions of people, and supported by the +sentiment and arms of Germany, Austria could seize upon Alsace and +Lorraine, and other parts of France, and thus reduce her strength +positively as well as relatively. All that was talked of in 1815, and +more than all that, might be accomplished in sixty years from that date, +and while Napoleon III. himself should still be on the throne he had so +strangely won. That degradation of France which the uncle's ambition had +brought about at the beginning of the century would be more than +equalled at the century's close through the nephew's forbearance. The +very names of Napoleon and Bonaparte would become odious in France, and +contemptible everywhere. On the other hand, should he interfere +successfully in behalf of Italian nationality, he would reduce the +strength of Austria, and prevent her from becoming an overshadowing +empire. Her population and her territory would be essentially lessened. +She would be cut off from all hope of making Italy her own, would be +compelled to abandon her plans of commercial and maritime greatness, +would be disregarded in the East, would not be courted by England, would +lose half her influence in Germany, and would not be in a condition to +menace France in any quarter. The glory of the French arms would be +increased, the weight of France would be doubled, new lustre would shine +from the name of Napoleon, the Treaties of Vienna would be torn up by +the nation against which they had been directed, the most determined foe +of the Bonaparte family would be punished, and that family's power would +be consolidated. + +Such, we verily believe, were the reasons that led Napoleon III. to plan +an attack on Austria, that attack which has been so brilliantly +commenced. That he has gone to war for the liberation of Italy, merely +as such, we do not suppose; but that must follow front his policy, +because in that way alone can his grand object be effected. The freedom +of the Peninsula will be brought about, because it is necessary for the +welfare of France, for the maintenance of her weight in Europe, that it +should be brought about. That the Emperor is insensible of the glory +that would come from the rehabilitation of Italy, we do not assert. We +think he is very sensible of it, and that he enjoys the satisfaction +that comes from the performance of a good deed as much as if he were not +a usurper and never had overthrown a nominal republic. But we cannot +agree with those who say that the liberation of Italy was the pure and +simple purpose of the war. He means that Austria shall not have Italy, +and his sobriety of judgment enables him to understand that France +cannot have it. That country is to belong to the children of the soil, +who, with ordinary wisdom and conduct, will be able to prevent it from +again relapsing under foreign rule. The Emperor understands his epoch, +and will attempt nothing that shall excite against himself and his +dynasty the indignation of mankind. If not a saint, he is not a +senseless sinner. + +Our article is so long, that we cannot discuss the questions, whether +Napoleon III. is not animated by the desire of vengeance, and whether, +having chastised Russia and Austria, he will not turn his arms against +Prussia and England. Our opinion is that he will do nothing of the kind. +Prussia is not likely to afford him any occasion for war; and if he +should make one, he would have to fight all the other German powers at +the same time, and perhaps Russia. The only chance that exists for a +Prussian war is to be found in the wrath of the Germans, who, at the +time we write, have assumed a very hostile attitude towards France, and +wish to be led from Berlin; but the government of Prussia is discreet, +and will not be easily induced to incur the positive loss and probable +disgrace that would follow from a Russian invasion, like that which took +place in 1759. As to England, the Emperor would be mad to attempt her +conquest; and he knows too well what is due to his fame to engage in a +piratical dash at London. An invasion of England can never be safely +undertaken except by some power that is master of the seas; and England +is not in the least disposed to abandon her maritime supremacy. There +would have to be a Battle of Actium before her shores could be in +danger, and she must have lost it; and no matter what is said concerning +the excellence of the French navy, that of England is as much ahead of +it in all the elements of real, enduring strength, as it has been at any +other period of the history of the two countries. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Iron-Manufacturer's Guide to the Furnaces, Forges, and +Rolling-Mills of the United States_. By J.P. LESLEY. New York: John +Wiley. 1859. + +This valuable book is published by the Secretary of the American +Iron-Association, and by authority of the same. This Association--now +four years old--is not a common trades-union, nor any impotent +combination to resist the law of supply and demand. Its general objects, +as stated in the constitution, are "to procure regularly the statistics +of the trade, both at home and abroad; to provide for the mutual +interchange of information and experience, both scientific and +practical; to collect and preserve all works relating to iron, and to +form a complete cabinet of ores, limestones, and coals; to encourage the +formation of such schools as are designed to give the young iron-master +a proper and thorough scientific training, preparatory to engaging in +practical operations." In pursuance of this wise and liberal policy, the +Association has now published this "Iron-Manufacturer's Guide," +containing, first, a descriptive catalogue of all the furnaces, forges, +and rolling-mills of the United States and Canada; secondly, a +discussion of the physical and chemical properties of iron, and its +combinations with other elements; thirdly, a complete survey of the +geological position, chemical, physical, or mechanical properties, and +geographical distribution of the ores of iron in the United States. + +The directory to the iron-works of the United States and Canada +enumerates 1545 works of various kinds, of which 386 are now abandoned; +560 blast-furnaces, 389 forges, and 210 rolling-mills are now in +operation; and the directory states the position, capacity, and +prominent characteristics of each furnace, forge, or mill, the names of +the owners or agents, and, in many cases, the date of the construction +of the works, and their annual production. The great importance of the +iron-manufacture, as a branch of industry, in this country, is clearly +demonstrated by this very complete catalogue. It shows that in the year +1856 there were nearly twelve hundred active iron-factories in the +United States, and that they produced about eight hundred and fifty +thousand tons of iron, worth fifty millions of dollars. When we consider +that the greater part of the iron thus produced is left in a rough and +crude state, merely extracted from its ores and made ready for the use +of the blacksmith, the machinist, and the engineer,--when we remember +that human labor multiplies by hundreds and by thousands the value of +the raw material, that a bar of iron which costs five dollars will make +three thousand dollars' worth of penknife-blades and two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars' worth of watch-springs, we begin to understand +the importance of the iron-manufacture, as an element of national +wealth, independence, and power. + +A fourth part of all the iron-works which have been constructed in this +country have been abandoned by their projectors, in despair of competing +with the cheap iron from abroad, which the low _ad-valorem_ tariffs have +admitted to the American market. The story which these ruined works +might tell, of hopes disappointed, capital sunk, and labor wasted, would +be long and dreary. From an excellent diagram, appended to the "Guide," +illustrating the duties on iron, the importations, and the price of the +metal, for each year since 1840, we learn that the average annual +importation of iron under the specific tariff of 1842 was 77,328 tons, +while under the _ad-valorem_ tariff of 1846 it was 373,864 tons. The +increase in the importation of foreign iron under the tariff of 1846 was +more than ten times the increase of the population, and more than +thirty-eight times the increase in the domestic production. The +iron-masters of this country have been compelled to struggle against a +host of formidable difficulties,--adverse legislation, the ruinous +competition of English iron, the dearness of labor, and the high rates +of interest on borrowed capital. These have all been met and, let us hope, +in good part overcome. Slowly, and with many hindrances and disasters, +the iron-business is gaining strength, and achieving independence +of foreign competition and the tender mercies of legislators. +Very conclusive evidence of this gradual growth is presented +in the unusually accurate statistics of the "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide." Of the 1,209,913 tons of iron consumed in the United States +in the year 1856, 856,235 tons, or seventy-one per cent, of the whole, +was of domestic manufacture. The catalogue of iron-works shows that +the country now possesses many extensive and well-constructed works, +of which some are still owned by the men who built them, but the +larger part have descended, at great sacrifices, to the hands of +more fortunate proprietors. Beside the accumulated stock of machinery, +knowledge of the ores and fuel has been gained, experience has +refuted many errors and pointed out the dangers and difficulties to +he overcome, the natural channels of communication throughout the +country have been opened, and a large body of skilled workmen has been +trained for the business and seeks steady employment. Whenever a rise in +the price of iron stimulates the manufacture, the domestic production of +iron suddenly expands, and increases with a rapidity which gives +evidence of wonderful elasticity and latent strength. Twice within +twenty years the production of American iron has nearly doubled in a +period of three years. Twelve years ago no railroad-iron was made in the +United States. In 1853 we imported 300,000 tons of rails, and in 1854 +280,000 tons; but in 1855 only 130,000 tons were imported, while 135,000 +tons were made at home, and in 1856, again, nearly one half of the +310,000 tons of rails consumed was of domestic production. The admitted +superiority of the American rails has undoubtedly contributed to this +result. + +In spite of these encouraging signs, these sure indications of the +success which at no distant day will reward this branch of American +industry, it must not be imagined that checks and reverses are hereafter +to be escaped. The production of the year 1857 promised in the summer to +be much larger than that of 1856; but the panic of September wrought the +same effect in the iron-business as in all the other manufactures of the +country, and in the spring of 1858 more than half of the iron-works of +the United States were standing idle. Mr. Lesley states that the returns +received in answer to the circular issued by the Iron-Association, July +1, 1858, were, almost without exception, unfavorable, and that these +replies are sufficient to prove a very serious diminution in the +production of iron for the year 1858. When the manufacture of iron, in +its various branches, has expanded to its true proportions, and has +reached a magnitude and importance second only to the agricultural +interest of the country, the iron-masters of that generation may read in +this first publication of the Iron-Association the record of the +struggles and trials of their more adventurous, but less fortunate +predecessors. + +The construction of the directory which constitutes the first part of +the "Guide" might be improved in several respects. An alphabetical +arrangement of the furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills, in each State, +would be much more convenient for reference than the obscure and +uncertain system which has been followed. If a State can be divided, +like Pennsylvania, into two or three sections, by strongly marked +geological features, it would, perhaps, be well to subdivide the list of +its iron-works into corresponding sections, and then to make the +arrangement of each section alphabetical. But convenience of reference +is the essential property of a directory; and to that convenience the +natural desire to follow a geological or geographical arrangement should +he sacrificed. Some important items of information, such as the means of +transportation, and the distance of each furnace or forge from its +market, are not given in all cases; the power by which the works are +driven, whether steam or water, is not uniformly stated; and the +pressure of the blast used, that very important condition of success in +the management of a furnace, is stated in only a very few instances. A +useful piece of information, seldom given in the descriptions of forges +and rolling-mills, is the source from which the iron used in the works +is obtained; and it is also desirable that the nature of the work done +in each forge or mill should be invariably stated. It would he +interesting to know the number of men employed in the iron-manufacture +throughout the country, and it would not seem difficult for the +Association to add this fact to the very valuable statistics which they +have already collected. The descriptions of abandoned works are not all +printed in small type. If this rule is adopted in the directory, it +should be uniformly adhered to. The maps accompanying the directory, +which were made by the photolithographic process, are all on too small a +scale, and consequently lack clearness. The colored lithographs, which +exhibit the anthracite furnaces of Pennsylvania and the iron works of +the region east of the Hudson River, are altogether the best +illustrations in the book. + +An elaborate discussion of iron as a chemical element occupies another +division of the book. Its purpose is to instruct the iron master in the +chemical properties and relations of the metal with which he deals; and +to this end it should be clear, concise, and definite, and, leaving all +disputed points, should explain the known and well-determined +characteristics of iron and its compounds with other elements. Mr. +Lesley, the compiler of the book, distinctly states in the Preface that +he is no chemist, and we are therefore prepared to meet the occasional +inaccuracies observable in this chemical portion of the "Guide." It +lacks condensation and system; matters of very little moment receive +disproportionate attention; and pages are filled with discussions of +nice points of chemical science still in dispute among professed +chemists, and wholly out of place in what should be a brief elementary +treatise on the known properties of iron. If these questions in dispute +were such as the practical experience of the iron-master might settle, +or, indeed, throw any light upon, there would be an obvious propriety in +stating the points at issue; but if the question concerns the best +chemical name for iron-rust, or the largest possible per cent. of carbon +in steel, the practical metallurgist should not be perplexed with +problems in analytical chemistry which the best chemists have not yet +solved. + +Valuable space is occasionally occupied by the too rhetorical statement +of matters which would have been better presented in a simpler way; +thus, the fervid description of oxygen, however appropriate in Faraday's +admirable lectures before the Royal Institution, is out of place in the +"Iron-Manufacturer's Guide." We must also enter an earnest protest +against the importation, upon any terms, of such words as +"ironoxydulcarbonate," "ironoxydhydrate," and the adjective "anhydrate." +Some descriptions of considerable imaginative power have found place +even in the directory of works. From the description of the Allentown +furnaces we learn, with some surprise, that "no finer object of art +invites the artist"; and again, "that the _repose_ of bygone _centuries_ +seems to sit upon its immense walls, while the roaring _energy_ of the +present day fills it with a truer and better life than the revelry of +Kenilworth or the chivalry of Heidelberg." The average age of the +Allentown works subsequently appears to be nine years. + +Another principal division of Mr. Lesley's book treats of the ores of +iron in the United States. This portion of the book contains much +valuable and interesting information, which has never been published +before in so complete and satisfactory a form. The geographical and +geological position of every ore-bank in the country, which has been +opened and worked, is fully described, with many details of the peculiar +properties, mineralogical associations, and history of each bed or mine. +The inexhaustible wealth of the country in ores of iron is clearly +shown, and the superiority of the American ores to the English needs no +other demonstration than can be found on the pages of this catalogue of +our ore-beds. Two or three geological maps, to illustrate the +distribution of the ores, would have been an instructive addition to the +book. In this section, as in the preceding one on the chemistry of iron, +much space is misapplied to the discussion of questions of structural +geology, of opposing theories of the formation of veins, and other +scientific problems with which the iron-master is not concerned, and +which he cannot be expected to understand, much less to solve. We regret +the more this unnecessary introduction of comparatively irrelevant +matters, when we find, at the close of the volume, that the unexpected +length of the discussion of the ores has prevented the publication of +several chapters on the machinery now in use, the hot-blast and +anthracite coal, the efforts to obtain malleable iron directly from the +ore, and the history and present condition of the iron-manufacture in +America. + +The American Iron-Association, by their Secretary, have accomplished a +very laborious and valuable work, in accumulating and digesting the mass +of facts and statistics embodied in this, the first "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide"; but the subject is as inexhaustible as the mineral wealth of the +country, and we shall look for the future publications of the society +with much interest. + + +_An Essay on Intuitive Morals_. Being an Attempt to Popularize Ethical +Science. Part I. Theory of Morals. First American Edition, with +Additions and Corrections by the Author. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. +1859. pp. 294. + +Four years ago last March this book appeared in England, published by +Longman; a thin octavo, exciting little attention there, and scarcely +more on this side the water, where the best English books have of late +years found their first appreciation. The first notice of it printed in +this country, so far as we know, appeared in the "Harvard Magazine" for +June, 1855,--a publication so obscure, that, to most readers of the +ATLANTIC, this will be their first knowledge of its existence. About two +years later, Part II appeared in England, and then both books were +reviewed in the "Christian Examiner"; yet, to all intents and purposes, +this new edition is a new book, and we shall treat it as such. We have +as yet a reprint of Part I. only, but we trust the publishers will soon +give us the other,--"The Practice of Morals,"--which, if less valuable +than this, is still so much better than most works of its kind as to +demand a republication. + +The author--a woman--(for, to the shame of our _virile secus_ be it +said, a woman has written the best popular treatise on Ethics in the +language)--divides her First Part into four chapters:-- + + I. What Is the Moral Law? + II. Where the Moral Law is found. + III. That the Moral Law can be obeyed. + IV. Why the Moral Law should be obeyed. + +This, as will be seen, is an exhaustive analysis. To the great question +of the first chapter, after a full discussion, she gives this answer:-- + +"The Moral Law is the resumption of the eternal necessary Obligation of +all Rational Free Agents to do and feel those Sentiments which are +Right. The identification of this law with His will constitutes the +Holiness of the Infinite God. Voluntary and disinterested obedience to +this law constitutes the Virtue of all finite creatures. Virtue is +capable of infinite growth, of endless approach to the Divine nature and +to perfect conformity with the law. God has made all rational free +agents for virtue, and all worlds for rational free agents. _The Moral +Law, therefore, not only reigns throughout His creation_, (all its +behests being enforced thereon by His omnipotence,) _but is itself the +reason why that creation exists_."--pp. 62-63. + +This is certainly good defining, and the passage we have Italicized has +the true Transcendental ring. Indeed, the book is a system of Kantian +Ethics, as the author herself says in her Preface; and the tough old +Koenigsberg professor has no reason to complain of his gentle expounder. +Unlike most British writers,--with the grand exception of Sir William +Hamilton, the greatest British metaphysician since Locke and Hume,--she +_understands_ Kant, admires and loves him, and so is worthy to develop +his knotty sublimities. This alone would be high praise; but we think +she earns a more original and personal esteem. + +The question of the second chapter she thus answers:-- + +"The Moral Law is found in the Intuitions of the Human Mind. These +Intuitions are natural; but they are also revealed. Our Creator wrought +them into the texture of our souls to form the groundwork of our +thoughts, and made it our duty first to examine and then to erect upon +them by reflection a Science of Morals. But He also continually aids us +in such study, and He increases this aid in the ratio of our obedience. +Thus Moral Intuitions are both Human and Divine, and the paradoxes in +their nature are thereby solved."--p. 136. + +This statement may, perhaps, be received without cavil by most readers; +but the reasoning on which it depends is the weakest part of the book, +and we shall be surprised if some hard-headed divine, who fears that +this doctrine of Intuition will pester his Church, does not find out the +flaws in the argument. It will be urged, for instance, that, in +confessing that the Science of Morals can never be as exact as that of +Mathematics, because we have no terminology for Ethics so exact as for +Geometry, she, in effect, yields the whole question, and leaves us in +the old slough of doubt where Pyrrho and Pascal delighted to thrust us, +and where the Church threatens to keep us, unless we will pay her tolls +and pick our way along her turnpike. But though her major and minor +premises may not be on the best terms with each other,--even though they +may remind us of that preacher of whom Pierrepont Edwards said, "If his +text had the smallpox, his sermon would not catch it,"--her conclusion +is sound, and as inspiring now as when the poet said,-- + + "Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo,"-- + +or when George Fox trudged hither and thither over Europe with the same +noble tune sounding in his ears. + +In the third chapter the old topics are treated, which, according to +Milton, the fallen angels discussed before Adam settled the debate by +sinning,-- + + "Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,"-- + +and it is concluded that the Moral Law can be obeyed:-- + +"1st. Because the Human Will is free. 2d. Because this freedom, though +involving present sin and suffering, is foreseen by God to result +eventually in the Virtue of every creature endowed therewith." + +In this chapter the history of the common doctrine of Predestination is +admirably sketched, (pp. 159-164, note.) and the grounds for our belief +in Free Will more clearly stated than we remember to have seen +elsewhere. Especially fine is her method of reducing Foreordination to +simple Ordination, by directing attention to the fact that with God +there is no Past and Future, but an Endless Now; as Tennyson sings in +"In Memoriam,"-- + + "Oh, if indeed that eye foresee, + Or see, (in Him is no before.)"-- + +and as Dante sang five centuries ago. + +But it is the last chapter which best shows the power of the author and +the pure and generous spirit with which the whole book is filled. Here +she shows why the Moral Law should be obeyed; and dividing the advocates +of Happiness as a motive into three classes, Euthumists, Public +Eudaimonists, and Private Eudaimonists, she refutes them all and +establishes her simple scheme, which she states in these words:-- + +"The law itself, the Eternal Right, for right's own sake, that alone +must be our motive, the spring of our resolution, the ground of our +obedience. Deep from our inmost souls comes forth the mandate, the bare +and simple law claiming the command of our whole existence merely by its +proper right, and disdaining alike to menace or to bribe." + +The terms _Euthumism_ and _Eudaimonism_ are, perhaps, peculiar to this +essay, and may need some explanation. The Euthumist is one who assumes +moral pleasure as a sufficient reason why virtue should be sought; the +Eudaimonist believes we should be virtuous for the sake of affectional, +intellectual, and sensual pleasure; if he means the pleasure of all +mankind, he is a Public Eudaimonist; but if he means the pleasure of the +individual, he is a Private Eudaimonist. Democritus is reckoned the +first among Euthumists; and in England this school has been represented, +among others, by Henry More and Cumberland, by Sharrock, [Footnote: +Sharrock is a name unfamiliar to most readers. His [Greek: Hypothesis +aethikae] published in 1660, contains the first clear statement of +Euthumism made by any Englishman. See p.223.] Hutcheson, and Shaftesbury. +Paley thrust himself among Public Eudaimonists, and our author well +exposes his grovelling morals, aiming to produce the "greatest happiness +of the greatest number," a system which has too long been taught among +the students of our colleges and high schools. But he properly belongs +to the Private Eudaimonists; for this interpreter of ethics to the +ingenuous youth of England and America says, "Virtue is the doing good +to mankind in obedience to the will of God, _and for the sake of +everlasting happiness_. According to which definition, the good of +mankind is the subject, the will of God the rule, _and everlasting +happiness the motive of virtue_." + +It is such heresies as this, and the still grosser pravities into which +the ethics of expediency run, that this book will do much to combat. +Nothing is more needed in our schools for both sexes than the systematic +teaching of the principles here set forth; and we have no doubt this +volume could be used as a text-book, at least with some slight omissions +and additions, such as a competent teacher could well furnish. Portions +of it, indeed, were some years since read by Mrs. Lowell to her classes, +and are now incorporated in her admirable book, "Seed Grain"; nor does +there seem to be any good reason why it should not be introduced at +Cambridge. With a short introduction containing the main principles of +metaphysics, and with the omission of some rhetorical passages unsuited +to a text-book, it might supplant the books of both intellectual and +moral philosophy now in use in our higher schools. + +But it is not as a school-book that this essay is to be considered; it +will find a large and increasing circle of readers among the mature and +the cultivated, and these will perceive that few have thought so +profoundly or written so clearly on these absorbing topics. Take, for +example, the classification of _possible_ beings, made in the first +chapter:-- + +"Proceeding on our premises, that the omnipotence of God is not to be +supposed to include self-contradictions, we observe at the outset, that +(so far as we can understand subjects so transcendent) there were only, +in a moral point of view, three orders of beings possible in the +universe:--1st. One Infinite Being. A Rational Free Agent, raised by the +infinitude of his nature above the possibility of temptation. He is the +only _Holy_ Being. 2d. Finite creatures who are Rational Free Agents, +but exposed by the finity of their natures to continual temptations. +These beings are either _Virtuous_ or _Vicious_. 3d. Finite creatures +who are not rational nor morally free. These beings are _Unmoral_, and +neither virtuous nor vicious."--pp. 24-25. + +Nothing can be shorter or more thorough than this statement, and, if +accepted, it settles many points in theology as well as in ethics. + +Then, too, the comparison, in the last chapter, of the Law of Honor, +considered as a system of morals, with the systems of Paley and Bentham, +shows a fine perception of the true relation of chivalry to ethics, and +gives occasion for one of the most eloquent passages in the book:-- + +"I envy not the moralist who could treat disdainfully of Chivalry. It +was a marvellous principle, that which could make of plighted faith a +law to the most lawless, of protection to weakness a pride to the most +ferocious. While the Church taught that personal duty consisted in +scourgings and fastings, and social duty in the slaughter of Moslems and +burning of Jews, Chivalry roused up a man to reverence himself through +his own courage and truth, and to treat the weakest of his +fellow-creatures with generosity and courtesy.... Recurring to its true +character, the Law of Honor, when duly enlarged and rectified, becomes +highly valuable. We perceive, that, amid all its imperfections and +aberrations, it has been the truest voice of intuition, amid the +lamentations of the believer in 'total depravity,' and the bargaining of +the expediency-seeking experimentalist. While the one represented Virtue +as a Nun and the other as a Shop-woman, the Law of Honor drew her as a +Queen,--faulty, perhaps, but free-born and royal. Much service has this +law done to the world; it has made popular modes of thinking and acting +far nobler than those inculcated from many a pulpit; and the result is +patent, that many a 'publican and sinner,' many an opera-frequenting, +betting, gambling man of the world, is a far safer person with whom to +transact business than the Pharisee who talks most feelingly of the +'frailties of our fallen nature.'"--pp. 267-270. + +The learning shown in the book, though not astonishing, like Sir William +Hamilton's, is sufficient and always at the author's service. The text +throughout, and especially the notes on Causation, Predestination, +Original Sin, and Necessary Truths, will amply support our opinion. But +better than either learning or logic is that noble and devout spirit +pervading every page, and convincing the reader, that, whether the +system advanced be true or false, it is the result of a genuine +experience, and the guide of a pure and generous life. + +The volume is neatly printed, but lacks an index sadly, and shows some +errors resulting from the distance between the author and the +proof-reader. Such is the misuse of the words "woof" and "warp" on page +56; evidently a slip of the pen, since the same terms are correctly used +elsewhere in the volume. + + +_Memoirs of the Empress Catharine II._ Written by herself. With a +Preface by A. HERZEN. Translated from the French. New York: D. Appleton +& Co. 12mo. pp. 309. + +It would seem, that, if any one of the women celebrated in history +should, more than all the others, have shrunk from writing her own +memoirs, that woman was the petty German princess whom opportunity and +her own crafty ambition made absolutest monarch of all the Russias under +the name of Catharine II. And of that abandoned and shameless personal +career which has made her name a reproach to her sex, and covered her +memory with an infamy that the administrative glories of her reign serve +only to cast into a blacker shadow, even she has shrunk from committing +the details to paper. Indeed, in these Memoirs, she alludes to but one +of her amours,--that with Sergius Soltikoff, which was the first, (if we +may be sure that she had a first,)--and which seems clearly to have been +elevated, if not purified, by a true and deep affection. That it was so +appears not by any protestation or even calm assertion of her own, which +in an autobiography might be reasonably doubted, but from the unstudied +tenderness of her allusions to him; from the fact, which indirectly +appears, that he first cooled towards her, and the pang--not of wounded +vanity--which this gave her; and yet more unmistakably from the +forgiveness which she, imperious and relentless as she was, extended, +manifestly, again and again, to her errant lover. + +The Memoirs are confined to events which occurred between 1744 and +1760,--the period of Catharine's girlhood and youthful womanhood; but +although she brings herself before us, a young creature of fifteen, +"with her hair dressed _a la Moise_," (which, in the benightment of our +bearded ignorance, we suppose to mean that astounding style in which the +excellent Mistress Hannah More is represented in the frontispiece to her +Memoirs, with each particular hair standing on end,--a crimped glory of +radiating powder,) she appears no less ambitious, crafty, designing, +selfish, and self-conscious then than when she drops her pen as she is +deepening the traits of the matured woman of thirty. She went to Russia +to be betrothed to the Grand Duke, afterwards Peter III., to whom she +was at first utterly indifferent, and whom she soon began to despise and +regard with personal aversion; and yet when there was a chance that she +might be released from this union, she seems not to have known the +slightest thrill of joy or felt the least sensation of relief, although +she was then not sixteen years old,--so entirely was her mind bent upon +the crown of Russia. Partly to attain her end, and partly because it +suited her intriguing, managing nature, she set herself immediately to +the acquirement of the favor of the Empress on the one hand, and +popularity on the other. The first she sought by an absolute submission +of her will to that of Elizabeth, giving her self-negation an air of +grateful deference; the latter she obtained, as most very popular people +obtain their popularity, by adroit flattery,--the subtlest form of which +was, in her case, as it ever is, the manifestation of an interest in the +affairs of persons utterly indifferent to the flatterer. This moral +emollient she applied, as popular people usually do, without +discrimination. She remarks that she was liked because she was "the same +to everybody"; and it is noteworthy that the same is said almost +invariably of very popular persons, and in way of eulogy, by the very +people into whose favor they have licked their way; the latter always +seeming to be blinded by the titillation of their own cuticles to the +fact that the most worthless and disagreeable individuals--those with +whom they would scorn to be put upon a level--have received the same +coveted evidences of personal regard. When will the world learn that the +man, of whom we sometimes hear and read, who is absolutely without an +enemy, must either be very unscrupulous or very weak? Catharine's +duplicity in this respect seems to have been as constant as it was +artful, during the years in which it was necessary for her purpose to +make friends; and it was rewarded, as it almost always is, when +skilfully practised, with entire success. + +Catharine seems to have written these Memoirs partly for her own +satisfaction and partly to justify her course to her son Paul and his +successors. Therefore they record much that is of little value or +interest to the general reader; and that, indeed, is unintelligible, +except to those who are intimately acquainted with the Russian Court +during the reign of Elizabeth. Such persons will find in these pages +much authentic matter which will confirm or unsettle their previous +belief as to the secret intrigues of that court, political and personal. +To the great mass of readers, the revelations of the internal economy of +the Court of Russia in the middle of the last century, and of the +manners and morals of the persons who composed it, which are freely made +by the author of these imperial confessions, will constitute their +principal, if not their only interest. In this respect they will well +repay the attentive perusal of every person who likes the study of human +nature. The picture which they present is striking, and its various +parts keep alive the attention which its first sight awakens. Yet it +cannot be regarded with pleasure by any reader of undepraved taste; and +a consideration of it is absolutely fatal to the faith which is +cherished by many deluded minds in the social, if not in the ethical +virtues of an ancient aristocracy. In this respect Catharine's "Memoirs" +are not peculiar. For it is remarkable, that in all the published +memoirs, journals, and confessions of members of royal households, +(there may be an exception, but we do not remember it,) court-life +within-doors has appeared devoid of every grace and beauty, and deformed +by all that is coarse, brutal, sordid, and grovelling. Even that grace, +almost a virtue, which has its name from courts, seems not to exist in +them in a genuine form; and instead of it we find only a hollow, +glittering sham, which has but an outward semblance to real courtesy, +and which itself even is produced only on occasions more or less public +and for purposes more or less selfish. + +Russia in its most civilized parts was half barbarous in the days of +Catharine's youth, and society at the Court of St. Petersburg seems to +have been distinguished from that in the other circles of the empire +only by an addition of the vices of civilization to those of barbarism. +The women blended the manners and tastes of Indian squaws and French +_marquises_ of the period; the men modelled themselves on Peter the +Great, and succeeded in imitating him in everything except his wisdom +and patriotism. The business of life was, first, to avoid being sent to +Siberia or Astracan,--next and last, to get other people sent thither; +its pleasure, an alternation of gambling and orgies. Catharine makes +some excuse for her unrestrained sexual license, which shows that she +wrote for posterity. For what need of extenuation in this regard for a +woman whose immediate predecessors were Catharine I., and. Anne and +Elizabeth, and who lived in a court where, on the simultaneous marriage +of three of its ladies, a bet was made between the Hetman Count +Rasoumowsky and the Minister of Denmark,--not which of the brides would +be false to her marriage vows,--that was taken for granted with regard +to all,--but which would be so first! It turned out that he who bet on +the Countess Anne Voronzoff, daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of the +Empire, and bride to Count Strogonoff, who was the plainest of the three +and at the time the most innocent and childlike, won the wager. The bet +was wisely laid; for she was likely to be soonest neglected by her +husband. + +What semblance of courtesy these highborn gamblers, adulterers, and +selfish intriguers showed in their daily life appears in their behavior +to a M. Brockdorf, against whom Catharine had ill feelings, more or less +justifiable. This M. Brockdorf, who was high in favor with the Grand +Duke, was unfortunately ugly--having a long neck, a broad, flat head, +red hair, small, dull, sunken eyes, and the corners of his mouth hanging +down to his chin. So, among those court-bred people, "whenever M. +Brockdorf passed through the apartments, every one called out after him +'Pelican,'" because "this bird was the most hideous we knew of." But +what regard for the feelings of a person of inferior rank could be +expected from his enemies, in a court where the dearest ties and the +tenderest sorrows were dashed aside with the formal brutality recorded +by Catharine in the following remarkable paragraph?-- + +"A few days afterwards, the death of my father was announced to me. It +greatly afflicted me. For a week I was allowed to weep as much as I +pleased; but at the end of that time, Madame Tchoglokoff came to tell me +that I had wept enough,--that the Empress ordered me to leave off,--that +my father was not a king. I told her, I knew that he was not a king; and +she replied, that it was not suitable for a Grand Duchess to mourn for a +longer period a father who had not been a king. In fine, it was arranged +that I should go out on the following Sunday, and wear mourning for six +weeks." + +It is worthy of especial note that these people, though they led this +sensual, selfish, heartless life, trampling on natural affection and +doing as they would not be done by, prided themselves very much on the +orthodoxy of their faith, were sorely afraid of going to hell, and were +consequently very regular and rigid in the performance of their +religious duties. Catharine was no whit behind the rest in this respect. +Though bred a Lutheran, she was most exemplary in her observance of all +the requirements of the Greek Church; and even carried her hypocrisy so +far, that, when, on occasion of a dangerous and probably fatal illness, +it was proposed that she should see a Lutheran clergyman, she replied by +asking for Simon Theodorsky, a prelate of the Greek Church, who came and +had an edifying interview with her. And all this was done, as she says, +for effect, chiefly with the soldiers and common people, among whom it +made a sensation and was much talked of. This, by the way, is the only +reference which occurs in the Memoirs to any interest below that of the +highest nobility. As for the people of Russia, the right to draw their +blood with the knout and make them sweat roubles into the royal treasury +was taken as much for granted as the light and the air, by those who, +either through fraud or force, could sit in the seat of Peter the Great. +They regarded it as no less an appanage or perquisite of that seat than +the jewels in the imperial diadem, and would as soon have thought of +defending a title to the one as to the other. And the possession of the +throne, with the necessary consent of the dominant party of the high +nobility, seems to have been, and still to be, the only requisite for +the unquestioned exercise of this power; for, as to legitimacy and +divine dynastic right, was not Catharine I. a Livoman peasant? Catharine +II. a German princess, who dethroned and put to death the grandson of +Peter the Great? and does she not confess in these Memoirs that her son, +the Emperor Paul, was not the son of Peter's grandson, but of Sergius +Soltikoff? so that in the reigning house of Russia there is not a drop +of the blood of Romanoff. And Catharine's confession, which M. Herzen +emphasizes so strongly, conveys to the Russian nobles no new knowledge +on this subject; for an eminent Russian publicist being asked, on the +appearance of this book, if it were generally known in Russia that Paul +was the son of Soltikoff, replied,--"No one who knew anything ever +doubted it." And perhaps the descendants of the Boiards are quite +content that their sovereign should have illegally sprung from the loins +of a member of one of the oldest and noblest of the purely Russian +families, rather than from those of a prince of the petty house of +Holstein Gottorp. But then what is this principle of Czarism, which is +not a submission to divine right, but which causes one man to sustain, +perhaps to place, another in a position which puts his own life at the +mercy of the other's mere caprice? + +Catharine tells many trifling, but interesting incidents, of various +nature, in these Memoirs: of how, after the birth of her first child, +she was left utterly alone and neglected, so that she famished with +thirst for the lack of some one to bring her water; how her child was +taken from her at its birth, and kept from her, she hardly being allowed +even to see it; how it was always wrapped in fox-skins and seal-skins, +till it lay in a continual bath of perspiration; how the members of the +royal family itself were so badly accommodated, that sometimes they were +made ill by walking through passages open to wind and rain, and +sometimes stifled by over-crowded rooms; how at the imperial +masquerades, during one season, the men were ordered to appear in +women's dresses, and the women in the _propria quae maribus,_--the +former hideous in large whaleboned petticoats and high feathered +head-dresses, the latter looking like scrubby little boys with very +thick legs,--and all that the Empress Elizabeth might show her tall and +graceful figure and what beautiful things she used to walk with, which +Catharine says were the handsomest that she ever saw; how in this court, +where marriage was the mere shadow of a bond, it was yet deemed a matter +of the first nuptial importance that a lady of the court should have her +head dressed for the wedding by the hands of the Empress herself, or, if +she were too ill, by those of the Grand Duchess; how Catharine used, at +Oranienbaum, to dress herself from head to foot in male attire, and go +out in a skiff, accompanied only by an old huntsman, to shoot ducks and +snipe, sometimes doubling the Cape of Oranienbaum, which extends two +versts into the sea,--and how thus the fortunes of the Russian Empire, +during the latter half of the eighteenth century, were at the mercy of a +spring-tide, a gust of wind, or the tipping of a shallop. There is even +a recipe for removing tan and sunburn, which the beautiful Grand Duchess +used at the instance of the beautiful Empress; and, as both the imperial +belles testify to its great efficacy, it would be cruel not to give all +possible publicity to the fact that it was composed of white of egg, +lemon juice, and French brandy; but, alas! the proportion in which these +constituents are to be mixed is not recorded. + +Of the authenticity of these Memoirs there appears to be no reasonable +doubt, and we believe that none has been expressed. They were found, +after the death of Catharine, in a sealed envelope addressed to her son +Paul, in whose lifetime no one saw them but the friend of his childhood, +Prince Kourakine. He copied them; and, about twenty years after the +death of Paul, three or four copies were made from the Kourakine copy. +The Emperor Nicholas caused all these to be seized by the secret police, +and it is only since his death that one or two copies have again made +their appearance at Moscow (where the original is kept) and St. +Petersburg. From one of these M. Herzen made his transcript. They fail +to palliate any of Catharine's crimes, or in the least to brighten her +reputation, and add nothing to our knowledge of her sagacity and her +administrative talents; but they are yet not without very considerable +personal interest and historical value. + + +_Milch Cows and Dairy Farming_; comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and +Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and other Stock; the +Selection of Milch Cows, with a full Explanation of Guenon's Method; the +Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and +Cheese: embodying the most recent Improvements, and adapted to Farming +in the United States and British Provinces, with a Treatise upon the +Dairy Husbandry of Holland; to which is added Horsfall's System of Dairy +Management. By CHARLES L. FLINT, Secretary of the Massachusetts State +Board of Agriculture; Author of a Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants. +Liberally illustrated. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. pp. 416. + +This very useful treatise contains a full account of the best breeds of +cattle and of the most approved methods of crossing so as to develop +qualities particularly desirable; directions for choosing good milkers +by means of certain natural signs; a description of the most useful +grasses and other varieties of fodder; and very minute instructions for +the making of good butter and the proper arrangement and care of +dairies. The author has had the advantage of practical experience as a +dairyman, while his position as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of +Agriculture has afforded him more than common opportunity of learning +the experience of others. + +A volume of this kind cannot fail to commend itself to farmers and +graziers, and will be found valuable also by those who are lucky enough +to own a single cow. The production of good milk, butter, and meat is a +matter of interest to all classes in the community alike; and Mr. +Flint's book, by pointing out frankly the mistakes and deficiencies in +the present methods of our farmers and dairymen, and the best means of +remedying them, will do a good and much-needed service to the public. He +shows the folly of the false system of economy which thinks it good +farming to get the greatest quantity of milk with the least expenditure +of fodder, and which regards poor stock as cheaper because it costs less +money in the original outlay. + +If Dean Swift was right in saying that he who makes two blades of grass +grow where one grew before is of more service to mankind than he who +takes a city, we should be inclined to rank him hardly second as a +benefactor of his race who causes one pound of good butter to be made +where two pounds of bad were made before. We believe that more unsavory +and unwholesome grease is consumed in the United States under the +_alias_ of butter than in any other civilized country, and we trust that +a wide circulation of Mr. Flint's thoroughly executed treatise will tend +to reform a great and growing evil. The tendency in America has always +been to make a shift with what _will do_, rather than to insist on +having what is best; and we welcome this book as likely to act as a +corrective in one department, and that one of the most important. The +value of the volume is increased by numerous illustrations and a good +index. + + * * * * * + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + +The Young Housekeeper's Friend. By Mrs. Cornelius. Revised and Enlarged. +Boston. Brown, Taggard, & Chase. 12mo. pp. 254. 75 cts. + +The New and the Old; or California and India in Romantic Aspects. By +J.W. Palmer, M.D. With Thirteen Illustrations. New York. 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IV, NO. 22, AUG., 1859 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Sandra Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. IV.--AUGUST, 1859.--NO. XXII. + + + + + + + + +THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN THE BIBLE. + + +We say dramatic element _in_ the Bible, not dramatic element _of_ the +Bible, since that of which we speak is not essential, but incidental; it +is an aspect of the form of the book, not an attribute of its +inspiration. + +By the use of the term _dramatic_ in this connection, let us, in the +outset, be understood to have no reference whatever to the theatre and +stage-effect, or to the sundry devices whereby the playhouse is made at +once popular and intolerable. Nor shall we anticipate any charge of +irreverence; since we claim the opportunity and indulge only the license +of the painter, who, in the treatment of Scriptural themes, seeks both +to embellish the sacred page and to honor his art,--and of the sculptor, +and the poet, likewise, each of whom, ranging divine ground, remarks +upon the objects there presented according to the law of his profession. +As the picturesque, the statuesque, the poetical in the Bible are +legitimate studies, so also the dramatic. + +But in the premises, is not the term _dramatic_ interdicted,--since it +is that which is not the Bible, but which is foreign to the Bible, and +even directly contradistinguished therefrom? The drama is +representation,--the Bible is fact; the drama is imitation,--the Bible +narrative; the one is an embodiment,--the other a substance; the one +transcribes the actual by the personal,--the other is a return to the +simplest originality; the one exalts its subjects by poetic +freedom,--the other adheres to prosaic plainness. + +Yet are there not points in which they meet, or in which, for the +purposes of this essay, they may be considered as coming together,--that +is, admitting of an artistical juxtaposition? + +In the first place, to take Shakspeare for a type of the drama, what, we +ask, is the distinguishing merit of this great writer? It is his +fidelity to Nature. Is not the Bible also equally true to Nature? "It is +the praise of Shakspeare," says Dr. Johnson, "that his plays are the +mirror of life." Was there ever a more consummate mirror of life than +the Bible affords? "Shakspeare copied the manners of the world then +passing before him, and has more allusions than other poets to the +traditions and superstitions of the vulgar." The Bible, perhaps, excels +all other books in this sort of description. "Shakspeare was an exact +surveyor of the inanimate world." The Bible is full of similar sketches. +An excellence of Shakspeare is the individuality of his characters. +"They are real beings of flesh and blood," the critics tell us; "they +speak like men, not like authors." How truly this applies to the persons +mentioned in sacred writ! Goethe has compared the characters of +Shakspeare to "watches with crystalline cases and plates, which, while +they point out with perfect accuracy the course of the hours and +minutes, at the same time disclose the whole combination of springs and +wheels whereby they are moved." A similar transparency of motive and +purpose, of individual traits and spontaneous action, belongs to the +Bible. From the hand of Shakspeare, "the lord and the tinker, the hero +and the valet, come forth equally distinct and clear." In the Bible the +various sorts of men are never confounded, but have the advantage of +being exhibited by Nature herself, and are not a contrivance of the +imagination. "Shylock," observes a recent critic, "seems so much a man +of Nature's making, that we can scarce accord to Shakspeare the merit of +creating him." What will you say of Balak, Nabal, Jeroboam? "Macbeth is +rather guilty of tempting the Weird Sisters than of being tempted by +them, and is surprised and horrified at his own hell-begotten +conception." Saul is guilty of tampering with the Witch of Endor, and is +alarmed at the Ghost of Samuel, whose words distinctly embody and +vibrate the fears of his own heart, and he "falls straightway all along +on the earth." "The exquisite refinement of Viola triumphs over her +masculine attire." The exquisite refinement of Ruth triumphs in the +midst of men. + +We see there are points in which dramatic representation and Scriptural +delineation mutually touch. + +A distinguished divine of Connecticut said he wanted but two books in +his library, the Bible and Shakspeare,--the one for religion, the other +to be his instructor in human nature. In the same spirit, St. Chrysostom +kept a copy of Aristophanes under his pillow, that he might read it at +night before he slept and in the morning when he waked. The strong and +sprightly eloquence of this father, if we may trust tradition, drew its +support from the vigorous and masculine Atticism of the old comedian. + +But human nature, in every stage of its development and every variety of +its operation, is as distinctly pronounced on the pages of Scripture as +in the scenes of the dramatist. Of Shakespeare it is said, "He turned +the globe round for his amusement, and surveyed the generations of men, +and the individuals as they passed, with their different concerns, +passions, follies, vices, virtues, actions, and motives." He has been +called the "thousand-minded," the "oceanic soul." The Bible creates the +world and peoples it, and gives us a profound and universal insight into +all its concerns. + +Another peculiarity of Shakspeare is his self-forgetfulness. In reading +what is written, you do not think of him, but of his productions. "The +perfect absence of himself from his own pages makes it difficult for us +to conceive of a human being having written them." This remark applies +with obvious force to the Bible. The authors of the several books do not +thrust themselves upon your notice, or interfere with your meditations +on what they have written; indeed, to such an extent is this +self-abeyance maintained, that it is impossible, at this period of time, +to determine who are the authors of some of the books. The narrative of +events proceeds, for the most part, as if the author had never existed. +How _naïvely_ and perspicuously everything is told, without the +colouring of prejudice, or an infusion of egotism on the part of the +writer! + +Coleridge says, Shakspeare gives us no moral highwaymen, no sentimental +thieves and rat-catchers, no interesting villains, no amiable +adulteresses. The Bible even goes farther than this, and is faithful to +the foibles and imperfections of its favorite characters, and describes +a rebellious Moses, a perjured David, a treacherous Peter. + +"In nothing does Shakspeare so deeply and divinely touch the heart of +humanity as in the representation of woman." We have the grandeur of +Portia, the sprightliness of Rosalind, the passion of Juliet, the +delicacy of Ophelia, the mournful dignity of Hermione, the filial +affection of Cordelia. How shall we describe the Pythian greatness of +Miriam, the cheerful hospitality of Sarah, the heroism of Rahab, the +industry of Dorcas, the devotion of Mary? And we might set off Lady +Macbeth with Jezebel, and Cleopatra with Delilah. + +But the Bible, it may be said, so far as the subject before us is +concerned, is chiefly historical, while Shakspeare is purely dramatic. +The one is description,--the other action; the one relates to +events,--the other to feelings; the department of the one is the general +course of human affairs,--that of the other, the narrower circle of +individual experience; the field of the one is that which the eye of +philosophy may embrace,--while that of the other is what the human frame +may portray. + +However this may apply to the average of history, it will be found that +the Bible, in its historical parts, is not so strictly historical as to +preclude associations of another sort. The Bible is remarkable for a +visual and embodied relief, a bold and vivid detail. We know of no book, +if we may except the compositions of professed dramatists, that contains +so much of personal feeling and incident. In simplicity and directness, +in freedom from exaggeration, and in the general unreserve of its +expression, it even exceeds the most of these. In it we may discover a +succession of little dramas of Nature that will affect us quite as +profoundly as those larger ones of Art. + +If the structure of the drama be dialogistic, we find the Bible formed +on the same model. If the writers of the former disappear under the +personages of their fancy, the writers of the latter disappear under the +personages of fact. As in the one, so in the other, strangers are +introduced to tell their own story, each in his own way. + +In the commencement of the Bible, after a brief prologue, the curtain +rises, and we, as spectators, look in upon a process of interlocution. +The scene is the green, sunny garden of Eden, that to which the memory +of humanity reverts as to its dim golden age, and which ever expresses +the bright dream of our youth, ere the rigor of misfortune or the +dulness of experience has spoilt it. The _dramatis personae_ are three +individuals, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. There are the mysterious tree, +with its wonderful fruit,--the beautiful, but inquisitive woman,--the +thoughtful, but too compliant man,--and the insinuating reptile. One +speaks, the other rejoins, and the third fills up the chasm of interest. +The plot thickens, the passions are displayed, and the tragedy hastens +to its end. Then is heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool +(the wind) of the garden, the impersonal presence of Jehovah is, as it +were, felt in the passing breeze, and a shadow falls upon the +earth,--but such a shadow as their own patient toil may dissipate, and +beyond the confines of which their hope, which has now taken the place +of enjoyment, is permitted ever to look. + +Without delaying on the moral of this passage, what we would remark upon +is the clearness and freedom of the dialogue,--a feature which we find +pervading the whole of the sacred writings. + +In the account of Cain, which immediately succeeds, the narrative is +inelaborate, casual, secondary; the dialogue is simple and touching. The +agony of the fratricide and his remorse are better expressed by his own +lips than could be done by any skill of the historian. + +In the deception which Abraham put upon the Egyptians, touching his +wife,--which it is no part of our present object to justify or to +condemn,--what a stroke of pathos, what a depth of conjugal sentiment, +is exhibited! "Thou art a fair woman to look upon, and the Egyptians, +when they see thee, will kill me and save thee alive. _Say, I pray thee, +thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my +soul shall live because of thee_." + +Viola appears very interesting and very innocent, when, in boy's +clothes, she wanders about in pursuit of a lover. Is not Sarah equally +interesting and equally innocent, when, under cover of an assumed name, +and that a sister's, she would preserve the love of one who has worthily +won it? + +Will it be said that the dialogue of the Bible lacks the charm of +poetry?--that its action and sentiment, its love and its sorrow, are not +heightened by those efforts of the fancy which delight us in dramatic +authors?--that its simplicity is bald, and its naturalness rough?--that +its excessive familiarity repels taste and disturbs culture? If we may +trust Wordsworth, simplicity is not inconsistent with the pleasures of +the imagination. The style of the Bible is not redundant,--there is +little extravagance in it, and it has no trickery of words. Yet this +does not prevent its being deep in sentiment, brilliant with intrinsic +thought or powerful effect. + +In the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Valentine thus utters himself touching +his betrothed:-- + + "What light is light, if Sylvia be not seen? + What joy is joy, if Sylvia be not by? + Except I see my Sylvia in the night, + There is no music in the nightingale. + Unless I look on Sylvia in the day, + There is no day for me to look upon. + She is my essence; and I cease to be, + If I be not by her fair influence + Fostered, illumined, cherished, kept alive." + +Compare with this the language of Abraham. "Thou art fair, my wife. Say, +I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy +sake, and my soul shall live because of thee." The first is an instance +of poetic amplification and _abandon_; we should contend, for the last, +that it expresses poetic tenderness and delicacy. In the one case, +passion is diffuse,--in the other, concentrated. Which is the more +natural, others must judge. + +"Euthanasy," "Theron and Aspasio," the "Phaedon" of Plato are dialogues, +but they are not dramatic. It may be, that, for a composition to claim +this distinction, it must embody great character or deep feeling,--that +it must express not only the individuality, but the strength of the +passions. + +Observing this criticism, we think we may find any quantity of dramatic +dialogue in Scripture. The story of Joseph, the march in the wilderness, +the history of David, are full of it. + +There are not only dramatic dialogue and movement, but dramatic +monologue and episode. For illustration, we might refer to Hagar in the +wilderness. Her tragic loneliness and shuddering despair alight upon the +page of Scripture with the interest that attends the introduction of the +veiled Niobe with her children into the Grecian theatre. + +There are those who say, that the truth of particular events, so far as +we are conscious of it, is a drawback on the pleasure as well as the +dignity of the drama,--in other words, that the Bible is too true to +afford what is called dramatic delight, while the semblance of truth in +Shakspeare is exactly graduated to this particular affection. Between +the advocates of this theory, and those who say that Shakspeare is true +as truth itself, we can safely leave the point. + +The subject has another aspect, which appears in the inquiry, What is +the true object of the drama? If, as has been asserted, the object of +the drama be the exhibition of the human character,--if, agreeably to +Aristotle, tragedy purifies the affections by terror and pity,--or if, +according to a recent writer, it interests us through the moral and +religious principles of our nature,--or even if, according to Dr. +Johnson, it be the province of comedy to bring into view the customs, +manners, vices, and the whole character of a people,--it is obvious that +the Bible and the drama have some correspondence. If, in the somewhat +heated language of Mrs. Jameson, "whatever in religion is holy and +sublime, in virtue amiable and grave, whatever hath passion or +admiration in the changes of fortune or the refluxes of feeling, +whatever is pitiful in the weakness, grand in the strength, or terrible +in the perversion of the human intellect," be the domain of tragedy, +this correspondence increases upon us. + +If, however, it be the object of the drama to divert, then it occupies a +wholly different ground from the Bible. If it merely gratifies curiosity +or enlivens pastime, if it awakens emotion without directing it to +useful ends, if it rallies the infirmities of human nature with no other +design than to provoke our derision or increase our conceit, it shoots +very, very wide of the object which the sacred writers propose. + +It is worthy to be remarked, that the Jews had no drama, or nothing that +answers to our idea of that term at the present time; they had no +theatres, no writers of tragedy or comedy. Neither are there any traces +of the dramatic art among the Egyptians, among whom the Jews sojourned +four hundred years, nor among the Arabs or the Persians, who are of +kindred stock with this people. On the other hand, by the Hindoos and +Chinese, the Greeks and Romans, histrionic representation was cultivated +with assiduity. + +How shall we explain this national peculiarity? Was it because the +religion of the Jews forbade creative imitation? Is it to be found in +the letter or the spirit of the second commandment, which interdicts the +making of graven images of any pattern in earth or heaven? We should +hardly think so, since the object of this prohibition is rather to +prevent idolatry than to discourage the gratification of taste. "Thou +shalt not bow down to them nor serve them." The Jews did have emblematic +observances, costume, and works of art. Yet, on the other hand, the Jews +possessed something resembling the drama, and that out of which the +dramatic institutions of all nations have sprung. The question, then, +why the Jews had no drama proper, and still preserved the semblance and +germ thereof, will be partially elucidated by a reference to the early +history of dramatic art. + +In its inception, the drama, among all nations, was a religious +observance. It came in with the chorus and the ode. The chorus, or, as +we now say, choir, was a company of persons who on stated occasions sang +sacred songs, accompanying their music with significant gesture, and an +harmonious pulsation of the feet, or the more deliberate march. The ode +or song they sang was of an elevated structure and impassioned tone, and +was commonly addressed to the Divinity. Instances of the ode are the +lyrics of Pindar and David. The chorus was also divided into parts, to +each of which was assigned a separate portion of the song, and which +answered one another in alternate measures. A good instance of the +chorus and its movement appears after the deliverance of the Jews from +the dangers of the Red Sea. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel +this song unto the Lord: 'I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously,'" etc. "And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel +in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with +dances; and Miriam answered them, 'Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath +triumphed gloriously.'" At a later period, in Jewish as in Greek +history, choral exercises became a profession, and the choir constituted +a detached portion of men and women. + +"Those who have studied the history of Grecian antiquities," says +Archbishop Potter, "and collected the fragments which remain of the most +ancient authors, have all concurred in the opinion, that poetry was +first employed in celebrating the praises of the gods. The fragments of +the Orphic hymns, and those of Linus and Musaeus, show these poets +entertained sounder notions of the Supreme Being than many philosophers +of a later date. There are lyric fragments yet remaining that bear +striking resemblance to Scripture." + +So, says Bishop Horne, "The poetry of the Jews is clearly traceable to +the service of religion. To celebrate the praises of God, to decorate +his worship, and give force to devout sentiments, was the employment of +the Hebrew Muse." + +The choral song, that is, a sacred ode united with appropriate action, +distinguished the Jews and Greeks alike. At a later period of Jewish +history, the chorus became perfected, yet without receiving any organic +change. Among the Greeks, however, the chorus passed by degrees into the +drama. To simple singing and dancing they added a variety of imitative +action; from celebrating the praises of the Divinity, they proceeded to +represent the deeds of men, and their orchestras were enlarged to +theatres. They retained the chorus, but subordinated it to the action. +The Jews, on the other hand, did no more than dramatize the chorus. So, +Bishop Horsley says, the greater part of the Psalms are a sort of +dramatic ode, consisting of dialogues between certain persons sustaining +certain characters. In these psalms, the persons are the writer himself +and a band of Levites,--or sometimes the Supreme Being, or a personation +of the Messiah. + +We find, then, the Jews and the Greeks running parallel in respect of +the drama, or that out of which the drama sprung, the chorus, for a long +series of years. The practice of the two nations in this respect +exhibits a striking coincidence, indeed, Lowth conceives that the Song +of Solomon bears a strong resemblance to the Greek drama. "The chorus of +virgins," he says, "seems in every respect congenial to the tragic +chorus of the Greeks. They are constantly present, and prepared to +fulfil all the duties of advice and consolation; they converse +frequently with the different characters; they take part in the whole +business of the poem." They fulfilled, in a word, all the purpose of the +Greek chorus on the Greek stage. + +On certain occasions, the Greek chorus celebrated divine worship in the +vicinity of the great altar of their god. Clad in magnificent vestments, +they move to solemn measures about it; they ascend and descend the steps +that lead to it; they offer sacrifices upon it; they carry in their +hands lighted torches; they pour out lustral water; they burn incense; +they divide into antiphonal bands, and sing alternate stanzas of their +sacred songs. + +So, in their religious festivals, the Jewish chorus surrounded the high +altar of their worship, gorgeously dressed, and with an harmonious +tread; they mounted and remounted the steps; they offered sacrifices; +they bore branches of trees in their hands; they scattered the lustral +water; they burnt incense; they pealed the responsive anthem. + +But while we follow down the stream of resemblance to a certain point, +it divides at last: on the Greek side, it is diverted into the lighter +practice of the theatre; on the Jewish side, it seems to deepen itself +in the religious feeling of the nation. + +Aeschylus, the father of tragedy, seizing upon the chorus, elaborated it +into the drama. The religious idea, indeed, seems never to have deserted +the gentile drama; for, at a later period, we find the Romans appointing +theatrical performances with the special design of averting the anger of +the gods. A religious spirit, also, pervades all the writings of the +ancient dramatists; they bring the gods to view, and the terrors of the +next world, on their stage, are seen crowding upon the sins of this. + +On the other hand, David, who may be denominated the Alfred of the Jews, +seems to have contented himself with the chorus; he allotted its +members, disciplined its ranks, heightened its effect, and supplied new +lyrics for its use. + +Another exemplification of singular coincidence and diversity between +the two nations appears in this, that the goat was common in the +religious observances of both; a similar ritual required the sacrifice +of this animal: but with the Jews the creature was an emblem of +solemnity, while with the Greeks he was significant of joy; the Jews +sacrificed him on their fasts,--the Greeks in their feasts. And here we +may observe, that tragedy, the most dignified and the primitive form of +the drama, deduces its origin from the goat,--being, literally, the song +of the goat, that is, the song accompanying the sacrifice of the goat. + +Let us now endeavor to answer the question, Why, since the drama was +generally introduced among surrounding nations, and Jewish customs and +life comprised so many initial dramatic materials, this art was not +known among that people? + +It was owing to the earnestness and solemnity of their religious faith. +We find the cause in the simple, exalted, and comparatively spiritual +ideas they had of the Supreme Being; in a word, we shall state the whole +ground to be this,--that the Greeks were polytheists, and the Jews +monotheists. + +Let us bear in mind that the chorus, and the drama that was built upon +it, had a religious association, and were employed in religious +devotion. We may add, moreover, that the Greeks introduced their gods +upon the stage; this the Jews could not do. The Greeks, of course, had a +great deal of religious feeling, but they could not cherish that +profound reverence for the object of their worship which the Jews +entertained towards theirs. The Jews accompanied the Greeks in the use +of the chorus, but they could not go with them any farther. They both +united in employing music and the dance, and all the pomp of procession +and charm of ceremony, in divine worship; but when it came to displaying +the object of their adoration in personal form to the popular eye, and +making him an actor on the stage, however dignified that stage might be, +the Jews could not consent. + +This, we think, will explain, in part, why others of the ancient +nations, the Arabs and Persians, rich as they were in every species of +literature, had no theatre; they were monotheists. + +But there is the department of comedy, of a lighter sort, which does not +converse with serious subjects, or necessarily include reference to +Deity; why do we find no trace of this among the Jews? We may remember, +that all festivals, in very ancient time, of every description, the +grave and the gay, the penitential and the jubilant, had a religious +design, and were suggested by a religious feeling. We think the peculiar +cast of the Judaic faith would hardly embody itself in such a mode of +expression. Moreover, tragedy was the parent of comedy,--and since the +Jews had not the first, we should hardly expect them to produce the +last. It is not difficult to perceive how the Greeks could convert their +goat to dramatic, or even to comic purposes; but the Jews could not deal +so with theirs. + +We approach another observation, that there is no comedy in the Bible. +There is tragedy there,--not in the sense in which we have just denied +that the Jews had tragedy, but in the obvious sense of tragic elements, +tragic scenes, tragic feelings. In the same sense, we say, there are no +comic elements, or scenes, or feelings. There is that in the Bible to +make you weep, but nothing to move you to laughter. Why is this? Are +there not smiles as well as tears in life? Have we not a deep, joyous +nature, as well as aspiration, reverence, awe? Is there not a +free-and-easy side of existence, as well as vexation and sorrow? We +assent that these things are so. + +But comedy implies ridicule, sharp, corroding ridicule. The comedy of +the Greeks ridiculed everything,--persons, characters, opinions, +customs, and sometimes philosophy and religion. Comedy became, +therefore, a sort of consecrated slander, lyric spite, aesthetical +buffoonery. Comedy makes you laugh at somebody's expense; it brings +multitudes together to see it inflict death on some reputation; it +assails private feeling with all the publicity and powers of the stage. + +Now we doubt if the Jewish faith or taste would tolerate this. The Jews +were commanded to love their neighbor. We grant, their idea of neighbor +was excessively narrow and partial; but still it was their neighbor. +They were commanded not to bear false witness against their neighbor, +and he was pronounced accursed who should smite his neighbor secretly. +It might appear that comedy would violate each of these statutes. But +the Jews had their delights, their indulgences, their transports, +notwithstanding the imperfection of their benevolence, the meagreness of +their truth, and the cumbersomeness of their ceremonials. The Feast of +Tabernacles, for instance, was liberal and happy, bright and smiling; it +was the enthusiasm of pastime, the psalm of delectableness. They did not +laugh at the exposure of another's foibles, but out of their own merry +hearts. + +Will it be said, the Bible is not true to Nature, if it does not +represent the comical side of life, as well as Shakspeare does? We think +the comical parts of Shakspeare, his extreme comical parts, are rather +an exaggeration of individual qualities than a fair portraiture of the +whole species. There is no Falstaff in the Bible, yet the qualities of +Falstaff exist in the Bible and in Nature, but in combination, and this +combination modifies their aspect and effect. + +There is laughter in the Bible, but it is not uttered to make you laugh. +There are also events recorded, which, at the time, may have produced +effects analogous to comedy. The approach of the Gibeonites to the camp +of Israel in their mock-beggarly costume might be mentioned. Shimei's +cursing David has always seemed to us to border on the ludicrous. + +But to leave these matters and return to the general thread of thought. +Dramas have been formed on the Bible. We hardly need name "Paradise +Lost," or "Samson Agonistes," or the "Cain" of Byron, the "Hadad" of +Hillhouse, or Mrs. More's "David and Goliah." "Pilgrim's Progress" has a +Scriptural basis. + +Moreover, if we may trust the best critics, certain portions of the +sacred volume are conceived in a dramatic spirit, and are propounded to +a dramatic interpretation. These are the Book of Job, the Song of +Solomon, and, possibly, the Apocalypse of St. John. If we were disposed +to contend for this view, we need but mention such authorities as +Calmet, Carpzov, Bishops Warburton, Percy, Lowth, Bossuet. + +The Book of Job has a prose prologue and epilogue, the intermediate +portions being poetic dialogue. The characters are discriminated and +well supported. It does not preserve the unities of Aristotle, which, +indeed, are found neither in the Bible nor in Nature,--which Shakspeare +neglects, and which are to be met with only in the crystalline +artificialness of the French stage. "It has no plot, not even of the +simplest kind," says Dr. Lowth. It has a plot,--not an external and +visible one, but an internal and spiritual one; its incidents are its +feelings, its progress is the successive conditions of mind, and it +terminates with the triumph of virtue. If it be not a record of actual +conversation, it is an embodiment of a most wonderful ideality. The +eternity of God, the grandeur of Nature, the profundity of the soul, +move in silent panorama before you. The great and agitating problems of +human existence are depicted with astonishing energy and precision, and +marvellous is the conduct of the piece to us who behold it as a painting +away back on the dark canvas of antiquity. + +We said the Jews had no drama, no theatre, because they would not +introduce the Divinity upon the stage. Yet God appears speaking in the +Book of Job, not bodily, but ideally, and herein is all difference. This +drama addresses the imagination, not the eye. The Greeks brought their +divinities into sight, stood them on the stage,--or clothed a man with +an enormous mask, and raised him on a pedestal, giving him also +corresponding apparel, to represent their god. The Hebrew stage, if we +may share the ordinary indulgence of language in using that term, with +an awe and delicacy suitable to the dignity of the subject, permits the +Divinity to speak, but does not presume to employ his person; the +majesty of Infinitude utters itself, but no robe-maker undertakes to +dress it for the occasion. In the present instance, how exalted, how +inspiring, is the appearance of God! how free from offensive diminution +and costumal familiarity! "Then the Lord answered Job out of the +whirlwind, and said." Dim indeed is the representation, but very +distinct is the impression. The phenomenon conforms to the purity of +feeling, not to the grossness of sense. Devotion is kindled by the +sublime impalpableness; no applause is enforced by appropriate acting. +The Greeks, would have played the Book of Job,--the Jews were contented +to read it. + +And here we might remark a distinction between dramatic reading and +dramatic seeing; and in support of our theory we can call to aid so good +an authority as Charles Lamb. "I cannot help being of opinion," says +this essayist, "that the plays of Shakspeare are less calculated for +performance on a stage than those of almost any other dramatist +whatever." + +How are the love dialogues of Romeo and Juliet, by the inherent fault of +stage representation, sullied and turned from their very nature by being +exposed to a large assembly! How can the profound sorrows of Hamlet be +depicted by a gesticulating actor? So, to see Lear acted, to see an old +man tottering about the stage with a walking-stick, turned out of doors +by his daughters in a rainy night, has nothing in it but what is painful +and disgusting. The contemptible machinery by which they mimic the storm +in which he goes out is not more inadequate to represent the horrors of +the real elements than any actor can be to represent Lear. In the acted +Othello, the black visage of the Moor is obtruded upon you; in the +written Othello, his color disappears in his mind. When Hamlet compares +the two pictures of Gertrude's first and second husband, who wants to +see the pictures? But in the acting, a miniature must be lugged out. "The +truth is," he adds, "the characters of Shakspeare are more the objects +of meditation than of interest or curiosity as to their actions." + +All this applies with force to what we have been saying. The Jews, in +respect of their dramatic culture, seem more like one who enjoys +Shakspeare in the closet; the Greeks, like those who are tolled off to +the theatre to see him acted. The Greeks would have contrived a pair of +bellows to represent the whirlwind; mystic, vast, inaudible, it passes +before the imagination of the Jew, and its office is done. The Jew would +be shocked to see his God in a human form; such a thing pleased the +Greek. The source of the difference is to be sought in the theology of +the two nations. The theological development of the Jews was very +complete,--that of the Greeks unfinished. + +Yet the Jews were very deficient in art, and the Greeks perfect; both +failed in humanity. The Greeks had more ideality than the Jews; but +their ideality was very intense; it was continually, so to speak, +running aground; it must see its conceptions embodied; and more,--when +they were embodied, Pygmalion-like, it must seek to imbue them with +motion and sensibility. The conception of the Jews was more vague, +perhaps, but equally affecting; they were satisfied with carrying in +their minds the faint outline of the sublime, without seeking to chisel +it into dimension and tangibility. They cherished in their bosoms their +sacred ideal, and worshipped from far the greatness of the majesty that +shaded their imaginations. Hence we look to Athens for art, to Palestine +for ethics; the one produces rhetoricians,--the other, prophets. + +So, we see, the theologico-dramatic forms of the two nations--and there +were no other--are different. The one pleases the prurient eye,--the +other gratifies the longing soul; the one amuses,--the other inspires; +the one is a hollow pageant of divine things,--the other is a glad, +solemn intimation from the unutterable heart of the universe. + +The Song of Solomon, that stumbling-block of criticism and pill of +faith, a recent writer regards as a parable in the form of a drama, in +which the bride is considered as representing true religion, the royal +lover as the Jewish people, and the younger sister as the Gospel +dispensation. But it is evidently conceived in a very different spirit +from the Book of Job or the Psalms of David, and its theological +character is so obscured by other associations as to lead many to +inquire whether an enlightened religious sensibility dictated it. + +We cannot dismiss this part of our subject without allusion to a species +of drama that prevailed in the Middle Ages, called Mysteries, or +Moralities. These were a sort of scenical illustration of the Sacred +Scripture, and the subjects were events taken sometimes from the New +Testament and sometimes from the Old. It is said they were designed to +supply the place of the Greek and Roman theatre, which had been banished +from the Church. The plays were written and performed by the clergy. +They seem to have first been employed to wile away the dulness of the +cloister, but were very soon introduced to the public. Adam and Eve in +Paradise, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection were theatrized. The effect +could hardly be salutary. The different persons of the Trinity appeared +on the stage; on one side of the scene stretched the yawning throat of +an immense wooden dragon; masked devils ran howling in and out. + +"In the year 1437,"--we follow the literal history, as we find it quoted +in D'Israeli,--"when the Bishop of Metz caused the Mystery of the +Passion to be represented near that city, God was an old gentleman, a +curate of the place, and who was very near expiring on the cross, had he +not been timely assisted. He was so enfeebled that another priest +finished his part. At the same time this curate undertook to perform the +Resurrection, which being a less difficult task, he did it admirably +well. Another priest, personating Judas, had like to have been stifled +while he hung on the tree, for his neck slipped. This being at length +luckily perceived, he was cut down, and recovered." In another instance, +a man who assumed the Supreme Being becoming nearly suffocated by the +paint applied to his face, it was wisely announced that for the future +the Deity should be covered by a cloud. These plays, carried about the +country, taken up by the baser sort of people, descended through all +degrees of farce to obscenity, and, in England, becoming entangled in +politics, at length disappeared. It is said they linger in Italy, and +are annually reproduced in Spain. + +The Bible is incapable of representation. For a man to act the Supreme +Being would be as revolting in idea as profane in practice. One may in +words portray the divine character, give utterance to the divine will. +This every preacher does. But to what is the effect owing? Not to +proprieties of attitude or arrangement of muscle, but to the spirit of +the man magnified and flooding with the great theme, and to the thought +of God that surrounds and subdues all; in other words, the imagination +is addressed, not the sight,--the sentiments and affections are engaged, +not the senses. As Lamb says of the Lear of Shakspeare, it cannot be +acted; so, with greater force, we may say of the Bible, it cannot be +acted. When we read or hear of the Passion of the Saviour, it is the +thought, the emotion, burning and seething within it, at which by +invisible contact our own thought and emotion catch fire; and the +capabilities of impersonation and manufacture are mocked by such a +subject. + +But the Bible abounds in dramatic situation, action, and feeling. This +has already been intimated; it only remains that we indicate some +examples. The history of David fulfils all the demands of dramatic +composition. It has the severe grandeur of Aeschylus, the moving +tenderness of Euripides, and the individual fidelity of Shakspeare. +Could this last-named writer, who, while he counterfeited Nature with +such success, was equally commended for his historical integrity,--could +Shakspeare have performed that service on this history, which Milton, +More, and others have undertaken on other portions of the sacred +volume,--could he have digested it into a regular dramatic form,--he +would have accomplished a work of rare interest. It would include the +characters of Samuel and Saul; it would describe the magnanimous +Jonathan and the rebellious Absalom; Nathan, Nabal, Goliah, Shimei, +would impart their respective features; it would be enriched with all +that is beautiful in woman's love or enduring in parental affection. It +is full of incident, and full of pathos. It verges towards the terrible, +it is shaken with the passionate, it rises into the heroic. Pursued in +the true spirit of Jewish theology, the awful presence of God would +overhang and pervade it, while the agency of his providence should +attend on the evolutions of events. + +There is one effect which, in the present arrangement of the canon, is +entirely lost to view, and which could be revived only by the +synchronizing of the Psalms with their proper epochs. For instance, the +eighth Psalm is referable to the youth of David, when he was yet leading +a shepherd life. The dramatic form of his history would detach this from +its present place, and insert it amid the occasions and in the years to +which it belongs. What a scene we should then have! The youthful David, +ruddy he was, and, withal, of a beautiful countenance, (marginal +reading, fair of eyes,) and goodly to look to; and he was a cunning +player on the harp. There is the glow of poetic enthusiasm in his eyes, +and the fervor of religious feeling in all his moods; as he tends his +flock amid the quietness and beauty of his native hills, he joins to the +aspirations of his soul the melodies of music. So the night overtakes +him, the labors of the day are past, his meditations withdraw him from +the society of men, he is alone with Nature and with God;--at such a +moment the spirit of composition and utterance is upon him, and he hymns +himself in those lofty and touching stanzas,-- + + "O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth! + When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, + The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, + What is man that thou art mindful of him, + And the son of man that thou carest for him? + Yet thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, + Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor; + Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hand, + Thou hast put all things under his feet,-- + All sheep and oxen, + Yea, and the beasts of the forest, + The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, + And whatsoever passes through the deep. + O Jehovah, our Lord, + How excellent is thy name in all the earth!" + +Again, the fifty-seventh Psalm is assigned, in respect of place, to the +cave of En-gedi, into which David fled from the vengeance of Saul. Here, +surrounded by lofty rocks, whose promontories screen a wide extent of +vale, he breaks forth,-- + + "Have pity upon me, O God, have pity upon me, + For in thee doth my soul seek refuge! + Yea, in the shadow of thy wings do I take shelter, + Until these calamities be overpast!" + +Dramatically touched, and disposed according to the natural unities of +the subject, these sublime and affecting songs would appear on their +motive occasions, and be surrounded by their actual accompaniments. + +The present effect may be compared to that which would be felt, if we +should detach the songs of the artificial drama from their original +impulse and feeling, (for instance, the willow dirge of Desdemona, and +the fantastic moans of Ophelia,) and produce them in a parlor. Not but +that these lyrics have a universal fitness, and a value which no time +can change or circumstance diminish; but as we are looking at them +simply in a dramatic view, we claim the right to suggest their dramatic +force and pertinency. This effect, we might remark, is particularly and +most truthfully regarded in the Lament of David over Saul and Jonathan. +That monody would be shorn of its interest, if it were inserted anywhere +else. The Psalms are more impersonal and more strictly religious than +that, and hence their universal application; only we say, we can easily +conceive that the revival of them in the order of their history, and in +all the purity of their native pathos, would render them more +attractive. + +In connection with what we would further observe of the Psalms of David, +let us again call attention to the ancient chorus,--how it was a species +of melodrama, how it sang its parts, and comprised distinct vocalists +and musicians, who pursued the piece in alternate rejoinder. What we +would observe is, that many of the Psalms were written for the chorus, +and, so to speak, were performed by it. There are some of them which it +is impossible to understand without attention to this dramatic method of +rehearsal. Psalm cxviii., for instance, includes several speakers. Psalm +xxiv. was composed on the occasion of the transfer of the ark to the +tabernacle on Mount Zion. And David, we read, and all the house of +Israel, brought up the ark with shouting and with the sound of the +trumpet. In the midst of the congregated nation, supported by a varied +instrumental accompaniment, with the smoke of the well-fed altar surging +into the skies, the chorus took up the song which had been prepared to +their hand,--one group calling out, "Who shall ascend into the hill of +the Lord?"--the other pealing their answer, "He that hath clean hands +and a pure heart." Meanwhile, they dance before the Lord,--that is, we +suppose, preserving with their feet the unities of the music. + +It was during a melodrama like this, in the midst of its exciting +grandeur and all-pervading transport, executed at the Feast of +Tabernacles, in the open area of the Temple, when the Jews were wont to +pour upon the altar water taken from the pool of Siloam, chanting at the +same time the twelfth chapter of Isaiah, and one division of the chorus +had just sung the words,-- + + "With joy we draw water from the wells of salvation," + +and before the other had replied,--it was at this moment, that Christ, +as Dr. Furness very reasonably conjectures, took up the response in his +own person, and overwhelmed attention by that memorable declaration, "If +any man thirst, let him come to me and drink; and from within him shall +flow rivers of living water." + +It is what we may term the dramatic proprieties that give to many of the +Psalms, in the language of a recent commentator, "a greater degree of +fitness, spirit, and grandeur"; and they impart to the history of David +a certain decorousness of illustration and perspicuity of feature which +it would not otherwise possess. They would produce upon it the same +result as is achieved by the sister arts on this and other portions of +the sacred volume, without marring the text or doing violence to truth. +Not, let us repeat, that the Bible can be theatrized. Neither church nor +playhouse can revive the forms of Judaism, without recalling its lost +spirit. And that must be a bold hand, indeed, that shall undertake to +mend again the shivered vail of the Temple, or collect from its ruins a +ritual which He that was greater than Solomon typically denounced in +foretelling the overthrow of that gorgeous pile. The Bible, as to its +important verities and solemn doctrine, is transparent to the +imagination and affections, and does not require the mediation of dumb +show or scenic travesty. + +It is not difficult to trace many familiar dramatic resemblances in the +Old Testament. Shakspeare, who was certainly well read in the Bible and +frequently quotes it, in the composition of Lear may have had David and +Absalom in mind; the feigned madness of Hamlet has its prototype in that +of David; Macbeth and the Weird Sisters have many traits in common with +Saul and the Witch of Endor. Jezebel is certainly a suggestive study for +Lady Macbeth. The whole story has its key in that verse where we read, +"There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work +wickedness in the sight of the Lord, _whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred +up_." As in the play, so in this Scripture, we have the unrestrained and +ferocious ambition of the wife conspiring with the equally cruel, but +less hardy ambition of the husband. When Macbeth had murdered sleep, +when he could not screw his courage to the sticking-point, when his +purpose looked green and pale, his wife stings him with taunts, scathes +him with sarcasm, and by her own energy of intellect and storm of will +arouses him to action. So Ahab came in heavy and displeased, and laid +him down on his bed, and turned away his face, and so his wife inflames +him with the sharpness of her rebuke. "Why art thou sad?" she asks. +"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, eat bread, and be +merry!" The lust of regal and conjugal pride, intermixed, works in both. +Jezebel, whose husband was a king, would crown him with kingly deeds. +Lady Macbeth, whose husband was a prince, would see him crowned a king. +Jezebel would aggrandize empire, which her unlawful marriage thereto had +jeoparded. Lady Macbeth will run the risk of an unlawful marriage with +empire, if she may thereby aggrandize it. Jezebel is insensible to +patriotic feelings,--Lady Macbeth to civil and hospitable duties. The +Zidonian woman braves the vengeance of Jehovah,--the Scotch woman dares +the Powers of Darkness; the one is incited by the oracles of Baal,--the +other by the predictions of witches. Lady Macbeth has more intellectual +force,--Jezebel more moral decision; Lady Macbeth exhibits great +imagination,--Jezebel a stronger will. As the character of Lady Macbeth +is said to be relieved by the affection she shows for her husband, so is +that of Jezebel by her tenderness for Ahab. The grandness of the +audacity with which Jezebel sends after the prophet Elisha, saying, "So +let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life +of one of them by to-morrow about this time," has its counterpart in the +lofty terror of the invocation which Lady Macbeth makes to the "spirits +that wait on mortal thoughts,"-- + + "Fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full + Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, + Stop up the access and the passage of remorse! + . . . . Come to my woman's breasts, + And take my milk for gall, ye murdering ministers!" + +But the last moments of these excessive characters are singularly +contrasted. Jezebel scoffs at approaching retribution, and, shining with +paint and dripping with jewels, is pitched to the dogs; Lady Macbeth +goes like a coward to her grave, and, curdled with remorse, receives the +stroke of doom. + +If Shakspeare and the Old Testament are a just manifestation of human +nature, the New is so different, its representation would seem to be +almost fanciful or fallacious; or if the latter be accepted, the former +would seem to be discarded. But both are faithful to the different ages +and phases of man. The one is a dispensation of force,--the other of +love; the one could make nothing perfect,--but the bringing in of a +better covenant makes all things perfect. Through the tempest and storm, +the brutality and lust of the Greek tragedians, and even of the +barbarous times on which Shakspeare builds many of his plays, through +the night of Judaical back-slidings, idolatry, and carnal commandments, +we patiently wait, and gladly hail the morning of the Sun of +Righteousness. The New Testament is a green, calm, island, in this +heaving, fearful ocean of dramatic interest. How delightful is +everything there, and how elevated! how glad, and how solemn! how +energetic, and how tranquil! What characters, what incident, what +feeling! Yet how different! So different, indeed, from what elsewhere +appears, that we are compelled to ask, Can this be that same old +humanity whose passions, they tell us, are alike in all ages, and the +emphatic turbulence of which constitutes so large a portion of history? + +But how shall we describe what is before us? The events open, if we may +draw a term from our subject, with a prologue spoken by angels,-- + + "Peace on earth, and good-will towards men." + +There had been Jezebels and Lady Macbeths enough; the memory of David +still smelt of blood; the Roman eagles were gorging their beaks on human +flesh; and the Samaritan everywhere felt the gnawing, shuddering sense +of hatred and scorn. No chorus appears answering to chorus, praising the +god of battles, or exulting in the achievements of arms; but the +sympathies of Him who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities +answer to the wants and woes of the race, and every thoughtful mind +ecstatically encores. The inexorable Fate of the Greeks does not appear, +but a good Providence interferes, and Heaven smiles graciously upon the +scene. There is passion, indeed, grief and sorrow, sin and +suffering,--but the tempest-stiller is here, who breathes tranquillity +upon the waters, and pours serenity into the turbid deep. The Niobe of +humanity, stiff and speechless, with her enmarbled children, that used +sometimes to be introduced on the Athenian stage for purposes of terror +or pity, is here restored to life, and she renders thanks for her +deliverance and participates in the general joy to which the piece gives +birth. No murderers of the prophets are hewn in pieces before the Lord; +but from the agonies of the cross and the depths of a preternatural +darkness, the tender cry is heard, on behalf of the murderers of the Son +of God, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" No +Alcestis is exhibited, doomed to destruction to save the life of her +husband,--but One appears, moving cheerfully, voluntarily, forwards, to +what may be termed the funeral pile of the world, from which, +phoenix-like, he rises, and gloriously ascends, drawing after him the +hearts, the love, the worship of millions of spectators. The key of the +whole piece is Redemption, the spirit that actuates is Love. The chief +actors, indeed, are Christ and Man; but innumerable subsidiary +personages are the Charities. The elements of a spiritualized existence +act their part. Humanity is not changed in its substance, but in its +tendencies; the sensibilities exist, but under a divine culture. Stephen +is as heroic as Agamemnon, Mary as energetic as Medea. Little children +are no longer dashed in pieces,--they are embraced and blessed. + +But let us select for attention, and for a conclusion to these remarks, +a particular scene. It shall be from Luke. This evangelist has been +fabled a painter, and in the apotheosis of the old Church he was made +the tutelar patron of that class of artists. If the individuality of his +conceptions, the skill of his groupings, and the graphicness gave rise +to such an idea, it would seem to have its foundation as well in Nature +as in superstition. Matthew has more detail, more thought; Luke is more +picturesque, more descriptive. John has more deep feeling; Luke more +action, more life. The Annunciation, the Widow of Nain, the Prodigal Son, +the Good Samaritan, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the incident to which +we shall presently advert, are found in Luke alone. + +The incident in question is the dining of Christ at the house of Simon +the Pharisee, and, while they were reclining at meat, the entrance of a +woman which was a sinner, who bathes the feet of Jesus with tears, and +wipes them with the hair of her head. The place is the city of Nain; the +hour noon. The _dramatis personae_ are three,--Jesus, Simon, and the +Woman,--and, if we choose to add them, the other guests, who are silent +spectators of what transpires. + +Let, us consider, first, the Woman. She "was a sinner." This is all, in +fact, that we know of her; but this is enough. The term "sinner," in +this instance, as in many others, does not refer to the general apostasy +in Adam; it is distinctive of race and habit. She was probably of +heathen extraction, as she was certainly of a dissolute life. The poetry +of sin and shame calls her the Magdalen, and there may be a convenience +in permitting this name to stand. The depth of her depravity Christ +clearly intimates in his allusion to the debtor who owed five hundred +pence, and the language of Simon teaches that the infamy of her life was +well understood among the inhabitants of the city. If a foreigner, she +had probably been brought into the country by the Roman soldiers and +deserted. If a native, she had fallen beneath the ban of respectability, +and was an outcast alike from hope and from good society. She was +condemned to wear a dress different from that of other people; she was +liable at any moment to be stoned for her conduct; she was one whom it +was a ritual impurity to touch. She was wretched beyond measure; but +while so corrupt, she was not utterly hardened. Incapable of virtue, she +was not incapable of gratitude. Weltering in grossness, she could still +be touched by the sight of purity. Plunged into extremest vice, she +retained the damning horror of her situation. If she had ever striven to +recover her lost position, there were none to assist her; the bigotry of +patriotism rejected her for her birth,--the scrupulousness of modesty, +for her history. The night, that consecrated so many homes and gathered +together so many families in innocence and repose, was to her blacker +than its own blackness in misery and turpitude; the morning, that +radiated gladness over the face of the world, revealed the extent and +exaggerated the sense of her own degradation. But the vision of Jesus +had alighted upon her; she had seen him speeding on his errands of +mercy; she hung about the crowd that followed his steps; his tender look +of pity may have sometimes gleamed into her soul. Stricken, smitten, +confounded, her yearnings for peace gush forth afresh. It was as if +Hell, moved by contrition, had given up its prey,--as if Remorse, tired +of its gnawing, felt within itself the stimulus of hope. But how shall +she see Jesus? Wherewithal shall she approach him? She has "nothing to +pay." She has tears enough, and sorrows enough,--but these are derided +by the vain, and suspected by the wise. She has an alabaster box of +ointment, which, shut out as she is from honorable gain, must be the +product and the concomitant of her guilt. But with these she must go. We +see her threading her lonely way through the streets, learning by hints, +since she would not dare to learn by questions, where Jesus is, and +stops before the vestibule of the elegant mansion of Simon the Pharisee. + +Who is Simon the Pharisee? Not necessarily a bad man. We associate +whatever is odious in hypocrisy or base in craft with the name Pharisee, +while really it was the most distinguished title among the Jews. Many of +the Pharisees were hypocrites; not all of them. The name is significant +of profession, not of character. He could not have been an unprincipled, +villanous man, or he would never have tendered to Jesus the +hospitalities of his house. Indeed, Christ allows him, in the sense of +moral indebtedness, to owe but fifty pence. He was probably a rich man, +which might appear from the generous entertainment he made. He was a +respectable man. The sect to which he belonged was the most celebrated +and influential among the Jews; and when not debased by positive crime, +a Pharisee was always esteemed for his learning and his piety. He had +some interest in Christ, either in his mission or his character,--an +interest beyond mere curiosity, or he would not have invited him to dine +with him. He betrays a sincere friendliness, also, in his apprehension +lest Christ should suffer any religious contamination. + +The third person in the scene is Christ, who, to speak of him not as +theology has interpreted him to us, but as he appeared to the eyes of +his contemporaries, was the reputed son of Joseph and Mary, the +Bethlehemites; who by his words and deeds had attracted much attention +and made some converts; now accused of breaking the Jewish Sabbath, now +of plotting against the Roman sovereignty; one who in his own person had +felt the full power of temptation, and who had been raised to the +grandeur of a transfiguration; so tender he would not bruise the broken +reed, so gentle his yoke was rest; raying out with compassion and love +wherever he went; healing alike the pangs of grief and the languor of +disease; whom some believed to be the Messiah, and others thought a +prophet; whom the masses followed, and the priests feared;--this is the +third member of the company. + +The two last, with the other guests, are engaged at their meal, and in +conversation. The door is darkened by a strange figure; all eyes are +riveted on the apparition; the Magdalen enters, faded, distressed, with +long dishevelled hair. She has no introduction; she says nothing; +indeed, in all this remarkable scene she never speaks; her silence is as +significant as it is profound. She goes behind the couch where Jesus, +according to Oriental custom, is reclined. She drops at his feet; there +her tears stream; there the speechless agony of her soul bursts. Observe +the workings of the moment. See how those people are affected. Surprise +on the part of Simon and his friends turns to scorn, and this shades +into indignation. Jesus is calm, collected, and intently thoughtful. The +woman is overwhelmed by her situation. The lip of Simon curls, his eye +flashes with fire of outraged virtue. Jesus meets his gaze with equal +fire, but it is all of pure heavenly feeling. Simon moves to have the +vagabond expelled; Christ interrupts the attempt. But the honor of the +house is insulted. Yes, but the undying interests of the soul are at +stake. But the breath of the woman is ritual poison, and her touch will +bring down the curses of the law. But the look of Christ indicates that +depth of spirituality before which the institutions of Moses flee away +as chaff before the wind. Simon has some esteem for Jesus, and in this +juncture his sensations take a turn of pity, spiced, perhaps, with a +little contempt, and he says with himself,--"Surely, this man cannot be +a prophet, as is pretended, or he would know who and what sort of woman +it is that touches him; for she is a sinner; she is unclean and +reprobate." + +"Simon!" says Jesus, with a tone that pierced to the worthy host's +heart, and arrested the force of his pious alarm,--"Simon!" + +"Sir, say on," is the reply of the Pharisee, who is awed by this appeal +into an humble listener. + +Whereupon Jesus relates the story of the two debtors, and, with +irresistible strength of illustration and delicacy of application, +breaks the prejudice and wins the composure of the Jew. "If, then," he +continues, "he loves much to whom much is forgiven, what shall we say of +one who loves so much?" + +"See," he goes on, pointing to the woman, "See this woman,--this wretch. +I entered thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she has +washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She kisses +my feet; she anoints them with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her +sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." + +This scene, however inadequately it may be set forth, contains all that +is sublime in tragedy, terrible in guilt, or intense in pathos. The +woman represents humanity, or the soul of human nature; Simon, the +world, or worldly wisdom; Christ, divinity, or the divine purposes of +good to us ward. Simon is an incarnation of what St. Paul calls the +beggarly elements; Christ, of spirituality; the woman, of sin. It is not +the woman alone,--but in her there cluster upon the stage all want and +woe, all calamity and disappointment, all shame and guilt. In Christ +there come forward to meet her, love, hope, truth, light, salvation. In +Simon are acted out doting conservatism, mean expediency, purblind +calculation, carnal insensibility. Generosity in this scene is +confronted with meanness, in the attempt to shelter misfortune. The +woman is a tragedy herself, such as Aeschylus never dreamed of. The +scourging Furies, dread Fate, and burning Hell unite in her, and, borne +on by the new impulse of the new dispensation, they come towards the +light, they ask for peace, they throng to the heaven that opens in +Jesus. Simon embodies that vast array of influences that stand between +humanity and its redemption. He is a very excellent, a very estimable +man,--but he is not shocked at intemperance, he would not have slavery +disturbed, he sees a necessity for war. Does Christ know who and what +sort of a woman it is that touches him? Will he defile himself by such a +contact? Can he expect to accomplish anything by familiarity with such +matters? Why is he not satisfied with a good dinner? "Simon!" "Simon!" + +The silence of the woman is wonderful, it is awful. What is most +profound, most agitating, most intense cannot speak; words are too +little for the greatness of feeling. So Job sat himself upon the ground +seven days and seven nights, speechless. Not in this case, as is said of +Schiller's Robbers, did the pent volcano find vent in power-words; not +in strong and terrible accents was uttered the hoarded wrath of long +centuries of misrule and oppression. The volcano, raging, aching, threw +itself in silence into the arms of one who could soothe and allay it. +The thunder is noisy and harmless. The lightning is silent,--and the +lightning splits, kills, consumes. Humanity had muttered its thunder for +ages. Its lightning, the condensed, fiery, fatal force of things, leaped +from the blackness of sin, threaded with terrific glare the vision of +man, and, in the person of the woman, fell hot and blasting at the feet +of Jesus, who quenched its fire, and of that destructive bolt made a +trophy of grace and a fair image of hope. She could not speak, and so +she wept,--like the raw, chilling, hard atmosphere, which is relieved +only by a shower of snow. How could she speak, guilty, remorseful +wretch, without excuse, without extenuation? In the presence of divine +virtue, at the tribunal of judgment, she could only weep, she could only +love. But, blessed be Jesus, he could forgive her, he can forgive all. +The woman departs in peace; Simon is satisfied; Jesus triumphs; we +almost hear the applauses with which the ages and generations of earth +greet the closing scene. From the serene celestial immensity that opens +above the spot we can distinguish a voice, saying, "This is my beloved +Son; hear ye him!" + +We speak of these things dramatically, but, after all, they are the only +great realities. Everything else is mimetic, phantasmal, tinkling. +Deeply do the masters of the drama move us; but the Gospel cleaves, +inworks, regenerates. In the theatre, the leading characters go off in +death and despair, or with empty conceits and a forced frivolity; in the +Gospel, tranquilly, grandly, they are dismissed to a serener life and a +nobler probation. Who has not pitied the ravings of Lear and the agonies +of Othello? The Gospel pities, but, by a magnificence of plot altogether +its own, by preserving, if we may so say, the unities of heaven and +earth, it also saves. + +Of all common tragedy, we may exclaim, in the words of the old play,-- + + "How like a silent stream shaded with night, + And gliding softly, with our windy sighs, + Moves the whole frame of this solemnity!" + +The Gospel moves by, as a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, +from the throne of God and the Lamb; on its surface play the sunbeams of +hope; in its valleys rise the trees of life, beneath the shadows of +which the weary years of human passion repose, and from the leaves of +the branches of which is exhaled to the passing breeze healing for the +nations. + + + + +THE RING FETTER. + + +A NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDY. + + +There are long stretches in the course of the Connecticut River, where +its tranquil current assumes the aspect of a lake, its sudden bends cut +off the lovely reach of water, and its heavily wooded banks lie silent +and green, undisturbed, except by the shriek of the passing steamer, +casting golden-green reflections into the stream at twilight, and +shadows of deepest blackness, star-pierced, at remoter depths of night. +Here, now and then, a stray gull from the sea sends a flying throb of +white light across the mirror below, or the sweeping wings of a hawk +paint their moth-like image on the blue surface, or a little flaw of +wind shudders across the water in a black ripple; but except for these +casual stirs of Nature, all is still, oppressive, and beautiful, as +earth seems to the trance-sleeper on the brink of his grave. + +In one of these reaches, though on either side the heavy woods sweep +down to the shore and hang over it as if deliberating whether to plunge +in, on the eastern bank there is a tiny meadow just behind the +tree-fringe of the river, completely hedged in by the deep woods, and +altogether hidden from any inland road; nor would the traveller on the +river discover it, except for the chimney of a house that peers above +the yellow willows and seems in that desolate seclusion as startling as +a daylight ghost. But this dwelling was built and deserted and +weather-beaten long before the date of our story. It had been erected +and inhabited during the Revolution, by an old Tory, who, foreseeing the +result of the war better than some of his contemporaries, and being +unwilling to expose his person to the chances of battle or his effects +to confiscation, maintained a strict neutrality, and a secret trade with +both parties; thereby welcoming peace and independence, fully stocked +with the dislike and suspicion of his neighbors, and a large quantity of +Continental "fairy-money." So, when Abner Dimock died, all he had to +leave to his only son was the red house on "Dimock's Meadow," and a +ten-acre lot of woodland behind and around the green plateau where the +house stood. These possessions he strictly entailed on his heirs +forever, and nobody being sufficiently interested in its alienation to +inquire into the State laws concerning the validity of such an entail, +the house remained in the possession of the direct line, and in the year +18-- belonged to another Abner Dimock, who kept tavern in Greenfield, a +town of Western Massachusetts, and, like his father and grandfather +before him, had one only son. In the mean time, the old house in Haddam +township had fallen into a ruinous condition, and, as the farm was very +small, and unprofitable chestnut-woodland at that, the whole was leased +to an old negro and his wife, who lived there in the most utter +solitude, scratching the soil for a few beans and potatoes, and in the +autumn gathering nuts, or in the spring roots for beer, with which Old +Jake paddled up to Middletown, to bring home a return freight of salt +pork and rum. + +The town of Greenfield, small though it was, and at the very top of a +high hill, was yet the county town, subject to annual incursions of +lawyers, and such "thrilling incidents" as arise from the location of a +jail and a court-room within the limits of any village. The scenery had +a certain summer charm of utter quiet that did it good service with some +healthy people of well-regulated and insensitive tastes. From Greenfield +Hill one looked away over a wide stretch of rolling country; low hills, +in long, desolate waves of pasturage and grain, relieved here and there +by a mass of black woodland, or a red farm-house and barns clustered +against a hill-side, just over a wooden spire in the shallow valley, +about which were gathered a few white houses, giving signs of life +thrice a day in tiny threads of smoke rising from their prim chimneys; +and over all, the pallid skies of New England, where the sun wheeled his +shorn beams from east to west as coldly as if no tropic seas mirrored +his more fervid glow thousands of miles away, and the chilly moon beamed +with irreproachable whiteness across the round gray hills and the +straggling pond, beloved of frogs and mud-turtles, that Greenfield held +in honor under the name of Squam Lake. + +Perhaps it was the scenery, perhaps the air, possibly the cheapness of +the place as far as all the necessaries of life went, that tempted Judge +Hyde to pitch his tent there, in the house his fathers had built long +ago, instead of wearing his judicial honors publicly, in the city where +he attained them; but, whatever the motive might be, certain it is that +at the age of forty he married a delicate beauty from Baltimore, and +came to live on Greenfield Hill, in the great white house with a gambrel +roof and dormer windows, standing behind certain huge maples, where +Major Hyde and Parson Hyde and Deacon Hyde had all lived before him. + +A brief Northern summer bloomed gayly enough for Adelaide Howard Hyde +when she made her bridal tour to her new home; and cold as she found the +aspect of that house, with its formal mahogany chairs, high-backed, and +carved in grim festoons and ovals of incessant repetition,--its +penitential couch of a sofa, where only the iron spine of a +Revolutionary heroine could have found rest,--its pinched, starved, and +double-starched portraits of defunct Hydes, Puritanic to the very ends +of toupet and periwig,--little Mrs. Hyde was deep enough in love with +her tall and handsome husband to overlook the upholstery of a home he +glorified, and to care little for comfort elsewhere, so long as she +could nestle on his knee and rest her curly head against his shoulder. +Besides, flowers grew, even in Greenfield; there were damask roses and +old-fashioned lilies enough in the square garden to have furnished a +whole century of poets with similes; and in the posy-bed under the front +windows were tulips of Chinese awkwardness and splendor, beds of pinks +spicy as all Arabia, blue hyacinths heavy with sweetness as well as +bells, "pi'nies" rubicund and rank, hearts-ease clustered against the +house, and sticky rose-acacias, pretty and impracticable, not to mention +the grenadier files of hollyhocks that contended with fennel-bushes and +scarlet-flowered beans for the precedence, and the hosts of wild flowers +that bloomed by wood-edges and pond-shores wherever corn or potatoes +spared a foot of soil for the lovely weeds. So in Judge Hyde's frequent +absences, at court or conclave, hither and yon, (for the Judge was a +political man,) it was his pretty wife's chief amusement, when her +delicate fingers ached with embroidery, or her head spun with efforts to +learn housekeeping from old Keery, the time-out-of-mind authority in the +Hyde family, a bad-humored, good-tempered old maid,--it was, indeed, the +little Southerner's only amusement,--to make the polish and mustiness of +those dreary front-parlors gay and fragrant with flowers; and though +Judge Hyde's sense of the ridiculous was not remarkably keen, it was too +much to expect of him that he should do otherwise than laugh long and +loud, when, suddenly returning from Taunton one summer day, he tracked +his wife by snatches of song into the "company rooms," and found her on +the floor, her hair about her ears, tying a thick garland of red +peonies, intended to decorate the picture of the original Hyde, a dreary +old fellow, in bands, and grasping a Bible in one wooden hand, while a +distant view of Plymouth Bay and the Mayflower tried to convince the +spectator that he was transported, among other antediluvians, by that +Noah's ark, to the New World. On either hand hung the little Flora's +great-grandmother-in-law, and her great-grandfather accordingly, Mrs. +Mehitable and Parson Job Hyde, peering out, one from a bushy ornament of +pink laurel-blossoms, and the other from an airy and delicate garland of +the wanton sweet-pea, each stony pair of eyes seeming to glare with +Medusan intent at this profaning of their state and dignity. "Isn't it +charming, dear?" said the innocent little beauty, with a satisfaction +half doubtful, as her husband's laugh went on. + +But for every butterfly there comes an end to summer. The flowers +dropped from the frames and died in the garden; a pitiless winter set +in; and day after day the mittened and mufflered schoolboy, dragging his +sled through drifts of heavy snow to school, eyed curiously the wan, +wistful face of Judge Hyde's wife pressed up to the pane of the south +window, its great restless eyes and shadowy hair bringing to mind some +captive bird that pines and beats against the cage. Her husband absent +from home long and often, full of affairs of "court and state,"--her +delicate organization, that lost its flickering vitality by every +exposure to cold,--her lonely days and nights,--the interminable sewing, +that now, for her own reasons, she would trust to no hands but her +own,--conscious incapacity to be what all the women about her were, +stirring, active, hardy housekeepers,--a vague sense of shame, and a +great dread of the future,--her comfortless and motherless +condition,--slowly, but surely, like frost, and wind, and rain, and +snow, beat on this frail blossom, and it went with the rest. June roses +were laid against her dark hair and in her fair hands, when she was +carried to the lonely graveyard of Greenfield, where mulleins and +asters, golden-rod, blackberry-vines, and stunted yellow-pines adorned +the last sleep of the weary wife and mother; for she left behind her a +week-old baby,--a girl,--wailing prophetically in the square bedroom +where its mother died. + +Judge Hyde did not marry again, and he named his baby Mehitable. She +grew up as a half-orphaned child with an elderly and undemonstrative +father would naturally grow,--shy, sensitive, timid, and extremely +grave. Her dress, thanks to Aunt Keery and the minister's wife, (who +looked after her for her mother's sake,) was always well provided and +neat, but no way calculated to cultivate her taste or to gratify the +beholder. A district school provided her with such education as it could +give; and the library, that was her resort at all hours of the day, +furthered her knowledge in a singular and varied way, since its lightest +contents were histories of all kinds and sorts, unless one may call the +English Classics lighter reading than Hume or Gibbon. + +But at length the district-schoolma'am could teach Mehitable Hyde no +more, and the Judge suddenly discovered that he had a pretty daughter of +fourteen, ignorant enough to shock his sense of propriety, and delicate +enough to make it useless to think of sending her away from home to be +buffeted in a boarding-school. Nothing was left for him but to undertake +her education himself; and having a theory that a thorough course of +classics, both Greek and Latin, was the foundation of all knowledge, +half a score of dusty grammars were brought from the garret, and for two +hours every morning and afternoon little Miss Hitty worried her innocent +soul over conjugations and declensions and particles, as perseveringly +as any professor could have desired. But the dreadful part of the +lessons to Hitty was the recitation after tea; no matter how well she +knew every inflection of a verb, every termination of a noun, her +father's cold, gray eye, fixed on her for an answer, dispelled all kinds +of knowledge, and, for at least a week, every lesson ended in tears. +However, there are alleviations to everything in life; and when the +child was sent to the garret after her school-books, she discovered +another set, more effectual teachers to her than Sallust or the "Graeca +Minora," even the twelve volumes of "Sir Charles Grandison," and the +fewer but no less absorbing tomes of "Clarissa Harlowe"; and every hour +she could contrive not to be missed by Keery or her father was spent in +that old garret, fragrant as it was with sheaves of all the herbs that +grow in field or forest, poring over those old novels, that were her +society, her friends, her world. + +So two years passed by. Mehitable grew tall and learned, but knew little +more of the outside world than ever; her father had learned to love her, +and taught her to adore him; still shy and timid, the village offered no +temptation to her, so far as society went; and Judge Hyde was beginning +to feel that for his child's mental health some freer atmosphere was +fast becoming necessary, when a relentless writ was served upon the +Judge himself, and one that no man could evade; paralysis smote him, and +the strong man lay prostrate,--became bedridden. + +Now the question of life seemed settled for Hitty; her father admitted +no nursing but hers. Month after month rolled away, and the numb grasp +gradually loosed its hold on flesh and sense, but still Judge Hyde was +bedridden. Year after year passed by, and no change for better or worse +ensued. Hitty's life was spent between the two parlors and the kitchen; +for the room her dead mother had so decorated was now furnished as a +bedroom for her father's use; and her own possessions had been removed +into the sitting-room next it, that, sleeping or waking, she might be +within call. All the family portraits held a conclave in the other +front-parlor, and its north and east windows were shut all the year, +save on some sultry summer day when Keery flung them open to dispel damp +and must, and the school-children stared in reverentially, and wondered +why old Madam Hyde's eyes followed them as far as they could see. +Visitors came now and then to the kitchen-door, and usurped Keery's +flag-bottomed chair, while they gossiped with her about village affairs; +now and then a friendly spinster with a budget of good advice called +Hitty away from her post, and, after an hour's vain effort to get any +news worth retailing about the Judge from those pale lips, retired full +of disappointed curiosity to tell how stiff that Mehitable Hyde was, and +how hard it was to make her speak a word to one! Friends were what Hitty +read of in the "Spectator," and longed to have; but she knew none of the +Greenfield girls since she left school, and the only companion she had +was Keery, rough as the east wind, but genuine and kind-hearted,--better +at counsel than consolation, and no way adapted to fill the vacant place +in Hitty's heart. + +So the years wore away, and Miss Hyde's early beauty went with them. She +had been a blooming, delicate girl,--the slight grace of a daisy in her +figure, wild-rose tints on her fair cheek, and golden reflections in her +light brown hair, that shone in its waves and curls like lost sunshine; +but ten years of such service told their story plainly. When Hitty Hyde +was twenty-six, her blue eyes were full of sorrow and patience, when the +shy lids let their legend be read; the little mouth had become pale, and +the corners drooped; her cheek, too, was tintless, though yet round; +nothing but the beautiful hair lasted; even grace was gone, so long had +she stooped over her father. Sometimes the unwakened heart within her +dreamed, as a girl's heart will. Stately visions of Sir Charles +Grandison bowing before her,--shuddering fascinations over the image of +that dreadful Lovelace,--nothing more real haunted Hitty's imagination. +She knew what she had to do in life,--that it was not to be a happy wife +or mother, but to waste by a bedridden old man, the only creature on +earth she loved as she could love. Light and air were denied the plant, +but it grew in darkness,--blanched and unblooming, it is true, but still +a growth upward, toward light. + +Ten years more of monotonous patience, and Miss Hyde was thirty-six. Her +hair had thinned, and was full of silver threads; a wrinkle invaded +either cheek, and she was angular and bony; but something painfully +sweet lingered in her face, and a certain childlike innocence of +expression gave her the air of a nun; the world had never touched nor +taught her. + +But now Judge Hyde was dead; nineteen years of petulant, helpless, +hopeless wretchedness were at last over, and all that his daughter cared +to live for was gone; she was an orphan, without near relatives, without +friends, old, and tired out. Do not despise me that I say "old," you +plump and rosy ladies whose life is in its prime of joy and use at +thirty-six. Age is not counted by years, nor calculated from one's +birth; it is a fact of wear and work, altogether unconnected with the +calendar. I have seen a girl of sixteen older than you are at forty. I +have known others disgrace themselves at sixty-five by liking to play +with children and eat sugar-plums! + +One kind of youth still remained to Hitty Hyde,--the freshness of +inexperience. Her soul was as guileless and as ignorant as a child's; +and she was stranded on life, with a large fortune, like a helmless +ship, heavily loaded, that breaks from its anchor, and drives headlong +upon a reef. + +Now it happened, that, within a year after Judge Hyde's death, Abner +Dimock, the tavern-keeper's son, returned to Greenfield, after years of +absence, a bold-faced, handsome man, well-dressed and "free-handed," as +the Greenfield vernacular hath it. Nobody knew where Abner Dimock had +spent the last fifteen years; neither did anybody know anything against +him; yet he had no good reputation in Greenfield. Everybody looked wise +and grave when his name was spoken, and no Greenfield girl cared to own +him for an acquaintance. His father welcomed him home with more surprise +than pleasure; and the whole household of the Greenfield Hotel, as +Dimock's Inn was new-named, learned to get out of Abner Dimock's way, +and obey his eye, as if he were more their master than his father. + +Left quite alone, without occupation or amusement, Miss Hyde naturally +grasped at anything that came in her way to do or to see to; the lawyer +who had been executor of her father's will had settled the estate and +gone back to his home, and Miss Hyde went with him, the first journey of +her life, that she might select a monument for her father's grave. It +was now near a year since Judge Hyde's death, and the monument was on +its way from Boston; the elder Dimock monopolized the cartage of freight +as well as passengers to the next town, and to him Miss Hyde intrusted +the care of the great granite pillar she had purchased; and it was for +his father that Abner Dimock called on the young lady for directions as +to the disposal of the tombstone just arrived. Hitty was in the garden; +her white morning-dress shone among the roses, and the morning air had +flushed her pale cheek; she looked fair and delicate and gracious; but +her helpless ignorance of the world's ways and usages attracted the +world-hardened man more than her face. He had not spent a _roué_ life in +a great city for nothing; he had lived enough with gentlemen, +broken-down and lost, it is true, but well-bred, to be able to ape their +manners; and the devil's instinct that such people possess warned him of +Hitty Hyde's weakest points. So, too, he contrived to make that first +errand lead to another, and still another,--to make the solitary woman +depend on his help, and expect his coming; fifty thousand dollars, with +no more incumbrance than such a woman, was worth scheming for, and the +prey was easily snared. + +It is not to be expected that any country village of two streets, much +less Greenfield, could long remain ignorant of such a new and amazing +phase as the devotion of any man to any woman therein; but, as nobody +liked to interfere too soon in what might only be, after all, a mere +business arrangement, Greenfield contented itself with using its eyes, +its ears, and its tongues, with one exception to the latter organ's +clatter, in favor of Hitty Hyde; _to_ her no one dared as yet approach +with gossip or advice. + +In the mean time Hitty went on her way, all regardless of the seraphs at +the gate. Abner Dimock was handsome, agreeable, gentlemanly to a certain +lackered extent;--who had cared for Hitty, in all her life, enough to +aid and counsel her as he had already done? At first she was half afraid +of him; then she liked him; then he was "so good to me!" and then--she +pitied him! for he told her, sitting on that hard old sofa, in the June +twilight, how he had no mother, how he had been cast upon the charities +of a cruel and evil world from his infancy; reminded her of the old red +school-house where they had been to school together, and the tyranny of +the big boys over him,--a little curly, motherless boy. So he enlarged +upon his life; talked a mildly bitter misanthropy; informed Miss Hyde by +gradual insinuations that she was an angel sent on earth to console and +reform a poor sinner like him; and before the last September rose had +droped, so far had Abner Dimock succeeded in his engineering, that his +angel was astounded one night by the undeniably terrestrial visitation +of an embrace and a respectfully fervid kiss. + +Perhaps it would have been funny, perhaps pathetic, to analyze the mixed +consternation and delight of Mehitable Hyde at such _bonâ-fide_ evidence +of a lover. Poor woman's heart!--altogether solitary and +desolate,--starved of its youth and its joy,--given over to the chilly +reign of patience and resignation,--afraid of life,--without strength, +or hope, or pleasure,--and all at once Paradise dawns!--her cold, +innocent life bursts into fiery and odorous bloom; she has found her +fate, and its face is keen with splendor, like a young angel's. Poor, +deluded, blessed, rapture-smitten woman! + +Blame her as you will, indignant maidens of Greenfield, Miss Flint, and +Miss Sharp, and Miss Skinner! You may have had ten lovers and twenty +flirtations apiece, and refused half-a-dozen good matches for the best +of reasons; you, no doubt, would have known better than to marry a man +who was a villain from his very physiognomy; but my heart must needs +grow tender toward Miss Hyde; a great joy is as pathetic as a sorrow. +Did you never cry over a doting old man? + +But when Mrs. Smith's son John, a youth of ten, saw, by the light of an +incautious lamp that illuminated a part of the south parlor, a +good-night kiss bestowed upon the departing Abner by Miss Hitty Hyde and +absolutely returned by said Abner, and when John told his mother, and +his mother revealed it to Miss Flint, Miss Flint to Miss Skinner, and so +forth, and so on, till it reached the minister's wife, great was the +uproar in Greenfield; and the Reverend Mrs. Perkins put on her gray +bonnet and went over to remonstrate with Hitty on the spot. + +Whether people will ever learn the uselessness of such efforts is yet a +matter for prophecy. Miss Hyde heard all that was said, and replied very +quietly, "I don't believe it." And as Mrs. Perkins had no tangible +proofs of Abner Dimock's unfitness to marry Judge Hyde's daughter, the +lady in question got the better of her adviser, so far as any argument +was concerned, and effectually put an end to remonstrance by declaring +with extreme quiet and unblushing front,-- + +"I am going to marry him next week. Will you be so good as to notify Mr. +Perkins?" + +Mrs. Perkins held up both hands and cried. Words might have hardened +Hitty; but what woman that was not half tigress ever withstood another +woman's tears? + +Hitty's heart melted directly; she sat down by Mrs. Perkins, and cried, +too. + +"Please, don't be vexed with me," sobbed she. "I love him, Mrs. Perkins, +and I haven't got anybody else to love,--and--and--I never shall have. +He's very good to love me,--I am so old and homely." + +"Very good!" exclaimed Mrs. Perkins, in great wrath, "_good_! to marry +Judge Hyde's daughter, and--fifty thousand dollars," Mrs. Perkins bit +off. She would not put such thoughts into Hitty's head, since her +marriage was inevitable. + +"At any rate," sighed Hitty, on the breath of a long-drawn sob, "nobody +else ever loved me, if I am Judge Hyde's daughter." + +So Mrs. Perkins went away, and declared that things had gone too far to +be prevented; and Abner Dimock came on her retreating steps, and Hitty +forgot everything but that he loved her; and the next week they were +married. + +Here, by every law of custom, ought my weary pen to fall flat and refuse +its office; for it is here that the fate of every heroine culminates. +For what are women born but to be married? Old maids are excrescences in +the social system,--disagreeable utilities,--persons who have failed to +fulfil their destiny,--and of whom it should have been said, rather than +of ghosts, that they are always in the wrong. But life, with +pertinacious facts, is too apt to transcend custom and the usage of +novel-writers; and though the one brings a woman's legal existence to an +end when she merges her independence in that of a man, and the other +curtails her historic existence at the same point, because the +novelist's catechism hath for its preface this creed,--"The chief end of +woman is to get married"; still, neither law nor novelists altogether +displace this same persistent fact, and a woman lives, in all capacities +of suffering and happiness, not only her wonted, but a double life, when +legally and religiously she binds herself with bond and vow to another +soul. + +Happy would it have been for Hitty Hyde, if with the legal fiction had +chimed the actual existent fact!--happy indeed for Abner Dimock's wife +to have laid her new joy down at the altar, and been carried to sleep by +her mother under the mulleins and golden-rods on Greenfield Hill! Scarce +was the allotted period of rapture past half its term, scarce had she +learned to phrase the tender words aloud that her heart beat and choked +with, before Abner Dimock began to tire of his incumbrance, and to +invent plans and excuses for absence; for he dared not openly declare as +yet that he left his patient, innocent wife for such scenes of vice and +reckless dissipation as she had not even dreamed could exist. + +Yet for week after week he lingered away from Greenfield; even months +rolled by, and, except for rare and brief visits home, Hitty saw no more +of her husband than if he were not hers. She lapsed into her old +solitude, varied only by the mutterings and grumblings of old Keery, who +had lifted up her voice against Hitty's marriage with more noise and +less effect than Mrs. Perkins, and, though she still staid by her old +home and haunts, revenged herself on fate in general and her mistress in +particular by a continual course of sulking, all the time hiding under +this general quarrel with life a heart that ached with the purest +tenderness and pity. So some people are made, like chestnuts; one gets +so scratched and wounded in the mere attempt to get at the kernel +within, that it becomes matter of question whether one does not suffer +less from wanting their affection than from trying to obtain it. Yet +Hitty Dimock had too little love given her to throw away even Keery's +habit of kindness to her, and bore with her snaps and snarls as meekly +as a saint,--sustained, it is true, by a hope that now began to solace +and to occupy her, and to raise in her oppressed soul some glimmer of a +bright possibility, a faint expectation that she might yet regain her +husband's love, a passion which she began in her secret heart to fear +had found its limit and died out. Still, Hitty, out of her meek, +self-distrusting spirit, never blamed Abner Dimock for his absence or +his coldness; rather, with the divine unselfishness that such women +manifest, did she blame herself for having linked his handsome and +athletic prime with her faded age, and struggle daily with the morbid +conscience that accused her of having forgotten his best good in the +indulgence of her own selfish ends of happiness. She still thought, "He +is so good to me!" still idealized the villain to a hero, and, like her +kind, predestined to be the prey and the accusing angel of such men, +prayed for and adored her husband as if he had been the best and +tenderest of gentlemen. Providence has its mysteries; but if there be +one that taxes faith and staggers patience more than another, it is the +long misery that makes a good woman cringe and writhe and agonize in +silence under the utter rule and life-long sovereignty of a bad man. +Perhaps such women do not suffer as we fancy; for after much trial every +woman learns that it is possible to love where neither respect nor +admiration can find foothold,--that it even becomes necessary to love +some men, as the angels love us all, from an untroubled height of pity +and tenderness, that, while it sees and condemns the sin and folly and +uncleanness of its object, yet broods over it with an all-shielding +devotion, laboring and beseeching and waiting for its regeneration, +upheld above the depths of suffering and regret by the immortal power of +a love so fervent, so pure, so self-forgetting, that it will be a +millstone about the necks that disregard its tender clasping now, to +sink them into a bottomless abyss in the day of the Lord. + +Now had one long and not unhappy autumn, a lingering winter, a desolate +spring, a weary summer, passed away, and from an all-unconscious and +protracted wrestling with death Hitty Dimock awoke to find her hope +fulfilled,--a fair baby nestled on her arm, and her husband, not +all-insensible, smiling beside her. + +It is true, that, had she died then, Abner Dimock would have regretted +her death; for, by certain provisions of her father's will, in case of +her death, the real estate, otherwise at her own disposal, became a +trust for her child or children, and such a contingency ill suited Mr. +Dimock's plans. So long as Hitty held a rood of land or a coin of silver +at her own disposal, it was also at his; but trustees are not women, +happily for the world at large, and the contemplation of that fact +brought Hitty Hyde's husband into a state of mind well fitted to give +him real joy at her recovery. + +So, for a little while, the sun shone on this bare New England +hill-side, into this grim old house. Care and kindness were lavished on +the delicate woman, who would scarce have needed either in her present +delight; every luxury that could add to her slowly increasing strength, +every attention that could quiet her fluttering and unstrung nerves, was +showered on her, and for a time her brightest hopes seemed all to have +found fruition. + +As she recovered and was restored to strength, of course these cares +ceased. But now the new instincts of motherhood absorbed her, and, +brooding over the rosy child that was her own, caressing its waking, or +hanging above its sleep, she scarce noted that her husband's absences +from home grew more and more frequent, that strange visitors asked for +him, that he came home at midnight oftener than at dusk. Nor was it till +her child was near a year old that Hitty discovered her husband's old +and rewakened propensity,--that Abner Dimock came home drunk,--not drunk +as many men are, foolish and helpless, mere beasts of the field, who +know nothing and care for nothing but the filling of their insatiable +appetite;--this man's nature was too hard, too iron in its moulding, to +give way to temporary imbecility; liquor made him savage, fierce, +brutal, excited his fiendish temper to its height, nerved his muscular +system, inflamed his brain, and gave him the aspect of a devil; and in +such guise he entered his wife's peaceful Eden, where she brooded and +cooed over her child's slumbers, with one gripe of his hard hand lifted +her from her chair, kicked the cradle before him, and, with an awful +though muttered oath, thrust mother and child into the entry, locked the +door upon them, and fell upon the bed to sleep away his carouse. + +Here was an undeniable fact before Hitty Dimock, one she could no way +evade or gloss over; no gradual lesson, no shadow of foreboding, +preluded the revelation; her husband was unmistakably, savagely drunk. +She did not sit down and cry;--drearily she gathered her baby in her +arms, hushed it to sleep with kisses, passed down into the kitchen, woke +up the brands of the ash-hidden fire to a flame, laid on more wood, and, +dragging old Keery's rush-bottomed chair in front of the blaze, held her +baby in her arms till morning broke, careless of anything without or +within but her child's sleep and her husband's drunkenness. Long and +sadly in that desolate night did she revolve this new misery in her +mind; the fact was face to face, and must be provided for,--but how to +do it? What could she do, poor weak woman, even to conceal this +disgrace, much more to check it? Long since she had discovered that +between her and her husband there was no community of tastes or +interests; he never talked to her, he never read to her, she did not +know that he read at all; the garden he disliked as a useless trouble; +he would not drive, except such a gay horse that Hitty dared not risk +her neck behind it, and felt a shudder of fear assail her whenever his +gig left the door; neither did he care for his child. Nothing at home +could keep him from his pursuits; that she well knew; and, hopeful as +she tried to be, the future spread out far away in misty horror and +dread. What might not, become of her boy, with such a father's +influence? was her first thought;--nay, who could tell but in some fury +of drink he might kill or maim him? A chill of horror crept over Hitty +at the thought,--and then, what had not she to dread? Oh, for some +loophole of escape, some way to fly, some refuge for her baby's innocent +life! No,--no,--no! She was his wife; she had married him; she had vowed +to love and honor and obey,--vow of fearful import now, though uttered +in all pureness and truth, as to a man who owned her whole heart! Love +him!--that was not the dread; love was as much her life as her breath +was; she knew no interval of loving for the brute fiend who mocked her +with the name of husband; no change or chance could alienate her divine +tenderness,--even as the pitiful blue sky above hangs stainless over +reeking battle-fields and pest-smitten cities, piercing with its sad and +holy star-eyes down into the hellish orgies of men, untouched and +unchanged by just or unjust, forever shining and forever pure. But honor +him! could that be done? What respect or trust was it possible to keep +for a self-degraded man like that? And where honor goes down, obedience +is sucked into the vortex, and the wreck flies far over the lonely sea, +historic and prophetic to ship and shore. + +No! there was nothing to do! her vow was taken, past the power of man to +break; nothing now remained but endurance. Perhaps another woman, with a +strong will and vivid intellect, might have set herself to work, backed +by that very vow that defied poor Hitty, and, by sheer resolution, have +dragged her husband up from the gulf and saved him, though as by fire; +or a more buoyant and younger wife might have passed it by as a first +offence, hopeful of its being also the only one. But an instinctive +knowledge of the man bereft Hitty of any such hope; she knew it was not +the first time; from his own revelations and penitent confessions while +she was yet free, she knew he had sinned as well as suffered, and the +past augured the future. Nothing was left her, she could not escape, she +must shut her eyes and her mouth, and only keep out of his way as far as +she could. So she clasped her child more tightly, and, closing her heavy +eyes, rocked back and forth till the half-waked boy slept again; and +there old Keery found her mistress, in the morning, white as the cold +drifts without, and a depth of settled agony in her quiet eyes that +dimmed the old woman's only to look at. + +Neither spoke; nor when her husband strode into the breakfast-room and +took his usual place, sober enough, but scarcely regretful of the +over-night development, did any word of reproach or allusion pass the +wife's white lips. A stranger would have thought her careless and cold. +Abner Dimock knew that she was heartbroken; but what was that to him? +Women live for years without that organ; and while she lived, so long as +a cent remained of the Hyde estate, what was it to him if she pined +away? She could not leave him; she was utterly in his power; she was +his,--like his boots, his gun, his dog; and till he should tire of her +and fling her into some lonely chamber to waste and die, she was bound +to serve him; he was safe. + +And she offered no sort of barrier to his full indulgence of his will to +drink. Had she lifted one of her slender fingers in warning, or given +him a look of reproachful meaning, or uttered one cry of entreaty, at +least the conscience within him might have visited him with a temporary +shame, and restrained the raging propensity for a longer interval; but +seeing her apparent apathy, knowing how timid and unresisting was her +nature,--that nothing on earth will lie still and be trodden on but a +woman,--Abner Dimock rioted and revelled to his full pleasure, while all +his pale and speechless wife could do was to watch with fearful eyes and +straining ears for his coming, and slink out of the way with her child, +lest both should be beaten as well as cursed; for faithful old Keery, +once daring to face him with a volley of reproaches from her shrill +tongue, was levelled to the floor by a blow from his rapid hand, and +bore bruises for weeks that warned her from interference. Not long, +however, was there danger of her meddling. When the baby was a year and +a half old. Keery, in her out-door labors,--now grown burdensome enough, +since Mr. Dimock neither worked himself nor allowed a man on the +premises,--Keery took a heavy cold, and, worn out with a life of hard +work, sank into rest quickly, her last act of life being to draw Hitty's +face down to her own, wrinkled and wan as it was, scarce so old in +expression as her mistress's, and with one long kiss and sob speak the +foreboding and anxious farewell she could not utter. + +"Only you now!" whispered Hitty to her child, as Keery's peaceful, +shrouded face was hidden under the coffin-lid and carried away to +Greenfield Hill. Pitiful whisper! happily all-unmeaning to the child, +but full of desolation to the mother, floating with but one tiny plank +amid the wild wrecks of a midnight ocean, and clinging as only the +desperate can cling to this vague chance of life. + +A rough, half-crazed girl, brought from the alms-house, now did the +drudgery of the family. Abner Dimock had grown penurious, and not one +cent of money was given for comfort in that house, scarce for need. The +girl was stupid and rude, but she worked for her board,--recommendation +enough in Mr. Dimock's eyes; and so hard work was added to the other +burdens loaded upon his silent wife. And soon came another, +all-mysterious, but from its very mystery a deeper fear. Abner Dimock +began to stay at home, to be visited at late hours by one or two men +whose faces were full of evil and daring; and when, in the dead of the +long nights, Hitty woke from her broken and feverish sleep, it was to +hear muffled sounds from the cellar below, never heard there before; and +once, wrapping a shawl about her, she stole down the stairways with bare +feet, and saw streams of red light through the chinks of the +cellar-door, and heard the ring of metal, and muttered oaths, all +carefully dulled by such devices as kept the sounds from chance passers +in the street, though vain as far as the inhabitants of the house itself +were concerned. Trembling and cold, she stole back to her bed, full of +doubts and fears, neither of which she dared whisper to any one, or +would have dared, had she possessed a single friend to whom she could +speak. Troubles thickened fast over Hitty; her husband was always at +home now, and rarely sober; the relief his absences had been was denied +her entirely; and in some sunny corner of the uninhabited rooms +up-stairs she spent her days, toiling at such sewing as was needful, and +silent as the dead, save as her life appealed to God from the ground, +and called down the curse of Cain upon a head she would have shielded +from evil with her own life. + +Keen human legislation! sightless justice of men!--one drunken wretch +smites another in a midnight brawl, and sends a soul to its account with +one sharp shudder of passion and despair, and the maddened creature that +remains on earth suffers the penalty of the law. Every sense sobered +from its reeling fury, weeks of terribly expectation heaped upon the +cringing soul, and, in full consciousness, that murderer is strangled +before men and angels, because he was drunk!--necessary enough, one +perceives, to the good of society, which thereby loses two worse than +useless members; but what, in the name of God's justice, should His +vicegerent, law, visit upon the man who wrings another life away by slow +tortures, and torments heart and soul and flesh for lingering years, +where the victim is passive and tenacious, and dies only after +long-drawn anguish that might fill the cup of a hundred sudden deaths? +Yet what escapes the vicegerent shall the King himself visit and judge. +"For He cometh! He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall +he judge the world, and the people with equity." + +Six months passed after Keery's death, and now from the heights of +Greenfield and her sunny window Hitty Dimock's white face looked out +upon a landscape of sudden glory; for October, the gold-bringer, had +come, pouring splendor over the earth, and far and wide the forests +blazed; scarlet and green maples, with erect heads, sentinelled the +street, gay lifeguards of autumn; through dark green cedars the crimson +creeper threaded its sprays of blood-red; birches, gilded to their tops, +swayed to every wind, and drooped their graceful boughs earthward to +shower the mossy sward with glittering leaves; heavy oaks turned +purple-crimson through their wide-spread boughs; and the stately +chestnuts, with foliage of tawny yellow, opened wide their stinging +husks to let the nuts fall for squirrel and blue-jay. Splendid sadness +clothed all the world, opal-hued mists wandered up and down the valleys +or lingered about the undefined horizon, and the leaf-scented south wind +sighed in the still noon with foreboding gentleness. + +One day, Abner Dimock was gone, and Hitty stole down to the garden-door +with her little child, now just trying to walk, that he might have a +little play on the green turf, and she cool her hot eyes and lips in the +air. As she sat there watching the pretty clumsiness of her boy, and +springing forward to intercept his falls, the influence of sun and air, +the playful joy of the child, the soothing stillness of all Nature, +stole into her heart till it dreamed a dream of hope. Perhaps the +budding blossom of promise might become floral and fruitful; perhaps her +child might yet atone for the agony of the past;--a time might come when +she should sit in that door, white-haired and trembling with age, but as +peaceful as the autumn day, watching the sports of his children, while +his strong arm sustained her into the valley of shadow, and his tender +eyes lit the way. + +As she sat dreaming, suddenly a figure intercepted the sunshine, and, +looking up, she saw Abner Dimock's father, the elder Abner, entering the +little wicket-gate of the garden. A strange, tottering old figure, his +nose and chin grimacing at each other, his bleared eyes telling +unmistakable truths of cider-brandy and New England rum, his scant locks +of white lying in confusion over his wrinkled forehead and cheeks, his +whole air squalid, hopeless, and degraded,--not so much by the poverty +of vice as by its demoralizing stamp penetrating from the inner to the +outer man, and levelling it even below the plane of brutes that perish. + +"Good-day! good-day!" said he to his son's wife, in a squeaking, +tremulous tone, that drove the child to his mother's arms,--"Abner to +home?" + +"No, Sir," said Hitty, with an involuntary shudder, that did not escape +the bleared blue eye that fixed its watery gaze upon her. + +"Cold, a'n't ye? Better go in, better go in! Come, come along! How d'e +do, little feller? don't know yer grandper, hey?" + +The child met his advances with an ominous scream, and Hitty hurried +into the house to give him to the servant's charge, while she returned +to the sitting-room, where the old man had seated himself in the +rocking-chair, and was taking a mental inventory of the goods and +chattels with a momentary keenness in his look that no way reassured +Hitty's apprehensive heart. + +"So, Abner a'n't to home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't know where he's gone, do ye?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Don't never know where he goes, I expect?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he comes home,--know when he's a-comin' home?" + +"No, Sir." + +"Well, when he doos, you tell him 't some folks come to the tavern last +night, 'n' talked pretty loud, 'n' I heerd--Guess 'ta'n't best, though, +to tell what I heerd. Only you tell Abner 't I come here, and I said +he'd better be a-joggin'. He'll know, he'll know,--h'm, yes," said the +old man, passing his hand across his thin blue lips, as if to drive away +other words better left unsaid,--and then rising from his seat, by the +aid of either arm, gained his balance, and went on, while he fumbled for +his stick:-- + +"I'd ha' writ, but black and white's a hangin' matter sometimes, 'n' +words a'n't; 'n' I hadn't nobody to send, so I crawled along. Don't ye +forget now! don't ye! It's a pretty consider'ble piece o' business; 'n' +you'll be dreffully on't, ef you do forget. Now _don't_ ye forget!" + +"No, I won't," said Hitty, trembling as she spoke; for the old man's +words had showed her a depth of dreadful possibility, and an old +acquaintance with crime and its manoeuvres, that chilled the blood in +her veins. She watched him out of the gate with a sickening sense of +terror at her heart, and turned slowly into the house, revolving all +kinds of plans in her head for her husband's escape, should her fears +prove true. Of herself she did not think; no law could harm her child; +but, even after years of brutality and neglect, her faithful affection +turned with all its provident thoughtfulness and care at once to her +husband; all her wrongs were forgotten, all her sorrows obliterated by +this one fear. Well did St. Augustine say, "God is patient because He is +eternal": but better and truer would the saying have been, had it run, +"God is patient because He is love": a gospel that He publishes in the +lives of saints on earth, in their daily and hourly "anguish of +patience," preaching to the fearful souls that dare not trust His +long-suffering by the tenacious love of those who bear His image, +saying, in resistless human tones, "Shall one creature endure and love +and continually forgive another, and shall I, who am not loving, but +Love, be weary of thy transgressions, O sinner?" And so does the silent +and despairing life of many a woman weave unconsciously its golden +garland of reward in the heavens above, and do the Lord's work in a +strange land where it cannot sing His songs. + +The day crept toward sunset, and Hitty sat with her wan face pressed to +the window-pane, hushing her child in his cradle with one of those low, +monotoned murmurs that mothers know; but still her husband did not come. +The level sun-rays pierced the woods into more vivid splendor, burnished +gold fringed the heavy purple clouds in the west, and warm crimson +lights turned the purple into more triumphant glory; the sun set, +unstained with mist or tempest, behind those blue and lonely hills that +guard old Berkshire with their rolling summits, and night came fast, +steel-blue and thick with stars; but yet he did not come, the untouched +meal on the table was untouched still. Hour after hour of starry +darkness crept by, and she sat watching at the window-pane; overhead, +constellations marched across the heavens in relentless splendor, +careless of man or sorrow; Orion glittered in the east, and climbed +toward the zenith; the Pleiades clustered and sparkled as if they missed +their lost sister no more; the Hyades marked the celestial pastures of +Taurus, and Lyra strung her chords with fire. Hitty rested her weary +head against the window-frame and sent her wearier thoughts upward to +the stars; there were the points of light that the Chaldeans watched +upon their plains by night, and named with mystic syllables of their +weird Oriental tongue,--names that in her girlhood she had delighted to +learn, charmed by that nameless spell that language holds, wherewith it +plants itself ineradicably in the human mind, and binds it with fetters +of vague association that time and chance are all-powerless to +break,--Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgunebi, Bellatrix and Betelguese, +sonorous of Rome and Asia both, full of old echoes and the dry resonant +air of Eastern plains,--names wherein sounded the clash of Bellona's +armor, and the harsh stir of palm-boughs rustled by a hot wind of the +desert, and vibrant with the dying clangor of gongs, and shouts of +worshipping crowds reverberating through horrid temples of grinning and +ghastly idols, wet with children's blood. + +Far, far away, the heavenly procession and their well-remembered names +had led poor Hitty's thoughts; worn out with anxiety, and faint for want +of the food she had forgotten to take, sleep crept upon her, and her +first consciousness of its presence was the awakening grasp of a rough +hand and the hoarse whisper of her husband. + +"Get up!" said he. "Pick up your brat, get your shawl, and come!" + +Hitty rose quickly to her feet. One faculty wretchedness gives, the +power of sudden self-possession,--and Hitty was broad awake in the very +instant she was called. Her husband stood beside her, holding a lantern; +her boy slept in the cradle at her feet. + +"Have you seen your father?" said she, with quick instinct. + +"Yes, d--n you, be quick! do you want to hang me?" + +Quick as a spirit Hitty snatched her child, and wrapped him in the +blanket where he lay; her shawl was on the chair she had slept in, her +hood upon a nail by the door, and flinging both on, with the child in +her arms, she followed her husband down-stairs, across the back-yard, +hitting her feet against stones and logs in the darkness, stumbling +often, but never falling, till the shadow of the trees was past, and the +starlight showed her that they were traversing the open fields, now +crisp with frost, but even to the tread,--over two or three of these, +through a pine-wood that was a landmark to Hitty, for she well knew that +it lay between the turnpike-road and another, less frequented, that by +various windings went toward the Connecticut Hue,--then over a tiny +brook on its unsteady bridge of logs, and out into a lane, where a +rough-spoken man was waiting for them, at the head of a strong horse +harnessed to one of those wagons without springs that New-Englanders +like to make themselves uncomfortable in. Her husband turned to her +abruptly. + +"Get in," said he; "get in behind; there's hay enough; and don't breathe +loud, or I'll murder you!" + +She clambered into the wagon and seated herself on the hay, hushing her +child, who nestled and moaned in her arms, though she had carried him +with all possible care. A sharp cut of the whip sent the powerful horse +off at full speed, and soon this ill-matched party were fast traversing +the narrow road that wound about the country for the use of every farm +within a mile of its necessary course, a course tending toward the +Connecticut. + +Hour after hour crept by. Worn out with fatigue, poor Hitty dozed and +fell back on the soft hay; her child slept, too, and all her troubles +faded away in heavy unconsciousness, till she was again awakened by her +husband's grasp, to find that dawn was gathering its light roseate +fleeces in the east, and that their flight was for the present stayed at +the door of a tavern, lonely and rude enough, but welcome to Hitty as a +place of rest, if only for a moment. The sullen mistress of the house +asked no questions and offered no courtesy, but, after her guests had +eaten their breakfast, rapidly prepared, she led the way to a bedroom in +the loft, where Abner Dimock flung himself down upon the straw bed and +fell sound asleep, leaving Hitty to the undisturbed care of her child. +And occupation enough that proved; for the little fellow was fretful and +excited, so that no hour for thought was left to his anxious and timid +mother till the dinner-bell awoke her husband and took him downstairs. +She could not eat, but, begging some milk for her boy, tended, and fed, +and sung to him, till he slept; and then all the horrors of the present +and future thronged upon her, till her heart seemed to die in her +breast, and her limbs failed to support her when she would have dragged +herself out of doors for one breath of fresh air, one refreshing look at +a world untroubled and serene. + +So the afternoon crept away, and as soon as night drew on the journey +was resumed. But this night was chill with the breath of a sobbing east +wind, and the dim stars foreboded rain. Hitty shivered with bitter cold, +and the boy began to cry. With a fierce curse Abner bade her stop his +disturbance, and again the poor mother had hands and heart full to +silence the still recurring sobs of the child. At last, after the +midnight cocks had ceased to send their challenges from farm to farm, +after some remote church-clocks had clanged one stroke on the damp wind, +they began to pass through a large village; no lights burned in the +windows, but white fences gleamed through the darkness, and sharp gable +ends loomed up against the dull sky, one after another, and the horse's +hoofs flashed sparks from the paved street before the church, that +showed its white spire, spectre-like, directly in their path. Here, by +some evil chance, the child awoke, and, between cold and hunger and +fear, began one of those long and loud shrieks that no power can stop +this side of strangulation. In vain Hitty kissed, and coaxed, and +half-choked her boy, in hope to stop the uproar; still he screamed more +and more loudly. Abner turned round on his seat with an oath, snatched +the child from its mother's arms, and rolled it closely in the blanket. + +"Hold on a minute, Ben!" said he to his companion; "this yelp must be +stopped"; and stepping over to the back of the wagon, he grasped his +wife tightly with one arm, and with the other dropped his child into the +street. "Now drive, Ben," said he, in the same hoarse whisper,--"drive +like the Devil!"--for, as her child fell, Hitty shrieked with such a cry +as only the heart of a mother could send out over a newly-murdered +infant. Shriek on shriek, fast and loud and long, broke the slumbers of +the village; nothing Abner could do, neither threat nor force, short of +absolute murder, would avail,--and there was too much real estate +remaining of the Hyde property for Abner Dimock to spare his wife yet. +Ben drove fiend-fashion; but before they passed the last house in the +village, lights were glancing and windows grating as they were opened. +Years after, I heard the story of such a midnight cry borne past +sleeping houses with the quick rattle of wheels; but no one who heard it +could give the right clue to its explanation, and it dried into a +legend. + +Now Hitty Dimock became careless of good or evil, except one absorbing +desire to get away from her husband,--to search for her child, to know +if it had lived or died. For four nights more that journey was pursued +at the height of their horse's speed; every day they stopped to rest, +and every day Hitty's half-delirious brain laid plans of escape, only to +be balked by Abner Dimock's vigilance; for if he slept, it was with both +arms round her, and the slightest stir awoke him,--and while he woke, +not one propitious moment freed her from his watch. Her brain began to +reel with disappointment and anguish; she began to hate her husband; a +band of iron seemed strained about her forehead, and a ringing sound +filled her ears; her lips grew parched, and her eye glittered; the last +night of their journey Abner Dimock lifted her into the wagon, and she +fainted on the hay. + +"What in hell did you bring her for, Dimock?" growled his companion; +"women are d----d plagues always." + +"She'll get up in a minute," coolly returned the husband; "can't afford +to leave a goose that lays golden eggs behind; hold on till I lift her +up. Here, Hitty! drink, I tell you! drink!" + +A swallow of raw spirit certainly drove away the faintness, but it +brought fresh fire to the fever that burned in her veins, and she was +muttering in delirium before the end of that night's journey brought +them to a small village just above the old house on the river that +figured in the beginning of this history, and which we trust the patient +reader has not forgotten. Abner Dimock left his wife in charge of the +old woman who kept the hovel of a tavern where they stopped, and, giving +Ben the horse to dispose of to some safe purchaser, after he had driven +him down to the old house, returned at night in the boat that belonged +to his negro tenant, and, taking his unconscious wife from her bed, +rowed down the river and landed her safely, to be carried from the skiff +into an upper chamber of the old house, where Jake's wife, Aunt Judy, as +Mr. Dimock styled her, nursed the wretched woman through three weeks of +fever, and "doctored" her with herbs and roots. + +The tenacious Hyde constitution, that was a proverb in Greenfield, +conquered at last, and Hitty became conscious, to find herself in a +chamber whose plastered walls were crumbling away with dampness and +festooned with cobwebs, while the uncarpeted floor was checkered with +green stains of mildew, and the very old four-post bedstead on which she +lay was fringed around the rickety tester with rags of green moreen, +mould-rotted. + +Hitty sank back on her pillow with a sigh; she did not even question the +old negress who sat crooning over the fire, as to where she was, or what +had befallen her; but accepted this new place as only another misty +delirium, and in her secret heart prayed, for the hundredth time, to +die. + +Slowly she recovered; for prayers to die are the last prayers ever +answered; we live against our will, and tempt living deaths year after +year, when soul and body cry out for the grave's repose, and beat +themselves against the inscrutable will of God only to fall down before +it in bruised and bleeding acquiescence. So she lived to find herself +immured in this damp and crumbling house, with no society but a drinking +and crime-haunted husband, and the ignorant negroes who served +him,--society varied now and then by one or two men revolting enough in +speech and aspect to drive Hitty to her own room, where, in a creaking +chair, she rocked monotonously back and forth, watching the snapping +fire, and dreaming dreams of a past that seemed now but a visionary +paradise. + +For now it was winter, and the heavy drifts of snow that lay on Dimock's +meadow forbade any explorations which the one idea of finding her child +might have driven her to make; and the frozen surface of the river no +white-sailed ship could traverse now, nor the hissing paddle-wheels of a +steamer break the silence with intimations of life, active and salient, +far beyond the lonely precinct of Abner Dimock's home. + +So the winter passed by. The noises and lights that had awoke Hitty at +midnight in the house at Greenfield had become so far an institution in +this lonely dwelling that now they disturbed her sleep no more; for it +was a received custom, that, whenever Abner Dimock's two visitors should +appear, the cellar should resound all night with heavy blows and +clinking of metal, and red light as from a forge streamed up through the +doorway; but it disturbed Hitty no more; apathy settled down in black +mist on her soul, and she seemed to think, to care, for nothing. + +But spring awoke the dead earth, and sleeping roots aroused with fresh +forces from their torpor, and sent up green signals to the birds above. +A spark of light awoke in Hitty's eye; she planned to get away, to steal +the boat from its hidden cove in the bushes and push off down the +friendly current of the river,--anywhere away from him! anywhere! though +it should be to wreck on the great ocean, but still away from him! Night +after night she rose from her bed to hazard the attempt, but her heart +failed, and her trembling limbs refused their aid. At length moonlight +came to her aid, and when all the house slept she stole downstairs with +bare, noiseless feet, and sped like a ghost across the meadow to the +river-bank. Poor weak hands! vainly they fumbled with the knotted rope +that bound the skiff to a crooked elm over-hanging the water,--all in +vain for many lingering minutes; but presently the obdurate knot gave +way, and, turning to gather up her shawl, there, close behind her, so +close that his hot breath seemed to sear her cheek, stood her husband, +clear in the moonlight, with a sneer on his face, and the lurid glow of +drunkenness, that made a savage brute of a bad man, gleaming in his +deep-set eyes. Hitty neither shrieked nor ran; despair nerved +her,--despair turned her rigid before his face. + +"Well," said he, "where are you going?" + +"I am going away,--away from you,--anywhere in the world away from you!" +answered she, with the boldness of desperation. + +"Ha, ha! going away from me!--that's a d--d good joke, a'n't it? Away +from your husband! You fool! you can't get away from me! you're mine, +soul and body,--this world and the next! Don't you know that? Where's +your promise, eh?--'for better, for worse!'--and a'n't I worse, you +cursed fool, you? You didn't put on the handcuffs for nothing; heaven +and hell can't get you away from me as long as you've got on that little +shiny fetter on your finger,--don't you know that?" + +The maddened woman made a quick wrench to pull away from him her left +hand, which he held in his, taunting her with the ring that symbolized +their eternal bonds; but he was too quick for her. + +"Hollo!" laughed he; "want to get rid of it, don't you? No, no! that +won't do,--that won't do! I'll make it safe!" + +And lifting her like a child in his arms, he carried her across the +meadow, back to the house, and down a flight of crazy steps into the +cellar, where a little forge was all ablaze with white-hot coal, and the +two ill-visaged men she well knew by sight were busy with sets of odd +tools and fragments of metal, while on a bench near by, and in the seat +of an old chair, lay piles of fresh coin. They were a gang of +counterfeiters. + +Abner Dimock thrust his wife into the chair, sweeping the gilt eagles to +the floor as one of the men angrily started up, demanding, with an oath, +what he brought that woman there for to hang them all. + +"Be quiet, Bill, can't you?" interposed the other man. "Don't you see +he's drunk? you'll have the Devil to pay, if you cross a drunk Dimock!" + +But Abner had not heard the first speaker; he was too much occupied with +tying his wife's arms to the chair,--a proceeding she could nowise +interfere with, since his heavy foot was set upon her dress so as to +hold her own feet in helpless fixedness. He proceeded to take the ring +from her finger, and, searching through a box of various contents that +stood in one corner, extracted from it a delicate steel chain, finely +wrought, but strong as steel can be; then, at the forge, with sundry +tools, carefully chosen and skilfully used, he soldered one end of the +chain to the ring, and, returning to his wife, placed it again upon her +finger. + +"Here, Bill," growled he, "where's that padlock off the tool-chest, eh? +give it here! This woman's a fool,--ha, ha, ha!--she wanted to get away +from me, and she's my wife!" + +Another peal of dissonant laughter interrupted the words. + +"What a d----d good joke! I swear I haven't laughed before, this dog's +age! And then she was goin' to rid herself of the ring! as if that would +help it! Why, there's the promise in black and white,--'love, honor, and +obey,'--'I take thee, Abner,'--ha, ha! that's good! But fast bind, fast +find; she a'n't going to get rid of the ring. I'll make it as tight as +the promise; both of 'em 'll last to doomsday. Give me the padlock, you +scoundrel!" + +Bill, the man he addressed, knew too much to hesitate after the savage +look that sent home the last words,--and, drawing from a bag of tools +and dies a tiny padlock and key, he handed them to Dimock, who passed +the chain about Hitty's thin white wrist, and, fastening it with the +padlock, turned the key, and, withdrawing it from the lock, dropped it +into the silvery heat of the forge, and burst into a fit of laughter, so +savage and so inhuman that the bearded lips of his two comrades grew +white with horror to hear the devil within so exult in his possession of +a man. + +Hitty sat, statue-like, in her chair; stooping, the man unbound her, and +she rose slowly and steadily to her feet, looking him in the face. + +"Look!" said she, raising her shackled arm high in air,--"I shall carry +it to God!"--and so fled, up the broken stairway, out into the +moonlight, across the meadow,--the three men following fast,--over the +fallen boughs that winter had strewn along the shore, out under the +crooked elm, swift as light, poising on the stern of the boat, that had +swung out toward the channel,--and once more lifting her hand high into +the white light, with one spring she dropped into the river, and its +black waters rolled down to the sea. + + + + +THE END OF ALL. + + + Wandering along a waste + Where once a city stood, + I saw a ruined tomb, + And in that tomb an urn,-- + + A sacred funeral-urn, + Without a name or date, + And in its hollow depths + A little human dust! + + Whose dust is this, I asked, + In this forgotten urn? + And where this waste now lies + What city rose of old? + + None knows; its name is lost; + It was, and is no more: + Gone like a wind that blew + A thousand years ago! + + Its melancholy end + Will be the end of all; + For, as it passed away, + The universe will pass! + + Its sole memorial + Some ruined world, like ours; + A solitary urn, + Full of the dust of men! + + + + +BIRDS OF THE NIGHT. + + +There are numerous swarms of insects and many small quadrupeds, +requiring partial darkness for their security, that come abroad only +during the night or twilight. These would multiply almost without check, +but that certain birds are formed with the power of seeing in the dark, +and, on account of their partial blindness in the daytime, are forced by +necessity to seek their food by night. Many species of insects are most +active after dewfall,--such, especially, as spend a great portion of +their lifetime in the air. Hence the very late hour at which Swallows +retire to rest, the hour succeeding sunset providing them with a fuller +repast than any other part of the day. No sooner has the Swallow +disappeared, than the Whippoorwill and the Night-Jar come forth, to prey +upon the larger kinds of aerial insects. The Bat, an animal of an +antediluvian type, comes out at the same time, and assists in lessening +these multitudinous swarms. The little Owls, though they pursue the +larger beetles and moths, direct their efforts chiefly at the small +quadrupeds that steal out in the early evening to nibble the tender +herbs and grasses. Thus the night, except the hours of total darkness, +is with many species of animals, though they pursue their objects with +comparative stillness and silence, a period of general activity. + +In this sketch, I shall treat of the Birds of the Night under two heads, +including, beside the true nocturnal birds that go abroad in the night +to seek their subsistence, those diurnal birds that continue their songs +during a considerable portion of the night. Some species of birds are +partly nocturnal in their habits. Such is the Chimney Swallow. This bird +is seldom out at noonday, which it employs in sleep, after excessive +activity from the earliest morning dawn. It is seen afterwards circling +about in the decline of day, and is sometimes abroad in fine weather the +greater part of the night, when the young broods require almost +unremitted exertions, on the part of the old birds, to procure their +subsistence. + +The true nocturnal birds, of which the Owl and the Whippoorwill are +conspicuous examples, are distinguished by a peculiar sensibility of the +eye, that enables them to see clearly by twilight and in cloudy weather, +while they are dazzled by the broad light of day. Their organs of +hearing are proportionally delicate and acute. Their wing-feathers also +have a peculiar downy softness, so that they fly without the usual +fluttering sounds that attend the flight of other birds, and are able to +steal unawares upon their prey, and make their predal excursions without +disturbing the general silence of the hour. This noiseless flight is +very remarkable in the Owl, as may be observed, if a tame one be allowed +to fly about a room, when we can perceive his motions only by our sight. +It is a fact worthy of our attention, that this peculiar structure of +the wing-feathers does not exist in the Woodcock. Nature makes no +useless provisions for her creatures; and hence this nocturnal bird, +which obtains his food by digging into the soil, and gets no part of it +while on the wing, has no need of this contrivance. Neither stillness +nor stealth would assist him in securing his helpless prey. + +Among the nocturnal birds, the most notorious is the Owl, of which there +are many species, varying from the size of an Eagle down to the little +Acadian, which is no larger than a Robin. The resemblance of the Owl to +the feline quadrupeds has been a frequent subject of remark. Like the +cat, he sees most clearly by twilight or the light of the moon, seeks +his prey in the night, and spends the principal part of the day in +sleep. The likeness is made stronger by his tufts of feathers, that +correspond to the ears of the quadruped,--by his large head,--his round, +full, and glaring eyes, set widely apart,--by the extreme contractility +of the pupil,--and in his manners, by his lurking and stealthy habit of +surprising his victims. His eyes are partially encircled by a disk of +feathers that yields a peculiarly significant expression to his face. +His hooked bill turned downwards, so as to resemble the nose in a human +countenance, the general flatness of his features, and his upright +position, give him a grave and intelligent look; and it was this +expression that caused him to be selected by the ancients as the emblem +of wisdom, and consecrated to Minerva. + +The Owl is remarkable also for the acuteness of his hearing, having a +large ear-drum, and being provided with an apparatus by which he can +exalt this faculty, when under the necessity of listening with greater +attention. Hence, while he is silent in his own motions, he is able to +perceive the least sound from the motion of any other object, and +overtakes his prey by coming upon it in silence and darkness. The +stillness of his flight is one of the circumstances that add mystery to +his character, and which have assisted in rendering him an object of +superstitious dread. + +Aware of his defenceless condition in the bright daylight, when his +purblindness would prevent him from evading the attacks of his enemies, +he seeks some obscure retreat where he may pass the day without exposing +himself to observation. It is this necessity which has caused him to +make his abode in desolate and ruined buildings, in old towers and +belfries, and in the crevices of dilapidated walls. In these places he +hides himself from the sight of other birds, who regard him as their +common enemy, and who show him no mercy when he is discovered. Here also +he rears his offspring, and with these solitary haunts his image is +closely associated. In thinly settled and wooded countries, he selects +the hollows of old trees and the clefts of rocks for his retreats. All +the smaller Owls, however, seem to multiply with the increase of human +population, subsisting upon the minute animals that accumulate in +outhouses, orchards, and fallows. + +When the Owl is discovered in his hiding-place, the alarm is given, and +there is a general excitement among the small birds. They assemble in +great numbers, and with loud chattering commence assailing and annoying +him in various ways, and soon drive him out of his retreat. The Jay, +usually his first assailant, like a thief employed as a thief-taker, +attacks him with great zeal and animation; the Chickadee, the Nuthatch, +and the small Thrushes peck at his head and eyes; while other birds, +less bold, fly round him, and by their vociferation encourage his +assailants and help to terrify their victim. + +It is while sitting on the branch of a tree or on a fence, after his +misfortune and his escape, that he is most frequently seen in the +daytime; and here he has formed a subject for painters, who have +commonly introduced him into their pictures as he appears in one of +these open situations. He is likewise represented ensconced in his own +select retreats, apparently peeping out of his hiding-place while +half-concealed; and the fact of his being seen in these lonely places +has caused many superstitions to be attached to his image. His voice is +supposed to bode misfortune, and his spectral visits are regarded as the +forewarnings of death. His connection with deserted houses and ruins has +invested him with a peculiarly romantic character; while the poets, by +introducing him to deepen the force of their gloomy and pathetic +descriptions, have enlivened these associations; and he deserves, +therefore, in a special degree, to be named among those animals which we +call picturesque. + +The gravity of the Owl's general appearance, combined with a sort of +human expression in his countenance, undoubtedly caused him to be +selected by the ancients as the emblem of wisdom. The moderns have +practically renounced this idea, which had no foundation in the real +character of the bird, who possesses only the sly and sinister traits +that mark the feline race. A very different train of associations and a +new series of picturesque images are now suggested by the figure of the +Owl, who has been portrayed more correctly by modern poetry than by +ancient mythology. He is now universally regarded as the emblem of ruin +and desolation, true to his character and habits, which are intimately +allied to this description of scenery. + +I will not enter into a speculation concerning the nature and origin of +those agreeable emotions which are so generally produced by the sight of +objects that suggest the ideas of decay and desolation. It is happy for +us, that, by the alchemy of poetry, we are able to turn some of our +misfortunes into sources of melancholy pleasure, after the poignancy of +grief has been assuaged by time. Nature has beneficently provided, also, +that many an object, which is capable of communicating no direct +pleasure to our senses, shall affect us agreeably through the medium of +sentiment. The image of the Owl is calculated to awaken the sentiment of +ruin, and to this feeling of the human soul we may trace the pleasure we +derive from the sight of this bird in his appropriate scenery. Two Doves +upon the mossy branch of a tree in a wild and beautiful sylvan retreat +are the pleasing emblems of innocent love and constancy; but they are +not more suggestive of poetic fancies than an Owl sitting upon an old +gate-post near a deserted house. + +I have alluded, in another page, to the faint sounds we hear when the +Night Birds, on a still summer evening, are flying over short distances +in a neighboring wood. There is a feeling of mystery excited by these +sounds, that exalts the pleasure we derive from the delightful influence +of the hour and the season. But the emotions thus produced are of a +cheerful kind, and not equal in intensity to the effects of the scarcely +perceptible sound occasioned by the flight of the Owl, as he glides by +in the dusk of the evening or in the dim light of the moon. Similar in +its influence is the dismal voice of this bird, which is harmonized with +darkness, and, though in some cases not unmusical, is tuned, as it were, +to the terrors of that hour when he makes secret warfare upon the +sleeping inhabitants of the wood. + +One of the most interesting of this tribe of birds is the little Acadian +Owl, (_Strix Acadica_,) whose note has formerly excited a great deal of +curiosity. In "The Canadian Naturalist," an account is given of a rural +excursion in April, in the course of which the attention of one of the +party is called by his companion, just after sunset, to a peculiar sound +proceeding from a cedar swamp. It was compared to the measured tinkling +of a cow-bell, or regular strokes upon a piece of iron, quickly +repeated. The one appealed to is able to give no satisfactory +information about it, but remarks, that, "during the months of April and +May, and in the former part of June, we frequently hear, after +nightfall, the sound just described. From its regularity, it is thought +to resemble the whetting of a saw, and hence the bird from which it +proceeds is called the Saw-Whetter." The author could not identify the +bird that uttered this note, but conjectured that it might be a Heron or +a Bittern. It has since been ascertained that this singular note +proceeds from the Acadian Owl. It is like the sound produced by the +filing of a mill-saw, and is said to be the amatory note of the male, +being heard only during the season of incubation. + +Mr. S.P. Fowler, of Danvers, informs me that "the Acadian Owl has +another note, which we frequently hear in the autumn, after the breeding +season is over. The parent birds, then accompanied by their young, while +hunting their prey during a bright moonlight night, utter a peculiar +note, resembling a suppressed moan or a low whistle. The little Acadian, +to avoid the annoyance of the birds he would meet by day, and the +blinding light of the sun, retires in the morning, his feathers wet with +dew and rumpled by the hard struggles he has encountered in seizing his +prey, to the gloom of the forest or the thick swamp, where, perched on a +bough, near the trunk of the tree, he sleeps through a summer's day, the +perfect picture of a _used-up_ little fellow, suffering from the sad +effects of a night's carouse. But he is an honest bird, notwithstanding +his late hours and his idle sleeping days; he is also domestic in his +habits, and the father of an interesting family, close at hand, in a +hollow white-birch, and he is ever ready to give them his support and +protection." + +The Mottled Owl, (_Strix Asio_) or Screech Owl, is somewhat larger than +the Acadian or Whetsaw, and not so familiar as the Barn Owl of Europe, +though resembling it in general habits. He commonly builds in the hollow +of an old tree, also in deserted buildings, whither he resorts in the +daytime to find repose and to escape annoyance. His voice is heard most +frequently in the latter part of summer, when the young Owlets are +abroad, and use their cries for purposes of mutual salutation and +recognition. This wailing note is singularly wild, and not unmusical. It +is not properly a screech or a scream, like that of the Hawk or the +Peacock, but rather a sort of moaning melody, half music and half +bewailment. This wailing song is far from disagreeable, though it has a +cadence which is expressive of dreariness and melancholy. It might be +performed on a small flute, by commencing with D octave and running down +by semitones to a fifth below, and frequently repeating the notes, for +the space of a minute, with occasional pauses and slight variations, +sometimes ascending as well as descending the scale. The bird does not +slur the passages, but utters them with a sort of trembling _staccato_. +The separate notes may be distinctly perceived, with intervals of about +a semitone. + +The Owl is not properly regarded as a useful bird. The generality of the +tribe deserve to be considered only as mischievous birds of prey, and no +more entitled to mercy and protection than the Falcons, to which they +are allied. All the little Owls, however, though guilty of destroying +small birds, are very serviceable in ridding our fields and premises of +mischievous animals. They likewise destroy multitudes of large nocturnal +insects, flying above the summits of the trees in pursuit of them, while +at other times their flight is low, when watching for the small animals +that run upon the ground. It is probably on account of its low flight +that the Owl is seldom seen on the wing. Bats, which are employed by +Nature for the same kind of services, fall victims in large numbers to +the Owls of different species, who are the principal means of preventing +their multiplication. + +I should wander from my present purpose, were I to attempt a sketch of +the large Owls, as I design only to treat of those birds which +contribute, either as poetic or picturesque objects, to improve the +charms of Nature. I shall say but a passing word, therefore, of the +Great Snowy Owl, almost exclusively an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, +where he frightens both man and beast with his dismal hootings,--or of +the Cat Owl, the prince of these monsters, who should be consecrated to +Pluto,--or of his brother monster, the Gray Owl, that will carry off a +full-grown rabbit. There are several other species, more or less +interesting, ridiculous, or frightful. I will leave them, to speak of +birds of more pleasing habits and a more innocent character. + +The next remarkable family of nocturnal birds comprises the +_Moth-Hunters_, including, in New England, only two species,--the +Whippoorwill and the Night-Hawk, or Piramidig. These birds resemble the +Owls in some of their habits; but in their structure, in their mode of +subsistence, and in their general traits of character, they are like +Swallows. They are shy and solitary, take their food while on the wing, +abide chiefly in deep woods, and come abroad only at twilight or in +cloudy weather. They remain, like the Dove, permanently paired, lay +their eggs on the bare ground, and, when perched upon the branch of a +tree, sit upon it lengthwise, unlike other birds. They are remarkable +for their singular voices, of which that of only one species, the +Whippoorwill, can be considered musical. They are known in all parts of +the world, but are particularly numerous in the warmer parts of America. + +The Whippoorwill (_Caprimulgus vociferus_) is well known to the +inhabitants of this part of the world, on account of his nocturnal song. +This is heard only in densely wooded and retired situations, and is +associated with the solitude of the forest, as well as the silence of +night. The Whippoorwill is, therefore, emblematic of the rudeness of +primitive Nature, and his voice always reminds us of seclusion and +retirement. Sometimes he wanders away from the wood into the precincts +of the town, and sings near some dwelling-house. Such an incident was +formerly the occasion of superstitious alarm, being regarded as an omen +of some evil to the inmates of the dwelling. The true cause of these +irregular visits is probably the accidental abundance of a particular +kind of insects, which the bird has followed from his retirement. + +I believe the Whippoorwill, in this part of the country, is first heard +in May, and continues vocal until the middle of July. He begins to sing +at dusk, and we usually hear his note soon after the Veery, the Philomel +of our summer evenings, has become silent. His song consists of three +notes, in a sort of triple or waltz time, with a slight pause after the +first note in the bar, as given below:-- + +[Illustration: SONG OF THE WHIPPOORWILL. Whip-poor-Will Whip-p'r-Will +Whip-p'r-Will Whip-] + +I should remark, that the bird usually commences his song with the +second syllable of his name, or the second note in the bar. Some birds +fall short of these intervals; but there seems to be an endeavor, on the +part of each individual, to reach the notes as they are written on the +scale. A few sliding notes are occasionally introduced, and an +occasional preluding cluck is heard when we are near the singer. + +The note of the Quail so closely resembles that of the Whippoorwill, +that I have thought it might be interesting to compare the two. + +[Illustration: NOTE OF THE QUAIL. Bob White. More Wet.] + +So great is the general similarity of the notes of these two birds, that +those of the Quail need only to be repeated several times in succession, +without pause, to be mistaken for those of the Whippoorwill. They are +uttered with similar intonations; but the voice of the nocturnal bird is +more harsh, and his song consists of three notes instead of two. + +The song of the Whippoorwill, though wanting in mellowness of tone, as +may be perceived when he is only a short distance from us, is to most +people very agreeable, notwithstanding the superstitions associated with +it. Some persons are not disposed to rank the Whippoorwill among +singing-birds, regarding him as more vociferous than musical. But it +would be difficult to determine in what respect his notes differ from +the songs of other birds, except that they approach more nearly to the +precision of artificial music. Yet it will be admitted that considerable +distance is required to "lend enchantment" to the sound of his voice. In +some retired and solitary districts, the Whippoorwills are often so +numerous as to be annoying by their vociferations; but in those places +where only two or three individuals are heard during the season, their +music is the source of a great deal of pleasure, and is a kind of +recommendation to the place. + +I was witness of this, some time since, in one of my botanical rambles +in the town of Beverly, which is, for the most part, too densely +populated to suit the habits of these solitary birds. On one of these +excursions, after walking several hours over a rather unattractive +region, I arrived at a very romantic spot, known by the unpoetical name +of Black Swamp. Nature uses her most ordinary materials to form her most +delightful landscapes, and often keeps in reserve prospects of +enchanting beauty, and causes them to rise up, as it were, by magic, +where we should least expect them. Here I suddenly found myself +encompassed by a charming amphitheatre of hills and woods, and in a +valley so beautiful that I could not have imagined anything equal to it. +A neat cottage stood alone in this spot, without a single architectural +decoration, which I am confident would have dissolved the spell that +made the whole scene so attractive. It was occupied by a shoemaker, whom +I recognized as an old acquaintance and a worthy man, who resided here +with his wife and children. I asked them if they could live contented so +far from other families. The wife of the cottager replied, that they +suffered in the winter from their solitude, but in the spring and summer +they preferred it to the town,--"for in this place we hear all the +singing-birds, early and late, and the Whippoorwill sings here every +night during May and June." It was the usual practice of these birds, +they told me, to sing both in the morning and the evening twilight; but +if the moon rose late in the evening, after they had become silent, they +would begin to sing anew, as if to welcome her rising. May the birds +continue to sing to this happy family, and may the voice of the +Whippoorwill never bode them any misfortune! + +The Night-Hawk, or Piramidig, (_Caprimulgus Americanus_,) is similar in +many points to the Whippoorwill, and the two species were formerly +considered identical. The former, however, is a smaller bird; he has no +song, and exhibits more of the ways of the Swallow. He is marked by a +white spot on his wings, which is very apparent during his flight. He +takes his prey in a higher part of the atmosphere,--being frequently +seen, at twilight and in cloudy weather, soaring above the house-tops in +quest of insects. The Whippoorwill finds his subsistence chiefly in the +woods, and takes a part of it from the branches of trees, while poising +himself on the wing, like a Humming-Bird. I believe he is never seen +circling aloft like the Night-Hawk. + +The movements of the Night-Hawk, during this flight, are performed, for +the most part, in circles, and are very picturesque. The birds are +usually seen in pairs, at such times, but occasionally there are numbers +assembled together; and one might suppose they were engaged in a sort of +aërial dance, or that they were emulating each other in their attempts +at soaring to a great height. It is evident that these evolutions +proceed in part from the pleasure of motion; but they are also connected +with their courtship. While they are soaring and circling in the air, +they occasionally utter the shrill and broken note which has been +supposed to resemble the word Piramidig, whence the name is +derived,--and now and then they dart suddenly aside, to seize a passing +insect. + +While performing these circumvolutions, the male frequently dives almost +perpendicularly downwards, a distance of forty feet or more, uttering, +when he turns at the bottom of his descent, a singular note, resembling +the twang of a viol-string. This sound has been supposed to proceed from +the action of the air, as the bird dives swiftly through it with open +mouth; but this supposition is rendered improbable by the fact that the +European species makes a similar sound while sitting on its perch. It +has also been alleged that the diving motion of this bird is an act +designed to intimidate those who seem to be approaching his nest; but +this cannot be true, because the bird performs the manoeuvre when he has +no nest to defend. This habit is peculiar to the male, and it is +probably one of those fantastic motions which are noticeable among the +males of the gallinaceous birds, and are evidently their artifices to +attract the attention of the female; very many of these motions may be +observed in the manners of tame Pigeons. + +The twanging note produced during the precipitate descent of the +Night-Hawk is one of the picturesque sounds of Nature, and is heard most +frequently in the morning twilight, when the birds are busy collecting +their repast of insects. During an early morning walk, while they are +circling about, we may hear their cry frequently repeated, and +occasionally the booming sound, which, if one is not accustomed to it, +and is not acquainted with this habit of the bird, affects him with a +sensation of mystery, and excites his curiosity in an extraordinary +degree. + +The sound produced by the European species is a sort of drumming or +whizzing note, like the hum of a spinning-wheel. The male commences this +performance about dusk, and continues it at intervals during a great +part of the night. It is effected while the breast is inflated with air, +like that of a cooing Dove. The Piramidig has the power of inflating +himself in the same manner, and he utters this whizzing note when one +approaches his nest. + +The American Woodcock (_Scolopax minor_) is a more interesting bird than +we should infer from his general appearance and physiognomy. He is +mainly nocturnal in his habits, and his ways are worthy of study and +observation. He obtains his food by scratching up the leaves and rubbish +that lie upon the surface of the ground in damp and wooded places, and +by boring into the earth for worms. He remains concealed in the wood +during the day, and comes out to feed at twilight, choosing the open +ploughed lands where worms are abundant; though it is probable that in +the shade of the wood he is more or less busy in scratching among the +leaves in the daytime. + +The Woodcock does not commonly venture abroad in the open day, unless he +be disturbed and driven from his retreats. He makes his first appearance +here in the latter part of April, and at this season we may observe that +soaring habit which renders him one of the picturesque objects of +Nature. This soaring takes place soon after sunset, continues during +twilight, and is repeated at the corresponding hour in the morning. If +you listen at this time near the places of his resort, he will soon +reveal himself by a lively peep, frequently uttered, from the ground. +While repeating this note, he may be seen strutting about, like a +turkey-cock, with fantastic jerkings of the tail and a frequent bowing +of the head; and his mate, I believe, is at this time not far off. +Suddenly he springs upward, and with a wide circular sweep, uttering at +the same time a rapid whistling note, he rises in a spiral course to a +great height in the air. At the summit of his ascent, he hovers about +with irregular motions, chirping a medley of broken notes, like +imperfect warbling. This continues about ten or fifteen seconds, when it +ceases, and he descends rapidly to the ground. We seldom hear him while +in his descent, but receive the first intimation of it by hearing a +repetition of his peep, resembling the sound produced by those minute +wooden trumpets sold at the German toy-shops. + +No person could watch this playful flight of the Woodcock without +interest; and it is remarkable that a bird with short wings and +difficult flight should be capable of mounting to so great an altitude. +It affords me a vivid conception of the pleasure with which I should +witness the soaring and singing of the Skylark, known to me only by +description. I have but to imagine the chirruping of the Woodcock to be +a melodious series of notes, to feel that I am listening to that bird, +which is so familiarized to our imaginations by English poetry that in +our early days we always expect his greetings with a summer sunrise. It +is with sadness that we first learn in our youth that the Skylark is not +an inhabitant of the New World; and our mornings seem divested of a +great portion of their charms, for the want of this poetical +accompaniment. + +There is another circumstance connected with the habits of the Woodcock +which increases his importance as an actor in the melodrame of Nature. +When we stroll away from the noise and din of the town, where the +stillness permits us to hear distinctly all those faint sounds which are +turned by the silence of night into music, we may hear at frequent +intervals the hum produced by the irregular flights of the Woodcock, as +he passes over short distances in the wood, where he is collecting his +repast. It resembles the sound of the wings of Doves, rendered distinct +by the stillness of all other things, and melodious by the distance. +There is a feeling of mystery attached to these musical nights that +yields a savor of romance to the quiet voluptuousness of a summer +evening. + +It is on such occasions, if we are in a moralizing mood, that we may be +keenly impressed with the truth of the saying, that the secret of +happiness consists in keeping alive our susceptibilities by frugal +indulgences, rather than by seeking a multitude of pleasures, that pall +in exact proportion to their abundance. The stillness and darkness of a +quiet night produce this enlivening effect upon our minds. Our +susceptibility is then awakened to such a degree, that slight sounds and +feeble sparks of light convey to our souls an amount of pleasure which +we seldom experience in the daytime from sights and sounds of the most +pleasing description. Thus the player in an orchestra can enjoy such +music only as would deafen common ears by its crash of sounds, in which +they perceive no connection or harmony; while the simple rustic listens +to the rude notes of a flageolet in the hands of a clown with feelings +of ineffable delight. Nature, if the seekers after luxurious and +exciting pleasures could but understand her language, would say to them, +"Except ye become as this simple rustic, ye cannot enter into my +paradise." + +The American Snipe has some of the nocturnal habits of the Woodcock, and +the same habit of soaring at twilight, when he performs a sort of +musical medley, which Audubon has very graphically described in the +following passage:--"The birds are met with in meadows and low grounds, +and, by being on the spot before sunrise, you may see both (male and +female) mount high, in a spiral manner, now with continuous beats of the +wings, now in short sailings, until more than a hundred yards high, when +they whirl round each other with extreme velocity, and dance, as it +were, to their own music; for, at this juncture, and during the space of +five or six minutes, you hear rolling notes mingled together, each more +or less distinct, perhaps, according to the state of the atmosphere. The +sounds produced are extremely pleasing, though they fall faintly on the +ear. I know not how to describe them; but I am well assured that they +are not produced simply by the beatings of their wings, as at this time +the wings are not flapped, but are used in sailing swiftly in a circle, +not many feet in diameter. A person might cause a sound somewhat similar +by blowing rapidly and alternately, from one end to another, across a +set of small pipes, consisting of two or three modulations. This +performance is kept up till incubation terminates; but I have never +observed it at any other period." + +Among the Heron family we discover a few nocturnal birds, which, though +not very well known, have some ways that are singular and interesting. +Goldsmith considered one of these birds worthy of introduction into his +"Deserted Village," as contributing to the poetic conception of +desolation. Thus, in his description of the grounds which were the +ancient site of the village, we read,-- + + "Along its glades, a solitary guest, + The hollow-sounding Bittern guards its nest." + +"The Bittern is a shy and solitary bird; it is never seen on the wing in +the daytime, but sits, generally with the head erect, hid among the +reeds and rushes of extensive marshes, from whence it will not stir, +unless disturbed by the sportsman. When it changes its haunts, it +removes in the dusk of the evening, and then, rising in a spiral +direction, soars to a vast height. It flies in the same heavy manner as +the Heron, and might be mistaken for that bird, were it not for the +singularly resounding cry which it utters, from time to time, while on +the wing: but this cry is feeble when compared with the hollow booming +noise which it makes during the night, in the breeding season, from its +swampy retreats. From the loudness and solemnity of its note, an +erroneous notion prevails with the vulgar, that it either thrusts its +head into a reed, which serves as a pipe for swelling its note beyond +its natural pitch, or that it immerges its head in water, and then +produces its boomings by blowing with all its might." + +The American Bittern is a smaller bird, but is probably a variety of the +European species. It exhibits the same nocturnal habits, and has +received at the South the name of _Dunkadoo_, from the resemblance of +its common note to these syllables. This is a hollow-sounding noise, but +not so loud as the voice of the Bittern to which Goldsmith alludes. I +have heard it by day proceeding from the wooded swamps, and am at a loss +to explain how so small a bird can produce so low and hollow a note. +Among this family of birds are one or two other nocturnal species, +including the Qua-Bird, which is common to both continents; but there is +little to be said of it that would be interesting in this connection. +The Herons, however, and their allied species, are birds of remarkable +habits, the enumeration and account of which would occupy a considerable +space. In an essay on the flight of birds in particular, the Herons +would furnish a multitude of very interesting facts. + + +Let us now turn our attention to those diurnal birds that sing in the +night as well as in the day, and which might be comprehended under the +general appellation of Nightingales. These birds do not confine their +singing to the night, like the true nocturnal birds, and are most vocal +when inspired by the light of the moon. Europe has several of these +minstrels of the night. Beside the true Philomel of poetry and romance, +the Reed-Thrush and the Woodcock are of this character. In the United +States, the Mocking-Bird enjoys the greatest reputation; the +Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the New York Thrush are also nocturnal +songsters. + +The Mocking-Bird (_Turdus polyglottus_) is well known in the Middle and +Southern States, but seldom passes a season in New England, except in +the southern part of Rhode Island and Connecticut, which seem to be the +northern limit of its migrations. Probably, like the Rose-breasted +Grosbeak, which is constantly extending its limits in an eastern +direction, the Mocking-Bird may be gradually making progress +northwardly, so that fifty years hence both of these birds may be common +in Massachusetts. The Mocking-Bird is familiar in his habits, +frequenting gardens and orchards, and perching on the roofs of houses +when singing, like the common Robin. Like the Robin, too, who sings at +all hours excepting those of darkness, he is a persevering songster, and +seems to be inspired by living in the vicinity of man. In his manners, +however, he bears more resemblance to the Red Thrush, being +distinguished by his vivacity, and the courage with which he repels the +attacks of his enemies. + +The Mocking-Bird is celebrated throughout the world for his musical +powers; but it is difficult to ascertain precisely the character and +quality of his original notes. Hence some naturalists have contended +that he has no song of his own, but confines himself to imitations. That +this is an error, all persons who have listened to him in his native +wild-wood can testify. I should say, from my own observations, not only +that he has a distinct song, peculiarly his own, but that his imitations +are far from being equal to his original notes. Yet it is seldom we hear +him except when he is engaged in mimicry. In his native woods, and +especially at an early hour in the morning, when he is not provoked to +imitation by the voices of other birds and animals, he sometimes pours +forth his own wild notes with full fervor. Yet I have often listened +vainly for hours to hear him utter anything but a few idle repetitions +of monotonous sounds, interspersed with some ludicrous varieties. Why he +should neglect his own pleasing notes, to tease the listener with his +imitations of all imaginable discords, is not easily explained. + +Though his imitations are the cause of his notoriety, they are not the +utterances upon which his true merit is based. He would be infinitely +more valuable as a songster, if he were incapable of imitating a single +sound. I would add, that as an imitator of the songs of other birds he +is very imperfect, and in this respect has been greatly overrated by our +ornithologists, who seem to vie with one another in their exaggerations +of his powers. He cannot utter the notes of the rapid singers; he is +successful only in his imitations of those birds whose notes are simple +and moderately delivered. He is, indeed, more remarkable for his +indefatigable propensity than for his powers. Single sounds, from +whatever source they may come, from birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, or +machines, he gives very accurately; but I have heard numbers of +Mocking-Birds in confinement attempt to imitate the Canary, and always +without success. There is a common saying, that the Mocking-Bird will +die of chagrin, if placed in a cage by the side of a caged Bobolink, +mortified because he cannot give utterance to his rapid notes. If this +were the cause of his death, he would also die when caged in a room with +a Canary, a Goldfinch, or any of the rapidly singing Finches. It is also +an error to say of his imitations, as the generality of writers assert, +that they are improvements upon the originals. When he utters the notes +of the Red-Bird, the Golden Robin, or the Common Robin, he does not +improve them; and when he gives us the screaming of the Jay or the +mewing of the Cat, he does not change them into music. + +As an original songster, judging him by what he is capable of +performing, however unfrequently he may exercise his powers to the best +advantage, the Mocking-Bird is probably equalled only by two or three of +our singing-birds. His notes are loud, varied, melodious, and of great +compass. They may be compared to those of the Red Thrush, more rapidly +delivered, and having more flute notes and fewer guttural notes and +sudden transitions. He also sings on the wing and with fervor, like the +Linnet, while the other Thrushes sing only from their perch. But his +song has less variety than that of the Red Thrush, and falls short of it +in as many respects as it surpasses it. For the greater part of the +time, the only notes of the Mocking-Bird, when he is not engaged in +mimicry, are a sort of melodious whistle, consisting of two notes about +a fourth apart, uttered in quick, but not rapid, succession, and hardly +to be distinguished from those of the Red-Bird of Virginia. + +I heard the notes of the Mocking-Bird the first time in his native +wilds, during a railroad journey by night, through the Pine Barrens of +North Carolina, in the month of June. The journey was very tiresome and +unpleasant, nothing being seen, when looking out upon the landscape, but +a gloomy stretch of level forest, consisting of tall pines, thinly +scattered, without any branches, except at their tops. The dusky forms +of these trees, pictured against the half-luminous sky, seemed like so +many giant spectres watching the progress of our journey, and increased +the loneliness of the hour. Before daylight, when the sky was faintly +crimsoned around the place where the sun was to come forth, the train +made a pause of half an hour, at one of the stations, and the passengers +alighted. While I was looking at the dreary prospect of desert, tired of +my journey and longing for day, suddenly the notes of the Mocking-Bird +came to my ear, and changed all my gloomy feelings into delight. + +It is seldom I have felt so vividly the power of one little incident to +change the tone of one's feelings and the humor of the occasion. As a +few drops of oil, cast upon the surface of the waters, will quiet the +troubled waves, so did the glad voice of this merry bird suddenly dispel +all those sombre feelings which had been fostered by dismal scenes and a +lonely journey. Nature never seemed so lovely as when the rising dawn, +with its tearful beams and purple radiance, was greeted by this warbling +salutation, as from some messenger of light, who came to announce that +Morning was soon to step forth from her throne, and extend over all +things her smiles and her beneficence. + +Of the other American birds that sing in the night I can say nothing +from my own observation. The most important of these is the New York +Thrush, (_Turdus aquaticus_,) which is said to resemble the River +Nightingale of Europe. This bird, which is common in the Western States, +is said to sing melodiously night and day. Wilson remarks of this +species, "They are eminently distinguished by the loudness, sweetness, +and expressive vivacity of their notes, which begin very high and clear, +falling with an almost imperceptible gradation, till they are scarcely +articulated. At these times the musician is perched on the middle +branches of a tree, over a brook or river-bank, pouring out his charming +melody, that may be distinctly heard for nearly half a mile. The voice +of this little bird appeared to me so exquisitely sweet and expressive, +that I was never tired listening to it." This description is exactly +applicable to the song of the Veery, supposed to be silent by Wilson, +who could not have fallen into such an error, except by having confined +his researches chiefly to the Middle and Southern States. + +The Rose-breasted Grosbeak (_Loxia rosea_) is said to be an excellent +songster, passing the greater part of the night in singing, and +continuing vocal in confinement. This bird is common in the Western +States, but until lately has seldom been seen in New England. I learn, +however, from Mr. Fowler, that "the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is found in +Essex County, and, though formerly seldom seen, is becoming every year +more common. Like the Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager, it is retiring in +its habits, and is usually found in the most sheltered part of the wood, +where, perched about midway on a tree, in fancied concealment, it +warbles its soft, clear, and melodious notes." He thinks this bird is +not heard so frequently by night as by day, though it often sings in the +light of the moon. + +In connection with this theme, we cannot help feeling a sense of regret, +almost like melancholy, when we reflect that the true Nightingale and +the Skylark, the classical birds of European literature, are strangers +to our fields and woods. In May and June there is no want of sylvan +minstrels to wake the morn and to sing the vespers of a sweet summer +evening. A flood of song wakes us at the earliest daylight; and the shy +and solitary Veery, after the Vesper-Bird has concluded his evening +hymn, pours his few pensive notes into the very bosom of twilight, and +makes the hour sacred by his melody. But after twilight is sped, and the +moon rises to shed her meek radiance over the sleeping earth, the +Nightingale is not here to greet her rising, and to turn her melancholy +beams into the cheerfulness of daylight. And when the Queen Moon is on +her throne, + + "Clustered around by all her starry Fays," + +the Whippoorwill alone brings her the tribute of his monotonous song, +and soothes the dull ear of Night with sounds which, however delightful, +are not of heaven. We have become so familiar with the Lark and the +Nightingale, by the perusal of the romance of rural life, that "neither +breath of Morn, when she ascends" without the charm of this her earliest +harbinger, "nor silent Night" without her "solemn bird," seems holy, as +when we contemplate them in the works of pastoral song. Poetry has +hallowed to our minds the pleasing objects of the Old World; those of +the New have to be cherished in song yet many more years, before they +will be equally sacred to our imaginations. + +By some of our writers the Mocking-Bird is put forward as equal in song +to the Nightingale. This assumption might be worthy of consideration, if +the American bird were not a mimic. But his mocking habits almost +annihilate his value as a songster,--as the effect of a good concert +would be spoiled, if the players were constantly introducing, in the +midst of their serious performances, snatches of ridiculous tunes and +uncouth sounds. I have never heard the Nightingale; but if I may judge +from descriptions of its song, and from the notes of those Canaries +which are said to give us perfect imitations of it, we have no bird in +America that equals this classical songster. The following description, +by Pliny, which is said to be superior to any other, may afford us some +idea of the extent of its powers:--"The Nightingale, that for fifteen +days and nights, hid in the thickest shades, continues her note without +intermission, deserves our attention and wonder. How surprising that so +great a voice can reside in so small a body! Such perseverance in so +minute an animal! With what musical propriety are the sounds it produces +modulated! The note at one time drawn out with a long breath, now +stealing off into a different cadence, now interrupted by a break, then +changing into a new note by an unexpected transition, now seeming to +renew the same strain, then deceiving expectation. She sometimes seems +to murmur within herself; full, deep, sharp, swift, drawling, trembling; +now at the top, the middle, and the bottom of the scale. In short, in +that little bill seems to reside all the melody which man has vainly +labored to bring from a variety of musical instruments. Some even seem +to be possessed of a different note from the rest, and contend with each +other with great ardor. The bird, overcome, is then seen to discontinue +its song only with its life." + +The cause of the nocturnal singing of birds that do not go abroad during +the night and are strictly diurnal in all their other habits has never +been satisfactorily explained. It is natural that the Whippoorwill, +which is a nocturnal bird, should sing during his hours of wakefulness +and activity. There is also no difficulty in explaining why Ducks and +Geese, and some other social birds, should utter their loud alarm-notes, +when they meet with any midnight disturbance. These birds usually have a +sentinel who keeps awake; and if he give an alarm, the others reply to +it. The crowing of the Cock bears more analogy to the song of a bird, +for it does not seem to be an alarm-note. This domestic bird may be +considered, therefore, a nocturnal songster, if his crowing can be +called a song; though it is remarkable that we seldom hear it during +evening twilight. The Cock sings his matins, but not his vespers; he +crows at the earliest dawn of day, and at midnight upon the rising of +the moon, and whenever he is awakened by artificial light. Many +singing-birds are accustomed to prolong their notes after sunset to a +late hour, and become silent only to commence again at the earliest +daybreak. But the habit of singing in the night is peculiar to a small +number of birds, and the cause of it forms a curious subject of inquiry. + +By what means are they enabled to sustain such constant watchfulness, +singing and providing subsistence for their offspring during the day, +and still continuing wakeful and musical while it is night? Why do they +take pleasure in singing, when no one will come in answer to their call? +Have they their worship, like religious beings, and are their midnight +lays but the outpouring of the fervency of their spirits? Do they +rejoice, like the clouds, in the presence of the moon, hailing her beams +as a pleasant relief from the darkness that has surrounded them? Or in +the silence of night, are their songs but responses to the sounds of the +trees, when they bow their heads and shake their rustling leaves in the +wind? When they listen to the streamlet, that makes audible melody only +in the hush of night, do they not answer to it from their leafy perch? +And when the moth flies hummingly through the recesses of the wood, and +the beetle sounds his horn, what are their notes but cheerful responses +to these sounds, that break sweetly upon the quiet of their slumbers? + +Wilson remarks, that the hunters in the Southern States, when setting +out on an excursion by night, as soon as they hear the Mocking-Bird +sing, know that the moon is rising. He quotes a writer who supposes that +it may be fear that operates upon the birds when they perceive the Owls +flitting among the trees, and that they sing, as a timid person whistles +in a lonely place, to quiet their fears. But the musical notes of birds +are never used by them to express their fears; they are the language of +love, sometimes animated by jealousy. It must be admitted that the +moonlight awakes these birds, and may be the most frequent exciting +cause of their nocturnal singing; but it is not true that they always +wait for the rising of the moon; and if this were the fact, the question +may still be asked, why these few species alone should be thus affected. + +Since Philosophy can give no explanation of this instinct, let Fancy +come to her aid, and assist us in our dilemma,--as when we have vainly +sought from Reason an explanation of the mysteries of Religion, we +humbly submit to the guidance of Faith. With Fancy for our interpreter, +we may suppose that Nature has adapted the works of creation to our +moral as well as our physical wants; and while she has instituted the +night as a time for general rest, she has provided means that shall +soften the gloomy effects of darkness. The birds, which are the +harbingers of all rural delights, are hence made to sing during +twilight; and when they cease, the nocturnal songsters become vocal, +bearing pleasant sensations to the sleepless, and by their lulling +melodies preparing us to be keenly susceptible of all agreeable +emotions. + + +TO THE MOCKING-BIRD. + + + Carolling bird, that merrily, night and day, + Tellest thy raptures from the rustling spray, + And wakest the morning with thy varied lay, + Singing thy matins,-- + When we have come to hear thy sweet oblation + Of love and joyance from thy sylvan station, + Why, in the place of musical cantation, + Balk us with pratings? + + We stroll by moonlight in the dusky forest, + Where the tall cypress shields thee, fervent chorist! + And sit in haunts of Echoes, when thou pourest + Thy woodland solo. + Hark! from the next green tree thy song commences: + Music and discord join to mock the senses, + Repeated from the tree-tops and the fences, + From hill and hollow. + + A hundred voices mingle with thy clamor; + Bird, beast, and reptile take part in thy drama; + Out-speak they all in turn without a stammer,-- + Brisk Polyglot! + Voices of Killdeer, Plover, Duck, and Dotterel; + Notes bubbling, hissing, mellow, sharp, and guttural; + Of Cat-Bird, Cat, or Cart-Wheel, thou canst utter all, + And all-untaught. + + The Raven's croak, the chirping of the Sparrow, + The scream of Jays, the creaking of Wheelbarrow, + And hoot of Owls,--all join the soul to harrow, + And grate the ear. + We listen to thy quaint soliloquizing, + As if all creatures thou wert catechizing, + Tuning their voices, and their notes revising, + From far and near. + + Sweet bird! that surely lovest the noise of folly; + Most musical, but never melancholy; + Disturber of the hour that should be holy, + With sound prodigious! + Fie on thee, O thou feathered Paganini! + To use thy little pipes to squawk and whinny, + And emulate the hinge and spinning-jenny, + Making night hideous! + + Provoking melodist! why canst thou breathe us + No thrilling harmony, no charming pathos, + No cheerful song of love without its bathos? + The Furies take thee,-- + Blast thy obstreperous mirth, thy foolish chatter,-- + Gag thee, exhaust thy breath, and stop thy clatter, + And change thee to a beast, thou senseless prater!-- + Nought else can check thee! + + A lengthened pause ensues:--but hark again! + From the new woodland, stealing o'er the plain, + Comes forth a sweeter and a holier strain!-- + Listening delighted, + The gales breathe softly, as they bear along + The warbled treasure,--the delicious throng + Of notes that swell accordant in the song, + As love is plighted. + + The Echoes, joyful from their vocal cell, + Leap with the wingèd sounds o'er hill and dell, + With kindling fervor, as the chimes they tell + To wakeful Even:-- + They melt upon the ear; they float away; + They rise, they sink, they hasten, they delay, + And hold the listener with bewitching sway, + Like sounds from heaven! + + + + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + + +HAVANA--THE JESUIT COLLEGE. + + +The gentlemen of our party go one day to visit the Jesuit College in +Havana, yclept "Universidad de Belen." The ladies, weary of dry goods, +manifest some disposition to accompany them. This is at once frowned +down by the unfairer sex, and Can Grande, appealed to by the other side, +shakes his shoulders, and replies, "No, you are only miserable women, +and cannot be admitted into any Jesuit establishment whatever." And so +the male deputation departs with elation, and returns with airs of +superior opportunity, and is more insufferable than ever at dinner, and +thereafter. + +They of the feminine faction, on the other hand, consult with more +direct authorities, and discover that the doors of Belen are in no wise +closed to them, and that everything within those doors is quite at their +disposition, saving and excepting the sleeping-apartments of the Jesuit +fathers,--to which, even in thought, they would on no account draw near. +And so they went and saw Belen, whereof one of them relates as follows. + +The building is spacious, inclosing a hollow square, and with numerous +galleries, like European cloisters, where the youth walk, study, and +play. We were shown up-stairs, into a pleasant reception-room, where two +priests soon waited on us. One of these, Padre Doyaguez, seemed to be +the decoy-duck of the establishment, and soon fastened upon one of our +party, whose Protestant tone of countenance had probably caught his +attention. Was she a Protestant? Oh, no!--not with that intelligent, +physiognomy!--not with that talent! What was her name? Julia (pronounced +_H_ulia). Hulia was a Roman name, a Catholic name; he had never heard of +a Hulia who was a Protestant;--very strange, it seemed to him, that a +Hulia could hold to such unreasonable ideas. The other priest, Padre +Lluc, meanwhile followed with sweet, quiet eyes, whose silent looks had +more persuasion in them than all the innocent cajoleries of the elder +man. Padre Doyaguez was a man eminently qualified to deal with the sex +in general,--a coaxing voice, a pair of vivacious eyes, whose cunning +was not unpleasing, tireless good-humor and perseverance, and a savor of +sincerity. Padre Lluc was the sort of man that one recalls in quiet +moments with a throb of sympathy,--the earnest eyes, the clear brow, the +sonorous voice. One thinks of him, and hopes that he is satisfied,--that +cruel longing and more cruel doubt shall never spring up in that +capacious heart, divorcing his affections and convictions from the +system to which his life is irrevocably wedded. No, keep still, Padre +Lluc I think ever as you think now, lest the faith that seems a fortress +should prove a prison, the mother a step-dame,--lest the high, +chivalrous spirit, incapable of a safe desertion, should immolate truth +or itself on the altar of consistency. + +Between those two advocates of Catholicity, Hulia Protestante walks +slowly through the halls of the University. She sees first a Cabinet of +Natural History, including minerals, shells, fossils, and insects, all +well-arranged, and constituting a very respectable beginning. Padre Lluc +says some good words on the importance of scientific education. Padre +Doyaguez laughs at the ladies' hoops, which he calls Malakoffs, as they +crowd through the doorways and among the glass cases; he repeats +occasionally, "_Hulia Protestante_?" in a tone of mock astonishment, and +receives for answer, "_Sí, Hulia Protestante_." Then comes a very +creditable array of scientific apparatus,--not of the order employed by +the judges of Galileo,--electric and galvanic batteries, an orrery, and +many things beside. The library interests us more, with some luxurious +classics, a superb Dante, and a prison-cage of forbidden works, of which +Padre Lluc certainly has the key. Among these were fine editions of +Rousseau and Voltaire, which appeared to be intended for use; and we +could imagine a solitary student, dark-eyed and pale, exploring their +depths at midnight with a stolen candle, and endeavoring, with +self-torment, to reconcile the intolerance of his doctrine with the +charities of his heart. We imagine such a one lost in the philosophy and +sentiment of the "Nouvelle Héloise," and suddenly summoned by the +convent-bell to the droning of the Mass, the mockery of Holy Water, the +fable of the Real Presence. Such contrasts might be strange and +dangerous. No, no, Padre Lluc! keep these unknown spells from your +heart,--let the forbidden books alone. Instead of the Confessions of +Jean Jacques, read the Confessions of St. Augustine,--read the new book, +in three volumes, on the Immaculate Conception, which you show me with +such ardor, telling me that Can Grande, which, in the vernacular, is +Parker, has spoken of it with respect. Beyond the Fathers you must not +get, for you have vowed to be a child all your life. Those clear eyes of +yours are never to look up into the face of the Eternal Father; the +show-box of the Church must content them, with Mary and the saints seen +through its dusty glass,--the august figure of the Son, who sometimes +reproved his mother, crowded quite out of sight behind the woman, whom +it is so much easier to dress up and exhibit. What is this other book +which Parker has read? Padre Doyaguez says, "Hulia, if you read this, +you must become a Catholic." Padre Lluc says, "If Parker has read this +book, I cannot conceive that he is not a Catholic." The quick Doyaguez +then remarks, "Parker is going to Rome to join the Romish Church." Padre +Lluc rejoins, "They say so." Hulia Protestante is inclined to cry out, +"The day that Parker becomes a Catholic, I, too, will become one"; but, +remembering the rashness of vows and the fallibility of men, she does +not adopt that form of expressing _Never_. Parker might, if it pleased +God, become a Catholic, and then the world would have two Popes instead +of one. + +We leave at last the disputed ground of the library and ascend to the +observatory, which commands a fine view of the city, and a good sweep of +the heavens for the telescope, in which Padre Lluc seemed especially to +delight. The observatory is commodious, and is chiefly directed by an +attenuated young priest, with a keen eye and hectic cheek; another was +occupied in working out mathematical tables;--for these Fathers observe +the stars, and are in scientific correspondence with astronomers in +Europe. This circumstance gave us real pleasure on their account,--for +science, in all its degrees, is a positive good, and a mental tonic of +the first importance. Earnestly did we, in thought, commend it to those +wearied minds which have undergone the dialectic dislocations, the +denaturalizations of truth and of thought, which enable rational men to +become first Catholics and then Jesuits. For let there be no illusions +about strength of mind, and so on,--this is effected by means of a vast +machinery. As, in the old story, the calves were put in at one end of +the cylinder and taken out leather breeches at the other, or as glass is +cut and wood carved, so does the raw human material, put into the +machine of the Catholic Church, become fashioned according to the will +of those who guide it. Hulia Protestante! you have a free step and a +clear head; but once go into the machine, and you will come out carved +and embossed according to the old traditional pattern,--you as well as +another. Where the material is hard, they put on more power,--where it +is soft, more care; wherefore I caution you here, as I would in a mill +at Lowell or Lawrence,--Don't meddle with the shafts,--don't go too near +the wheel,--in short, keep clear of the machinery. And Hulia does so; +for, at the last attack of Padre Doyaguez, she suddenly turns upon him +and says, "Sir, you are a Doctrinary and a Propagandist." And the good +Father suffers her to depart in peace. But first there is the chapel to +be seen, with its tawdry and poor ornamentation,--and the dormitories of +the scholars, with long double rows of beds and mosquito-nettings. There +are two of these, and each of them has at one end a raised platform, +with curtains and a bed, where rests and watches the shepherd of the +little sheep. Lastly, we have a view of the whole flock, assembled in +their play-ground, and one of them, looking up, sees his mother, who has +kindly accompanied our visit to the institution. Across the distance +that separates us, we see his blue eyes brighten, and, as soon as +permission is given, he bounds like a young roe to her arms, shy and +tender, his English blood showing through his Spanish skin,--for he is a +child of mixed race. We are all pleased and touched, and Padre Lluc +presently brings us a daguerreotype, and says, "It is my mother." To us +it is an indifferent portrait of an elderly Spanish woman,--but to him, +how much! With kindest mutual regard we take leave,--a little surprised, +perhaps, to see that Jesuit priests have mothers, and remember them. + + + + +SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BAÑOS. + + + "Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone!" + +However enchanting Havana may prove, when seen through the moonlight of +memory, it seems as good a place to go away from as any other, after a +stifling night in a net, the wooden shutters left open in the remote +hope of air, and admitting the music of a whole opera-troupe of dogs, +including bass, tenor, soprano, and chorus. Instead of bouquets, you +throw stones, if you are so fortunate as to have them,--if not, +boot-jacks, oranges, your only umbrella. You are last seen thrusting +frantic hands and feet through the iron bars, your wife holding you back +by the flannel night-gown which you will persist in wearing in this +doubtful climate. At last it is over,--the fifth act ends with a howl +which makes you hope that some one of the performers has come to grief. +But, alas! it is only a stage _dénouement_, whose hero will die again +every night while the season lasts. You fall asleep, but the welcome +cordial has scarcely been tasted when you are aroused by a knock at the +door. It is the night-porter, who wakes you at five by appointment, that +you may enjoy your early coffee, tumble into a hired _volante_, and +reach, half dead with sleep, the station in time for the train that goes +to San Antonio. + +Now, whether you are a partisan of early rising or not, you must allow +that sunrise and the hour after is the golden time of the day in Cuba. +So this hour of starting,--six o'clock,--so distasteful in our +latitudes, is a matter of course in tropical climates. Arriving at the +station, you encounter new tribulations in the registering and payment +of luggage, the transportation of which is not included in the charge +for your ticket. Your trunks are recorded in a book, and, having paid a +_real_ apiece for them, you receive a paper which entitles you to demand +them again at your journey's end. The Cuban railways are good, but +dear,--the charge being ten cents a mile; whereas in our more favored +land one goes for three cents, and has the chance of a collision and +surgeon's services without any extra payment. The cars have windows +which are always open, and blinds which are always closed, or nearly so. +The seats and backs of seats are of cane, for coolness,--hardness being +secured at the same time. One reaches San Antonio in an hour and a half, +and finds a pleasant village, with a river running through it, several +streets of good houses, several more of bad ones, a cathedral, a +cockpit, a _volante_, four soldiers on horseback, two on foot, a market, +dogs, a bad smell, and, lastly, the American Hotel,--a house built in a +hollow square, as usual,--kept by a strong-minded woman from the States, +whose Yankee thrift is unmistakable, though she has been long absent +from the great centres of domestic economy. + +Mrs. L----, always on the watch for arrivals, comes out to receive us. +We are very welcome, she hints, as far as we go; but why are there not +more of us? The smallest favors should be thankfully received, but she +hears that Havana is full of strangers, and she wonders, for her part, +why people will stay in that hot place, and roast, and stew, and have +the yellow fever, when she could make them so comfortable in San +Antonio. This want of custom she continues, during our whole visit, to +complain of. Would it be uncharitable for us to aver that we found other +wants in her establishment which caused us more astonishment, and which +went some way towards accounting for the deficiency complained of? wants +of breakfast, wants of dinner, wants of something good for tea, wants of +towels, wants of candles, wants of ice, or, at least, of the cooling +jars used in the country. Charges exorbitant,--the same as in Havana, +where rents are an ounce a week, and upwards; _volantes_ +difficult,--Mrs. L. having made an agreement with the one livery-stable +that they shall always be furnished at most unreasonable prices, of +which she, supposably, pockets half. On the other hand, the village is +really cool, healthy, and pretty; there are pleasant drives over +dreadful roads, if one makes up one's mind to the _volante_, and +delightful river-baths, shaded by roofs of palm-tree thatch. One of the +best of these is at the foot of Mrs. L.'s inclosure, and its use is +included in the privileges of the house. The water is nearly tepid, +clear, and green, and the little fish float hither and thither in +it,--though men of active minds are sometimes reduced to angle for them, +with crooked pins, for amusement. At the hour of one, daily, the ladies +of the house betake themselves to this refreshment; and there is +laughing, and splashing, and holding of hands, and simulation of all the +Venuses that ever were, from the crouching one of the bath, to the +triumphant Cytherea, springing for the first time from the wave. + +Such are the resources of the house. Those of the neighborhood are +various. Foremost among them is the _cafetal_, or coffee-plantation, of +Don Juan Torres, distant a league from the village, over which league of +stone, sand, and rut you rumble in a _volante_ dragged by three horses. +You know that the _volante_ cannot upset; nevertheless you experience +some anxious moments when it leans at an obtuse angle, one wheel in air, +one sticking in a hole, the horses balking and kicking, and the +postilion swearing his best. But it is written, the _volante_ shall not +upset,--and so it does not. Long before you see the entrance to the +plantation, you watch the tall palms, planted in a line, that shield, +its borders. An avenue of like growth leads you to the house, where +barking dogs announce you, and Don Juan, an elderly gentleman in +slippers and a Panama hat, his hair, face, and eyes all faded to one hue +of grayness, comes out to accost us. Here, again, Hulia Protestante +becomes the subject of a series of attacks, in a new kind. Don Juan +first exhausts his flower-garden upon her, and explains all that is new +to her. Then she must see his blind Chino, a sightless Samson of a +Cooly, who is working resolutely in a mill. "_Canta!_" says the master, +and the poor slave gives tongue like a hound on the scent. "_Baila!_" +and, a stick being handed him, he performs the gymnastics of his +country, a sort of war-dance without accompaniment. "_El can!_" and, +giving him a broom, they loose the dog upon him. A curious tussle then +ensues,--the dog attacking furiously, and the blind man, guided by his +barking, defending himself lustily. The Chino laughs, the master laughs, +but the visitor feels more inclined to cry, having been bred in those +Northern habits which respect infirmity. A _real_ dismisses the poor +soul with a smile, and then begins the journey round the _cafetal_. The +coffee-blossom is just in its perfection, and whole acres in sight are +white with its flower, which nearly resembles that of the small white +jasmine. Its fragrance is said to be delicious after a rain; but, the +season being dry, it is scarcely discernible. As shade is a great +object in growing coffee, the grounds are laid out in lines of fruit- +trees, and these are the ministers of Hulia's tribulation; for Don +Juan, whether in kindness or in mischief, insists that she shall taste +every unknown fruit,--and as he cuts them and hands them to her, she +is forced to obey. First, a little negro shins up a cocoa-nut-tree, +and flings down the nut, whose water she must drink. One cocoa-nut she +endures,--two,--but three? no, she must rebel, and cry out,--"_No mi +gusta!_" Then she must try a bitter orange, then a sour bitter one, then +a sweet lemon, then a huge fruit of triple verjuice flavor. "What is it +good for?" she asks, after a shuddering plunge into its acrid depths. +"Oh," says the Don, "they eat it in the castors instead of vinegar." +Then come _sapotas, mamey_, Otaheite gooseberries. "Does she like +bananas?" he cuts a tree down with his own hand, and sends the bunch of +fruit to her _volante_;--"Sugar-cane?" he bestows a huge bundle of +sticks for her leisurely rodentation;--he fills her pocket with coral +beans for her children. Having, at last, exhausted every polite +attention, and vainly offered gin, rum, and coffee, as a parting +demonstration, Hulia and her partner escape, bearing with them many +strange flavors, and an agonizing headache, the combined result of sun +and acids. Really, if there exist anywhere on earth a society for the +promotion and encouragement of good manners, it should send a diploma to +Don Juan, admonishing him only to omit the vinegar-fruit in his further +walks of hospitality. + +We take the Sunday to visit the nearest sugar-plantation, belonging to +Don Jacinto Gonzales. Sun, not shade, being the desideratum in +sugar-planting, there are few trees or shrubs bordering the +sugar-fields, which resemble at a distance our own fields of Indian +corn, the green of the leaves being lighter, and a pale blue blossom +appearing here and there. The points of interest here are the machinery, +the negroes, and the work. Entering the sugar-house, we find the +_maquinista_ (engineer) superintending some repairs in the machinery, +aided by another white man, a Cooly, and an imp of a black boy, who +begged of all the party, and revenged himself with clever impertinence +on those who refused him. The _maquinista_ was a fine-looking man, from +the Pyrenees, very kind and obliging. He told us that Don Jacinto was +very old, and came rarely to the plantation. We asked him how the +extreme heat of his occupation suited him, and for an answer he opened +the bosom of his shirt, and showed us the marks of innumerable leeches. +The machinery is not very complicated. It consists of a wheel and band, +to throw the canes under the powerful rollers which crush them, and +these rollers, three in number, all moved by the steam-engine. The juice +flows into large copper caldrons, where it is boiled and skimmed. As +they were not at work, we did not see the actual process. Leaving the +sugar-house, we went in pursuit of the _mayoral_, or overseer, who +seemed to inhabit comfortable quarters, in a long, low house, shielded +from the sun by a thick screen of matting. We found him a powerful, +thick-set man, of surly and uncivil manners, girded with a sword, and +further armed with a pistol, a dagger, and a stout whip. He was much too +important a person to waste his words upon us, but signified that the +major-domo would wait on us, which he presently did. We now entered the +negro quarter, a solid range of low buildings, formed around a hollow +square, whose strong entrance is closed at nightfall, and its inmates +kept in strict confinement till the morning hour of work comes round. +Just within the doorway we encountered the trader, who visits the +plantations every Sunday, to tempt the stray cash of the negroes by +various commodities, of which the chief seemed to be white bread, +calicoes, muslins, and bright cotton handkerchiefs. He told us that +their usual weekly expenditure amounted to about twenty-five dollars. +Bargaining with him stood the negro-driver, a tattooed African, armed +with a whip. All within the court swarmed the black bees of the +hive,--the men with little clothing, the small children naked, the women +decent. All had their little charcoal fires, with pots boiling over +them; the rooms within looked dismally dark, close, and dirty; there are +no windows, no air and light save through the ever-open door. The beds +are sometimes partitioned off by a screen of dried palm-leaf, but I saw +no better sleeping-privilege than a board with a blanket or coverlet. +From this we turned to the nursery, where all the children incapable of +work are kept; the babies are quite naked, and sometimes very handsome +in their way, black and shining, with bright eyes and well-formed limbs. +No great provision is made for their amusement, but the little girls +nurse them tenderly enough, and now and then the elders fling them a bit +of orange or _chaimito_, for which they scramble like so many monkeys. +Appeals are constantly made to the pockets of visitors, by open hands +stretched out in all directions. To these "_Nada_"--"Nothing"--is the +safe reply; for, if you give to one, the others close about you with +frantic gesticulation, and you have to break your way through them with +some violence, which hurts your own feelings more than it does theirs. +On _strict_ plantations this is not allowed; but Don Jacinto, like Lord +Ashburton at the time of the Maine treaty, is an old man,--a very old +man; and where discipline cannot be maintained, peace must be secured on +any terms. We visit next the sugar-house, where we find the desired +condiment in various stages of color and refinement. It is whitened with +clay, in large funnel-shaped vessels, open at the bottom, to allow the +molasses to run off. Above are hogsheads of coarse, dark sugar; below is +a huge pit of fermenting molasses, in which rats and small negroes +occasionally commit involuntary suicide, and from which rum is made.--N. +B. Rum is not a wicked word in Cuba; in Boston everybody is shocked when +it is named, and in Cuba nobody is shocked when it is drunk. + +And here endeth the description of our visit to the sugar-plantation of +Don Jacinto, and in good time, too,--for by this it had grown so hot, +that we made a feeble rush for the _volante_, and lay back in it, +panting for breath. Encountering a negress with a load of oranges on her +head, we bought and ate the fruit with eagerness, though the oranges +were bitter. The jolting over three miles of stone and rut did not +improve the condition of our aching heads. Arriving at San Antonio, we +thankfully went to bed for the rest of the morning, and dreamed, only +dreamed, that the saucy black boy in the boiling-house had run after us, +had lifted the curtain of the _volante_, screeched a last impertinence +after us, and kissed his hand for a good-bye, which, luckily for him, is +likely to prove eternal. + + + + +THE MORRO FORTRESS--THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA--THE BENEFICENZA. + + +The Spanish government experiences an unwillingness to admit foreigners +into the Morro, their great stronghold, the causes of which may not be +altogether mysterious. Americans have been of late especially excluded +from it, and it was only by a fortunate chance that we were allowed to +visit it. A friend of a friend of ours happened to have a friend in the +garrison, and, after some delays and negotiations, an early morning hour +was fixed upon for the expedition. + +The fort is finely placed at the entrance of the harbor, and is in +itself a picturesque object. It is built of a light, yellowish stone, +which is seen, as you draw near, in strong contrast with the vivid green +of the tropical waters. We approached it by water, taking a rowboat from +the Alameda. As we passed, we had a good view of a daily Havana +spectacle, the washing of the horses. This being by far the easiest and +most expeditious way of cleaning the animals, they are driven daily to +the sea in great numbers, those of one party being tied together; they +disport themselves in the surge and their wet backs glisten in the sun. +Their drivers, nearly naked, plunge in with them, and bring them safely +back to the shore. + +But for the Morro. We entered without difficulty, and began at once a +somewhat steep ascent, which the heat, even at that early hour, made +laborious. After some climbing, we reached the top of the parapet, and +looked out from the back of the fortress. On this side, if ever on any, +it will be taken,--for, standing with one's back to the harbor, one +sees, nearly on the right hand, a point where trenches could be opened +with advantage. The fort is heavily gunned and garrisoned, and seems to +be in fighting order. The outer wall is separated from the inner by a +paved space some forty feet in width. The height of both walls makes +this point a formidable one; but scaling-ladders could be thrown across, +if one had possession of the outer wall. The material is the coralline +rock common in this part of the island. It is a soft stone, and would +prove, it is feared, something like the cotton-bag defence of New +Orleans memory,--as the balls thrown from without would sink in, and not +splinter the stone, which for the murderous work were to be wished. A +little perseverance, with much perspiration, brought us to a high point, +called the Lantern, which is merely a small room, where the telescope, +signal-books, and signals are kept. Here we were received by an official +in blue spectacles and with a hole in his boot, but still with that air +of being the chiefest thing on God's earth common to all Spaniards. The +best of all was that we brought a sack of oranges with us, and that the +time was now come for their employment. With no other artillery than +these did we take the very heart of the Morro citadel,--for, on offering +them to the official with the hole, he surrendered at once, smiled, gave +us seats, and sitting down with us, indeed, was soon in the midst of his +half-dozenth orange. Having refreshed ourselves, examined the flags of +all nations, and made all the remarks which our limited Spanish allowed, +we took leave, redescended, and reëmbarked. One of our party, an old +soldier, had meanwhile been busily scanning the points and angles of the +fortress, pacing off distances, etc., etc. The result of his +observations would, no doubt, be valuable to men of military minds. But +the writer of this, to be candid, was especially engaged with the heat, +the prospect, the oranges, and the soldiers' wives and children, who +peeped out from windows here and there. Such trifling creatures do come +into such massive surroundings, and trifle still! + +Our ladies, being still in a furious mood of sight-seeing, desired to +visit the University of Havana, and, having made appointment with an +accomplished Cuban, betook themselves to the College buildings with all +proper escort. Their arrival in the peristyle occasioned some +excitement. One of the students came up, and said, in good English, +"What do you want?" Others, not so polite, stared and whispered in +corners. A message to one of the professors was attended with some +delay, and our Cuban friend, having gone to consult with him, returned +to say, with some embarrassment, that the professor would be happy to +show the establishment to the ladies on Sunday, at two, P.M., when every +male creature but himself would be out of it; but as for their going +through the rooms while the undergraduates were about, that was not to +be thought of. "Why not?" asked the ladies. "For your own sake," said +the messenger, and proceeded to explain that the appearance of the +_skirted_ in these halls of learning would be followed by such +ill-conduct and indignity of impertinence on the part of the _shirted_ +as might be intolerable to the one and disadvantageous to the other. Now +there be women, we know, whose horrid fronts could have awed these saucy +little Cubans into decency and good behavior, and some that we know, +whether possessing that power or not, would have delighted in the +fancied exercise of it. What strong-minded company, under these +circumstances, would have turned back? What bolting, tramping, and +rushing would they not have made through the ranks of the astonished +professors and students? The Anniversary set, for example, who sweep the +pews of men, or, coming upon one forlorn, crush him as a boa does a +sheep. Our silly little flock only laughed, colored, and retreated to +the _volantes_, where they held a council of war, and decided to go +visit some establishment where possibly better manners might prevail. + +Returning on the Sunday, at the hour appointed, they walked through the +deserted building, and found spacious rooms, the pulpits of the +professors, the benches of the students, the Queen's portrait, a very +limited library, and, for all consolation, some pleasant Latin sentences +over the doors of the various departments, celebrating the solace and +delights of learning. This was seeing the College, literally; but it was +a good deal like seeing the lion's den, the lion himself being absent on +leave,--or like visiting the hippopotamus in Regent's Park on those days +in which he remains steadfastly buried in his tank, and will show only +the tip of a nostril for your entrance-fee. Still, it was a pleasure to +know that learning was so handsomely housed; and as for the little +rabble who could not be trusted in the presence of the sex, we forgave +them heartily, knowing that soberer manners would one day come upon +them, as inevitably as baldness and paternity. + +Let me here say, that a few days in Havana make clear to one the +seclusion of women in the East, and its causes. Wherever the animal +vigor of men is so large in proportion to their moral power, as in those +countries, women must be glad to forego their liberties for the +protection of the strong arm. One master is better for them than many. +Whatever tyranny may grow out of such barbarous manners, the institution +springs from a veritable necessity and an original good intention. The +Christian religion should change this, which is justifiable only in a +Mohammedan country. But where that religion is so loosely administered +as in Cuba, where its teachers themselves frequent the cock-pit and the +gaming-table, one must not look for too much of its power in the manners +and morals of men. + +The Beneficenza was our next station. It is, as its name signifies, an +institution with a benevolent purpose, an orphan asylum and foundling +hospital in one. The State here charitably considers that infants who +are abandoned by their parents are as much orphaned as they can become +by the interposition of death,--nay, more. The death of parents oftenest +leaves a child with some friend or relative; but the foundling is cut +off from all human relationship,--he belongs only to the hand that takes +him up, when he has been left to die. Despite the kind cruelty of modern +theories, which will not allow of suitable provision for the sufferer, +for fear of increasing the frequency of the crime by which he suffers, +our hearts revolt at the miserable condition of those little creatures +in our great cities, confounded with hopeless pauperism in its desolate +asylums, or farmed out to starve and die. They belong to the State, and +the State should nobly retrieve the world's offence against them. Their +broken galaxy shows many a bright star here and there. Such a little +wailing creature has been found who has commanded great actions and done +good service among men. Let us, then, cherish the race of foundlings, of +whom Moses was the first and the greatest. The princess who reared him +saw not the glorious destiny which lay hid, as a birth-jewel, in his +little basket of reeds. She saw only, as some of us have seen, a +helpless, friendless babe. When he dedicated to her his first edition of +the Pentateuch--But, nay, he did not; for neither gratitude nor +dedications were in fashion among the Jews. + +We found the Beneficenza spacious, well-ventilated, and administered +with great order. It stands near the sea, with a fine prospect in view, +and must command a cool breeze, if there be any. The children enjoy +sea-bathing in summer. The superintendent received us most kindly, and +presented us to the sisters who have charge of the children, who were +good specimens of their class. We walked with them through the neat +dormitories, and observed that they were much more airy than those of +the Jesuit College, lately described. They all slept on the sackings of +the cots, beds being provided only in the infirmary. In the latter place +we found but two inmates,--one suffering from ordinary Cuban fever, the +other with ophthalmia.--N.B. Disease of the eyes does not seem to be +common in Cuba, in spite of the tropical glare of the sun; nor do people +nurse and complain of their eyes there, as with us. We found a separate +small kitchen for the sick, which was neat and convenient. The larger +kitchen, too, was handsomely endowed with apparatus, and the +superintendent told us, with a twinkle in his eye, that the children +lived well. Coffee at six, a good breakfast at nine, dinner at the usual +hour, bread and coffee before bed-time;--this seemed very suitable as to +quantity, though differing from our ideas of children's food; but it +must be remembered that the nervous stimulus of coffee is not found to +be excessive in hot climates; it seems to be only what Nature +demands,--no more. The kind nun who accompanied us now showed us, with +some pride, various large presses, set in the wall, and piled to the top +with clean and comfortable children's clothing. We came presently to +where the boys were reciting their catechism. An ecclesiastic was +hearing them;--they seemed ready enough with their answers, but were +allowed to gabble off the holy words in a manner almost unintelligible, +and quite indecorous. They were bright, healthy-looking little fellows, +ranging apparently from eight to twelve in age. They had good +play-ground set off for them, and shady galleries to walk up and down +in. Coming from their quarter, the girls' department seemed quiet +enough. Here was going on the eternal task of needlework, to which the +sex has been condemned ever since Adam's discovery of his want of +wardrobe. Oh, ye wretched, foolish women! why will ye forever sew? "We +must not only sew, but be thankful to sew; that little needle being, as +the sentimental Curtis has said, the only thing between us and the worst +that may befall." + +These incipient women were engaged in various forms of sewing,--the most +skilful in a sort of embroidery, like that which forms the border of +_piña_ handkerchiefs. A few were reading and spelling. One poor blind +girl sat amongst them, with melancholy arms folded, and learned +nothing,--they told us, nothing; for the instruction of the blind is not +thought of in these parts. This seemed piteous to us, and made us +reflect how happy are _our_ blinds, to say nothing of our deafs and +dumbs. Idiocy is not uncommon here, and is the result of continual +intermarriage between near relations; but it will be long before they +will provide it with a separate asylum and suitable instruction. + +But now came the saddest part of the whole exhibition,--a sight common +enough in Europe, but, by some accident, hitherto unseen by us. Here is +a sort of receptacle, with three or four compartments, which turns on a +pivot. One side of it is open to the street, and in it the wretched +parent lays the more wretched baby,--ringing a small bell, at the same +time, for the new admittance; the parent vanishes, the receptacle turns +on its pivot,--the baby is within, and, we are willing to believe, in +merciful hands. + +The sight of this made, for the first time, the crime real to me. I saw, +at a flash, the whole tragedy of desertion,--the cautious approach, the +frightened countenance, the furtive act, and the great avenging pang of +Nature after its consummation. What was Hester Prynne's pillory, +compared to the heart of any of those mothers? I thought, too, of +Rousseau, bringing to such a place as this children who had the right to +inherit divine genius, and deserting them for the sordid reason that he +did not choose to earn their bread,--the helpless mother weeping at +home, and begging, through long years, to be allowed to seek and reclaim +them. + +Well, here were the little creatures kindly cared for; yet what a +piteous place was their nursery! Some of the recent arrivals looked as +if ill-usage had been exhausted upon them before they were brought +hither. Blows and drugs and starvation had been tried upon them, but, +with the tenacity of infancy, they clung to life. They would not +die;--well, then, they should live to regret it. Some of them lay on the +floor, deformed and helpless; the older ones formed a little class, and +were going through some elementary exercise when we passed. The babies +had a large room allotted to them, and I found the wet-nurses +apportioned one to each child. This appeared a very generous provision, +as, in such establishments elsewhere, three and even four children are +given to one nurse. They had comfortable cribs, on each of which was +pinned the name of its little inmate, and the date of its +entrance;--generally, the name and age of the child are found written on +a slip of paper attached to its clothing, when it is left in the +receptacle. I saw on one, "Cecilio, three weeks old." He had been but a +few days in the establishment. + +Of course, I lingered longest in the babies' room, and longest of all +near the crib of the little Cecilio. He was a pretty baby, and seemed to +me the most ill-used of all, because the youngest. "Could they not bear +with you three weeks, little fellow?" I said. "I know those at whose +firesides such as you would have been welcome guests. That New York +woman whom I met lately, young, rich, and childless,--I could commend +you to her in place of the snarling little spaniel fiend who was her +constant care and companion." + +But here the superintendent made a polite bow, saying,--"And now your +Worships have seen all; for the chapel is undergoing repairs, and cannot +be visited." And so we thanked, and departed. + + + + +DANIEL GRAY. + + + If I shall ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray, + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + I knew him well; in fact, few knew him better; + For my young eyes oft read for him the Word, + And saw how meekly from the crystal letter + He drank the life of his beloved Lord. + + Old Daniel Gray was not a man who lifted + On ready words his freight of gratitude, + And was not called upon among the gifted, + In the prayer-meetings of his neighborhood. + + He had a few old-fashioned words and phrases, + Linked in with sacred texts and Sunday rhymes; + And I suppose, that, in his prayers and graces, + I've heard them all at least a thousand times. + + I see him now,--his form, and face, and motions, + His homespun habit, and his silver hair,-- + And hear the language of his trite devotions + Rising behind the straight-backed kitchen-chair. + + I can remember how the sentence sounded,-- + "Help us, O Lord, to pray, and not to faint!" + And how the "conquering-and-to-conquer" rounded + The loftier aspirations of the saint. + + He had some notions that did not improve him: + He never kissed his children,--so they say; + And finest scenes and fairest flowers would move him + Less than a horseshoe picked up in the way. + + He could see nought but vanity in beauty, + And nought but weakness in a fond caress, + And pitied men whose views of Christian duty + Allowed indulgence in such foolishness. + + Yet there were love and tenderness within him; + And I am told, that, when his Charley died, + Nor Nature's need nor gentle words could win him + From his fond vigils at the sleeper's side. + + And when they came to bury little Charley, + They found fresh dew-drops sprinkled in his hair, + And on his breast a rose-bud, gathered early,-- + And guessed, but did not know, who placed it there. + + My good old friend was very hard on fashion, + And held its votaries in lofty scorn, + And often burst into a holy passion + While the gay crowds went by, on Sunday morn. + + Yet he was vain, old Gray, and did not know it! + He wore his hair unparted, long, and plain, + To hide the handsome brow that slept below it, + For fear the world would think that he was vain! + + He had a hearty hatred of oppression, + And righteous words for sin of every kind; + Alas, that the transgressor and transgression + Were linked so closely in his honest mind! + + Yet that sweet tale of gift without repentance, + Told of the Master, touched him to the core, + And tearless he could never read the sentence: + "Neither do I condemn thee: sin no more." + + Honest and faithful, constant in his calling, + Strictly attendant on the means of grace, + Instant in prayer, and fearful most of falling, + Old Daniel Gray was always in his place. + + A practical old man, and yet a dreamer, + He thought that in some strange, unlooked-for way, + His mighty Friend in heaven, the great Redeemer, + Would honor him with wealth some golden day. + + This dream he carried in a hopeful spirit + Until in death his patient eye grew dim, + And his Redeemer called him to inherit + The heaven of wealth long garnered up for him. + + So, if I ever win the home in heaven + For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray. + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The Doctor sat at his study-table. It was evening, and the slant beams +of the setting sun shot their golden arrows through the healthy purple +clusters of lilacs that veiled the windows. There had been a shower that +filled them with drops of rain, which every now and then tattooed, with +a slender rat-tat, on the window-sill, as a breeze would shake the +leaves and bear in perfume on its wings. Sweet, fragrance-laden airs +tripped stirringly to and fro about the study-table, making gentle +confusions, fluttering papers on moral ability, agitating treatises on +the great end of creation, mixing up subtile distinctions between +amiable instincts and true holiness, and, in short, conducting +themselves like very unappreciative and unphilosophical little breezes. + +The Doctor patiently smoothed back and rearranged, while opposite to him +sat Mary, bending over some copying she was doing for him. One stray +sunbeam fell on her light brown hair, tinging it to gold; her long, +drooping lashes lay over the wax-like pink of her cheeks, as she wrote +on. + +"Mary," said the Doctor, pushing the papers from him. + +"Sir," she answered, looking up, the blood just perceptibly rising in +her cheeks. + +"Do you ever have any periods in which your evidences seem not +altogether clear?" + +Nothing could show more forcibly the grave, earnest character of thought +in New England at this time than the fact that this use of the term +"evidences" had become universally significant and understood as +relating to one's right of citizenship in a celestial, invisible +commonwealth. + +So Mary understood it, and it was with a deepening flush she answered +gently, "No, Sir." + +"What! never any doubts?" said the Doctor. + +"I am sorry," said Mary, apologetically; "but I do not see how I _can_ +have; I never could." + +"Ah!" said the Doctor, musingly, "would I could say so! There are times, +indeed, when I hope I have an interest in the precious Redeemer, and +behold an infinite loveliness and beauty in Him, apart from anything I +expect or hope. But even then how deceitful is the human heart! how +insensibly might a mere selfish love take the place of that +disinterested complacency which regards Him for what He is in Himself, +apart from what He is to us! Say, my dear friend, does not this thought +sometimes make you tremble?" + +Poor Mary was truth itself, and this question distressed her; she must +answer the truth. The fact was, that it had never come into her blessed +little heart to tremble, for she was one of those children of the +bride-chamber who cannot mourn, because the bridegroom is ever with +them; but then, when she saw the man for whom her reverence was almost +like that for her God thus distrustful, thus lowly, she could not but +feel that her too calm repose might, after all, be the shallow, +treacherous calm of an ignorant, ill-grounded spirit, and therefore, +with a deep blush and a faltering voice, she said,-- + +"Indeed, I am afraid something must be wrong with me. I _cannot_ have +any fears,--I never could; I try sometimes, but the thought of God's +goodness comes all around me, and I am so happy before I think of it!" + +"Such exercises, my dear friend, I have also had," said the Doctor; "but +before I rest on them as evidences, I feel constrained to make the +following inquiries:--Is this gratitude that swells my bosom the result +of a mere natural sensibility? Does it arise in a particular manner +because God has done me good? or do I love God for what He is, as well +as for what He has done? and for what He has done for others, as well as +for what He has done for me? Love to God which is built on nothing but +good received is not incompatible with a disposition so horrid as even +to curse God to His face. If God is not to be loved except when He does +good, then in affliction we are free. If doing _us_ good is all that +renders God lovely to us, then not doing us good divests Him of His +glory, and dispenses us from obligation to love Him. But there must be, +undoubtedly, some permanent reason why God is to be loved by all; and if +not doing us good divests Him of His glory so as to free _us_ from our +obligation to love, it equally frees the universe; so that, in fact, the +universe of happiness, if ours be not included, reflects no glory on its +Author." + +The Doctor had practised his subtile mental analysis till his +instruments were so fine-pointed and keen-edged that he scarce ever +allowed a flower of sacred emotion to spring in his soul without picking +it to pieces to see if its genera and species were correct. Love, +gratitude, reverence, benevolence,--which all moved in mighty tides in +his soul,--were all compelled to pause midway while he rubbed up his +optical instruments to see whether they were rising in right order. +Mary, on the contrary, had the blessed gift of womanhood,--that vivid +life in the soul and sentiment which resists the chills of analysis, as +a healthful human heart resists cold; yet still, all humbly, she thought +this perhaps was a defect in herself, and therefore, having confessed, +in a depreciating tone, her habits of unanalyzed faith and love, she +added,-- + +"But, my dear Sir, you are my best friend. I trust you will be faithful +to me. If I am deceiving myself, undeceive me; you cannot be too severe +with me." + +"Alas!" said the Doctor, "I fear that I may be only a blind leader of +the blind. What, after all, if I be only a miserable self-deceiver? What +if some thought of self has come in to poison all my prayers and +strivings? It is true, I think,--yes, I _think_," said the Doctor, +speaking very slowly and with intense earnestness,--"I think, that, if I +knew at this moment that my name never would be written among those of +the elect, I could still see God to be infinitely amiable and glorious, +and could feel sure that He _could_ not do me wrong, and that it was +infinitely becoming and right that He should dispose of me according to +His sovereign pleasure. I _think_ so;--but still my deceitful +heart!--after all, I might find it rising in rebellion. Say, my dear +friend, are you sure, that, should you discover yourself to be forever +condemned by His justice, you would not find your heart rising up +against Him?" + +"Against _Him_?" said Mary, with a tremulous, sorrowful expression on +her face,--"against my Heavenly Father?" + +Her face flushed, and faded; her eyes kindled eagerly, as if she had +something to say, and then grew misty with tears. At last she said,-- + +"Thank you, my dear, faithful friend! I will think about this; _perhaps_ +I may have been deceived. How very difficult it must be to know one's +self perfectly!" + +Mary went into her own little room, and sat leaning for a long time with +her elbow on the window-seat, watching the pale shells of the +apple-blossoms as they sailed and fluttered downward into the grass, and +listened to a chippering conversation in which the birds in the nest +above were settling up their small housekeeping accounts for the day. + +After a while, she took her pen and wrote the following, which the +Doctor found the next morning lying on his study-table:-- + +"MY DEAR, HONORED FRIEND,--How can I sufficiently thank you for your +faithfulness with me? All you say to me seems true and excellent; and +yet, my dear Sir, permit me to try to express to you some of the many +thoughts to which our conversation this evening has given rise. To love +God because He is good to me you seem to think is not a right kind of +love; and yet every moment of my life I have experienced His goodness. +When recollection brings back the past, where can I look that I see not +His goodness? What moment of my life presents not instances of merciful +kindness to me, as well as to every creature, more and greater than I +can express, than my mind is able to take in? How, then, can I help +loving God because He is good to me? Were I not an object of God's mercy +and goodness, I cannot have any conception what would be my feeling. +Imagination never yet placed me in a situation not to experience the +goodness of God in some way or other; and if I do love Him, how can it +be but because He is good, and to me good? Do not God's children love +Him because He first loved them? + +"If I called nothing goodness which did not happen to suit my +inclination, and could not believe the Deity to be gracious and merciful +except when the course of events was so ordered as to agree with my +humor, so far from imagining that I had any love to God, I must conclude +myself wholly destitute of anything good. A love founded on nothing but +good received is not, you say, incompatible with a disposition so horrid +as even to curse God. I am not sensible that I ever in my life imagined +anything _but_ good could come from the hand of God. From a Being +infinite in goodness everything _must_ be good, though we do not always +comprehend how it is so. Are not afflictions good? Does He not even in +judgment remember mercy? Sensible that 'afflictions are but blessings in +disguise,' I would bless the hand that, with infinite kindness, wounds +only to heal, and love and adore the goodness of God equally in +suffering as in rejoicing. + +"The disinterested love to God, which you think is alone the genuine +love, I see not how we can be certain we possess, when our love of +happiness and our love of God are so inseparably connected. The joys +arising from a consciousness that God is a benefactor to me and my +friends, (and when I think of God, every creature is my friend,) if +arising from a selfish motive, it does not seem to me possible could be +changed into hate, even supposing God my enemy, whilst I regarded Him as +a Being infinitely just as well as good. If God is my enemy, it must be +because I deserve He should be such; and it does not seem to me +_possible_ that I should hate Him, even if I knew He would always be so. + +"In what you say of willingness to suffer eternal punishment, I don't +know that I understand what the feeling is. Is it wickedness in me that +I do not feel a willingness to be left to eternal sin? Can any one +joyfully acquiesce in being thus left? When I pray for a new heart and a +right spirit, must I be willing to be denied, and rejoice that my prayer +is not heard? Could any real Christian rejoice in this? But he fears it +not,--he knows it will never be,--he therefore can cheerfully leave it +with God; and so can I. + +"Such, my dear friend, are my thoughts, poor and unworthy; yet they seem +to me as certain as my life, or as anything I see. Am I unduly +confident? I ask your prayers that I may be guided aright. + +"Your affectionate friend, + +"MARY." + +There are in this world two kinds of natures,--those that have wings, +and those that have feet,--the winged and the walking spirits. The +walking are the logicians: the winged are the instinctive and poetic. +Natures that must always walk find many a bog, many a thicket, many a +tangled brake, which God's happy little winged birds flit over by one +noiseless flight. Nay, when a man has toiled till his feet weigh too +heavily with the mud of earth to enable him to walk another step, these +little birds will often cleave the air in a right line towards the bosom +of God, and show the way where he could never have found it. + +The Doctor paused in his ponderous and heavy reasonings to read this +real woman's letter; and being a loving man, he felt as if he could have +kissed the hem of her garment who wrote it. He recorded it in his +journal, and after it this significant passage from Canticles:-- + +"I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the +hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake this lovely one till +she please." + +Mrs. Scudder's motherly eye noticed, with satisfaction, these quiet +communings. "Let it alone," she said to herself; "before she knows it, +she will find herself wholly under his influence." Mrs. Scudder was a +wise woman. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +In the course of a day or two, a handsome carriage drew up in front of +Mrs. Scudder's cottage, and a brilliant party alighted. They were +Colonel and Madame de Frontignac, the Abbé Léfon, and Colonel Burr. Mrs. +Scudder and her daughter, being prepared for the call, sat in afternoon +dignity and tranquillity, in the best room, with their knitting-work. + +Madame de Frontignac had divined, with the lightning-like tact which +belongs to women in the positive, and to French women in the superlative +degree, that there was something in the cottage-girl, whom she had +passingly seen at the party, which powerfully affected the man whom she +loved with all the jealous intensity of a strong nature, and hence she +embraced eagerly the opportunity to see her,--yes, to see her, to study +her, to dart her keen French wit through her, and detect the secret of +her charm, that she, too, might practise it. + +Madame de Frontignac was one of those women whose beauty is so striking +and imposing, that they seem to kindle up, even in the most prosaic +apartment, an atmosphere of enchantment. All the pomp and splendor of +high life, the wit, the refinements, the nameless graces and luxuries of +courts, seemed to breathe in invisible airs around her, and she made a +Faubourg St. Germain of the darkest room into which she entered. Mary +thought, when she came in, that she had never seen anything so splendid. +She was dressed in a black velvet riding-habit, buttoned to the throat +with coral; her riding-hat drooped with its long plumes so as to cast a +shadow over her animated face, out of which her dark eyes shone like +jewels, and her pomegranate cheeks glowed with the rich shaded radiance +of one of Rembrandt's pictures. Something quaint and foreign, something +poetic and strange, marked each turn of her figure, each article of her +dress, down to the sculptured hand on which glittered singular and +costly rings,--and the riding-glove, embroidered with seed-pearls, that +fell carelessly beside her on the floor. + +In Antwerp one sees a picture in which Rubens, who felt more than any +other artist the glory of the physical life, has embodied his conception +of the Madonna, in opposition to the faded, cold ideals of the Middle +Ages, from which he revolted with such a bound. _His_ Mary is a superb +Oriental sultana, with lustrous dark eyes, redundant form, jewelled +turban, standing leaning on the balustrade of a princely terrace, and +bearing on her hand, _not_ the silver dove, but a gorgeous paroquet. The +two styles, in this instance, were both in the same room; and as Burr +sat looking from one to the other, he felt, for a moment, as one would +who should put a sketch of Overbeck's beside a splendid painting of +Titian's. + +For a few moments, everything in the room seemed faded and cold, in +contrast with the tropical atmosphere of this regal beauty. Burr watched +Mary with a keen eye, to see if she were dazzled and overawed. He saw +nothing but the most innocent surprise and delight. All the slumbering +poetry within her seemed to awaken at the presence of her beautiful +neighbor,--as when one, for the first time, stands before the great +revelations of Art. Mary's cheek glowed, her eyes seemed to grow deep +with the enthusiasm of admiration, and, after a few moments, it seemed +as if her delicate face and figure reflected the glowing loveliness of +her visitor, just as the virgin snows of the Alps become incarnadine as +they stand opposite the glorious radiance of a sunset sky. + +Madame de Frontignac was accustomed to the effect of her charms; but +there was so much love in the admiration now directed towards her, that +her own warm, nature was touched, and she threw out the glow of her +feelings with a magnetic power. Mary never felt the cold, habitual +reserve of her education so suddenly melt, never felt herself so +naturally falling into language of confidence and endearment with a +stranger; and as her face, so delicate and spiritual, grew bright with +love, Madame de Frontignac thought she had never seen anything so +beautiful, and, stretching out her hands towards her, she exclaimed, in +her own language,-- + +"_Mais, mon Dieu! mon enfant, que tu es belle_!" + +Mary's deep blush, at her ignorance of the language in which her visitor +spoke, recalled her to herself;--she laughed a clear, silvery laugh, and +laid her jewelled little hand on Mary's with a caressing movement. + +"_He_ shall not teach you French, _ma toute belle_" she said, indicating +the Abbé, by a pretty, wilful gesture; "_I_ will teach you;--and you +shall teach me English. Oh, I shall try _so_ hard to learn!" she said. + +There was something inexpressibly pretty and quaint in the childish lisp +with which she pronounced English. Mary was completely won over. She +could have fallen into the arms of this wondrously beautiful fairy +princess, expecting to be carried away by her to Dream-land. + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Scudder was gravely discoursing with Colonel Burr and M. +de Frontignac; and the Abbé, a small and gentlemanly personage, with +clear black eye, delicately-cut features, and powdered hair, appeared to +be absorbed in his efforts to follow the current of a conversation +imperfectly understood. Burr, the while, though seeming to be entirely +and politely absorbed in the conversation he was conducting, lost not a +glimpse of the picturesque aside which was being enacted between the two +fair ones whom he had thus brought together. He smiled quietly when he +saw the effect Madame de Frontignac produced on Mary. + +"After all, the child has flesh and blood!" he thought, "and may feel +that there are more things in heaven and earth than she has dreamed of +yet. A few French ideas won't hurt her." + +The arrangements about lessons being completed, the party returned to +the carriage. Madame de Frontignac was enthusiastic in Mary's praise. + +"_Cependant_" she said, leaning back, thoughtfully, after having +exhausted herself in superlatives,--"_cependant elle est dévote,--et à +dix-neuf comment cela se peut il_?" + +"It is the effect of her austere education," said Burr. "It is not +possible for you to conceive how young people are trained in the +religious families of this country." + +"But yet," said Madame, "it gives her a grace altogether peculiar; +something in her looks went to my heart. I could find it very easy to +love her, because she is really good." + +"The Queen of Hearts should know all that is possible in loving," said +Burr. + +Somehow, of late, the compliments which fell so readily from those +graceful lips had brought with them an unsatisfying pain. Until a woman +really _loves_, flattery and compliment are often like her native air; +but when that deeper feeling has once awakened in her, her instincts +become marvellously acute to detect the false from the true. Madame de +Frontignac longed for one strong, unguarded, real, earnest word from the +man who had stolen from her her whole being. She was beginning to feel +in some dim wise what an untold treasure she was daily giving for tinsel +and dross. She leaned back in the carriage, with a restless, burning +cheek, and wondered why she was born to be so miserable. The thought of +Mary's saintly face and tender eyes rose before her as the moon rises on +the eyes of some hot and fevered invalid, inspiring vague yearnings +after an unknown, unattainable peace. + +Could some friendly power once have made her at that time clairvoyant +and shown her the _reality_ of the man whom she was seeing through the +prismatic glass of her own enkindled ideality! Could she have seen the +calculating quietness in which, during the intervals of a restless and +sleepless ambition, he played upon her heart-strings, as one uses a +musical instrument to beguile a passing hour,--how his only +embarrassment was the fear that the feelings he was pleased to excite +might become too warm and too strong, while as yet his relations to her +husband were such as to make it dangerous to arouse his jealousy! And if +he could have seen that pure ideal conception of himself which alone +gave him power in the heart of this woman,--that spotless, glorified +image of a hero without fear, without reproach,--would he have felt a +moment's shame and abasement at its utter falsehood? + +The poet says that the Evil Spirit stood abashed when he saw virtue in +an angel form! How would a man, then, stand, who meets face to face his +own glorified, spotless ideal, made living by the boundless faith of +some believing heart? The best must needs lay his hand on his mouth at +this apparition; but woe to him who feels no redeeming power in the +sacredness of this believing dream,--who with calculating shrewdness +_uses_ this most touching miracle of love only to corrupt and destroy +the loving! For him there is no sacrifice for sin, no place for +repentance. His very mother might shrink in her grave to have him laid +beside her. + +Madame de Frontignac had the high, honorable nature of the old blood of +France, and a touch of its romance. She was strung heroically, and +educated according to the notions of her caste and church, purely and +religiously. True it is, that one can scarcely call _that_ education +which teaches woman everything except herself,--_except_ the things that +relate to her own peculiar womanly destiny, and, on plea of the holiness +of ignorance, sends her without one word of just counsel into the +temptations of life. Incredible as it may seem, Virginie de Frontignac +had never read a romance or work of fiction of which love was the +staple; the _régime_ of the convent in this regard was inexorable; at +eighteen she was more thoroughly a child than most American girls at +thirteen. On entrance into life, she was at first so dazzled and +bewildered by the mere contrast of fashionable excitement with the +quietness of the scenes in which she had hitherto grown up, that she had +no time for reading or thought,--all was one intoxicating frolic of +existence, one dazzling, bewildering dream. + +He whose eye had measured her for his victim verified, if ever man did, +the proverbial expression of the iron hand under the velvet glove. Under +all his gentle suavities there was a fixed, inflexible will, a calm +self-restraint, and a composed philosophical measurement of others, that +fitted him to bear despotic rule over an impulsive, unguarded nature. +The position, at once accorded to him, of her instructor in the English +language and literature, gave him a thousand daily opportunities to +touch and stimulate all that class of finer faculties, so restless and +so perilous, and which a good man approaches always with certain awe. It +is said that he once asserted that he never beguiled a woman who did not +come half-way to meet him,--an observation much the same as a serpent +might make in regard to his birds. + +The visit of the morning was followed by several others. Madame de +Frontignac seemed to conceive for Mary one of those passionate +attachments which women often conceive for anything fair and +sympathizing, at those periods when their whole inner being is made +vital by the approaches of a grand passion. It took only a few visits to +make her as familiar as a child at the cottage; and the whole air of the +Faubourg St. Germain seemed to melt away from her, as, with the +pliability peculiar to her nation, she blended herself with the quiet +pursuits of the family. Sometimes, in simple straw hat and white +wrapper, she would lie down in the grass under the apple-trees, or join +Mary in an expedition to the barn for hen's eggs, or a run along the +sea-beach for shells; and her childish eagerness and delight on these +occasions used to arouse the unqualified astonishment of Mrs. Katy +Scudder. + +The Doctor she regarded with a _naïve_ astonishment, slightly tinctured +with apprehension. She knew he was very religious, and stretched her +comprehension to imagine what he might be like. She thought of Bossuet's +sermons walking about under a Protestant coat, and felt vaguely alarmed +and sinful in his presence, as she used to when entering under the +shadows of a cathedral. In her the religious sentiment, though vague, +was strong. Nothing in the character of Burr had ever awakened so much +disapprobation as his occasional sneers at religion. On such occasions +she always reproved him with warmth, but excused him in her heart, +because he was brought up a heretic. She held a special theological +conversation with the Abbé, whether salvation were possible to one +outside of the True Church,--and had added to her daily prayer a +particular invocation to the Virgin for him. + +The French lessons, with her assistance, proceeded prosperously. She +became an inmate in Mrs. Marvyn's family also. The brown-eyed, sensitive +woman loved her as a new poem; she felt enchanted by her; and the +prosaic details of her household seemed touched to poetic life by her +innocent interest and admiration. The young Madame insisted on being +taught to spin at the great wheel; and a very pretty picture she made of +it, too, with her earnest gravity of endeavor, her deepening cheek, her +graceful form, with some strange foreign scarf or jewelry waving and +flashing in odd contrast with her work. + +"Do you know," she said, one day, while thus employed in the north room +at Mrs. Marvyn's,--"do you know Burr told me that princesses used to +spin? He read me a beautiful story from the 'Odyssey,' about how +Penelope cheated her lovers with her spinning, while she was waiting for +her husband to come home;--_he_ was gone to sea, Mary,--her _true_ +love,--you understand." + +She turned on Mary a wicked glance, so full of intelligence that the +snowdrop grew red as the inside of a sea-shell. + +"_Mon enfant_! thou hast a thought _deep in here_!" she said to Mary, +one day, as they sat together in the grass under the apple-trees. + +"Why, what?" said Mary, with a startled and guilty look. + +"Why, what? _petite_!" said the fairy princess, whimsically mimicking +her accent. "_Ah! ah! ma belle_! you think I have no eyes;--Virginie +sees deep in here!" she said, laying her hand playfully on Mary's heart. +"_Ah, petite_!" she said, gravely, and almost sorrowfully, "if you love +him, wait for him,--_don't marry another_. It is dreadful not to have +one's heart go with one's duty." + +"I shall never marry anybody," said Mary. + +"Nevare marrie anybodie!" said the lady, imitating her accents in tones +much like those of a bobolink. "Ah! ah! my little saint, you cannot +always live on nothing but the prayers, though prayers are verie good. +But, _ma chère_," she added, in a low tone, "don't you ever marry that +good man in there; priests should not marry." + +"Ours are not priests,--they are ministers," said Mary. "But why do you +speak of him?--he is like my father." + +"Virginie sees something!" said the lady, shaking her head gravely; "she +sees he loves little Mary." + +"Of course he does!" + +"Of-course-he-does?--ah, yes; and by-and-by comes the mamma, and she +takes this little hand, and she says, 'Come, Mary!' and then she gives +it to him; and then the poor _jeune homme_, when he comes back, finds +not a bird in his poor little nest. _Oh, c'est ennuyeux cela_!" she +said, throwing herself back in the grass till the clover-heads and +buttercups closed over her. + +"I do assure you, dear Madame!"-- + +"I do assure you, dear Mary, _Virginie knows_. So lock up her words in +your little heart; you will want them some day." + +There was a pause of some moments, while the lady was watching the +course of a cricket through the clover. At last, lifting her head, she +spoke very gravely,-- + +"My little cat! it is _dreadful_ to be married to a good man, and want +to be good, and want to love him, and yet never like to have him take +your hand, and be more glad when he is away than when he is at home; and +then to think how different it would all be, if it was only somebody +else. That will be the way with you, if you let them lead you into this; +so don't you do it, _mon enfant_." + +A thought seemed to cross Mary's mind, as she turned to Madame de +Frontignac, and said, earnestly,-- + +"If a good man were my husband, I would never think of another,--I +wouldn't let myself." + +"How could you help it, _mignonne_? Can you stop your thinking?" + +Mary said, after a moment's blush,-- + +"I can _try_!" + +"Ah, yes! But to try all one's life,--oh, Mary, that is too hard! Never +do it, darling!" + +And then Madame de Frontignac broke out into a carolling little French +song, which started all the birds around into a general orchestral +accompaniment. + +This conversation occurred just before Madame de Frontignac started for +Philadelphia, whither her husband had been summoned as an agent in some +of the ambitious intrigues of Burr. + +It was with a sigh of regret that she parted from her friends at the +cottage. She made them a hasty good-bye call,--alighting from a splendid +barouche with two white horses, and filling their simple best-room with +the light of her presence for a last half-hour. When she bade good-bye +to Mary, she folded her warmly to her heart, and her long lashes drooped +heavily with tears. + +After her absence, the lessons were still pursued with the gentle, quiet +little Abbé, who seemed the most patient and assiduous of teachers; but, +in both houses, there was that vague _ennui_, that sense of want, which +follows the fading of one of life's beautiful dreams! We bid her adieu +for a season;--we may see her again. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The summer passed over the cottage, noiselessly, as our summers pass. +There were white clouds walking in saintly troops over blue mirrors of +sea,--there were purple mornings, choral with bird-singing,--there were +golden evenings, with long, eastward shadows. Apple-blossoms died +quietly in the deep orchard grass, and tiny apples waxed and rounded and +ripened and gained stripes of gold and carmine; and the blue eggs broke +into young robins, that grew from gaping, yellow-mouthed youth to +fledged and outflying maturity. Came autumn, with its long Indian +summer, and winter, with its flinty, sparkling snows, under which all +Nature lay a sealed and beautiful corpse. Came once more the spring +winds, the lengthening days, the opening flowers, and the ever-renewing +miracle of buds and blossoms on the apple-trees around the cottage. A +year had passed since the June afternoon when first we showed you Mary +standing under the spotty shadows of the tree, with the white dove on +her hand--a year in which not many outward changes have been made in the +relations of the actors of our story. + +Mary calmly spun and read and thought; now and then composing with care +very English-French letters, to be sent to Philadelphia to Madame de +Frontignac, and receiving short missives of very French-English in +return. + +The cautions of Madame, in regard to the Doctor, had not rippled the +current of their calm, confiding intercourse; and the Doctor, so very +satisfied and happy in her constant society and affection, scarcely as +yet meditated distinctly that he needed to draw her more closely to +himself. If he had a passage to read, a page to be copied, a thought to +express, was she not ever there, gentle, patient, unselfish? and scarce +by the absence of a day did she let him perceive that his need of her +was becoming so absolute that his hold on her must needs be made +permanent. + +As to his salary and temporal concerns, they had suffered somewhat for +his unpopular warfare with reigning sins,--a fact which had rather +reconciled Mrs. Scudder to the dilatory movement of her cherished hopes. +Since James was gone, what need to press imprudently to new +arrangements? Better give the little heart time to grow over before +starting a subject which a certain womanly instinct told her might be +met with a struggle. Somehow she never thought without a certain +heart-sinking of Mary's look and tone the night she spoke with her about +James; she had an awful presentiment that that tone of voice belonged to +the things that cannot be shaken. But yet, Mary seemed so even, so +quiet, her delicate form filled out and rounded so beautifully, and she +sang so cheerfully at her work, and, above all, she was so entirely +silent about James, that Mrs. Scudder had hope. + +Ah, that silence! Do not listen to hear whom a woman praises, to know +where her heart is! do not ask for whom she expresses the most earnest +enthusiasm! but if there be one she once knew well, whose name she never +speaks,--if she seem to have an instinct to avoid every occasion of its +mention,--if, when you speak, she drops into silence and changes the +subject,--why, look there for something! just as, when going through +deep meadow-grass, a bird flies ostentatiously up before you, you may +know her nest is not there, but far off, under distant tufts of fern and +buttercup, through which she has crept with a silent flutter in her +spotted breast, to act her pretty little falsehood before you. + +Poor Mary's little nest was along the sedgy margin of the sea-shore, +where grow the tufts of golden-rod, where wave the reeds, where crimson, +green, and purple sea-weeds float up, like torn fringes of Nereid +vestures, and gold and silver shells lie on the wet wrinkles of the +sands. + +The sea had become to her like a friend, with its ever-varying monotony. +Somehow she loved this old, fresh, blue, babbling, restless giant, who +had carried away her heart's love to hide him in some far-off palmy +island, such as she had often heard him tell of in his sea-romances. +Sometimes she would wander out for an afternoon's stroll on the rocks, +and pause by the great spouting cave, now famous to Newport +_dilettanti_, but then a sacred and impressive solitude. There the +rising tide bursts with deafening strokes through a narrow opening into +some inner cavern, which, with a deep thunder-boom, like the voice of an +angry lion, casts it back in a high jet of foam into the sea. + +Mary often sat and listened to this hollow noise, and watched the +ever-rising columns of spray as they reddened with the transpiercing +beams of the afternoon sun; and thence her eye travelled far, far off +over the shimmering starry blue, where sails looked no bigger than +miller's wings; and it seemed sometimes as if a door were opening by +which her soul might go out into some eternity,--some abyss, so wide and +deep, that fathomless lines of thought could not sound it. She was no +longer a girl in a mortal body, but an infinite spirit, the adoring +companion of Infinite Beauty and Infinite Love. + +As there was an hour when the fishermen of Galilee saw their Master +transfigured, his raiment white and glistening, and his face like the +light, so are there hours when our whole mortal life stands forth in a +celestial radiance. From our daily lot falls off every weed of +care,--from our heart-friends every speck and stain of earthly +infirmity. Our horizon widens, and blue, and amethyst, and gold touch +every object. Absent friends and friends gone on the last long journey +stand once more together, bright with an immortal glow, and, like the +disciples who saw their Master floating in the clouds above them, we +say, "Lord, it is good to be here!" How fair the wife, the husband, the +absent mother, the gray-haired father, the manly son, the bright-eyed +daughter! Seen in the actual present, all have some fault, some flaw; +but absent, we see them in their permanent and better selves. Of our +distant home we remember not one dark day, not one servile care, nothing +but the echo of its holy hymns and the radiance of its brightest +days,--of our father, not one hasty word, but only the fulness of his +manly vigor and noble tenderness,--of our mother, nothing of mortal +weakness, but a glorified form of love,--of our brother, not one +teasing, provoking word of brotherly freedom, but the proud beauty of +his noblest hours,--of our sister, our child, only what is fairest and +sweetest. + +This is to life the true ideal, the calm glass, wherein looking, we +shall see, that, whatever defects cling to us, they are not, after all, +permanent, and that we are tending to something nobler than we yet +are;--it is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the +purchased possession." In the resurrection we shall see our friends +forever as we see them in these clairvoyant hours. + +We are writing thus on and on, linking image and thought and feeling, +and lingering over every flower, and listening to every bird, because +just before us there lies a dark valley, and we shrink and tremble to +enter it. + +But it _must_ come, and why do we delay? + + +Towards evening, one afternoon in the latter part of June, Mary returned +from one of these lonely walks by the sea, and entered the kitchen. It +was still in its calm and sober cleanness;--the tall clock ticked with a +startling distinctness. From the half-closed door of her mother's +bedroom, which stood ajar, she heard the chipper of Miss Prissy's voice. +She stayed her light footsteps, and the words that fell on her ear were +these:-- + +"Miss Marvyn fainted dead away;--she stood it till he came to _that_; +but then she just clapped both hands together, as if she'd been shot, +and fell right forward on the floor in a faint!" + +What could this be? There was a quick, intense whirl of thoughts in +Mary's mind, and then came one of those awful moments when the powers of +life seem to make a dead pause and all things stand still; and then all +seemed to fail under her, and the life to sink down, down, down, till +nothing was but one dim, vague, miserable consciousness. + +Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy were sitting, talking earnestly, on the +foot of the bed, when the door opened noiselessly, and Mary glided to +them like a spirit,--no color in check or lip,--her blue eyes wide with +calm horror; and laying her little hand, with a nervous grasp, on Miss +Prissy's arm, she said,-- + +"Tell me,--what is it?--is it?--is he--dead?" + +The two women looked at each other, and then Mrs. Scudder opened her +arms. + +"My daughter!" + +"Oh! mother! mother!" + +Then fell that long, hopeless silence, broken only by hysteric sobs from +Miss Prissy, and answering ones from the mother; but _she_ lay still and +quiet, her blue eyes wide and clear, making an inarticulate moan. + +"Oh! are they _sure_?--_can_ it be?--_is_ he dead?" at last she gasped. + +"My child, it is too true; all we can say is, 'Be still, and know that I +am God!'" + +"I shall _try_ to be still, mother," said Mary, with a piteous, hopeless +voice, like the bleat of a dying lamb; "but I did not think he _could_ +die! I never thought of that!--I never _thought_ of it!--Oh! mother! +mother! mother! oh! what shall I do?" + +They laid her on her mother's bed,--the first and last resting-place of +broken hearts,--and the mother sat down by her in silence. Miss Prissy +stole away into the Doctor's study, and told him all that had happened. + +"It's the same to her," said Miss Prissy, with womanly reserve, "as if +he'd been an own brother." + +"What was his spiritual state?" said the Doctor, musingly. + +Miss Prissy looked blank, and answered mournfully,-- + +"I don't know." + +The Doctor entered the room where Mary was lying with closed eyes. Those +few moments seemed to have done the work of years,--so pale, and faded, +and sunken she looked; nothing but the painful flutter of the eyelids +and lips showed that she yet breathed. At a sign from Mrs. Scudder, he +kneeled by the bed, and began to pray,--"Lord, thou hast been our +dwelling-place in all generations,"--prayer deep, mournful, upheaving +like the swell of the ocean, surging upward, under the pressure of +mighty sorrows, towards an Almighty heart. + +The truly good are of one language in prayer. Whatever lines or angles +of thought may separate them in other hours, _when they pray in +extremity_, all good men pray alike. The Emperor Charles V. and Martin +Luther, two great generals of opposite faiths, breathed out their dying +struggle in the self-same words. + +There be many tongues and many languages of men,--but the language of +prayer is one by itself, _in_ all and _above_ all. It is the inspiration +of that Spirit that is ever working with our spirit, and constantly +lifting us higher than we know, and, by our wants, by our woes, by our +tears, by our yearnings, by our poverty, urging us, with mightier and +mightier force, against those chains of sin which keep us from our God. +We speak not of _things_ conventionally called prayers,--vain mutterings +of unawakened spirits talking drowsily in sleep,--but of such prayers as +come when flesh and heart fail, in mighty straits;--_then_ he who prays +is a prophet, and a Mightier than he speaks in him; for the "_Spirit_ +helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we +ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings +which cannot be uttered." + +So the voice of supplication, upheaving from that great heart, so +childlike in its humility, rose with a wisdom and a pathos beyond what +he dreamed in his intellectual hours; it uprose even as a strong angel, +whose brow is solemnly calm, and whose wings shed healing dews of +paradise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The next day broke calm and fair. The robins sang remorselessly in the +apple-tree, and were answered by bobolink, oriole, and a whole tribe of +ignorant little bits of feathered happiness that danced among the +leaves. Golden and glorious unclosed those purple eyelids of the East, +and regally came up the sun; and the treacherous sea broke into ten +thousand smiles, laughing and dancing with every ripple, as +unconsciously as if no form dear to human hearts had gone down beneath +it. Oh! treacherous, deceiving beauty of outward things! beauty, wherein +throbs not one answering nerve to human pain! + +Mary rose early and was about her morning work. Her education was that +of the soldier, who must know himself no more, whom no personal pain +must swerve from the slightest minutiae of duty. So she was there, at +her usual hour, dressed with the same cool neatness, her brown hair +parted in satin bands, and only the colorless cheek and lip differing +from the Mary of yesterday. + +How strange this external habit of living! One thinks how to stick in a +pin, and how to tie a string,--one busies one's self with folding robes, +and putting away napkins, the day after some stroke that has cut the +inner life in two, with the heart's blood dropping quietly at every +step. + +Yet it is better so! Happy those whom stern principle or long habit or +hard necessity calls from the darkened room, the languid trance of pain, +in which the wearied heart longs to indulge, and gives this trite prose +of common life, at which our weak and wearied appetites so revolt! Mary +never thought of such a thing as self-indulgence;--this daughter of the +Puritans had her seed within her. Aërial in her delicacy, as the +blue-eyed flax-flower with which they sowed their fields, she had yet +its strong fibre, which no stroke of the flail could break; bruising and +hackling only made it fitter for uses of homely utility. Mary, +therefore, opened the kitchen-door at dawn, and, after standing one +moment to breathe the freshness, began spreading the cloth for an early +breakfast. Mrs. Scudder, the mean while, was kneading the bread that had +been set to rise over-night; and the oven was crackling and roaring with +a large-throated, honest garrulousness. + +But, ever and anon, as the mother worked, she followed the motions of +her child anxiously. + +"Mary, my dear," she said, "the eggs are giving out; hadn't you better +run to the barn and get a few?" + +Most mothers are instinctive philosophers. No treatise on the laws of +nervous fluids could have taught Mrs. Scudder a better _rôle_ for this +morning, than her tender gravity, and her constant expedients to break +and ripple, by changing employments, that deep, deadly under-current of +thoughts which she feared might undermine her child's life. + +Mary went into the barn, stopped a moment, and took out a handful of +corn to throw to her hens, who had a habit of running towards her and +cocking an expectant eye to her little hand, whenever she appeared. All +came at once flying towards her,--speckled, white, and gleamy with hues +between of tawny orange-gold,--the cocks, magnificent with the bladelike +waving of their tails,--and, as they chattered and cackled and pressed +and crowded about her, pecking the corn, even where it lodged in the +edge of her little shoes, she said, "Poor things, I am glad they enjoy +it!"--and even this one little act of love to the ignorant fellowship +below her carried away some of the choking pain which seemed all the +while suffocating her heart. Then, climbing into the hay, she sought the +nest and filled her little basket with eggs, warm, translucent, +pinky-white in their freshness. She felt, for a moment, the customary +animation in surveying her new treasures; but suddenly, like a vision +rising before her, came a remembrance of once when she and James were +children together and had been seeking eggs just there. He flashed +before her eyes, the bright boy with the long black lashes, the dimpled +cheeks, the merry eyes, just as he stood and threw the hay over her when +they tumbled and laughed together,--and she sat down with a sick +faintness, and then turned and walked wearily in. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER III. + + +BEGGARS IN ROME. + + +Directly above the Piazza di Spagna and opposite to the Via di Condotti, +rise the double towers of the Trinità de' Monti. The ascent to them is +over one hundred and thirty-five steps, planned with considerable skill, +so as to mask the steepness of the Pincian, and forming the chief +feature of the Piazza. Various landings and dividing walls break up +their monotony; and a red granite obelisk, found in the gardens of +Sallust, crowns the upper terrace in front of the church. All day long, +these steps are flooded with sunshine, in which, stretched at length, or +gathered in picturesque groups, models of every age and both sexes bask +away the hours when they are free from employment in the studios. Here, +in a rusty old coat and long white beard and hair, is the _Padre +Eterno_, so called from his constantly standing as model for the First +Person of the Trinity in religious pictures. Here is the ferocious +bandit, with his thick black beard and conical hat, now off duty, and +sitting with his legs wide apart, munching in alternate bites an onion, +which he holds in one hand, and a lump of bread, which he holds in the +other. Here is the _contadina_, who is always praying at a shrine with +upcast eyes, or lifting to the Virgin the little child, among whose dark +curls, now lying tangled in her lap, she is on a vigorous hunt for the +animal whose name denotes love. Here is the invariable pilgrim, with his +scallop-shell, who has been journeying to St. Peter's and reposing by +the way near aqueducts or broken columns so long that the memory of man +runneth not to the contrary, and who is now fast asleep on his back, +with his hat pulled over his eyes. When the _forestieri_ come along, the +little ones run up and thrust out their hands for _baiocchi_; and so +pretty are they, with their large, black, lustrous eyes, and their +quaint, gay dresses, that new comers always find something in their +pockets for them. Sometimes a group of artists, passing by, will pause +and steadily examine one of these models, turn him about, pose him, +point out his defects and excellences, give him a _baiocco_, and pass +on. It is, in fact, the model's exchange. [Footnote: During this last +winter, the government have prohibited the models, for I know not what +reason, from gathering upon these steps; and they now congregate at the +corner of the Via Sistina and Capo le Case, near the Pizzicheria, from +which they supply themselves with groceries.] + +All this is on the lower steps, close to the Piazza di Spagna; but as +one ascends to the last platform, before reaching the upper piazza in +front of the Trinità de' Monti, a curious squat figure, with two +withered and crumpled legs, spread out at right angles and clothed in +long stockings, comes shuffling along on his knees and hands, which are +protected by clogs. As it approaches, it turns suddenly up from its +quadrupedal position, takes off its hat, shows a broad, stout, legless +_torso_, with a vigorous chest and a ruddy face, as of a person who has +come half-way up from below the steps through a trap-door, and with a +smile whose breadth is equalled only by the cunning which lurks round +the corners of the eyes, says, in the blandest and most patronizing +tones, with a rising inflection, "_Buon giorno, Signore! Oggi fa bel +tempo_," or "_fa cattivo tempo_," as the case may be. This is no less a +person than Beppo, King of the Beggars, and permanent bore of the Scale +di Spagna. He is better known to travellers than the Belvedere Torso of +Hercules at the Vatican, and has all the advantage over that wonderful +work, of having an admirable head and a good digestion. Hans Christian +Andersen has celebrated him in "The Improvvisatore," and unfairly +attributed to him an infamous character and life; but this account is +purely fictitious, and is neither _vero_ nor _ben trovato_. Beppo, like +other distinguished personages, is not without a history. The Romans say +of him, "_Era un Signore in paese suo_"--"He was a gentleman in his own +country,"--and this belief is borne out by a certain courtesy and style +in his bearing which would not shame the first gentleman in the land. He +was undoubtedly of a good family in the provinces, and came to Rome, +while yet young, to seek his fortune. His crippled condition cut him off +from any active employment, and he adopted the profession of a +mendicant, as being the most lucrative and requiring the least exertion. +Remembering Belisarius, he probably thought it not beneath his own +dignity to ask for an _obolus_. Should he be above doing what a general +had done? However this may be, he certainly became a mendicant, after +changing his name,--and, steadily pursuing this profession for more than +a quarter of a century, by dint of his fair words, his bland smiles, and +his constant "_Fa buon tempo_" and "_Fa cattivo tempo_," which, together +with his withered legs, were his sole stock in starting, he has finally +amassed a very respectable little fortune. He is now about fifty-five +years of age, has a wife and several children; and a few years ago, on +the marriage of a daughter to a very respectable tradesman, he was able +to give her what was considered in Rome a more than respectable dowry. +The other day, a friend of mine met a tradesman of his acquaintance +running up the Spanish steps. + +"_Dove andate in una tanta affretta?_" he inquired. + +"_Al Banchiere mio._" + +"_Al Banchiere? Ma quale Banchiere sta in su le scale?_" + +"_Ma Beppo_," was the grave answer. "_Ho bisogna di sessanta scudi, e +lui mele presterà senza difficoltà._" + +"_Da vero?_" said my friend. + +"_Eh sicuro, come gli pare_," said the other, as he went on to his +banker. [Footnote: "Where are you going in such haste?"] + +"To my banker." + +"To your banker? But what banker is there above the steps?" + +"Only Beppo. I want sixty _scudi_, and he can lend them to ma without +difficulty." + +"Really?" + +"Of course." + +Beppo hires his bank--which is the upper platform of the steps--of the +government, at a small rent _per annum_; and woe to any poor devil of +his profession who dares to invade his premises! Hither, every fair day, +at about noon, he comes mounted on his donkey and accompanied by his +valet, a little boy, who, though not lame exactly, wears a couple of +crutches as a sort of livery,--and as soon as twilight begins to thicken +and the sun is gone, he closes his bank, (it is purely a bank of +deposit,) crawls up the steps, mounts a stone post, and there +majestically waits for his valet to bring the donkey. But he no more +solicits deposits. His day is done; his bank is closed; and from his +post he looks around, with a patronizing superiority, upon the poorer +members of his profession, who are soliciting, with small success, the +various passers by, as a king smiles down upon his subjects. The donkey +being brought, he shuffles on to its crupper and makes a joyous and +triumphant passage down through the streets of the city to his home. The +bland business smile is gone. The wheedling subserviency of the day is +over. The cunning eye opens largely. He is calm, dignified, and +self-possessed. He mentions no more the state of the weather. What's +Hecuba to him, at this free moment of his return? It is the large style +in which all this is done that convinces me that Beppo was a "_Signore +in paese suo_." He has a bank, and so has Sir Francis Baring. What of +that? He is a gentleman still. The robber knights and barons demanded +toll of those who passed their castles, with violence and threats, and +at the bloody point of their swords. Whoso passes Beppo's castle is +prayed in courtesy to leave a remembrance, and receives the blandest bow +and thanks in return. Shall we, then, say, the former are nobles and +gentlemen,--the other is a miserable beggar? Is it worse to ask than to +seize? Is it meaner to thank than to threaten? If he who is supported by +the public is a beggar, our kings are beggars, our pensions are charity. +Did not the Princess Royal hold out her hand, the other day, to the +House of Commons? and does any one think the worse of her for it? We are +all, in measure, beggars; but Beppo, in the large style of kings and +robber-barons, asks for his _baiocco_, and, like the merchant-princes, +keeps his bank. I see dukes and _guardie nobili_, in shining helmets, +spurs, and gigantic boots, ride daily through the streets on horseback, +and hurry to their palaces; but Beppo, erectly mounted on his donkey in +his short-jacket, (for he disdains the tailored skirts of a fashionable +coat, though at times over his broad shoulders a great blue cloak is +grandly thrown, after the manner of the ancient emperors,) is far more +impressive, far more princely, as he slowly and majestically moves at +nightfall towards his august abode. The shadows close around him as he +passes along; salutations greet him from the damp shops; and darkness at +last swallows up for a time the great square _torso_ of the "King of the +Beggars." + +Begging, in Rome, is as much a profession as praying and shop-keeping. +Happy is he who is born _stroppiato_, with a withered limb, or to whom +Fortune sends the present of a hideous accident or malady; it is a stock +to set up trade upon. St. Vitus's dance is worth its hundreds of _scudi_ +annually; epileptic fits are also a prize; and a distorted leg and +hare-lip have a considerable market value. Thenceforth the creature who +has the luck to have them is absolved from labor. He stands or lies in +the sun, or wanders through the Piazza, and sings his whining, +lamentable strophe of, "_Signore, povero stroppiato, datemi qualche cosa +per amor di Dio!_"--and when the _baiocco_ falls into his hat, like ripe +fruit from the tree of the stranger, he chants the antistrophe, "_Dio la +benedica, la Madonna e tutti santi!_" [Footnote: Signore, a poor +cripple; "give me something, for the love of God!--May God bless you, +the Madonna, and all the saints!"] No refusal but one does he recognize +as final,--and that is given, not by word of mouth, but by elevating the +fore-finger of the right hand, and slowly wagging it to and fro. When +this finger goes up he resigns all hope, as those who pass the gate of +the Inferno, replaces his hat and lapses into silence, or turns away to +some new group of sunny-haired foreigners. The recipe to avoid beggars +is, to be black-haired, to wear a full beard, to smoke in the streets, +speak only Italian, and shake the fore-finger of the right hand when +besieged for charity. Let it not be supposed from this that the Romans +give nothing to the beggars, but pass them by on the other side. This is +quite a mistake. On the contrary, they give more than the foreigners; +and the poorest class, out of their little, will always find something +to drop into their hats for charity. + +The ingenuity which the beggars sometimes display in asking for alms is +often humoristic and satirical. Many a woman on the cold side of thirty +is wheedled out of a _baiocco_ by being addressed as _Signorina._ Many a +half-suppressed exclamation of admiration, or a prefix of _Bella_, +softens the hearts of those to whom compliments on their beauty come +rarely. The other day, as I came out of the city gate of Siena, a ragged +wretch, sitting, with one stump of a leg thrust obtrusively forward, in +the dust of the road, called out, "_Una buona passeggiata, Signorino +mio!_" (and this although my little girl, of thirteen years, accompanied +me.) Seeing, however, that I was too old a bird for that chaff, he +immediately added, "_Ma prima pensi alia conservazione dell' anima +sua._" [Footnote: "A pleasant walk, young gentleman!"--"But first pay +heed to the salvation of your soul."] A great many _baiocchi_ are also +caught, from green travellers of the middle class, by the titles which +are lavishly squandered by these poor fellows. _Illustrissimo, +Eccellenza, Altezza_, will sometimes open the purse, when plain +"_Mosshoe_" will not. + +The profession of a beggar is by no means an unprofitable one. A great +many drops finally make a stream. The cost of living is almost nothing +to them, and they frequently lay up money enough to make themselves very +comfortable in their old age. A Roman friend of mine, Conte C., speaking +of them one day, told me this illustrative anecdote:-- + +"I had occasion," he said, "a few years ago, to reduce my family," (the +servants are called, in Rome, the family,) "and having no need of the +services of one under-servant, named Pietro, I dismissed him. About a +year after, as I was returning to my house, after nightfall, I was +solicited by a beggar, who whiningly asked me for charity. There was +something in the voice which struck me as familiar, and, turning round +to examine the man more closely, I found it was my old servant, Pietro. +'Is that you, Pietro?' I said; 'you begging here in the streets! what +has brought you to this wretched trade?' He gave me, however, no very +clear account of himself, but evidently desired to avoid me when he +recognized who I was. But, shocked to find him in so pitiable a +condition, I pressed my questions, and finally told him I could not bear +to see any one who had been in my service reduced to beggary; and though +I had no actual need of his services, yet, rather than see him thus, he +might return to his old position as servant in my house, and be paid the +same wages as he had before. He hesitated, was much embarrassed, and, +after a pause, said,--'A thousand thanks, your Excellency, for your +kindness; but I cannot accept your proposal, because, to tell you the +truth, I make more money by this trade of begging.'" + +But though the beggars often lay by considerable sums of money, so that +they might, if they chose, live with a certain degree of comfort, yet +they cannot leave off the habit of begging after having indulged it for +many years. They get to be avaricious, and cannot bring their minds to +spend the money they have. The other day, an old beggar, who used to +frequent the steps of the Gesù, when about to die, ordered the hem of +her garment to be ripped up, saying that there was money in it. In fact, +about a thousand _scudi_ were found there, three hundred of which she +ordered to be laid out upon her funeral, and the remainder to be +appropriated to masses for her soul. This was accordingly done, and her +squalid life ended in a pompous procession to the grave. + +The great holidays of the beggars are the country _festas_. Thronging +out of the city, they spread along the highways, and drag, drive, roll, +shuffle, hobble, as they can, towards the festive little town. +Everywhere along the road they are to be met,--perched on a rock, seated +on a bank, squatted beneath a wall or hedge, and screaming, with +outstretched hand, from the moment a carriage comes in sight until it is +utterly passed by. As one approaches the town where the _festa_ is held, +they grow thicker and thicker. They crop up along the road like +toadstools. They hold up every hideous kind of withered arm, distorted +leg, and unsightly stump. They glare at you out of horrible eyes, that +look like cranberries. You are requested to look at horrors, all without +a name, and too terrible to be seen. All their accomplishments are also +brought out. They fall into improvised fits; they shake with sudden +palsies; and all the while keep up a chorus, half whine, half scream, +which suffers you to listen to nothing else. It is hopeless to attempt +to buy them all off, for they are legion in number, and to pay one +doubles the chorus of the others. The clever scamps, too, show the +utmost skill in selecting their places of attack. Wherever there is a +sudden rise in the road, or any obstacle which will reduce the gait of +the horses to a walk, there is sure to be a beggar. But do not imagine +that he relies on his own powers of scream and hideousness alone,--not +he! He has a friend, an ambassador, to recommend him to your notice, and +to expatiate on his misfortunes. Though he himself can scarcely move, +his friend, who is often a little ragged boy or girl, light of weight +and made for a chase, pursues the carriage and prolongs the whine, +repeating, with a mechanical iteration, "_Signore! Signore! datemi +qualche cosa, Signore!_" until his legs, breath, and resolution give out +at last; or, what is still commoner, your patience is wearied out or +your sympathy touched, and you are glad to purchase the blessing of +silence for the small sum of a _baiocco_. When his whining fails, he +tries to amuse you; and often resorts to the oddest freaks to attract +your notice. Sometimes the little rascal flings himself heels over head +into the dust, and executes somersets without number, as if they had +some hidden influence on the sentiment of compassion. Then, running by +the side of the carriage, he will play upon his lips with both hands, +making a rattling noise, to excite your curiosity. If you laugh, you are +lost, and he knows it. + +As you reach the gates of the town, the row becomes furious. There are +scores of beggars on either side the road, screaming in chorus. No +matter how far the town be from the city, there is not a wretched, +maimed cripple of your acquaintance, not one of the old stumps who have +dodged you round a Roman corner, not a ragged baron who has levied toll +for passage through the public squares, a privileged robber who has shut +up for you a pleasant street or waylaid you at an interesting church, +but he is sure to be there. How they got there is as inexplicable as how +the apples got into the dumplings in Peter Pindar's poem. But at the +first ring of a _festa_-bell, they start up from under ground, (those +who are legless getting only half-way up,) like Roderick Dhu's men, and +level their crutches at you as the others did their arrows. An English +lady, a short time since, after wintering at Rome, went to take the +baths at Siena in the summer. On going out for a walk, on the first +morning after her arrival, whom should she meet but King Beppo, whom she +had just left in Rome! He had come with the rest of the nobility for +recreation and bathing, and of course had brought his profession with +him. + +Owing to a great variety of causes, the number of beggars in Rome is +very large. They grow here as noxious weeds in a hot-bed. The government +neither favors commerce nor stimulates industry. Its policy is averse to +change of any kind, even though it be for the development of its own +resources or of the energies of the people. The Church is Brahmanic, +contemplating only its own navel. Its influence is specially restrictive +in Rome, because it is also the State there. It restrains not only +trade, but education; it conserves exploded ideas and usages; it prefers +not to grow, and looks with abhorrence upon change. + +Literature may be said to be dead in Rome. There is not only no free +press there, but no press at all. The "Diario Romano" contains about as +much news as the "Acta Diurna" of the ancient Romans, and perhaps less. +I doubt whether at present such facts as those given by Petronius, in an +extract from the latter, would now be permitted to be published. +However, we know that Augustus prohibited the "Acta Diurna,"--and the +"Diario Romano" exists still; so that some progress has been made. And +it must be confessed that Tuscany is scarcely in advance of Rome in this +respect; and Naples is behind both. Even the introduction of foreign +works is so strictly watched and the censorship so severe, that few +liberal books pass the cordon. The arguments in favor of a censorship +are very plain, but not very conclusive. The more compressed the +energies and desires of a people, the more danger of their bursting into +revolution. There is no safety-valve to passions and desires like the +utterance of them,--no better corrective to false ideas than the free +expression of them. Freedom of thought can never be suppressed, and +ideas kept too long pent up in the bosom, when heated by some sudden +crisis of passion, will explode into license and fury. Let me put a +column from Milton here into my own weak plaster; the words are well +known, but cannot be too well known. "Though all the winds of doctrine," +he says, "were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the +field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her +strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the +worse in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest +suppressing." Here in Rome genius rots. The saddest words I almost ever +heard were from a young Italian of ability and _esprit_. + +"Why," said I, in conversation with him, one day, "do you not devote +your talents to some worthy object, instead of frittering them away in +dancing, chatting, fencing, and morning-calls?" + +"What would you have me do?" he answered. + +"Devote yourself to some course of study. Write something." + +"_Mio caro_" was his reply, "it is useless. How can I write what I +think? How can I publish what I write? I have now manuscript works begun +in my desk, which it would be better to burn. Our only way to be happy +is to be idle and ignorant. The more we know, the unhappier we must be. +There is but one avenue for ambition,--the Church. I was not made for +that." + +This restrictive policy of the Church makes itself felt everywhere, high +and low; and by long habit the people have become indolent and supine. +The splendid robes of ecclesiastical Rome have a draggled fringe of +beggary and vice. What a change there might be, if the energies of the +Italians, instead of rotting in idleness, could have a free scope! +Industry is the only purification of a nation; and as the fertile and +luxuriant Campagna stagnates into malaria, because of its want of +ventilation and movement, so does this grand and noble people. The +government makes what use it can, however, of the classes it exploits by +its system; but things go in a vicious circle. The people, kept at a +stand-still, become idle and poor; idleness and poverty engender vice +and crime; crime fills the prisons; and the prisons afford a body of +cheap slaves to the government. + +To-day, as I am writing, some hundreds of _forçats_, in their striped +brown uniforms, are tugging at their winches and ropes to drag the +column of the Immaculate Virgin to its pedestal on the Piazza di Spagna. +By the same system of compulsory labor, the government, despite its +limited financial resources, is enabled to carry out public projects +which, with well-paid workmen, would be too expensive to be feasible. In +this manner, for instance, for an incredibly small sum, was built the +magnificent viaduct which spans with its triple tier of arches the +beautiful Val di L'Arriccia. But, for my own part, I cannot look upon +this system as being other than very bad, in every respect. And when, +examining into the prisons themselves, I find that the support of these +poor criminal slaves is farmed out by the government to some responsible +person at the lowest rate that is offered, generally for five or six +_baiocchi_ apiece _per diem_, and often refarmed by him at a still lower +rate, until the poor wretches are reduced to the very minimum of +necessary food as to quantity and quality, I confess that I cannot look +with pleasure on the noble viaduct at L'Arriccia, or the rich column to +the Immaculate Virgin, erected by the labor of their hands. + +Within a few years the government seemed to become conscious of the +great number of beggars in Rome, and of the reproach they offered to the +wise and paternal regulations of the priestcraft. Accordingly, for a +short time, they carried on a move in the right direction, which had +been begun by the Triumvirate of 1849, during their short career. Some +hundreds of the beggars were hired at the rate of a few _baiocchi_ a day +to carry on excavations in the Forum and in the Baths of Caracalla. The +selection was most appropriate. Only the old, decrepit, and broken-down +were taken,--the younger and sturdier were left. Ruined men were in +harmony with the ruined temples. Such a set of laborers was never before +seen. Falstaff's ragged regiment was a joke to them. Each had a +wheelbarrow, a spade, or pick, and a cloak; but the last was the most +important part of their equipment. Some of them picked at the earth with +a gravity that was equalled only by the feebleness of the effort and the +poverty of the result. Three strokes so wearied them that they were +forced to pause and gather strength, while others carried away the +ant-hills which the first dug up. It seemed an endless task to fill the +wheelbarrows. Fill, did I say? They were never filled. After a bucketful +of earth had been slowly shovelled in, the laborer paused, laid down his +spade carefully on the little heap, sighed profoundly, looked as if to +receive congratulations on his enormous success, then, flinging, with a +grand sweep, the tattered old cloak over his left shoulder, lifted his +wheelbarrow-shafts with dignity, and marched slowly and measuredly +forward towards the heap of deposit, as Belisarius might have moved at a +funeral in the intervals of asking for _oboli_. But reduced gentlemen, +who have been accustomed to carry round the hat as an occupation, always +have a certain air of condescension when they work for pay, and, by +their dignity of deportment, make you sensible of their former superior +state. Occasionally, in case a _forestiere_ was near, the older, idler, +and more gentlemanlike profession would be resumed for a moment, (as by +parenthesis,) and if without success, a sadder dignity would be seen in +the subsequent march. Very properly for persons who had been reduced +from beggary to work, they seemed to be anxious both for their health +and their appearance in public, and accordingly a vast deal more time +was spent in the arrangement of the cloak than in any other part of the +business. It was grand in effect, to see these figures, incumbered in +their heavy draperies, guiding their wheelbarrows through the great +arches of Caracalla's Baths or along the Via Sacra. It often reminded me +of modern _bassi-rilievi_ and portrait statues, in which gentlemen +looking sideways with very modern faces, and both hands full of swords, +pens, or books, stand impotently swaddled up in ancient togas or the +folds of similar enormous cloaks. The antique treatment with the modern +subject was evident in both. If sometimes, with a foolish spirit of +innovation, one felt inclined to ask what purpose in either case these +heroic mantles subserved, and whether, in fact, they could not be +dispensed with to advantage, he was soon made to know that his inquiry +indicated ignorance, and a desire to debase in the one case Man, in the +other Art. + +It would, however, be a grievous mistake to suppose that all the beggars +in the streets of Rome are Romans. In point of fact, the greater number +are strangers, who congregate in Rome during the winter from every +quarter. Naples and Tuscany send them by thousands. Every little country +town of the Abruzzi Mountains yields its contribution. From north, +south, east, and west they flock here as to a centre where good pickings +may be had of the crumbs that fall from the rich men's tables. In the +summer season they return to their homes with their earnings, and not +one in five of those who haunted the churches and streets in the winter +is to be seen. + +It is but justice to the Roman government to say that its charities are +very large. If, on the one hand, it does not encourage commerce and +industry, on the other, it liberally provides for the poor. In +proportion to its means, no government does more, if so much. Every +church has its _Cassa dei Poveri_. Numerous societies, such as the +_Sacconi_, and other confraternities, employ themselves in accumulating +contributions for the relief of the poor and wretched. Well-endowed +hospitals exist for the care of the sick and unfortunate; and there are +various establishments for the charge and education of poor orphans. A +few figures will show how ample are these charities. The revenue of +these institutions is no less than eight hundred and forty thousand +_scudi_ annually, of which three hundred thousand are contributed by the +Papal treasury, forty thousand of which are a tax upon the Lottery. The +hospitals, altogether, accommodate about four thousand patients, the +average number annually received amounting to about twelve thousand; and +the foundling hospitals alone are capable of receiving upwards of three +thousand children annually. Besides the hospitals for the sick, there is +also a hospital for poor convalescents at Sta Trinità dei Pellegrini, a +lunatic asylum containing about four hundred patients, one for +incurables at San Giacomo, a lying-in hospital at San Rocco, and a +hospital of education and industry at San Michele. There are also +thirteen societies for bestowing dowries on poor young girls on their +marriage; and from the public purse, for the same object, are expended +every year no less than thirty-two thousand _scudi_. In addition to +these charities, are the sums collected and administered by the various +confraternities, as well as the sum of one hundred and seventy-two +thousand _scudi_ distributed to the poor by the commission of subsidies. +But though so much money is thus expended, it cannot be said that it is +well administered. The proportion of deaths at the hospitals is very +large; and among the foundlings, it amounted, between the years 1829 and +1833, to no less than seventy-two _per cent_. + +The arrangements at these institutions were very much improved during +the career of the Triumvirate, and, under the auspices of the Princess +Belgiojoso, cleanliness, order, and system were introduced. The heroism +of this noble-hearted woman during the trying days of the Roman siege +deserves a better record than I can give. She gave her whole heart and +body to the regeneration of the hospitals, and the personal care of the +sick and wounded. Her head-quarters were at the Hospital _dei +Pellegrini_. Day after day and night after night she was at her post, +never moving from her chair, except to visit the various wards, and to +comfort with tender words the sufferers in their beds. Their faces, +contorted with pain, smoothed at her approach; and her hand and voice +carried consolation wherever she went. Many a scene have I witnessed +there more affecting than any tragedy, in which I knew not which most to +admire, the heroism of the sufferers or the tender humanity of the +consoler and nurse. In all her arrangements she showed that masterly +administrative faculty in which women are far superior to men. When she +came to the Pellegrini, all was in disorder; but a few days sufficed to +reduce a chaotic confusion to exact and admirable system. Hers was the +brain that regulated all the hospitals. Always calm, she distributed her +orders with perfect tact and precision, and with a determination of +purpose and clearness of perception which commanded the minds of all +about her. The care, fatigue, and labor which she underwent would have +broken down a less determined spirit. Nothing moved except from her +touch. In a little damp cell, a pallet of straw was laid on the brick +floor, and there, when utterly overcome, she threw herself down to sleep +for a couple of hours,--no more; all the rest of the time she sat at her +desk, writing orders, giving directions, and supervising the new +machinery which owed its existence to her. + +With the return of the Papal government came the old system. Certain it +is that _that_ system does not work well. Despite the enormous sums +expended in charity, the people are poor, the mortality in the hospitals +is very large. "Something is rotten in the state of" Rome. + +There is one noble exception not to be forgotten. To the Hospital of San +Michele Cardinal Tosti has given a new life and vigor, and set an +example worthy of his elevated position in the Church. This foundation +was formerly an asylum for poor children and infirm and aged persons; +but of late years an industrial and educational system has been +ingrafted upon it, until it has become one of the most enlarged and +liberal institutions that can anywhere be found. It now embraces not +only an asylum for the aged, a house of correction for juvenile +offenders and women, and a house of industry for children of both sexes, +but also a school of arts, in which music, painting, drawing, +architecture, and sculpture are taught gratuitously to the poor, and a +considerable number of looms, at which from eight hundred to one +thousand persons are employed for the weaving of woollen fabrics for the +government. A stimulus has thus been given to education and to industry, +and particularly to improvements in machinery and manufacture. Once a +year, during the holy week, religious dramas and operas, founded on some +Biblical subject, are creditably performed by the pupils in a private +theatre connected with the establishment. I was never present but at one +of these representations, when the tragical story of Shadrach, Meshach, +and Ahednego was performed. Honor to Cardinal Tosti for his successful +efforts in this liberal direction! + +At many of the convents in Rome, it is the custom at noon to distribute, +gratis, at the door, a quantity of soup, and any poor person may receive +a bowlful on demand. Many of the beggars thus become pensioners of the +convents, and may be seen daily at the appointed hour gathering round +the door with their bowl and wooden spoon, in expectation of the _Frate_ +with the soup. This is generally made so thick with cabbage that it +might be called a cabbage-stew; but Soyer himself never made a dish more +acceptable to the palate of the guests than this. No nightingales' +tongues at a banquet of Tiberius, no edible birds-nests at a Chinese +feast, were ever relished with more gusto. The figures and actions of +these poor wretches, after they have obtained their soup, make one sigh +for human nature. Each, grasping his portion as if it were a treasure, +separates himself immediately from his brothers, flees selfishly to a +corner, if he can find one empty, or, if not, goes to a distance, turns +his back on his friends, and, glancing anxiously at intervals all +around, as if in fear of a surprise, gobbles up his cabbage, wipes out +his bowl, and then returns to companionship or disappears. The idea of +sharing his portion with those who are portionless occurs to him only as +the idea of a robber to the mind of a miser. + +Any account of the beggars of Rome without mention of the Capuchins and +Franciscans would be like performing the "Merchant of Venice" with no +Shylock; for these orders are founded in beggary and supported by +charity. The priests do not beg; but their ambassadors, the +lay-brothers, clad in their long, brown serge, a cord around their +waist, and a basket on their arm, may be seen shuffling along at any +hour and in every street, in dirty sandalled feet, to levy contributions +from shops and houses. Here they get a loaf of bread, there a pound of +flour or rice, in one place fruit or cheese, in another a bit of meat, +until their basket is filled. Sometimes money is given, but generally +they are paid in articles of food. There is another set of these +brothers who enter your studio or ring at your bell and present a little +tin box with a slit in it, into which you are requested to drop any sum +you please, for the holidays, for masses, for wax candles, etc. As a big +piece of copper makes more ring than gold, it is generally given, and +always gratefully received. Sometimes they will enter into conversation, +and are always pleased to have a little chat about the weather. They are +very poor, very good-natured, and very dirty. It is a pity they do not +baptize themselves a little more with the material water of this world. +But they seem to have a hydrophobia. Whatever the inside of the platter +may be, the outside is far from clean. They walk by day and they sleep +by night in the same old snuffy robe, which is not kept from contact +with the skin by any luxury of linen, until it is worn out. Dirt and +piety seem to them synonymous. Sometimes I have deemed, foolishly +perhaps, but after the manner of my nation, that their goodness would +not wash off with the soil of the skin,--that it was more than +skin-deep; but as this matter is above reason, in better moods I have +faith that it would. Still, in disbelieving moments, I cannot help +applying to them Charles Lamb's famous speech,--"If dirt were trumps, +what a hand they would have of it!" Yet, beggars as they are, they have +the reputation at Rome of being the most inoffensive of all the +conventual orders, and are looked upon by the common people with +kindliness, as being thoroughly sincere in their religious professions. +They are, at least, consistent in many respects in their professions and +practice. They really mortify the flesh by penance, fasting, and +wretched fare, as well as by dirt. They do not proclaim the virtues and +charms of poverty, while they roll about in gilded coaches dressed in +"purple and fine linen," or gloat over the luxuries of the table. Their +vices are not the cardinal ones, whatever their virtues may be. The +"Miracles of St. Peter," as the common people call the palaces of Rome, +are not wrought for them. Their table is mean and scantily provided with +the most ordinary food. Three days in the week they eat no meat; and +during the year they keep three _Quaresime_. But, good as they are, +their sour, thin wine, on empty, craving stomachs, sometimes does a mad +work; and these brothers in dirt and piety have occasionally violent +rows and disputes in their refectories over their earthen bottles. It is +only a short time since that my old friends the Capuchins got furious +together over their wine, and ended by knocking each other about the +ears with their earthen jars, after they had emptied them. Several were +wounded, and had time to repent and wash in their cells. But one should +not be too hard on them. The temper will not withstand too much fasting. +A good dinner puts one at peace with the world, but an empty stomach is +the habitation often of the Devil, who amuses himself there with pulling +all the nerve-wires that reach up into the brain. I doubt whether even +St. Simeon Stylites always kept his temper as well as he did his fast. + +As I see them walking up and down the alleys of their vegetable garden, +and under the sunny wall where oranges glow and roses bloom, without the +least asceticism, during the whole winter, I do not believe in their +doctrine, nor envy them their life. And I cannot but think that the one +hundred and fifty thousand _Frati_ who are in the Roman States would do +quite as good service to God and man, if they were an army of laborers +on the Campagna, or elsewhere, as in their present life of beggary and +self-contemplation. I often wonder, as I look at them, hearty and stout +as they are, despite their mode of life, what brought them to this pass, +what induced them to enter this order,--and recall, in this connection, +a little anecdote current here in Rome, to the following effect:--A +young fellow, from whom Fortune had withheld her gifts, having become +desperate, at last declared to a friend that he meant to throw himself +into the Tiber, and end a life which was worse than useless. "No, no," +said his friend, "don't do that. If your affairs are so desperate, +retire into a convent, become a Capuchin." _"Ah, non!_" was the +indignant answer; "I am desperate; but I have not yet arrived at such a +pitch of desperation." + +Though the Franciscans live upon charity, they have almost always a +garden connected with their convent, where they raise multitudes of +cabbages, cauliflowers, _finocchi_, peas, beans, artichokes, and +lettuce. Indeed, there is one kind of the latter which is named after +them,--_capuccini_. But their gardens they do not till themselves; they +hire gardeners, who work for them. Now I cannot but think that working +in a garden is just as pious an employment as begging about the streets, +though perhaps scarcely as profitable. The opinion, that, in some +respects, it would be better for them to attend to this work themselves, +was forced upon my mind by a little farce I happened to see enacted +among their cabbages, the other day, as I was looking down out of my +window. My attention was first attracted by hearing a window open from a +little three-story-high _loggia_, opposite, hanging over their garden. A +woman came forth, and, from amid the flower-pots which half-concealed +her, she dropped a long cord to the ground. "_Pst, Pst_," she cried to +the gardener at work below. He looked up, executed a curious pantomime, +shrugged his shoulders, shook his fore-finger, and motioned with his +head and elbow sideways to a figure, visible to me, but not to her, of a +brown Franciscan, who was amusing himself in gathering some _finocchi_, +just round the corner of the wall. The woman, who was fishing for the +cabbages, immediately understood the predicament, drew up her cord, +disappeared from the _loggia_, and the curtain fell upon the little +farce. The gardener, however, evidently had a little soliloquy after she +had gone. He ceased working, and gazed at the unconscious Franciscan for +some time, with a curious grimace, as if he were not quite satisfied at +thus losing his little perquisite. + +These brown-cowled gentlemen are not the only ones who carry the tin +box. Along the curbstones of the public walks, and on the steps of the +churches, sit blind old creatures, and shake at you a tin box, outside +of which is a figure of the Madonna, and inside of which are two or +three _baiocchi_, as a rattling accompaniment to an unending invocation +of aid. Their dismal chant is protracted for hours and hours, increasing +in loudness whenever the steps of a passer-by are heard. It is the old +strophe and antistrophe of begging and blessing, and the singers are so +wretched that one is often softened into charity. Those who are not +blind have often a new _Diario_ or _Lunario_ to sell towards the end of +the year, and at other times they vary the occupation of shaking the box +by selling lives of the saints, which are sometimes wonderful enough. +One sad old woman, who sits near the Quattro Fontane, and says her +prayers and rattles her box, always touches my heart, there is such an +air of forlornness and sweetness about her. As I was returning, last +night, from a mass at San Giovanni in Laterano, an old man glared at us +through great green goggles,--to which Jealousy's would have yielded in +size and color,--and shook his box for a _baiocco_. "And where does this +money go?" I asked. "To say masses for the souls of those who die over +opposite," said he, pointing to the Hospital of San Giovanni, through +the open doors of which we could see the patients lying in their beds. + +Nor are these the only friends of the box. Often in walking the streets +one is suddenly shaken in your ear, and, turning round, you are startled +to see a figure entirely clothed in white from head to foot, a rope +round his waist, and a white _capuccio_ drawn over his head and face, +and showing, through two round holes, a pair of sharp black eyes behind +them. He says nothing, but shakes his box at you, often threateningly, +and always with an air of mystery. This is a penitent _Saccone_; and as +this _confraternità_ is composed solely of noblemen, he may be one of +the first princes or cardinals in Rome, performing penance in expiation +of his sins; or, for all you can see, it may be one of your intimate +friends. The money thus collected goes to various charities. They always +go in couples,--one taking one side of the street, the other the +opposite,--never losing sight of each other, and never speaking. Clothed +thus in secresy, these _Sacconi_ can test the generosity of any one they +please with complete impunity, and they often amuse themselves with +startling foreigners. Many a group of English girls, convoyed by their +mother, and staring into some mosaic or cameo shop, is scared into a +scream by the sudden jingle of the box, and the apparition of the +spectre in white who shakes it. And many a simple old lady retains to +the end of her life a confused impression, derived therefrom, of +Inquisitions, stilettos, tortures, and banditti, from which it is vain +to attempt to dispossess her mind. The stout old gentleman, with a bald +forehead and an irascibly rosy face, takes it often in another +way,--confounds the fellows for their impertinence, has serious notions, +first, of knocking them down on the spot, and then of calling the +police, but finally concludes to take no notice of them, as they are +nothing but _Eye_-talians, who cannot be expected to know how to behave +themselves in a rational manner. Sometimes a _santa elemosina_ is +demanded after the oddest fashion. It was only yesterday that I met one +of the _confraternità_, dressed in a shabby red suit, coming up the +street, with the invariable oblong tin begging-box in his hand,--a +picture of Christ on one side, and of the Madonna on the other. He went +straight to a door, opening into a large, dark room, where there was a +full cistern of running water, at which several poor women were washing +clothes, and singing and chatting as they worked. My red acquaintance +suddenly opens the door, letting in a stream of light upon this +Rembrandtish interior, and, lifting his box with the most wheedling of +smiles, he says, with a rising inflection of voice, as if asking a +question,--"_Prezioso sangue di Gesù Christo?_"--( Precious blood of +Jesus Christ?) + +The last, but by no means the meanest, of the tribe of pensioners whom I +shall mention, is my old friend, "Beefsteak,"--now, alas! gone to the +shades of his fathers. He was a good dog,--a mongrel, a Pole by +birth,--who accompanied his master on a visit to Rome, where he became +so enamored of the place that he could not be persuaded to return to his +native home. Bravely he cast himself on the world, determined to live, +like many of his two-legged countrymen, upon his wits. He was a dog of +genius, and his confidence in the world was rewarded by its +appreciation. He had a sympathy for the arts. The crowd of artists who +daily and nightly flocked to the Lepre and the Caffè Greco attracted his +notice. He introduced himself to them, and visited them at their studios +and rooms. A friendship was struck between them and him, and he became +their constant visitor and their most attached ally. Every day, at the +hour of lunch, or at the more serious hour of dinner, he lounged into +the Lepre, seated himself in a chair, and awaited his friends, confident +of his reception. His presence was always hailed with a welcome, and to +every new comer he was formally presented. His bearing became, at last, +not only assured, but patronizing. He received the gift of a +chicken-bone or a delicate titbit as if he conferred a favor. He became +an epicure, a _gourmet_. He did not eat much; he ate well. With what a +calm superiority and gentle contempt he declined the refuse bits a +stranger offered from his plate! His glance, and upturned nose, and +quiet refusal, seemed to say,--"Ignoramus! know you not I am Beefsteak?" +His dinner finished, he descended gravely, and proceeded to the Caffè +Greco, there to listen to the discussions of the artists, and to partake +of a little coffee and sugar, of which he was very fond. At night, he +accompanied some one or other of his friends to his room, and slept upon +the rug. He knew his friends, and valued them; but perhaps his most +remarkable quality was his impartiality. He dispensed his favors with an +even hand. He had few favorites, and called no man master. He never +outstayed his welcome "and told the jest without the smile," never +remaining with one person for more than two or three days at most. A +calmer character, a more balanced judgment, a better temper, a more +admirable self-respect,--in a word, a profounder sense of what belongs +to a gentleman, was never known in any dog. But Beefsteak is now no +more. Just after the agitations of the Revolution of '48, with which he +had little sympathy,--he was a conservative by disposition,--he +disappeared. He had always been accustomed to make a _villegratura_ at +L'Arriccia during a portion of the summer months, returning only now and +then to look after his affairs in Rome. On such visits he would often +arrive towards midnight, and rap at the door of a friend to claim his +hospitality, barking a most intelligible answer to the universal Roman +inquiry of "_Chi è_?" "One morn we missed him at the accustomed" place, +and thenceforth he was never seen. Whether a sudden homesickness for his +native land overcame him, or a fatal accident befell him, is not known. +Peace to his manes! There "rests his head upon the lap of earth" no +better dog. + +In the Roman studio of one of his friends and admirers, Mr. Mason, I had +the pleasure, a few days since, to see, among several admirable and very +spirited pictures of Campagna life and incidents, a very striking +portrait of Beefsteak. He was sitting in a straw-bottomed chair, as we +have so often seen him in the Lepre, calm, dignified in his deportment, +and somewhat obese. The full brain, the narrow, fastidious nose, the +sagacious eye, were so perfectly given, that I seemed to feel the actual +presence of my old friend. So admirable a portrait of so distinguished a +person should not be lost to the world. It should be engraved, or at +least photographed. + + + + +ENCELADUS. + + + Under Mount Etna he lies; + It is slumber, it is not death; + For he struggles at times to arise, + And above him the lurid skies + Are hot with his fiery breath. + + The crags are piled on his breast, + The earth is heaped on his head; + But the groans of his wild unrest, + Though smothered and half suppressed, + Are heard, and he is not dead. + + And the nations far away + Are watching with eager eyes; + They talk together and say, + "To-morrow, perhaps to-day, + Enceladus will arise!" + + And the old gods, the austere + Oppressors in their strength, + Stand aghast and white with fear, + At the ominous sounds they hear, + And tremble, and mutter, "At length!" + + Ah, me! for the land that is sown + With the harvest of despair! + Where the burning cinders, blown + From the lips of the overthrown + Enceladus, fill the air! + + Where ashes are heaped in drifts + Over vineyard and field and town, + Whenever he starts and lifts + His head through the blackened rifts + Of the crags that keep him down! + + See, see! the red light shines! + 'Tis the glare of his awful eyes! + And the storm-wind shouts through the pines + Of Alps and of Apennines, + "Enceladus, arise!" + + + + +THE ZOUAVES. + + +The decree of October 1, 1830, approved by a royal ordinance, March 21, +1831, created two battalions of Zouaves. To perceive the necessity for +this body of troops, to understand the nature of the service required of +them, and to obtain a just notion of their important position in African +affairs, it will be necessary to glance, for a moment, at the previous +history of Algeria under the Deys, and especially at the history of that +Turkish militia which they were to replace,--a body of irresponsible +tyrants, which, since 1516, had exercised the greatest power in Africa, +and had rendered their name hated and feared by the most distant tribes. + +Algeria was settled in 1492, by Moors driven from Spain. They recognized +a kind of allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey, which was, however, only +nominal; he appointed their Emirs, but further than this there was no +restraint on their actions. Hard pressed by the Spaniards in 1509, the +Emirs sent in haste to Turkey for aid; and Barbarossa, a noted pirate, +sailed to their help, drove out the Christians, but fixed upon the Moors +the yoke of Turkish sovereignty. In 1516, he declared himself Sultan, or +Dey, of Algiers; and his brother succeeding him, the Ottoman power was +firmly established in the Northwest of Africa. Hated by the people of +this great territory, both Moors and Arabs, menaced not only by their +dissensions, but frequently attacked by the Christians from the North, +there was but one method by which the Dey could maintain his power. He +formed a large body of mercenary soldiers, drawn entirely from Turkey, +united with himself and each other by a feeling of mutual dependence and +common danger, and bound by no feeling of interest or affection to the +inhabitants of the soil. Brave they were, as they proved in 1541, +against Charles the Fifth, whose forces they defeated and nearly +destroyed at Haratsch,--in 1565, at the siege of Malta,--in 1572, in the +seafight of Lepanto,--in many smaller combats at different times, +defending their land triumphantly in 1775 against the Spaniards under +O'Reilly and Castejon. Hardy and ready they were, from the very +necessity of the case; for they were hated and dreaded beyond measure by +the Arabs, and theirs was a life of constant exertion. Other than united +they could not be; for they were in continual warfare of offence or of +defence; they suppressed rebellion and anarchy,--for without a leader +and union they had been cut off by the restless foe, whose piercing eyes +watched, and whose daggers waited only _for the time_. In constant +danger, they could not sink into that sloth that eats out the heart of +Eastern and Southern nations; for it was only in unrest that safety +lay;--he who slumbered on those burning plains, no less than the sleeper +on Siberian ice, was lost utterly and without remedy. + +This body of troops, called the _Odjack_, elected or deposed Deys at +pleasure; the Dey, nominally their ruler, was in reality their tool. In +one period of twenty years there were six Deys, of whom four were +decapitated, one abdicated through fear, and one died peacefully in the +exercise of his governing functions. [Footnote: _Voyage pour la +Rédemption des Captifs aux Royaumes d'Alger et de Tunis, fait en 1720._ +Paris, 1721.] In 1629, they declared the kingdom free from the +domination of Turkey; soon after, they expelled the Koulouglis, or +half-breed Turks, and enslaved the Moors. Admitting some of the latter +to service in the militia, they never allowed them to hope for +advancement in the State, or, what was the same thing, the army. Only +Turks, or in some instances renegade Christians, could lead the +soldiers, whom thus no feeling of local patriotism mollified in their +course of savage cruelty, grinding the face of the poor natives till +spirit and hope were lost and resistance ceased to be a settled idea in +their minds. + +Now when the French navy came up to the port of Algiers, June 12, 1830, +the unity between the soldiers and their master, Hussein Pacha, was +tottering on the verge of dissolution; a plot against his life had just +been discovered, he had punished the ringleaders with death, and many +who had been concerned in the conspiracy felt that there was no safety +for them with him. Beaten constantly in every skirmish or battle, they +conceived a high respect for the military genius of the invaders, and, +ere the close of the summer campaign, offered their services in a body +to General Clausel; this offer he promptly declined, and they thereupon +withdrew, carrying their swords to the aid of other powers less +scrupulous. + +The news, however, that the terrible Odjack had offered themselves to +serve under the French spread a lively terror through the Arab tribes, +who, believing themselves about to suffer an aggravation of their +already intolerable oppression, experienced a sensation of relief and an +elevation of spirit no less marked, on hearing that the newly formed +government had rejected their services. Perceiving the fear in which +these Algerine Praetorians were held by the tribes, Marshal Clausel +conceived the plan of replacing them by a corps of light infantry, +consisting of two battalions, to perform the services of household +troops, and to receive some name as significant as that held by their +predecessors under the old _régime_. Consequently, after some +consideration, the newly constituted body was called by the name of +_Zouaves_, from the Arabic word _Zouaoua_. + +The Zouaoua are a tribe, or rather a confederation of tribes, of the +Kabyles, who inhabit the gorges of the Jurjura Mountains, the boundary +of Algeria on the east, separating it from the province of Constantine. +They are a brave, fierce, laborious people, whose submission to the +Turks was never more than nominal; yet they were well known in the city +of Algiers, whither they came frequently to exchange the products of +their industry for the luxuries of comparative civilization. As they had +the reputation of being the best soldiers in the Regency, and had +occasionally lent their services to the Algerine princes, their name was +given to the new military force; while, to give it the character of a +French corps, the number of native soldiers received into its ranks was +limited, and all its officers, from the highest to the lowest grade, +were required to be native-born Frenchmen. The service in this corps was +altogether voluntary, none being appointed to the Zouaves who did not +seek the place; but there were found enough young and daring spirits who +embraced with enthusiasm this life, so harassing, so full of privation, +of rude labor, of constant peril. The first battalion was commanded by +Major Maumet; the second by Captain Duvivier, (since General,) who died +in Paris, 1848, of wounds received in the African service. Levaillant, +(since General of Division,) Verge, (now General of Brigade,) and +Mollière, who died Colonel, of wounds received at the siege of Rome, +were officers in these first two battalions. + +Scarcely six weeks had elapsed since their formation, when the Zouaves +took the field under Marshal Clausel, marching against Medeah, an +important station in the heart of Western Algeria. On the hill of +Mouzaïa they fought their first battle, in which they were completely +successful. They remained two months as a garrison in Medeah. Here they +showed proofs of a valor and patience most extraordinary. Left alone in +a frontier post, constantly in the vicinity of a savage foe, watching +and fighting night and day, leaving the gun only to take up the spade, +compelled to create everything they needed, reduced to the last +extremities for food, cut off from all communications,--it was a rough +trial for this little handful of new soldiers. The place was often +attacked; they were always at their posts; till in the last days of +April they were recalled, and the fortress yielded up to the feeble Bey +whom the French had decided to establish there. In June, troubles having +again arisen, General Berthezène conducted some troops of the regular +army to Medeah, to which was added the second battalion of Zouaves, +under its gallant captain, Duvivier. On his return, the troops were +attacked with fury on the hill of Mouzaïa, the spot where the Zouaves +had in February of the same year received their baptism of fire. Wearied +with the long night-march, borne down by insupportable heat, stretched +in a long straggling line through mountain-passes, the commander of the +van severely wounded at the first discharge, they themselves separated, +without chiefs, and surrounded by enemies, the French troops recoiled; +when Duvivier, seeing the peril that menaced the army, advanced with his +battalion. Shouting their war-cry, they rushed on the Kabyles, supported +by the Volunteers of the Chart, or French Zouaves, thundering forth the +Marseillaise; turning the pursuers into pursued, they covered the +retreat of their associates to the farm of Mouzaïa, where the army +rallied and proceeded without further loss to Algiers. This retreat, and +its attendant circumstances, made the Zouaves, before regarded, if not +with contempt, at least with dislike, _free of the camp_. + +But now the losses sustained by the two battalions began to be seriously +felt,--for the growing hostility of the Arabs rendered it difficult to +recruit from native sources; and an ordinance of the king, dated March +7,1833, united the two battalions into one, consisting of ten companies, +eight of which were to be exclusively European, and two to be _not_ +exclusively Algerine,--it being required that in each native company +there should be at least twelve Frenchmen. Duvivier was called to +Bougie; Maumet was compelled by his wounds to return to Paris; Captain +Lamoricière was, therefore, appointed chief of the united battalion, +having given proof of his capacity in every way,--whether as soldier, +linguist, or negotiator,--being a wise and prudent man. It is to the +training the Zouaves received under this remarkable man that much of +their subsequent success must be ascribed. In his dealings with the +Arabs he had shown himself the first who could treat with them by other +means than the rifle or bayonet. [Footnote: _Annales Algériennes_, Tom. +ii. p. 72.] In his capacity of Lieutenant-Colonel of Zouaves he showed +talents of a high order. He infused into them the spirit, the activity, +the boldness and impetuosity which he himself so remarkably possessed, +with a certain independence of character which demanded from those who +commanded them a resolute firmness on essential, and a dignified +indulgence on unessential points. [Footnote: _Conquête d'Alger_. Par A. +Nettement. p. 546.] To the course of discipline used by him, and still +maintained in this arm of the service, are due their tremendous working +power, their tirelessness, their self-dependence, and all their +qualities differing from those of other soldiers; so that by his means +one of the most irregular species of warfare has produced a body of +irresistible regular soldiers, and border combats have given rise to the +most rigid discipline in the world. + +The post of Dely Ibrahim was assigned to the Zouaves. At this place they +were obliged to work laboriously, making for themselves whatever was +needed; whether as masons, ditchers, blacksmiths, carpenters, or +farmers,--whatever business was to be performed, they were, or learned +to be, sufficient for it. No idlers in that camp,--each must earn his +daily bread. What time was not devoted to labor was given to the +practice of arms and the acquisition of instruction in all departments +of military science; so that many a soldier was there fitted for the +position he afterwards acquired, of officer, colonel, or general. To +fence with the mounted bayonet, to wrestle, to leap, to climb, to run +for miles, to swim, to make and to destroy temporary bridges, to throw +up earth-walls, to carry great weights, to do, in short, what Indians +learn to do, and much that they do not learn,--these served as the +relaxations of the unwearied Zouaves. To vary the monotony of such a +life, there was enough adventure to be found for the seeking,--now an +incursion into the Sahel, or into the plains of Mitidja, or a wild foray +through the northern gorges of the Atlas. Day by day progress appeared; +they learned to march rapidly and long, to sustain the extremes of +hunger, thirst, and weather, and to manoeuvre with intelligent +precision; diligently fitting themselves, in industry, discipline, and +warlike education, for the position they had to fill. Their costume and +equipment were brought near perfection; they wore the Turkish dress, +slightly modified,--a dress perfectly suited to the changes of that +climate, and without which their movements would have been cramped and +constrained. Only the officers retained the uniform of the hussars, +which is rich and easy to wear. The cost of a suitable Turkish uniform +would have been too heavy for them, besides that the dress of a Turk of +rank is somewhat ridiculous. Certain officers on the march used, +however, to wear the _fez_, or, as the Arabs called it, the _chechia_. +Lamoricière was known in Algeria as _Bou Chechia_, or _Papa with the +Cap_,--as he was known later in Oran as _Bou Araoua, Papa with the +Stick_. One finds, however, nothing of Orientalism in the regulations of +this body of troops; not the least negligence or slovenliness is allowed +in the most trifling detail. In fine, the care, and that descending to +note the smallest minutiae, which brought this race of soldiers to such +a pitch of perfection, leaving them their gayety and sprightliness, and, +notwithstanding the rigidness of the discipline, giving solidity and +precision to irregular troops, was rewarded by success unparalleled in +history. It was the best practical school for soldiers and officers; and +many of the best generals in the French army began their military career +in the wild guerrilla combats or the patient camp-life of this band of +heroes. + +Nearly two years had passed away in this training, when Marshal Clausel +returned to Africa, and led the Zouaves, whose fitness for the service +he well knew, into Oran. Here they added fresh laurels to those already +acquired. In the expedition of Mascara, where they fought under the eye +of the Duke of Orléans, they covered themselves with glory; insomuch +that on his return to Paris he procured a decree, 1835, constituting the +First Regiment of Zouaves, of two battalions, of six companies each, +and, should occasion justify the measure, of ten companies. Lamoricière +continued in command. + +In 1836 the Zouaves again took the hill of Mouzaïa. This time they razed +its fortifications even with the ground, and returned to Algiers, where +they remained during General Clausel's first and unfortunate expedition +into Constantine, the eastern province of French Africa. In 1837 the +second expedition was made, and in this the Zouaves took part. One of +the divisions of the army was under the command of the Duke of Némours. +In this division were the Zouaves under Lamoricière, who here showed +themselves worthy of their renown. Fighting by the side of the most +excellent soldiers in the regular army, they proved themselves bravest +where all were brave. They were placed at the head of the first column +of attack. Lamoricière was the first officer on the breach, and carried +all before him. The soldiers whom he had trained supported him nobly; +but when they had won the day, they found that many companies were +decimated, some nearly annihilated; numbers of their officers were dead +in the breach, "Those who are not mortally wounded rejoice at this great +success," said an officer to the Duke; and it was a significant +sentence. [Footnote: Verbal report of Colonel Combes to the Duke of +Némours,--conclusion.] + +To form some notion of those troops, among whom the Zouaves showed +themselves like the gods in the war of Troy, one anecdote will suffice, +chosen from many which prove the valor of the army my generally. The +rear-guard at Mansourah was under the command of Changarnier; it was +reduced to three hundred men; he halted this little troop and said, +"Come, my men, look these fellows in the face; they are six thousand, +you are three hundred; surely the match is even." This speech was +sufficient. The Frenchmen awaited the onset till the enemy was within +pistol-shot; then, after a murderous volley, they charged on the Arabs, +who broke and fled in dismay. During the remainder of the day they would +not approach this band nearer than long rifle range. [Footnote: +_Moniteur_, December 16, 1833; report of Marshal Clausel.] + +The siege of Constantine may properly be said to have ended the war of +occupation in Africa. Hitherto we have seen the Zouaves only in time of +active war, or in the defence of hill-forts, obliged to unity through +fear of an ever-menacing foe, and laboring for their own preservation or +comfort only; but now commenced a new training for them, no less severe +and dangerous, in which they showed themselves equally willing and +competent,--a war against stubborn Nature in all her most forbidding +aspects. Under the blazing suns of that tropical climate they +recommenced at Coleah the work already begun at Dely Ibrahim; ditches +were to be dug, works thrown up, roads made, draining accomplished, +farms tended, all that was necessary for the establishment of those +permanent colonies which France was so anxious to settle in Algeria was +to be done by the Zouaves; yet, despite that terrible labor, the danger +and hardship, the sickness and death, the ranks of the regiment filled +up rapidly; and, joined by the wrecks of the battalion of Mechouar, they +were kept full to overflowing. This battalion of Mechouar was a troop +left by Clausel in the _mechouar_, or citadel, of Tlemcen, in the West +of Oran, under the command of Captain Cavaignac; on the conclusion of +the war, in 1837, they, of course, returned to their regiment at Coleah. + +This deceitful peace lasted only till 1839. In this year the vigilant +colonel of Zouaves perceived in his native troops alarming symptoms of +mutiny, and learned, to his surprise, that they were in a ripe condition +for revolt. Wild Santons of the desert, emissaries, doubtless, of +Abd-el-Kader, held secret meetings near the camp; many soldiers attended +them, and were seduced by artfully prepared inflammatory harangues and +prophecies. In the month of December, 1839, at the raising of the +standard of Islam, the natives flocked in vast numbers to rid the land +of the Christians; and most of the native Zouaves deserted to join the +fortunes of the prince whom they reverenced as a prophet. Old soldiers, +trained in the French service to a thorough acquaintance with European +tactics, and gray with battling long for Lamoricière, suddenly left him, +and by their knowledge of the art of war gave great advantage to the +Arab force. In their combats with the Sultan, the Zouaves not +infrequently found that a sharp resistance or a masterly retreat on the +part of the enemy was executed under the direction of one of their +former comrades in arms. It was a critical moment for the Zouaves; but +at the announcement of the renewal of hostilities volunteers flowed in +on all sides, whether of young men full of ardor and excitement, or, as +in many instances, of old soldiers who had already served their time. +After a winter of petty skirmishing and reestablishing in Algeria the +semblance of security, the Duke of Orléans led the army, considerably +reinforced, in a raid against the Arabs under Abd-el-Kader in their own +territory. The Zouaves accompanied this expedition, and whether in their +charges against the mountaineers, who, with the aid of the Arab +regulars, defended each pass, or sustaining the shock of the provincial +cavalry, or even standing unmoved before the attack of Abd-el-Kader's +terrible "Reds," [Footnote: The mounted body-guard of Abd-el-Kader, so +called by the French from their complete red uniform.] they maintained +their character of rapid, intrepid, and successful soldiers. What names +we find in this regiment! Lamoricière, Regnault, Renault, (now General +of Division,) Cavaignac, Leflô, (now General of Brigade,) and St. +Arnaud, who died Marshal of France two days after the victory of the +Alma. + +A singular instance of the _handiness_ of the Zouaves is found in the +notice of their forced march on this campaign, undertaken May 20th, to +support the retreating Seventeenth Light Infantry. Their cartridges were +fired away, the regulars of Abd-el-Kader were upon them, and nothing +seemed to remain but an heroic death, when, "Comrades," cried one, "see, +here are stones!" Not a word more; each caught the hint, and, with +simultaneous volleys of stones, drove off the charging enemy, and broke +their way to where the remains of the Seventeenth rallied under Colonel +Bedeau, after a retreat more properly to be called a continual attack! + +Hard at work during the winter of 1840-41, General Bugeaud found these +indefatigable soldiers in perfect condition to take the field again, +when he landed in April. There had been sharp fighting during the past +year at Mouzaïa, in which the Zouaves always led the van, and were, as +in every engagement they ever fought, covered with honor. "The Second, +electrified by the example of its officers, and led by Colonel +Changarnier, flung itself on the intrenchments; the redoubts were +carried, etc. At the same time, in the other column, Lamoricière led the +way with his Zouaves, followed by the other troops. The Zouaves +surmounted the almost impassable cliffs, attacked and carried two lines +of intrenchment, and, in the teeth of a murderous fire, forced a third; +a few moments later the two columns joined, and, rushing up the +acclivity, planted the flag of France on the highest peak of the Atlas." +[Footnote: Report of Marshal Valée: _Moniteur_.] Little variation is +found in the reports of generals concerning the Zouaves at this time; +they say of these troops always, "The First," or "The Second, was +covered with glory." + +But now, with the arrival of Bugeaud, the war in Africa was changed; +hitherto it had been a mere war of occupation,--a holding of the ground +already French against the attacking Arabs; now it was to be a duel, a +war of devastation; thus only could France hope to tame the +indefatigable Abd-el-Kader, and permanently hold her own. The trouble +was not so much to fight him as to get near enough to fight him; for he +pursued a truly Fabian policy, and being lighter armed, was consequently +swifter than the invaders. Under Marshal Clausel, the French, drawing +with them the heavy wagons and munitions of European warfare, were +obliged to follow the high-roads, and the Arabs could never be taken by +surprise; scouts gave information of their numbers, and after harassing +marches they would find that the foe had either retreated to unknown +fastnesses or assembled on the spot in prodigious force. Now Lamoricière +proposed a plan, in the execution of which he was eminently successful. +Bugeaud's design was, to follow the Arabs into the desert, to climb the +steep mountains, to plunge into their chasms, to storm every hill-fort, +and to drive, step by step, the swift Abd-el-Kader far from the land +which his presence so troubled; but how? for swift troops are +light-armed, carry no luggage, and but little provision; and to follow +without food the Arabs who concealed food in _silos_, _caches_ in the +ground, seemed hopeless. Lamoricière required but his Zouaves, who +carried only four days' provisions, and no baggage of any sort; when +they drew near any of these _silos_, which were always, of course, in +the vicinity of the deserted villages, he spread out his troops in a +long crescent, and they advanced slowly, rooting up the ground with +their bayonets till some one struck on the stone or pebbles covering the +precious deposit. Thus, without wagons, trained to tireless activity, +they could follow the Arabs from _douar_ to _douar_ with little delay, +and with fatal effect. + +Great reinforcements were sent to Africa, and the Zouaves were not +forgotten; for, in the royal ordinance of September 8th, 1841, the +regiment was raised to three battalions of nine companies; only one of +the nine, however, could receive natives, so that but three native +companies now existed, and few Algerines were found even in these. The +reasons seem to have been threefold: first, the danger from mutiny; +second, the evils arising from the mixture of the two races, which had +augmented their vices, without a corresponding improvement in their good +qualities; third, and perhaps most important of all, the discontent very +properly felt by the French Zouaves, who were compelled to work at the +trenches, to dig, to plant, etc., while the Mussulmans utterly refused +to take part in this, to their mind, degrading toil. The Gordian knot +was cut, and all difficulty done away, by making the regiment, in +effect, exclusively European. Thus reorganized and reinforced, the +regiment, on receiving the standard sent it by the king, immediately +separated,--one battalion marching for Oran, one for Constantine, while +the other remained at Blidah, in Algeria. + +The year 1842 was full of great results; the new system worked well, +great numbers of tribes laid down their arms and swore fealty to France, +and the provinces were more than nominally in the hands of the French. +Still many of the more distant and powerful tribes held to their +allegiance to the Prophet Sultan. The war gradually took on itself the +form of a civil contest, and mutual animosities gave rise to many +occasions for sanguinary combats; one of these, in the valley of the +Cheliff, September, 1842, lasted unintermittingly for thirty-six hours! +In this battle, and that of Oued Foddah, and, in fact, in almost every +battle of those years, the Zouaves took an honorable part. In mountain +fights, long marches over burning sands, repulses of cavalry, at +Jurjura, Ouarsanis, among the Beni Menasser, at the Smalah, in the +struggles of Bedeau with the Moroccan cavalry, and in the memorable +battle of Isly, they did good service; their history was but a narrative +of brilliant exploits. In many of their hill fights, the deserters of +1839 gave much trouble. In a skirmish, 1844, on the south side of the +Aurès, in which Captain Espinasse (died General of Division, Magenta, +June 6th, 1859) was concerned, and wounded four times, an old native +Zouave commanded the Kabyles, and defended their principal position with +much skill. + +In fine, to recount the hundredth part of their deeds,--to make out a +list of their soldiers, sub-officers, or officers who have been since +promoted to high honors,--to trace minutely each step by which they +mounted to their present position, would be to write, not an article, +but a book. In 1842 the natives disappeared finally from their ranks; +the best and bravest soldiers of the African army eagerly sought their +places, attracted by the uniform, the manner of life, the constant +danger and no less constant excitement, the liberty allowed, the glory +ever open to all. As their numbers were decimated by the continual +warfare, the ranks were immediately filled by the descendants of those +brave Gauls who once said, "If the heavens fall, what care we? We will +support them on the points of our lances!" In 1848, the Zouaves received +a large accession from Paris; the _gamins_ of the Revolution were sent +to them in great numbers; out of this unpromising, rebellious material, +some of the finest of these admirable troops have been made. And now, +when the entry into this regiment was longed for by so many, as a +species of promotion, on the 13th of February, 1852, Louis Napoleon, +then President of the Republic, decreed that three regiments of Zouaves +be formed, each on one of the three battalions as a nucleus, taking the +number of the battalion as its own. Thus the first regiment was formed +at Blidah, in Algiers; the second at Oran, in Oran; the third at +Constantine, in the province of Constantine. Officers of the corps of +infantry were eligible to the new regiments, holding the same grade; the +men were to be drawn from any infantry corps in the army, on their own +application, if the Minister of War saw proper. None were accepted but +men physically and morally in excellent condition; the officers had, for +the most part, already served with credit; the under-officers and +soldiers had been many years in the service; and even many corporals, +and not a few ensigns and lieutenants, voluntarily relinquished their +positions to serve in the rank-and-file of the new corps. So, occupied +in pacificating and securing the three provinces, the regiments lost +nothing of their former renown; obedient to orders, and fearless of +danger, it was no idle compliment paid them by Louis Napoleon, when, in +the winter of 1853-4, be said, "If the war break out, we must show our +Zouaves to the Russians." They were a body trained in the school of a +terrible experience of twenty-four years; they had learned, like the +lion-hunter, Gerard, to take death by the mane, and look into his fiery +eyes without blenching; they were fit for this service, which demanded +the best nerve of the two most powerful nations of the world. What they +did there is known to all; at the battle of the Alma, Marshal St. Arnaud +was unable to repress his admiration, calling them "the bravest soldiers +in the world." All Europe, at first wondering at these strange troops, +with their wild dress, their half-savage manners, and strange method of +warfare, found speedy cause to admire their courage and success; France +was proud of their renown, and they became immensely popular in Paris, +sure proof of their remarkable qualities. Their oddities, their courage, +their imperfect knowledge of the distinctions of _meum_ and _tuum_, +their wondering, childlike simplicity, furnished themes for endless +songs and caricatures; the comedy of "Les Zouaves" met with great +success; and the cant name for them, "Zouzou," is to be heard at any +time in the streets. In 1855, the Fourth Zouaves was created, consisting +of but two battalions, and enrolled in the Imperial Guard; they are +distinguished from the others by wearing a white turban, while that of +the other regiments is green; since the formation of this regiment, no +new corps have been added. The peace with Russia, in 1856, was not peace +for the Zouaves, who returned, desiring nothing better, to Africa, +where, in the continued war, they found congenial employment till the +final submission of the last tribes, July 15, 1857, dissolved the army +of Kabylia, and made them, perforce, peaceful, till the 26th of April of +this year brought them to win fresh laurels on a new field. + +Vague reports, assertions without proof, have been not infrequently +made, to the effect that the Zouaves are in character cruel, dissolute, +and excessively given to hard drinking. That they are absolutely free +from the first charge I shall not attempt to deny; that they are more so +than other men, in like circumstances, there is no proof; there is even +good reason to state the contrary, if we may judge by instances, of +which, for want of space, one shall suffice here. The Zouaves were in +the van of the army, on their march toward the Tell; in their charge was +a large body of prisoners, wounded, and helpless women, old men, and +children, whom they were conducting to the Tell, to restore them to +their homes. The weather was intensely hot, even for Africa; the nearest +well was eleven leagues distant; and the sufferings of the poor people +must have been dreadful indeed. Mothers flung down their infants on the +burning sand, and pressed madly on to save themselves from the most +horrible of deaths; old men and boys sunk exhausted, panting, declaring +they could go no farther. "Then it was," says an eyewitness, "that the +Zouaves behaved like very Sisters of Charity, rather than rough bearded +soldiers; they divided their last morsel with these unfortunates, gave +them drink from their own scanty stores, and, putting their canteens to +the mouths of the dying, revived them with the precious draught. They +raised the screaming infants, overturned and held ewes, that they might +suckle the poor creatures, abandoned in despair by their mothers, and, +in many instances, carried them the whole distance in their arms. At +night they ate nothing, giving their food to the helpless prisoners, +whose lives they thus saved at the risk of their own." If in war they +"imitate the action of the tiger," we have every reason to believe that +in peace they are, to say the least, not less humane than others. + +The author of "Recollections of an Officer" [Footnote: _Souvenirs d'un +Officier du 2me de Zouaves_. Paris, 1859.] sums up the character of the +Zouaves in a few words which clear them from the other two charges, +those of dissoluteness and drunkenness. He says,--"Beside the condition +of success resulting from the first organization, it must be said, that, +somewhat later, the happy idea came to be adopted, of giving to the +Zouaves destined to fight in the light-armed troops the costume of +_Chasseurs-à-pied_. The recruitment added also not a little to the +reputation which the Zouaves so rapidly acquired; the soldiers are all +drawn, not from conscripts, but from applicants for the service. Many +are Parisians, or, at all events, inhabitants of the other great French +cities; most have already served,--are therefore inured to the +work,--accustomed to privations, which they undergo gayly,--to fatigues, +at which they joke,--to dangers in battle, which they treat as mere +play. They are proud of their uniform, which does not resemble that of +any other corps,--proud of that name, _Zouave_, of mysterious +origin,--proud of the splendid actions with which each succeeding day +enriches the history of their troops,--happy in the liberty they +experience, both in garrison and on expeditions. It is said that the +Zouaves love wine; it is true; but they are rarely seen intoxicated; +they seek the pleasures of conviviality, not the imbrutement of +drunkenness. These regiments count in their ranks officers, who, +_ennuied_ by a lazy life, have taken up the musket and the +_chechia_,--under-officers, who, having already served, brave, even +rash, seek to win their epaulettes anew in this hard service, and gain +either a glorious position or a glorious death,--old officers of the +_garde mobile_,--broad-shouldered marines, who have served their time on +shipboard, accustomed to cannon and the thunderings of the +tempest,--young men of family, desirous to replace with the red ribbon +of the Legion of Honor, bought and colored with their blood, the +dishonor of a life gaped wearily away on the pavements of Paris. + +"Composed of such elements, one can scarcely imagine the body of Zouaves +other than brilliant in the field of battle. The officers are generally +chosen from the regiments of the line, men remarkable for strength, +courage, and prudence; full of energy, pushing the love of their colors +to its last limit, always ready to confront death and to run up to meet +danger, they seek glory rather than promotion. To train up their +soldiers, to give them an example, in their own persons, of all the +military virtues,--such are their only cares. Our ancestors said, +'_Noblesse, oblige_'; these choose the same motto. _Their_ nobility is +not that of old family-titles, but the uniform in which they are +clothed, the title of officer of Zouaves. _Esprit de corps_, that +religion of the soldier, is carried by the Zouaves to its highest pitch; +the common soldiers would not consent to change their turban for the +epaulettes of an ensign in the other service; and many an ensign, and +not a few captains, have preferred to await their advancement in the +Zouaves rather than immediately obtain it by entering other regiments. +There exists, moreover, between the soldiers and officers, a military +fraternity, which, far from destroying discipline, tends rather to draw +more closely its bonds. The officer sees in his men rather companions in +danger and in glory than inferiors; he willingly attends to their +complaints, and strives to spare them all unnecessary privations. Where +they are exposed to difficulties, he does not hesitate to employ all the +means in his power to aid them. In return, the soldier professes for his +officer an affection, a devotion, a sort of filial respect. Discipline, +he knows, must be severe, and he does not grumble at its penalties. In +battle, he does not abandon his chief; he watches over him, will die for +his safety, will not let him fall into the hands of the enemy if +wounded. At the bivouac he makes the officer's fire, though his own +should die for want of fuel; cares for his horse, arranges his +furniture; if any delicacy in the way of food can be procured, he brings +it to the chief. Convinced of the desire of their master that the +soldiers shall be well fed, the Zouaves often insist that a part of +their pay be expended for procuring the provisions of the tribe. +[Footnote: In accordance with Arab customs, the Zouaves, who (to use the +ordinary expression) "live in common," compose a circle to which they +give the name of _tribe_. In the tribe, each one has his allotted task: +one attends to making the fires and procuring wood; another draws water +and does the cooking; another makes the coffee and arranges the camp, +etc.] The colonel is the man most venerated by these soldiers, who look +upon him as the father of the family. They are proud of the colonel's +success, and happy to have contributed to his honor or advancement. When +an order comes directly from him, be sure it will be religiously obeyed. +'When _papa_ says anything,' they repeat, one to another, 'it must be +done. Papa knows it is _already_ done; be wants us to be the best +children possible.' In critical moments, the colonel can use the +severest Draconian code, without having anything to fear from the +disapprobation of his men." + + + + +MY PSALM. + + + I mourn no more my vanished years: + Beneath a tender rain, + An April rain of smiles and tears, + My heart is young again. + + The west winds blow, and, singing low, + I hear the glad streams run; + The windows of my soul I throw + Wide open to the sun. + + No longer forward nor behind + I look in hope or fear; + But, grateful, take the good I find, + The best of now and here. + + I plough no more a desert land, + To harvest weed and tare; + The manna dropping from God's hand + Rebukes my painful care. + + I break my pilgrim staff, I lay + Aside the toiling oar; + The angel sought so far away + I welcome at my door. + + The airs of Spring may never play + Among the ripening corn, + Nor freshness of the flowers of May + Blow through the Autumn morn;-- + + Yet shall the blue-eyed gentian look + Through fringed lids to heaven, + And the pale aster in the brook + Shall see its image given;-- + + The woods shall wear their robes of praise, + The south wind softly sigh, + And sweet, calm days in golden haze + Melt down the amber sky. + + Not less shall manly deed and word + Rebuke an age of wrong; + The graven flowers that wreathe the sword + Make not the blade less strong. + + But smiting hands shall learn to heal, + To build as to destroy; + Nor less my heart for others feel + That I the more enjoy. + + All as God wills, who wisely heeds + To give or to withhold, + And knoweth more of all my needs + Than all my prayers have told! + + Enough that blessings undeserved + Have marked my erring track,-- + That, wheresoe'er my feet have swerved, + His chastening turned me back,-- + + That more and more a Providence + Of love is understood, + Making the springs of time and sense + Sweet with eternal good,-- + + That death seems but a covered way + Which opens into light, + Wherein no blinded child can stray + Beyond the Father's sight,-- + + That care and trial seem at last, + Through Memory's sunset air, + Like mountain-ranges overpast, + In purple distance fair,-- + + That all the jarring notes of life + Seem blending in a psalm, + And all the angles of its strife + Slow rounding into calm. + + And so the shadows fall apart, + And so the west winds play; + And all the windows of my heart + I open to the day! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +There has been a sort of stillness in the atmosphere of our +boarding-house since my last record, as if something or other were going +on. There is no particular change that I can think of in the aspect of +things; yet I have a feeling as if some game of life were quietly +playing and strange forces were at work, underneath this smooth surface +of every-day boarding-house life, which would show themselves some fine +morning or other in events, if not in catastrophes. I have been +watchful, as I said I should be, but have little to tell as yet. You may +laugh at me, and very likely think me foolishly fanciful to trouble +myself about what is going on in a middling-class household like ours. +Do as you like. But here is that terrible fact to begin with,--a +beautiful young girl, with the blood and the nerve-fibre that belong to +Nature's women, turned loose among live men. + +--_Terrible_ fact? + +Very terrible. Nothing more so. Do you forget the angels who lost heaven +for the daughters of men? Do you forget Helen, and the fair women who +made mischief and set nations by the ears before Helen was born? If +jealousies that gnaw men's hearts out of their bodies,--if pangs that +waste men to shadows and drive them into raving madness or moping +melancholy,--if assassination and suicide are dreadful possibilities, +then there is always something frightful about a lovely young woman.--I +love to look at this "Rainbow," as her father used sometimes to call +her, of ours. Handsome creature that she is in forms and colors,--the +very picture, as it seems to me, of that "golden blonde" my friend whose +book you read last year fell in love with when he was a boy, (as you +remember, no doubt,)--handsome as she is, fit for a sea-king's bride, it +is not her beauty alone that holds my eyes upon her. Let me tell you one +of my fancies, and then you will understand the strange sort of +fascination she has for me. + +It is in the hearts of many men and women--let me add children--that +there is a _Great Secret_ waiting for them,--a secret of which they get +hints now and then, perhaps oftener in early than in later years. These +hints come sometimes in dreams, sometimes in sudden startling +flashes,--second wakings, as it were,--a waking out of the waking state, +which last is very apt to be a half-sleep. I have many times stopped +short and held my breath, and felt the blood leaving my cheeks, in one +of these sudden clairvoyant flashes. Of course I cannot tell what kind +of a secret this is; but I think of it as a disclosure of certain +relations of our personal being to time and space, to other +intelligences, to the procession of events, and to their First Great +Cause. This secret seems to be broken up, as it were, into fragments, so +that we find here a word and there a syllable, and then again only a +letter of it; but it never is written out for most of us as a complete +sentence, in this life. I do not think it could be; for I am disposed to +consider our beliefs about such a possible disclosure rather as a kind +of premonition of an enlargement of our faculties in some future state +than as an expectation to be fulfilled for most of us in this life. +Persons, however, have fallen into trances,--as did the Reverend William +Tennent, among many others,--and learned some things which they could +not tell in our human words. + +Now among the visible objects which hint to us fragments of this +infinite secret for--which our souls are waiting, the faces of women are +those that carry the most legible hieroglyphics of the great mystery. +There are women's faces, some real, some ideal, which contain something +in them that becomes a positive element in our creed, so direct and +palpable a revelation is it of the infinite purity and love. I remember +two faces of women with wings, such as they call angels, of Fra +Angelico,--and I just now came across a print of Raphael's Santa +Apollina, with something of the same quality,--which I was sure had +their prototypes in the world above ours. No wonder the Catholics pay +their vows to the Queen of Heaven! The unpoetical side of Protestantism +is, that it has no women to be worshipped. + +But mind you, it is not every beautiful face that hints the Great Secret +to us, nor is it only in beautiful faces that we find traces of it. +Sometimes it looks out from a sweet sad eye, the only beauty of a plain +countenance; sometimes there is so much meaning in the lips of a woman, +not otherwise fascinating, that we know they have a message for us, and +wait almost with awe to hear their accents. But this young girl has at +once the beauty of feature and the unspoken mystery of expression. Can +she tell me anything? Is her life a complement of mine, with the missing +element in it which I have been groping after through so many +friendships that I have tired of, and through--Hush! Is the door fast? +Talking loud is a bad trick in these curious boarding-houses. + +You must have sometimes noted this fact that I am going to remind you of +and to use for a special illustration. Riding along over a rocky road, +suddenly the slow monotonous grinding of the crushing gravel changes to +a deep heavy rumble. There is a great hollow under your feet,--a huge +unsunned cavern. Deep, deep beneath you, in the core of the living rock, +it arches its awful vault, and far away it stretches its winding +galleries, their roofs dripping into streams where fishes have been +swimming and spawning in the dark until their scales are white as milk +and their eyes have withered out, obsolete and useless. + +So it is in life. We jog quietly along, meeting the same faces, grinding +over the same thoughts,--the gravel of the soul's highway,--now and then +jarred against an obstacle we cannot crush, but must ride over or round +as we best may, sometimes bringing short up against a disappointment, +but still working along with the creaking and rattling and grating and +jerking that belong to the journey of life, even in the +smoothest-rolling vehicle. Suddenly we hear the deep underground +reverberation that reveals the unsuspected depth of some abyss of +thought or passion beneath us.---- + +I wish the girl would go. I don't like to look at her so much, and yet I +cannot help it. Always that same expression of something that I ought to +know,--something that she was made to tell and I to hear,--lying there +ready to fall off from her lips, ready to leap out of her eyes and make +a saint of me, or a devil or a lunatic, or perhaps a prophet to tell the +truth and be hated of men, or a poet whose words shall flash upon the +dry stubble-field of worn-out thoughts and burn over an age of lies in +an hour of passion. + +It suddenly occurs to me that I may have put you on the wrong track. The +Great Secret that I refer to has nothing to do with the Three Words. Set +your mind at ease about that,--there are reasons I could give you which +settle all that matter. I don't wonder, however, that you confounded the +Great Secret with the Three Words. + +I LOVE YOU is all the secret that many, nay, most women have to tell. +When that is said, they are like China-crackers on the morning of the +fifth of July. And just as that little patriotic implement is made with +a slender train which leads to the magazine in its interior, so a sharp +eye can almost always see the train leading from a young girl's eye or +lip to the "I love you" in her heart. But the Three Words are not the +Great Secret I mean. No, women's faces are only one of the tablets on +which that is written in its partial, fragmentary symbols. It lies +deeper than Love, though very probably Love is a part of it. Some, I +think,--Wordsworth might be one of them,--spell out a portion of it from +certain beautiful natural objects, landscapes, flowers, and others. I +can mention several poems of his that have shadowy hints which seem to +me to come near the region where I think it lies. I have known two +persons who pursued it with the passion of the old alchemists,--all +wrong evidently, but infatuated, and never giving up the daily search +for it until they got tremulous and feeble, and their dreams changed to +visions of things that ran and crawled about their floor and ceilings, +and so they died. The vulgar called them drunkards. + +I told you that I would let you know the mystery of the effect this +young girl's face produces on me. It is akin to those influences a +friend of mine has described, you may remember, as coming from certain +voices. I cannot translate it into words,--only into feelings; and these +I have attempted to shadow by showing that her face hinted that +revelation of something we are close to knowing, which all imaginative +persons are looking for either in this world or on the very threshold of +the next. + +You shake your head at the vagueness and fanciful incomprehensibleness +of my description of the expression in a young girl's face. You forget +what a miserable surface-matter this language is in which we try to +reproduce our interior state of being. Articulation is a shallow trick. +From the light Poh! which we toss off from our lips as we fling a +nameless scribbler's impertinences into our waste-baskets, to the +gravest utterance which comes from our throats in our moments of deepest +need, is only a space of some three or four inches. Words, which are a +set of clickings, hissings, lispings, and so on, mean very little, +compared to tones and expression of the features. I give it up; I +thought I could shadow forth in some feeble way, by their aid, the +effect this young girl's face produces on my imagination; but it is of +no use. No doubt your head aches, trying to make something of my +description. If there is here and there one that can make anything +intelligible out of my talk about the Great Secret, and who has spelt +out a syllable or two of it on some woman's face, dead or living, that +is all I can expect. One should see the person with whom he converses +about such matters. There are dreamy-eyed people to whom I should say +all these things with a certainty of being understood;-- + + That moment that his face I see, + I know the man that must hear me: + To him my tale I teach. + +----I am afraid some of them have not got a spare quarter for this +August number, so that they will never see it. + +----Let us start again, just as if we had not made this ambitious +attempt, which may go for nothing, and you can have your money refunded, +if you will make the change. + +This young girl, about whom I have talked so unintelligibly, is the +unconscious centre of attraction to the whole solar system of our +breakfast-table. The little gentleman, leans towards her, and she again +seems to be swayed as by some invisible gentle force towards him. That +slight inclination of two persons with a strong affinity towards each +other, throwing them a little out of plumb when they sit side by side, +is a physical fact I have often noticed. Then there is a tendency in all +the men's eyes to converge on her; and I do firmly believe, that, if all +their chairs were examined, they would be found a little obliquely +placed, so as to favor the direction in which their occupants love to +look. + +That bland, quiet old gentleman, of whom I have spoken as sitting +opposite to me, is no exception to the rule. She brought down some +mignonette one morning, which she had grown in her chamber. She gave a +sprig to her little neighbor, and one to the landlady, and sent another +by the hand of Bridget to this old gentleman. + +----Sarvant, Ma'am! Much obleeged,--he said, and put it gallantly in his +button-hole.--After breakfast he must see some of her drawings. Very +fine performances,--very fine!--truly elegant productions,--truly +elegant!--Had seen Miss Linley's needle-work in London, in the year +(eighteen hundred and little or nothing, I think he said,)--patronized +by the nobility and gentry, and Her Majesty,--elegant, truly elegant +productions, very fine performances; these drawings reminded him of +them;--wonderful resemblance to Nature; an extraordinary art, painting; +Mr. Copley made some very fine pictures that he remembered seeing when +he was a boy. Used to remember some lines about a portrait written by +Mr. Cowper, beginning,-- + + "Oh that those lips had language! Life has past + With me but roughly since I saw thee last." + +And with this the old gentleman fell to thinking about a dead mother of +his that he remembered ever so much younger than he now was, and +looking, not as his mother, but as his daughter should look. The dead +young mother was looking at the old man, her child, as she used to look +at him so many, many years ago. He stood still as if cataleptic, his +eyes fixed on the drawings till their outlines grew indistinct and they +ran into each other, and a pale, sweet face shaped itself out of the +glimmering light through which he saw them.--What is there quite so +profoundly human as an old man's memory of a mother who died in his +earlier years? Mother she remains till manhood, and by-and-by she grows, +as it were, to be as a sister; and at last, when, wrinkled and bowed and +broken, he looks back upon her in her fair youth, he sees in the sweet +image he caresses, not his parent, but, as it were, his child. + +If I had not seen all this in the old gentleman's face, the words with +which he broke his silence would have betrayed his train of thought. + +----If they had only taken pictures then as they do now!--he said.--All +gone! all gone! nothing but her face as she leaned on the arms of her +great chair; and I would give a hundred pound for the poorest little +picture of her, such as you can buy for a shilling of anybody that you +don't want to see.--The old gentleman put his hand to his forehead so as +to shade his eyes. I saw he was looking at the dim photograph of memory, +and turned from him to Iris. + +How many drawing-books have you filled,--I said,--since you began to +take lessons?--This was the first,--she answered,--since she was here; +and it was not full, but there were many separate sheets of large size +she had covered with drawings. + +I turned over the leaves of the book before us. Academic studies, +principally of the human figure. Heads of sibyls, prophets, and so +forth. Limbs from statues. Hands and feet from Nature. What a superb +drawing of an arm! I don't remember it among the figures from Michel +Angelo, which seem to have been her patterns mainly. From Nature, I +think, or after a cast from Nature.--Oh!---- + +----Your smaller studies are in this, I suppose,--I said, taking up the +drawing-book with a lock on it.----Yes,--she said.--I should like to see +her style of working on a small scale.--There was nothing in it worth +showing,--she said; and presently I saw her try the lock, which proved +to be fast. We are all caricatured in it, I haven't the least doubt. I +think, though, I could tell by her way of dealing with us what her +fancies were about us boarders. Some of them act as if they were +bewitched with her, but she does not seem to notice it much. Her +thoughts seem to be on her little neighbor more than on anybody else. +The young fellow John appears to stand second in her good graces. I +think he has once or twice sent her what the landlady's daughter calls +bó-kays of flowers,--somebody has, at any rate.--I saw a book she had, +which must have come from the divinity-student. It had a dreary +title-page, which she had enlivened with a fancy portrait of the +author,--a face from memory, apparently,--one of those faces that small +children loathe without knowing why, and which give them that inward +disgust for heaven so many of the little wretches betray, when they hear +that these are "good men," and that heaven is full of such.--The +gentleman with the "diamond"--the Koh-i-noor, so called by us--was not +encouraged, I think, by the reception of his packet of perfumed soap. He +pulls his purple moustache and looks appreciatingly at Iris, who never +sees him, as it should seem. The young Marylander, who I thought would +have been in love with her before this time, sometimes looks from his +corner across the long diagonal of the table, as much as to say, I wish +you were up here by me, or I were down there by you,--which would, +perhaps, be a more natural arrangement than the present one. But nothing +comes of all this,--and nothing has come of my sagacious idea of finding +out the girl's fancies by looking into her locked drawing-book. + +Not to give up all the questions I was determined to solve, I made an +attempt also to work into the little gentleman's chamber. For this +purpose, I kept him in conversation, one morning, until he was just +ready to go up-stairs, and then, as if to continue the talk, followed +him as he toiled back to his room. He rested on the landing and faced +round toward me. There was something in his eye which said, Stop there! +So we finished our conversation on the landing. The next day, I mustered +assurance enough to knock at his door, having a pretext ready.--No +answer.--Knock again. A door, as if of a cabinet, was shut softly and +locked, and presently I heard the peculiar dead beat of his thick-soled, +misshapen boots. The bolts and the lock of the inner door were +unfastened,--with unnecessary noise, I thought,--and he came into the +passage. He pulled the inner door after him and opened the outer one at +which I stood. He had on a flowered silk dressing-gown, such as "Mr. +Copley" used to paint his old-fashioned merchant-princes in; and a +quaint-looking key in his hand. Our conversation was short, but long +enough to convince me that the little gentleman did not want my company +in his chamber, and did not mean to have it. + +I have been making a great fuss about what is no mystery at all,--a +schoolgirl's secrets and a whimsical man's habits. I mean to give up +such nonsense and mind my own business.--Hark! What the deuse is that +odd noise in his chamber? + +----I think I am a little superstitious. There were two things, when I +was a boy, that diabolized my imagination,--I mean, that gave me a +distinct apprehension of a formidable bodily shape which prowled round +the neighborhood where I was born and bred. The first was a series of +marks called the "Devil's footsteps." These were patches of sand in the +pastures, where no grass grew, where even the low-bush blackberry, the +"dewberry," as our Southern neighbors call it, in prettier and more +Shakspearian language, did not spread its clinging creepers,--where even +the pale, dry, sadly-sweet "everlasting" could not grow, but all was +bare and blasted. The second was a mark in one of the public buildings +near my home,--the college dormitory named after a Colonial Governor. I +do not think many persons are aware of the existence of this +mark,--little having been said about the story in print, as it was +considered very desirable, for the sake of the institution, to hush it +up. In the northwest corner, and on the level of the third or fourth +story, there are signs of a breach in the walls, mended pretty well, but +not to be mistaken. A considerable portion of that corner must have been +carried away, from within outward. It was an unpleasant story; and I do +not care to repeat the particulars; but some young men had been using +sacred things in a profane and unlawful way, when the occurrence, which +was variously explained, took place. The story of the Appearance in the +chamber was, I suppose, invented afterwards; but of the injury to the +building there could be no question; and the zig-zag line, where the +mortar is a little thicker than before, is still distinctly visible. The +queer burnt spots, called the "Devil's footsteps," had never attracted +attention before this time, though there is no evidence that they had +not existed previously, except that of the late Miss M., a "Goody," so +called, or sweeper, who was positive on the subject, but had a strange +horror of referring to an affair of which she was thought to know +something.--I tell you it was not so pleasant for a little boy of +impressible nature to go up to bed in an old gambrel-roofed house, with +untenanted, locked upper-chambers, and a most ghostly garret,--with the +"Devil's footsteps" in the fields behind the house, and in front of it +the patched dormitory where the unexplained occurrence had taken place +which startled those godless youths at their mock devotions, so that one +of them was an idiot from that day forward, and another, after a +dreadful season of mental conflict, took holy orders and became renowned +for his ascetic sanctity. + +There were other circumstances that kept up the impression produced by +these two singular facts I have just mentioned. There was a dark +storeroom, on looking through the keyhole of which, I could dimly see a +heap of chairs and tables, and other four-footed things, which seemed to +me to have rushed in there, frightened, and in their fright to have +huddled together and climbed up on each other's backs,--as the people +did in that awful crush where so many were killed, at the execution of +Holloway and Haggerty. Then the Lady's portrait, up-stairs, with the +sword-thrusts through it,--marks of the British officers' rapiers,--and +the tall mirror in which they used to look at their red coats,--confound +them for smashing its mate!--and the deep, cunningly wrought arm-chair +in which Lord Percy used to sit while his hair was dressing;--he was a +gentleman, and always had it covered with a large _peignoir_, to save +the silk covering my grandmother embroidered. Then the little room +down-stairs, from which went the orders to throw up a bank of earth on +the hill yonder, where you may now observe a granite obelisk,--"the +study," in my father's time, but in those days the council-chamber of +armed men,--sometimes filled with soldiers;--come with me, and I will +show you the "dents" left by the butts of their muskets all over the +floor.--With all these suggestive objects round me, aided by the wild +stories those awful country-boys that came to live in our service +brought with them,--of contracts written in blood and left out over +night, not to be found the next morning,--removed by the Evil One, who +takes his nightly round among our dwellings, and filed away for future +use,--of dreams coming true,--of death-signs,--of apparitions,--no +wonder that my imagination got excited, and I was liable to +superstitious fancies. + +Jeremy Bentham's logic, by which he proved that he couldn't possibly see +a ghost, is all very well--in the day-time. All the reason in the world +will never get those impressions of childhood, created by just such +circumstances as I have been telling, out of a man's head. That is the +only excuse I have to give for the nervous kind of curiosity with which +I watch my little neighbor, and the obstinacy with which I lie awake +whenever I hear anything going on in his chamber after midnight. + +But whatever further observations I may have made must be deferred for +the present. You will see in what way it happened that my thoughts were +turned from spiritual matters to bodily ones, and how I got my fancy +full of material images,--faces, heads, figures, muscles, and so +forth,--in such a way that I should have no chance in this number to +gratify any curiosity you may feel, if I had the means of so doing. + +Indeed, I have come pretty near omitting my periodical record this time. +It was all the work of a friend of mine, who would have it that I should +sit to him for my portrait. When a soul draws a body in the great +lottery of life, where every one is sure of a prize, such as it is, the +said soul inspects the said body with the same curious interest with +which one who has ventured into a "gift enterprise" examines the +"massive silver pencil-case" with the coppery smell and impressible +tube, or the "splendid gold ring" with the questionable specific +gravity, which it has been his fortune to obtain in addition to his +purchase. + +The soul, having studied the article of which it finds itself +proprietor, thinks, after a time, it knows it pretty well. But there is +this difference between its view and that of a person looking at us:--we +look from within, and see nothing but the mould formed by the elements +in which we are incased; other observers look from without, and see us +as living statues. To be sure, by the aid of mirrors, we get a few +glimpses of our outside aspect; but this occasional impression is always +modified by that look of the soul from within outward which none but +ourselves can take. A portrait is apt, therefore, to be a surprise to +us. The artist looks only from without. He sees us, too, with a hundred +aspects on our faces we are never likely to see. No genuine expression +can be studied by the subject of it in the looking-glass. + +More than this; he sees us in a way in which many of our friends or +acquaintances never see us. Without wearing any mask we are conscious +of, we have a special face for each friend. For, in the first place, +each puts a special reflection of himself upon us, on the principle of +assimilation referred to in my last record, if you happen to have read +that document. And secondly, each of our friends is capable of seeing +just so far, and no farther, into our face, and each sees in it the +particular thing that he looks for. Now the artist, if he is truly an +artist, does not take any one of these special views. Suppose he should +copy you as you appear to the man who wants your name to a +subscription-list, you could hardly expect a friend who entertains you +to recognize the likeness to the smiling face which sheds its radiance +at his board. Even within your own family, I am afraid there is a face +which the rich uncle knows, that is not so familiar to the poor +relation. The artist must take one or the other, or something compounded +of the two, or something different from either. What the daguerreotype +and photograph do is to give the features and one particular look, the +very look which kills all expression, that of self-consciousness. The +artist throws you off your guard, watches you in movement and in repose, +puts your face through its exercises, observes its transitions, and so +gets the whole range of its expression. Out of all this he forms an +ideal portrait, which is not a copy of your exact look at any one time +or to any particular person. Such a portrait cannot be to everybody what +the ungloved call "as nat'ral as life." Every good picture, therefore, +must be considered wanting in resemblance by many persons. + +There is one strange revelation which comes out, as the artist shapes +your features from his outline. It is that you resemble so many +relatives to whom you yourself never had noticed any particular likeness +in your countenance. + +He is at work at me now, when I catch some of these resemblances, +thus:-- + +There! that is just the look my father used to have sometimes; I never +thought I had a sign of it. The mother's eyebrow and grayish-blue eye, +those I knew I had. But there is a something which recalls a smile that +faded away from my sister's lips--how many years ago! I thought it so +pleasant in her, that I love myself better for having a trace of it. + +Are we not young? Are we not fresh and blooming? Wait a bit. The artist +takes a mean little brush and draws three fine lines, diverging outwards +from the eye over the temple. Five years.--The artist draws one +tolerably distinct and two faint lines, perpendicularly between the +eyebrows. Ten years.--The artist breaks up the contours round the mouth, +so that they look a little as a hat does that has been sat upon and +recovered itself, ready, as one would say, to crumple up again in the +same creases, on smiling or other change of feature.--Hold on! Stop +that! Give a young fellow a chance! Are we not whole years short of that +interesting period of life when Mr. Balzac says that a man, etc., etc., +etc.? + +There now! That is ourself, as we look after finishing an article, +getting a three-mile pull with the ten-foot sculls, redressing the +wrongs of the toilet, and standing with the light of hope in our eye and +the reflection of a red curtain on our cheek. Is he not a POET that +painted us? + + "Blest be the art that can immortalize!" + +COWPER + +----Young folks look on a face as a unit; children who go to school with +any given little John Smith see in his name a distinctive appellation, +and in his features as special and definite an expression of his sole +individuality as if he were the first created of his race. As soon as we +are old enough to get the range of three or four generations well in +hand, and to take in large family histories, we never see an individual +in a face of any stock we know, but a mosaic copy of a pattern, with +fragmentary tints from this and that ancestor. The analysis of a face +into its ancestral elements requires that it should be examined in the +very earliest infancy, before it has lost that ancient and solemn look +it brings with it out of the past eternity; and again in that brief +space when Life, the mighty sculptor, has done his work, and Death, his +silent servant, lifts the veil and lets us look at the marble lines he +has wrought so faithfully; and lastly, while a painter who can seize all +the traits of a countenance is building it up, feature after feature, +from the slight outline to the finished portrait. + +----I am satisfied, that, as we grow older, we learn to look upon our +bodies more and more as a temporary possession, and less and less as +identified with ourselves. In early years, while the child "feels its +life in every limb," it lives in the body and for the body to a very +great extent. It ought to be so. There have been many very interesting +children who have shown a wonderful indifference to the things of earth +and an extraordinary development of the spiritual nature. There is a +perfect literature of their biographies, all alike in their essentials; +the same "disinclination to the usual amusements of childhood"; the same +remarkable sensibility; the same docility; the same conscientiousness; +in short, an almost uniform character, marked by beautiful traits, which +we look at with a painful admiration. It will be found that most of +these children are the subjects of some constitutional unfitness for +living, the most frequent of which I need not mention. They are like the +beautiful, blushing, half-grown fruit that falls before its time because +its core is gnawed out. They have their meaning,--they do not live in +vain,--but they are windfalls. I am convinced that many healthy children +are injured morally by being forced to read too much about these little +meek sufferers and their spiritual exercises. Here is a boy that loves +to run, swim, kick football, turn somersets, make faces, whittle, fish, +tear his clothes, coast, skate, fire crackers, blow squash "tooters," +cut his name on fences, read about Robinson Crusoe and Sinbad the +Sailor, eat the widest-angled slices of pie and untold cakes and +candies, crack nuts with his back teeth and bite out the better part of +another boy's apple with his front ones, turn up coppers, "stick" +knives, call names, throw stones, knock off hats, set mousetraps, chalk +doorsteps, "cut behind" anything on wheels or runners, whistle through +his teeth, "holler" Fire! on slight evidence, run after soldiers, +patronize an engine-company, or, in his own words, "blow for tub No. +11," or whatever it may be;--isn't that a pretty nice sort of a boy, +though he has not got anything the matter with him that takes the taste +of this world out? Now, when you put into such a hot-blooded, +hard-fisted, round-cheeked little rogue's hand a sad-looking volume or +pamphlet, with the portrait of a thin, white-faced child, whose life is +really as much a training for death as the last month of a condemned +criminal's existence, what does he find in common between his own +overflowing and exulting sense of vitality and the experiences of the +doomed offspring of invalid parents? The time comes when we have learned +to understand the music of sorrow, the beauty of resigned suffering, the +holy light that plays over the pillow of those who die before their +time, in humble hope and trust. But it is not until he has worked his +way through the period of honest, hearty animal existence, which every +robust, child should make the most of,--not until he has learned the use +of his various faculties, which is his first duty,--that a boy of +courage and animal vigor is in a proper state to read these tearful +records of premature decay. I have no doubt that disgust is implanted in +the minds of many healthy children by early surfeits of pathological +piety. I do verily believe that He who took children in His arms and +blessed them loved the healthiest and most playful of them just as well +as those who were richest in the tuberculous virtues. I know what I am +talking about, and there are more parents in this country who will be +willing to listen to what I say than there are fools to pick a quarrel +with me. In the sensibility and the sanctity which often accompany +premature decay I see one of the most beautiful instances of the +principle of compensation which marks the Divine benevolence. But to get +the spiritual hygiene of robust natures out of the exceptional regimen +of invalids is just simply what we Professors call "bad practice"; and I +know by experience that there are worthy people who not only try it on +their own children, but actually force it on those of their neighbors. + +----Having been photographed, and stereographed, and chromatographed, or +done in colors, it only remained to be phrenologized. A polite note from +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane, requesting our attendance at their +Physiological Emporium, was too tempting to be resisted. We repaired to +that scientific Golgotha. + +Messrs. Bumpus and Crane are arranged on the plan of the man and the +woman in the toy called a "weather-house," both on the same wooden arm +suspended on a pivot,--so that when one comes to the door, the other +retires backwards, and _vice versâ_. The more particular speciality of +one is to lubricate your entrance and exit,--that of the other to polish +you off phrenologically in the recesses of the establishment. Suppose +yourself in a room full of casts and pictures, before a counter-full of +books with taking titles. I wonder if the picture of the brain is there, +"approved" by a noted Phrenologist, which was copied from _my_, the +Professor's, folio plate in the work of Gall and Spurzheim. An extra +convolution, No. 9, _Destructiveness_, according to the list beneath, +which was not to be seen in the plate, itself a copy of Nature, was very +liberally supplied by the artist, to meet the wants of the catalogue of +"organs." Professor Bumpus is seated in front of a row of +women,--horn-combers and gold-beaders, or somewhere about that range of +life,--looking so credulous, that, if any Second-Advent Miller or Joe +Smith should come along, he could string the whole lot of them on his +cheapest lie, as a boy strings a dozen "shiners" on a stripped twig of +willow. + +The Professor (meaning ourselves) is in a hurry, as usual; let the +horn-combers wait,--he shall be bumped without inspecting the +antechamber. + +Tape round the head,--22 inches. (Come on, old 23 inches, if you think +you are the better man!) + +Feels of thorax and arm, and nuzzles round among muscles as those horrid +old women poke their fingers into the salt-meat on the provision-stalls +at the Quincy Market. Vitality, No. 5 or 6, or something or other. +_Victuality_, (organ at epigastrium,) some other number equally +significant. + +Mild champooing of head now commences. Extraordinary revelations! +Cupidipbilous, 6! Hymeniphilous, 6+! Paediphilous, 5! Deipniphilous, 6! +Gelasmiphilous, 6! Muslkiphilous, 5! Uraniphilous, 5! Glossiphilous, 8!! +and so on. Meant for a linguist.--Invaluable information. Will invest in +grammars and dictionaries immediately.--I have nothing against the grand +total of my phrenological endowments. + +I never set great store by my head, and did not think Messrs. Bumpus and +Crane would give me so good a lot of organs as they did, especially +considering that I was a _dead_-head on that occasion. Much obliged to +them for their politeness. They have been useful in their way by calling +attention to important physiological facts. (This concession is due to +our immense bump of Candor.) + +_A short Lecture on Phrenology, read to the Boarders at our +Breakfast-Table._ + +I shall begin, my friends, with the definition of a _Pseudo-science_. A +Pseudo-science consists of _a nomenclature_, with a self-adjusting +arrangement, by which all positive evidence, or such as favors its +doctrines, is admitted, and all negative evidence, or such as tells +against it, is excluded. It is invariably connected with some lucrative +practical application. Its professors and practitioners are usually +shrewd people; they are very serious with the public, but wink and laugh +a good deal among themselves. The believing multitude consists of women +of both sexes, feeble-minded inquirers, poetical optimists, people who +always get cheated in buying horses, philanthropists who insist on +hurrying up the millennium, and others of this class, with here and +there a clergyman, less frequently a lawyer, very rarely a physician, +and almost never a horse-jockey or a member of the detective police.--I +did not say that Phrenology was one of the Pseudo-sciences. + +A Pseudo-science does not necessarily consist wholly of lies. It may +contain many truths, and even valuable ones. The rottenest bank starts +with a little specie. It puts out a thousand promises to pay on the +strength of a single dollar, but the dollar is very commonly a good one. +The practitioners of the Pseudo-sciences know that common minds, after +they have been baited with a real fact or two, will jump at the merest +rag of a lie, or even at the bare hook. When we have one fact found us, +we are very apt to supply the next out of our own imagination. (How many +persons can read Judges xv. 16 correctly the first time?) The +Pseudo-sciences take advantage of this.--I did not say that it was so +with Phrenology. + +I have rarely met a sensible man who would not allow that there was +_something_ in Phrenology. A broad, high forehead, it is commonly +agreed, promises intellect; one that is "villanous low" and has a huge +hind-head back of it, is wont to mark an animal nature. I have as rarely +met an unbiassed and sensible man who really believed in the bumps. It +is observed, however, that persons with what the Phrenologists call +"good heads" are more prone than others toward plenary belief in the +doctrine. + +It is so hard to prove a negative, that, if a man should assert that the +moon was in truth a green cheese, formed by the coagulable substance of +the Milky Way, and challenge me to prove the contrary, I might be +puzzled. But if he offer to sell me a ton of this lunar cheese, I call +on him to prove the truth of the caseous nature of our satellite, before +I purchase. + +It is not necessary to prove the falsity of the phrenological statement. +It is only necessary to show that its truth is not proved, and cannot +be, by the common course of argument. The walls of the head are double, +with a great air-chamber between them, over the smallest and most +closely crowded "organs." Can you tell how much money there is in a +safe, which also has thick double walls, by kneading its knobs with your +fingers? So when a man fumbles about my forehead, and talks about the +organs of _Individuality_, _Size_, etc., I trust him as much as I should +if he felt of the outside of my strong-box and told me that there was a +five-dollar- or a ten-dollar-bill under this or that particular rivet. +Perhaps there is; _only he doesn't know anything about it_. But this is +a point that I, the Professor, understand, my friends, or ought to, +certainly, better than you do. The next argument you will all +appreciate. + +I proceed, therefore, to explain the self-adjusting mechanism of +Phrenology, which is _very similar_ to that of the Pseudo-sciences. An +example will show it most conveniently. + +A. is a notorious thief. Messrs. Bumpus and Crane examine him and find a +good-sized organ of Acquisitiveness. Positive fact for Phrenology. Casts +and drawings of A. are multiplied, and the bump _does not lose_ in the +act of copying.--I did not Hay it gained.--What do you look so for? (to +the boarders.) + +Presently B. turns up, a bigger thief than A. But B. has no bump at all +over Acquisitiveness. Negative fact; goes against Phrenology.--Not a bit +of it. Don't you see how small Conscientiousness is? _That's_ the reason +B. stole. + +And then comes C., ten times as much a thief as either A. or B.,--used +to steal before he was weaned, and would pick one of his own pockets and +put its contents in another, if he could find no other way of committing +petty larceny. Unfortunately, C. has a _hollow_, instead of a bump, over +Acquisitiveness. Ah, but just look and see what a bump of +Alimentiveness! Did not C. buy nuts and ginger-bread, when a boy, with +the money he stole? Of course you see why he is a thief, and how his +example confirms our noble science. + +At last comes along a case which is apparently a _settler_, for there is +a little brain with vast and varied powers,--a case like that of Byron, +for instance. Then comes out the grand reserve-reason which covers +everything and renders it simply impossible ever to corner a +Phrenologist. "It is not the size alone, but the _quality_ of an organ, +which determines its degree of power." + +Oh! oh! I see.--The argument may be briefly stated thus by the +Phrenologist: "Heads I win, tails you lose." Well, that's convenient. + +It must be confessed that Phrenology has a certain resemblance to the +Pseudo-sciences. I did not say it was a Pseudo-science. + +I have often met persons who have been altogether struck up and amazed +at the accuracy with which some wandering Professor of Phrenology had +read their characters written upon their skulls. Of course the Professor +acquires his information solely through his cranial inspections and +manipulations.--What are you laughing at? (to the boarders).--But let us +just _suppose_, for a moment, that a tolerably cunning fellow, who did +not know or care anything about Phrenology, should open a shop and +undertake to read off people's characters at fifty cents or a dollar +apiece. Let us see how well he could get along without the "organs." + +I will suppose myself to set up such a shop. I would invest one hundred +dollars, more or less, in casts of brains, skulls, charts, and other +matters that would make the most show for the money. That would do to +begin with. I would then advertise myself as the celebrated Professor +Brainey, or whatever name I might choose, and wait for my first +customer. My first customer is a middle-aged man. I look at him,--ask +him a question or two, so as to hear him talk. When I have got the hang +of him, I ask him to sit down, and proceed to fumble his skull, +dictating as follows:-- + + + SCALE FROM I TO 10. + + LIST OF FACULTIES FOR CUSTOMER. PRIVATE NOTES FOR MY PUPIL: + _Each to be accompanied with a wink._ + + _Amativeness_, 7. Most men love the conflicting sex, and all + men love to be told they do. + + _Alimentiveness_, 8. Don't you see that he has burst off his + lowest waistcoat-button with feeding,--hay? + + _Acquisitiveness_, 8. Of course. A middle-aged Yankee. + + _Approbativeness_, 7+. Hat well brushed. Hair ditto. Mark the + effect of that _plus_ sign. + + _Self-esteem_, 6. His face shows that. + + _Benevolence_, 9. That'll please him + + _Conscientiousness_, 8-1/2. That fraction looks first-rate. + + _Mirthfulness_, 7. Has laughed twice since he came in. + + _Ideality_, 9. That sounds well. + + _Form, Size, Weight, Color, } + Locality, Eventuality, etc.,} 4 to 6. Average everything that + etc.,_ } can't be guessed. + + And so of the other faculties. + + +Of course, you know, that isn't the way the Phrenologists do. They go +only by the bumps.--What do you keep laughing so for? (to the boarders.) +I only said that is the way _I_ should practise "Phrenology" for a +living. + +_End of my Lecture._ + +----The Reformers have good heads generally. Their faces are commonly +serene enough, and they are lambs in private intercourse, even though +their voices may be like + + The wolf's long howl from Oonalaska's shore, + +when heard from platform. Their greatest spiritual danger is from the +perpetual _flattery of abuse_ to which they are exposed. These lines are +meant to caution them. + + + + +SAINT ANTHONY THE REFORMER. + + +HIS TEMPTATION. + + + No fear lest praise should make us proud! + We know how cheaply that is won; + The idle homage of the crowd + Is proof of tasks as idly done. + + A surface-smile may pay the toil + That follows still the conquering Right, + With soft, white hands to dress the spoil + That sunbrowned arms have clutched in fight. + + Sing the sweet song of other days, + Serenely placid, safely true, + And o'er the present's parching ways + Thy verse distils like evening dew. + + But speak in words of living power,-- + They fall like drops of scalding rain + That plashed before the burning shower + swept o'er the cities of the plain! + + Then scowling Hate turns deadly pale,-- + Then Passion's half-coiled adders spring, + And, smitten through their leprous mail, + Strike right and left in hope to sting. + + If thou, unmoved by poisoning wrath, + They feet on earth, they heart above, + Canst walk in peace they kingly path, + Unchanged in trust, unchilled in love,-- + + Too kind for bitter words to grieve, + Too firm for clamor to dismay, + When Faith forbids thee to believe, + And Meekness calls to disobey,-- + + Ah, then beware of mortal pride! + The smiling pride that calmly scorns + Those foolish fingers, crimson dyed + In laboring on thy crown of thorns! + + + + +THE ITALIAN WAR. + + +War has been pronounced the condition of humanity; and it is certain +that conflict of some kind rages everywhere and at all times. The most +combative people on earth are the advocates of universal and perpetual +peace. There is something essentially defiant in the action of men who +avowedly seek the abolition of a custom that has existed since the days +of Cain, and which was well known to those magnificent beasts that +ranged over the earth's face long before man began to dream or was +dreamed of. To fight seems a necessity of the animal nature, whether the +animal be called tiger, bull, or man. Those who have fought assure us +that there is a positive pleasure in battle. That clever young woman, +Miss Flora Mac-Ivor, who passed most of her life in the very highest +fighting society, assures us, that men, when confronted with each other, +have a certain instinct for strife, as we see in other male animals, +such as dogs, bulls, and so forth. It is even so; and, further, the +fondness that men have for accounts and details of battles is another +evidence of the popularity of war, and an absolute stumbling-block in +the way of the Peace Society, which has the hardest of combats to fight. + +The journals of the world are at this time full of the details of a war +such as that world has not witnessed since 1815, and in comparison with +which even the Russian War was but a second-rate contest. The old +quarrel between Austria and France, which has repeatedly caused the +peace of Europe to be broken since the days of Frederick III. and Louis +XI., has been renewed in our time with a fierceness and a vehemence and +on a scale that would have astonished Francis I., Charles V., Richelieu, +Turenne, Condé, Louis XIV., Eugène, and even Napoleon himself, the most +mighty of whose contests with Austria alone cannot be compared with that +which his nephew is now waging with the House of Lorraine. For, in 1805 +and in 1809, Napoleon was not merely the ruler of France, but had at his +control the resources of many other countries. Belgium and Holland were +then at the command of France, and now they are independent monarchies, +holding strictly the position of neutrals. In 1809, Napoleon had those +very German States for his active allies that now threaten Napoleon +III.; and some of the hardest fighting on the French side, in the first +days of the campaign, was the work of Bavarians and other German +soldiers. That part of Poland which then constituted the Grand Duchy of +Warsaw was among his dependent principalities; and Russia sent an army +to his aid. In 1805, Napoleon I. had far more of Italian assistance than +Napoleon III. has had at the time we write; and in 1809, the entire +Peninsula obeyed his decrees as implicitly as they were obeyed by +France. Napoleon III. entered upon the war with the hereditary rival of +his country with no other ally than Sardinia, though it is now evident +that there was an "understanding" between him and the Czar, not pointing +to an attack on England, but to prevent the intervention of the Germans +in behalf of Austria, by holding out the implied threat of an attack on +Germany by Russia, should its rulers or people move against the allies. + +Whatever may be thought of the motives of the French Emperor, and +however little most men may be disposed to believe in his generosity, it +is impossible to refrain from admiring the promptness and skill with +which he has acted, or to deny to him the merit of courage in daring to +pronounce so decidedly against the Austrians at a time when he could not +have reasonably reckoned upon a single ally beyond the limits of Italy, +when England, under Tory rule, was more disposed to act against him than +with him, and when the hostility of Germany, and its readiness to +support the Slavonic empire of Austria, were unequivocally expressed. So +great indeed, were the odds against him, that we find in that fact the +chief reason for the indisposition of the world to believe in the +possibility of war, and its extraordinary surprise when war actually +broke out. + +To those who had closely scanned the affairs of Europe, and who observed +them by the light of the history of nearly four centuries, the coming of +war was no surprise. They foresaw it, and predicted its occurrence some +time before that famous lecture which the Emperor of the French +administered to the Emperor of Austria in the person of Baron Hübner. +With them, the question was not, Shall there be a war?--but it was, When +will the war break out? They reasoned from the _cause_ of the quarrel +between the two empires; while those who so long clung to the belief +that peace would be preserved, and who so plausibly argued in support of +their theory as to impose upon wellnigh the whole world, concerned +themselves only with its _occasion_. The former referred to things that +lay beyond the range of temporary politics, and, while admitting that +the shock of actual conflict might be postponed even for a few years, +were certain that such conflict must come, even if in the interval there +should happen an entire change of government in France. France might be +imperial, or royal, or republican, she might be Bonapartean, or +Henriquist, or Orléansist, or democratic,--tri-color, white, blue or +red,--but the quarrel would come, and cause new campaigns. The latter +thinking that the dispute was on the Italian question only, and knowing +that that was susceptible of diplomatic settlement, and believing that +there would be a union of European powers to accomplish such settlement, +rather than allow peace to be disturbed, never could suppose that the +balance of probabilities would be found on the side of war. It is due to +them to say, that a variety of causes conduced not merely to make them +firm in their faith, but to win for their views the general approbation +on mankind. Prominent among these was the striking fact, that there had +been no European was, strictly so called, with the single exception of +the Russian contest,--and that was highly exceptional in its +character,--for four-and-forty years. The generation that is passing +away, and the generation that is most active in discharging the business +of the world, never had seen a grand conflict between Christian states, +in which mighty armies had operated on vast and various fields. Old men +recollected the wars of Napoleon, but the number of such men is not +large, and their influence on opinion is small. Of quarrels and threats +of war all had seen enough; but this only tended to make them slow to +believe that war was really at hand. If so many quarrels had taken +place, and had been settled without resort to arms, assuredly the new +quarrel might be settled, and Europe get on peaceably for a few years +more without warfare. Neither the invasion of Spain in 1823, nor the +revolution of 1830, nor the Eastern question of 1840, nor the universal +outbreaks of 1848-9, nor the threats of Russia against Turkey when she +sought to compel the Sultan to give up those who had eaten his salt to +the gallows of Arad, nor the repeated discussions of the practicability +of a French conquest of England had led to a general war. If so many and +so black clouds had been dispersed without storms, it was not reasonable +to believe that the cloud which rose in the beginning of 1859 might also +break, and leave again a serene sky. It may be added that we have all of +us come to the conclusion that this is the best age the world has ever +known, as in most respects it is; and it seemed scarcely compatible with +our estimate of the age's excellence to believe that it _could_ send a +couple of million of men into the field for the purpose of cutting one +another's throats, except clearly as an act of self-defence. Man is the +same war-making animal now that he was in the days of Marathon, but he +readily admits the evils of war, and is peremptory in demanding that +they shall not be incurred save for good and valid reasons. He is as +ready to fight as ever he was, but he must fight for some definite +cause,--for a cause that will bear examination: and it did not seem +possible that a mere dispute concerning the manner in which Austria +governed her Italian dominions was of sufficient moment to light up the +flames of war anew on a scale as gigantic as ever they were made to +blaze during the days of Napoleon. Then, so far as the Russian War threw +any light upon the policy of France, the fair inference was that she at +least was not disposed to fight. France made the peace by which that war +was brought to a sudden end. She dictated that peace, much to the +disgust of the English, who had just become thoroughly roused, and who, +little anticipating the Indian mutiny, were for carrying on the contest +until Russia should be thoroughly humiliated. Considering all these +things, it was not unreasonable to believe that peace could be +maintained, and that Austria, far from taking the initiative in the war, +would be found ready to make such concessions as should lead to the +indefinite postponement of hostilities. + +Those who reasoned from the mere occasion of the war were perfectly +right, from their point of view. Unfortunately for their reputation for +sagacity, their premises were entirely wrong, and hence the viciousness +of their conclusion. If we would know the cause of the war, we must +banish from our minds all that is said about the desire of Napoleon III +for vengeance on the conquerors of his uncle, all that we are told of +his sentimental wish for the elevation of the Italian people to a +national position, and all that is predicated of his ambitious longings +for the reconstruction of the First Empire. We must regard Napoleon III +in the light of what he really is, namely, one of the greatest statesmen +that ever lived, or we shall never be able to understand what are his +purposes. We have nothing to do with his morals, but have to regard him +only as the chief of France, pursuing the policy he believes best +calculated to advance that country's interests, and doing so in strict +accordance with her historical traditions, and in the same manner in +which it was pursued by the ablest of the Valois kings, by Henry IV. and +Sully, by Richelieu and Mazarin, by Louis XIV., by the chiefs of the +First Republic, and by Napoleon I. He may be a good man or a bad man, +but his character is entirely aside from the question, the nature and +merits of which have no necessary connection with the nature and merits +of the men engaged in effecting its solution. Let us examine the +subject, and see if we cannot find an intelligent, reasonable cause for +Napoleon's course of action, that shall harmonize with the duties, we +might almost say the instincts, of a great French statesman. The +examination will embrace nothing recondite, but we are confident it will +show that the French Emperor is no Quixote, and that he has been forced +into the war by the necessities of his situation, and by the very +natural desire he feels to prevent France from being compelled to +descend to a secondary place in the scale of European nations. + +Modern Europe, in the sense in which we understand the term, dates from +the last quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Then England ceased to +attempt permanent conquests on the continent. Then Spain assumed +European rank and definite position. But two powers then began +especially to show themselves, and to play parts which both have +maintained down to the present time. The one was France, which then +ceased to dread English invasions, from the effects of which she was +rapidly recovering, whereby she was left to employ her energies on +foreign fields. The other was the _House of Austria_, which, by a series +of fortunate marriages, became, in the short period of forty years, the +most powerful family the modern world has ever known. On the day when +Maximilian, son of Frederick III., Emperor of Germany, wedded Mary of +Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, the rivalry between France and +the Austrian family began. Philip, son of that marriage, married Juana, +daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; and their son, Charles I. of the +Spains, became Charles V. of Germany. Thus there centred in his person a +degree of power such as no other sovereign could boast, and which alone +would have sufficed to make him the rival of the King of France, Francis +I., had no personal feeling entered into the relations between them. But +such feeling existed, and grew out of their competition for the imperial +crown. The previous ill-will between the Valois and the Hapsburg was +greatly increased, and assumed such force as permanently to color the +course of European history from that day to this. The rivalry of Charles +and Francis was the cause of many contests, and the French monarch, +though he was "The Most Christian King," in the opinion of some, more +than once aided, or offered to aid, the German Protestants against the +Emperor. To Philip II. and Henry II. the rivalry of their fathers +descended as an inheritance. It was in their warfare that the Battle of +St. Quentin was fought. The progress of the Reformation led monarchs in +those days to take a view of affairs not much unlike that which monarchs +of this century took in the days of the Holy Alliance, and after the +revolution of 1830. The hatred of Protestantism led the two kings to +draw together, though Henry II. had had no mean part in that work which +had enabled the Protestant Maurice of Saxony to render abortive all the +plans of Charles V. for the full restoration of Catholicism in Germany. +During the thirty years that followed the death of Henry II., the +dissensions of France had rendered her unable to contend with the House +of Austria, then principally represented by the Spanish branch of that +family; and Philip II. at one time thought of obtaining the crown of +that country for a member of his own house. But no sooner had Henry IV. +ascended the French throne, and established himself firmly thereon, than +the rivalry of France and Austria became as clearly pronounced as it had +been in the reign of Francis I.; and at the time of his death that most +popular of the Bourbon kings was engaged on a plan having for its object +the subversion of the Austrian power. His assassination changed the +course of events for a few years; but Richelieu became the ally of the +Swedes and Protestant Germans in the Thirty Years' War, though he was a +Cardinal, had destroyed the political power of the Huguenots, and might +have aspired to the Papacy. Mazarin, another Cardinal, followed +Richelieu's policy. Louis XIV. was repeatedly at war with the House of +Austria, though he was the son of an Austrian princess, and was married +to another. His last war with that house was for the throne of Spain, +when the elder branch of the Hapsburgs died out, in 1700. Louis XV. had +two contests with Austria; but in 1756, under the lead of Count Kaunitz, +France and Austria were united, and acted together in the Seven Years' +War, the incidents and effects of which were by no means calculated to +reconcile the French to the departure of their government from its +ancient policy. One of the causes of the French Revolution was the +Austrian alliance, and one of its effects was the complete rupture of +that alliance. Austria was the most determined foe that the French +Republic and Empire ever encountered. Including the war of 1815, there +were six contests between Austria and republican and imperial France. In +all these wars Austria was the aggressor, and showed herself to be the +enemy of _France_ as well as of those _French principles_ which so +frightened the conservatives of the world in those days. In the first +war, she took possession of French places for herself, and not for the +House of Bourbon; and in the last she purposed a partition of France, +long after Louis XVIII. had been finally restored, and when Napoleon was +at or near St. Helena. She demanded that Alsace and Lorraine should be +made over to her, in the autumn of 1815. She sought to induce Prussia to +unite with her by offering to support any demand that she might make for +French territory; and, failing to move that power, endeavored to get the +smaller German States to act with her,--the same States, indeed, that +are now so hostile to France, and which talk of a march upon Paris, and +of a reduction of French territorial strength. Nothing prevented the +Austrian idea from being reduced to practice but the opposition of +Russia and England, neither of which had any interest in the spoliation +of France, while both had no desire to see Austria rendered stronger +than she was. It was to England that Austria owed her Italian +possessions, which, in 1814, she at first had the sense not to wish to +be cumbered with; and to make her still more powerful north of the Alps +was not to be thought of even by the Liverpools and Castlereaghs. The +Czar, too, had in his thoughts a closer connection with France than it +suited him then to avow, and for purposes of his own; and therefore he +could not desire the sensible diminution of the power of a country the +resources of which he expected to employ. Nicholas inherited his +brother's ideas and designs, and we are to attribute much of the +ill-feeling that he exhibited towards the Orléans dynasty to his +disappointment; for the revolution that elevated that dynasty to the +French throne destroyed the hope that he had entertained of having +French aid to effect the conquest of Turkey. There never would have been +a siege of Sebastopol, if the elder branch of the Bourbons had continued +to rule in France. It required even a series of revolutions to bring +France to that condition in which the Western Alliance was possible. But +there would have been something more than "an understanding" between +France and Russia concerning Austria, had the government of the +Restoration endured a few years beyond 1830. It suited the Austrian +government to show considerable coldness towards the Orléans dynasty; +but assuredly so wise a man as Prince Metternich, and who had such +excellent means of information, never could have believed otherwise than +that the establishment of that dynasty saved Austria from being assailed +by both Russia and France. + +The rivalry of France and Austria being understood, and that rivalry +leading to war whenever occasion therefor chances to arise, it remains +to inquire what is the occasion of the existing contest. When Napoleon +III. became head of France, as Prince-President, at the close of 1848, +Austria was the last power with which he could have engaged in war, +supposing that he had then been strong enough to control the policy of +France, and it had suited him to make an occasion for war. She was then +engaged in her death-and-life struggles with Hungarians, Italians, and +others of her subjects who that year threw off her yoke, while the +Sardinians had endeavored to obtain possession of Lombardy and Venice. +Francis Joseph became chief of the Austrian Empire at the same time that +Louis Napoleon ascended to the same point in France. Certainly, if the +object of France had been the mere weakening and spoliation of Austria, +then was the time to assail her, when one half her subjects were +fighting the other half, when the Germans outside of her empire were by +no means her friends, and when it was far from clear that she could rely +upon assistance from Russia. Austria was then in a condition of +helplessness apparently so complete, that many thought her hour had +come; but those who knew her history, and were aware how often she had +recovered from just such crises, held no belief of the kind. Yet if +France had assailed her at that time, Austria must have lost all her +Italian provinces; and it is now generally admitted, that, if Cavaignac +had sent a French army into Italy immediately after the victory won by +Radetzky over Charles Albert at Somma Campagna, (July 26th, 1848,) the +"Italian question" would then have been settled in a manner that would +have been satisfactory to the greater part of Europe, and have rendered +such a war as is now waging in Italy quite impossible. Russia could have +done nothing to prevent the success of the French arms, and it is +probable that Austria would have abandoned the contest without fighting +a battle. At an earlier period she had signified her readiness to allow +the incorporation of most of Lombardy with Sardinia, she to retain the +country beyond the Mincio, and to hold the two great fortresses of +Peschiera (at the southern extremity of the Lago di Garda, and at the +point where the river issues from the lake) and Mantua. She even asked +the aid of France and England to effect a peace on this basis, but +unsuccessfully. Cavoignac's anomalous political position prevented him +from aiding the Italians. He was a Liberal, but the actual head of the +reactionists in France of all colors, of men who looked upon the +Italians as ruffians wedded to disorder, while Austria, in their eyes, +was the champion of order. France did nothing, and in December Louis +Napoleon became President. An opportunity was soon afforded him to +interfere in Italian affairs. The armistice that had existed between the +Austrians and the Sardinians after the 9th of August, 1848, was +denounced on the 12th of March, 1849, by the latter; and Radetzky closed +the order of the day, issued immediately after this denunciation was +made, with the words,--"Forward, soldiers, to Turin!" The intentions of +the Sardinians must have been known to Louis Napoleon, but he took no +measures to aid them. He saw Piedmont conquered in a campaign of +"hours." He saw Brescia treated by Haynau as Tilly treated Magdeburg. He +saw the long and heroical defence of Venice against the Austrians, +during the dreary spring and summer of '49,--a defence as worthy of +immortality as the War of Chiozza, and indicating the presence of the +spirit of Zeno, and Contarini, and Pisani in the old home of those +patriots. But nothing moved him. He would not even mediate in behalf of +the Venetians; and it was by the advice of the French consul and the +French admiral on the station that Venice finally surrendered, but not +until she had exhausted the means of defence and life. At that time, few +men in America but were in the habit of denouncing the French President +for his indifference to the Italian cause. He was charged with having +been guilty of a blunder and a crime. His consent to the expedition to +Rome aggravated his offence, for it was an act of intervention on the +wrong side. But the passage of ten years enables us to be more just to +him than it was possible for us to be in 1849. He was not firm in his +seat. He was but a temporary chief of the State. He was surrounded by +enemies, political and personal, who were seeking his overthrow, without +any regard for the tenure of his office. He knew not his power. His +object was the restoration of internal peace to France, her recovery +from the weakness info which she had fallen or had been precipitated. He +dared not offend the Catholics, who saw then, as they see now, a +champion in Austria. He was the victim of circumstances, and he had to +bow before them, in order that he might finally become their master. +Then he had no occasion for a quarrel with Austria. She was at the +lowest ebb her fortunes had known since the day that the Turks appeared +for the second time before Vienna. She could not have maintained herself +in Italy, even after the successes of Radetzky, had not Nicholas sent +one hundred and fifty thousand men to her assistance in Hungary. What +had France to fear from her? No more than she had to fear from her on +the day after Austerlitz. + +Years rolled on, and brought with them great changes; and the greatest +of those changes was to be seen in Italy, in reference to the position +of Austria there, and its effect upon France. Austria rapidly +reëstablished her power in Italy, not only over Lombardy and Venice, but +over every part of the Peninsula, excepting Sardinia. Tuscany was +connected with her by various ties, and was ruled as she wished it to be +ruled. Parma and Modena were hers in every sense. She was the patron and +protector of the abominable Bomba, and her support alone enabled him to +defy the sentiment of the civilized world, and to indulge in cruelties +such as would have added new infamy to the name of Ezzelino. She upheld +the misgovernment of the Papal States, which has made Rome the scandal +of Europe. All the nominal rulers of the Italian States, with the +honorable exception of the King of Sardinia, were her vassal princes, +and were no more free to act without her consent than were the kings the +Roman Republic and Empire allowed to exist within their dominions free +to act without the consent of the proconsuls. What the proconsul of +Syria was to the little potentates mentioned in the New Testament, the +Austrian viceroy in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom was to the nominal +rulers of the various Italian States. It only remained to bring Sardinia +within this ring-fence of sea and mountains to convert all Italy into an +Austrian dependency. There is nothing like this in history, we verily +believe. In the short period of ten years after the capture of Milan by +Radetzky, (August 4, 1848,) the Austrians had established themselves +completely in nearly every part of Italy. Of the twenty-seven millions +of people that compose her population, twenty-two millions were as much +at the command of Austria as were the Hungarians and Bohemians. Had she +had the sense to use her power, not with mildness only, but beneficially +to this great mass of men, and had nothing occurred to disturb her +plans, she would have nearly doubled the number of her subjects, and +have more than doubled her resources. She would have become a great +maritime state, and have converted the Mediterranean into an Austrian +lake. Had they been well governed, the Italians might, and most probably +would, have accepted their condition, and have become loyal subjects of +the House of Lorraine. Foreign rule is no new thing to them, nor have +they ever been impatient under its existence, when it has existed for +their good. The people rarely are hostile to any government that is +conducted with ordinary fairness. There is no greater error than that +involved in the idea that revolutions or changes of any kind originate +from below, that they proceed from the people. Almost invariably they +come from above, from governmental action; and it is ever in the power +of a government to make itself perpetual. The term of its existence is +in its own hands. At the very worst for Austria, she might have +accomplished in Italy what was accomplished there three centuries ago by +Spain, then ruled by the elder branch of the Hapsburgs. She might have +commanded almost everything within its limits, with Sardinia to play +some such part as was then played by Venice. + +This is said on the supposition, first, that her government should have +been mild and conciliatory, active only for good, and that all her +interference with local rule should have been on the side of humanity; +and, second, that no foreign power should have interfered to prevent the +full development of her policy. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately +for other nations, and especially so for Italy, she not only did _not_ +govern well, but governed badly; and there was a great power which was +deeply, vitally interested--moved by the all-controlling principle of +self-preservation--in watching all her movements, and in finding +occasion to drive her out of Italy. She was not content with upholding +misgovernment in Naples, Rome, Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and elsewhere, +but she meant to subvert the constitutional polity established in the +Sub-Alpine Kingdom of Sardinia. The enemy of constitutionalism and +freedom everywhere, she was especially hostile to their existence in the +little state that bordered on a portion of her Italian possessions, +whence they always threatened Lombardy with a plague she detests far +more heartily than she detests cholera. No natural boundary or _cordon +militaire_ could suffice to stay the march of principles. Nothing would +answer but the subversion of the Sardinian constitution and the bringing +of that nation's government into harmony with the admirable rule that +existed, under the double-headed eagle's protection, in Naples and +Modena. Unless all Austrian history be false, Austria's object for years +has been a revolution in Sardinia, and Rome has aided her. This is the +necessity of her moral situation with reference to her little neighbor. +The world has smiled at Austria's late complaint that Sardinia menaced +her, it seemed so like the wolf's protestation that the lamb was doing +him an injury; but it was really well founded, though not entitled to +much respect. Sardinia _did_ menace Austria. She menaced her by the +force of her example,--as the honest man menaces the rogue, as the +peaceful man menaces the ruffian, as the charitable man menaces the +miser, as the Good Samaritan menaced the priest and Levite. In the sense +that virtue ever menaces vice, and right constantly menaces wrong, +Sardinia was a menace to Austria;--and as we often find the wrongdoer +denouncing the good as subverters of social order, we ought not to be +astonished at the plaintive whine of the master of thrice forty legions +at the conduct of the decorous, humane, and enlightened Victor Emanuel. + +The only foreign power that had a direct, immediate, positive interest +in preventing the establishment of Austrian power over Italy was France. +Several other powers had some interest adverse to the success of the +Austrian scheme, but it was so far below that which France felt, that it +is difficult to make any comparison between the several cases. England, +speaking generally, might not like the idea of a new naval power coming +into existence in the Mediterranean, which, with great fleets and +greater armies, might come to have a controlling influence in the East, +and prevent the establishment of her power in Egypt and Syria. She might +see with some jealousy the further development of Austrian commerce, +which has been so successfully pursued in the Mediterranean and the +Levant since 1815. But then England is not very remarkable for +forethought, and she has a just confidence in her own naval power. +Besides, would not Austria, in the event of her adding Italy virtually +to her dominions, become the ally of England in the business of +supporting Turkey against Russia, and in preventing the further +extension of Russian power to the South and the East? The old +traditionary policy of England pointed to an Austrian alliance, and +nations are tenacious of their traditions. The war in Italy was +unquestionably precipitated by Austria's belief that in the last resort +she could rely upon English support; and she made a fatal delay in her +military movements in deference to English interposition. Prussia could +not be expected to see the increase of the power of the House of Austria +with pleasure; but it was possible that the extension of its dominions +to the South, by giving it new objects of ambition, and forcing upon it +a leading part in Eastern affairs, might cause that house to pay less +regard to German matters, leaving them to be managed by the House of +Hohenzollern. Russia, under the system that Nicholas pursued, could not +have seen Austria absorb Italy without resisting the process at any +cost; but Alexander IV., [Footnote: I call the present czar Alexander +the _Fourth_, as there have been three other Alexanders _sovereigns_ of +Russia; but he is generally styled Alexander the _Second_.] a wiser man +than his father was, never would have gone to war to prevent it, his +views being directed to those internal reforms the success of which is +likely to create a _Russian People_, and to place his empire in a far +higher position than it has ever yet occupied. Yet Russia could not have +witnessed Austria's success with pleasure; and the readiness with which +she has agreed to aid France, should the Germans aid Austria, is proof +sufficient that she is desirous that Austria should not merely be +prevented from extending her territory, but actually reduced in extent +and in means. From no part of Europe have come more decided +condemnations of the course of Austria than from the Russian capital. +The language of the St. Petersburg journals touching the Treaties of +Vienna has been absolutely contemptuous; and that language is all the +more oracular and significant because we know that the editors of those +journals must have been inspired by the government. It has been justly +regarded as expressing the views of the Czar, and of the statesmen who +compose his cabinet. Though not disposed for war, and probably sincerely +desirous of the preservation of peace everywhere, the rulers of Russia +are quite ready to support France in all proper measures that she may +adopt to drive the Austrians from every part of the Italian Peninsula. +They are too sagacious not to see that France cannot hold a league of +Italian territory, and the reduction of Austrian power is just so much +gained towards the ultimate realization of their Oriental policy. + +Of the other European powers, and of their opinions respecting the +effect of Austrian supremacy, little need be said. Such countries as +Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal have little weight in +the European system, individually or collectively. Even Spain, though +she is not the feeble nation many of our countrymen are pleased to +represent her, when seeking to find a _reason_ for the seizure of +Cuba,--even Spain, we say, could not be much moved by the prospect of +Austria's reaching to that condition of vast strength which would +necessarily follow from her undisputed ascendency in Italy. The lesser +German States would probably have seen Austria's increase with pleasure, +partly because it would have helped to remove their fears of France and +Russia, and partly because it would have been flattering to their pride +of race, the House of Austria being Germanic in its character, though +ruling directly over but few Germans,--few, we mean, in comparison with +the Slaves, Magyars, Italians, and other races that compose the bulk of +its subjects. Turkey alone had a direct interest in Austria's success, +as promising her protection against all the other great European powers; +but Turkey is not, properly speaking, a member of the European +Commonwealth. + +But the case was very different with France. She is the first nation of +Continental Europe,--a position she has held for nearly four centuries, +though sometimes her fortunes have been reduced very low, as during the +closing days of the Valois dynasty, and in 1815; but even in 1815 she +had the melancholy consolation of knowing that it required the combined +exertions of all Europe to conquer her. Her wonderful elasticity in +rising superior to the severest visitations has often surprised the +world, and those who remember 1815 will be most astonished at her +present position in Europe, or rather in Christendom. Her position, +however, has always been the result of indefatigable exertions, and a +variety of circumstances have made those exertions necessary on several +occasions. Great as France is now, and great as she has been at several +periods of her history since the death of Mazarin, it may be doubted if +she is so great as she was at the date of the Treaty of Westphalia, the +work of her arms and her diplomacy (1648). At that time, and for many +years afterwards, several nations had no pronounced political existence +that now are powers of the first class. Russia had no weight in Europe +until the last years of Louis XIV., and her real importance commenced +fifty years after that monarch was placed in his grave. Prussia, though +she attained to a respectable position at the close of the seventeenth +century, the date of the creation of her monarchy, did not become a +first-class power until two generations later, and as the result of the +Seven Years' War. The United States count but eighty-three years of +national life; and they have had international influence less than half +of that time. England, which the restoration of the Stuarts caused to +sink so low in those very years during which Louis XIV. was at the +zenith of his greatness, has been for one hundred and seventy years the +equal of France. On the other hand, the two nations with which France +was formerly much connected, Turkey and Sweden, have ceased to influence +events. France allied herself with Turkey in the early years of her +struggle with the House of Austria, to the offence of Christian peoples; +and the relations between Paris and Constantinople were long maintained +on the basis of common interest, the only tie that has ever sufficed to +bind nations. Both countries were the enemies of Austria. The second +half of the Thirty Years' War was maintained, on the part of the enemies +of Austria, by the alliance of France and Sweden; and between these +countries a good understanding frequently prevailed in after-times, the +growth of Russia serving to force Sweden into the arms of France. Poland +has disappeared from the list of nations, and her territory has +augmented the resources of two countries that had no political weight in +the first century of the Bourbon kings, and those of France's rival. +Thus France has relatively fallen. That ancient international system of +which she was the centre for nearly one hundred and fifty years--say +from the middle of the reign of Henry IV. to the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle, (1599-1748)--has passed entirely away from the world, +and never can be restored. France has seldom seriously thought of +attempting its restoration, though some of her statesmen, and probably a +large majority of the more intelligent of her people, have from time to +time warmly favored the idea of the reconstruction of Poland; and of all +the errors of Napoleon I., his failure to realize that idea was +unquestionably the greatest. The turn that things took in the French +Revolution enabled France to establish an hegemony in Europe, which +might have been long preserved but for the disasters of 1812; but the +empire of Napoleon I. was never a political empire, being only of a +military character. France then led Europe, but she lost her ascendency +on the first reverse, like Sparta after Leuctra. History has no parallel +to the change that the France of 1814 presented to the France of 1812. +On the 1st of October, 1812, the French were at Moscow; on the 1st of +April, 1814, the allies were in Paris. Eighteen months had done work +that no man living at the first date had expected to see accomplished. +What happened in 1815 was but the complement of 1814. Then France was +struck down, trampled upon, spoiled, insulted, and mulcted in immense +sums of money; and finally forced to pay the cost of an armed police, +headed by Wellington himself, which held her chief fortresses for three +years, and saw that her chains were kept bright and strong. Never, since +Lysander demolished the Long Walls of Athens to the music of the Spartan +flute, had the world seen so bitter a spectacle of national humiliation, +so absolute a reversal of fortune,--the long-conquering legions +perishing by the sword, and him who had headed so many triumphal +processions perishing as it were in the Mamertine dungeon. + +It was from the nadir to which she had thus fallen, that the rulers of +France, acting as the agents of its people, have been laboring to raise +her ever since 1815. They have had a twofold object in view. They have +sought territory, in order that France might not be driven into the list +of second-class nations,--and military glory, to make men forget +Vittoria, and Leipzig, and Waterloo. All the governments of France have +been alike in this respect, no matter how much they have differed in +other respects. The legitimate Bourbons,--of whom an American is bound +to speak well, for they were our friends, and often evinced a feeling +towards us that exceeded largely anything that is required by the terms +or the spirit of a political alliance,--the solitary Orléans King, the +shadowy Republic of '48, and the imperial government, all have +endeavored to do something to elevate France, to win for her new +glories, and to regain for her her old position. The expedition into +Spain, in 1823, ostensibly made in the interest of Absolutism, was +really undertaken for the purpose of rebaptizing the white flag in fire. +Charles X. and M. de Polignac were engaged in a great scheme of foreign +policy when they fell, the chief object of which, on their side, was the +restoration to France of the provinces of the Rhine,--and which Russia +favored, because she knew, that, unless the Bourbons could do something +to satisfy their people, they must remain powerless, and it did not +answer her purpose that they should be otherwise than powerful. The +conquest of Algiers was made for the purpose of gratifying the French +people, and with the intention of spreading French dominion over +Northern Africa. It was a step towards the acquisition of Egypt, for +which land France has exhibited a strange longing. In this way the loss +of French India and French America, things of the old monarchy, were to +be compensated. The government of Louis Philippe expended mines of gold +and seas of blood in Africa, much to the astonishment of prudent men, +who had no idea of the end upon which its eyes were fixed. When the +Republic of 1848 was improvised, even Lamartine, not an unjust man, +could talk of the rights of France in Italy, and of her proper influence +there; and the wicked attack on the Romans, in 1849, was prompted by a +desire to make French influence felt in that country in a manner that +should be clear to the sense of mankind. + +When Louis Napoleon became President of France, it was impossible for +him to devote much attention to foreign affairs. His aim was to make +himself Emperor, to restore the Napoleon dynasty. This, after a hard +struggle, he effected in 1851-'52. It must be within the recollection of +all that the French invasion question was never more vehemently +discussed in England than during the ten or twelve months that followed +the _coup d'état_. This happened because it was assumed that the Emperor +_must_ do something to revenge the injuries his house and France had +suffered from that alliance of which England was the chief member and +the purse-holder. Whether he ever thought of assailing England, no man +can say; for he never yet communicated his thoughts on any important +subject to any human being. We may assume, however, that he would not +have attacked England without having made extensive preparations for +that purpose; and long before such preparations could have been +perfected, the Eastern question was forced upon the attention of Europe, +and the two nations which were expected to engage in war as foes united +their immense armaments to thwart the plans of Russia. Blinded by his +feelings, and altogether mistaking the character of the English people, +the Czar treated Napoleon III. contemptuously, and sought to bring about +the partition of Turkey by the aid of England alone. It will always +furnish material for the ingenious writers of the history of things that +might have been, whether the French Emperor would have accepted the +Czar's proposition, had it been made to him. Certainly it would have +enabled him to do great things for France, while by the same course of +action he could have struck heavy blows at both England and Austria. As +it was, he joined England to oppose Russia, and the English have borne +full and honorable testimony to his fidelity to his engagements. The war +concluded, his attention was directed to Italy, and he sought to +meliorate the condition of that country; but Austria would not hear even +of the discussion of Italian affairs. The events that marked the course +of things in Paris, in the spring of 1856, showed that nothing could be +hoped for Italy from Austria. She spoke, through Count Buol, as if she +regarded the whole Peninsula as peculiarly her property, meddling with +which on the part of other powers was sheer impertinence, and not to be +borne with good temper, or even the show of it. + +The twenty-second meeting of the Congress of Paris, held the 8th of +April, was long, exciting, and important; for then several European +questions were discussed, among them being the affairs of Italy. The +protocol of that day proves the sensitiveness of the Austrian +plenipotentiaries and the earnestness of those of Sardinia. Eight days +later, the Sardinian plenipotentiaries, Cavour and De Villa Marina, +addressed to the governments of France and England a Memorial relating +to the affairs of Italy, in the course of which occur expressions that +must have had a strong effect on the mind of Napoleon III. "Called by +the sovereigns of the small states of Italy, who are powerless to +repress the discontent of their subjects," says the Memorial, "Austria +occupies militarily the greater part of the Valley of the Po and of +Central Italy, and makes her influence felt in an irresistible manner, +_even in the countries where she has no soldiers_. Resting on one side +on Ferrara and Bologna, her troops extend themselves to Ancona, the +length of the Adriatic, which has become in a manner an Austrian lake; +on the other, mistress of Piacenza, which, contrary to the spirit, if +not to the letter, of the Treaties of Vienna, she labors to transform +into a first-class fortress, she has a garrison at Parma, and makes +dispositions to deploy her forces all along the Sardinian frontier, from +the Po to the summit of the Apennines. This permanent occupation by +Austria of territories which do not belong to her _renders her absolute +mistress of nearly all Italy_, destroys the equilibrium established by +the Treaties of Vienna, and is a continual menace to Piedmont." In +conclusion, the plenipotentiaries say,--"Sardinia is the only state in +Italy that has been able to raise an impassable barrier to the +revolutionary spirit, and at the same time remain independent of +Austria. It is the counterpoise to her invading influence. If Sardinia +succumbed, exhausted of power, abandoned by her allies,--if she also was +obliged to submit to Austrian domination, _then the conquest of Italy by +this power would be achieved_; and Austria, after having obtained, +without its costing her the least sacrifice, the immense benefit of the +free navigation of the Danube, and the neutralization of the Black Sea, +_would acquire a preponderating influence in the West_. This is what +France and England would never wish,--this they will never permit." + +These are grave and weighty words, and were well calculated to produce +an effect on the mind of Napoleon III.; and we are convinced that they +furnish a key to his conduct toward Austria, and set forth the occasion +of the Italian War. The supremacy of Austria once completely asserted +over Italy, France would necessarily sink in the European scale in +precisely the same proportion in which Austria should rise in it. The +subjects of Francis Joseph would number sixty millions, while those of +Napoleon III. would remain at thirty-six millions. The sinews of war +have never been much at the command of Austria, but possession of Italy +would render her wealthy, and enable her to command that gold which +moves armies and renders them effective. Her commerce would be increased +to an incalculable extent, and she would have naval populations from +which to conscribe the crews for fleets that she would be prompt to +build. Her voice would be potential in the East, and that of France +would there cease to be heard. She would become the first power of +Europe, and would exercise an hegemony far more decided than that which +Russia held for forty years after 1814. It was to be expected that the +Italians would cease fruitlessly to oppose her, and, their submission +leading to her abandonment of the repressive system, they might become a +bold and an adventurous people, helping to increase and to consolidate +her power. They might prove as useful to her as the Hungarians and +Bohemians have been, whom she had conquered and misruled, but whose +youth have filled her armies. All these things were not only possible, +but they were highly probable; and once having become facts, what +security would France have that she would not be attacked, conquered, +and partitioned? With sixty millions of people, and supported by the +sentiment and arms of Germany, Austria could seize upon Alsace and +Lorraine, and other parts of France, and thus reduce her strength +positively as well as relatively. All that was talked of in 1815, and +more than all that, might be accomplished in sixty years from that date, +and while Napoleon III. himself should still be on the throne he had so +strangely won. That degradation of France which the uncle's ambition had +brought about at the beginning of the century would be more than +equalled at the century's close through the nephew's forbearance. The +very names of Napoleon and Bonaparte would become odious in France, and +contemptible everywhere. On the other hand, should he interfere +successfully in behalf of Italian nationality, he would reduce the +strength of Austria, and prevent her from becoming an overshadowing +empire. Her population and her territory would be essentially lessened. +She would be cut off from all hope of making Italy her own, would be +compelled to abandon her plans of commercial and maritime greatness, +would be disregarded in the East, would not be courted by England, would +lose half her influence in Germany, and would not be in a condition to +menace France in any quarter. The glory of the French arms would be +increased, the weight of France would be doubled, new lustre would shine +from the name of Napoleon, the Treaties of Vienna would be torn up by +the nation against which they had been directed, the most determined foe +of the Bonaparte family would be punished, and that family's power would +be consolidated. + +Such, we verily believe, were the reasons that led Napoleon III. to plan +an attack on Austria, that attack which has been so brilliantly +commenced. That he has gone to war for the liberation of Italy, merely +as such, we do not suppose; but that must follow front his policy, +because in that way alone can his grand object be effected. The freedom +of the Peninsula will be brought about, because it is necessary for the +welfare of France, for the maintenance of her weight in Europe, that it +should be brought about. That the Emperor is insensible of the glory +that would come from the rehabilitation of Italy, we do not assert. We +think he is very sensible of it, and that he enjoys the satisfaction +that comes from the performance of a good deed as much as if he were not +a usurper and never had overthrown a nominal republic. But we cannot +agree with those who say that the liberation of Italy was the pure and +simple purpose of the war. He means that Austria shall not have Italy, +and his sobriety of judgment enables him to understand that France +cannot have it. That country is to belong to the children of the soil, +who, with ordinary wisdom and conduct, will be able to prevent it from +again relapsing under foreign rule. The Emperor understands his epoch, +and will attempt nothing that shall excite against himself and his +dynasty the indignation of mankind. If not a saint, he is not a +senseless sinner. + +Our article is so long, that we cannot discuss the questions, whether +Napoleon III. is not animated by the desire of vengeance, and whether, +having chastised Russia and Austria, he will not turn his arms against +Prussia and England. Our opinion is that he will do nothing of the kind. +Prussia is not likely to afford him any occasion for war; and if he +should make one, he would have to fight all the other German powers at +the same time, and perhaps Russia. The only chance that exists for a +Prussian war is to be found in the wrath of the Germans, who, at the +time we write, have assumed a very hostile attitude towards France, and +wish to be led from Berlin; but the government of Prussia is discreet, +and will not be easily induced to incur the positive loss and probable +disgrace that would follow from a Russian invasion, like that which took +place in 1759. As to England, the Emperor would be mad to attempt her +conquest; and he knows too well what is due to his fame to engage in a +piratical dash at London. An invasion of England can never be safely +undertaken except by some power that is master of the seas; and England +is not in the least disposed to abandon her maritime supremacy. There +would have to be a Battle of Actium before her shores could be in +danger, and she must have lost it; and no matter what is said concerning +the excellence of the French navy, that of England is as much ahead of +it in all the elements of real, enduring strength, as it has been at any +other period of the history of the two countries. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Iron-Manufacturer's Guide to the Furnaces, Forges, and +Rolling-Mills of the United States_. By J.P. LESLEY. New York: John +Wiley. 1859. + +This valuable book is published by the Secretary of the American +Iron-Association, and by authority of the same. This Association--now +four years old--is not a common trades-union, nor any impotent +combination to resist the law of supply and demand. Its general objects, +as stated in the constitution, are "to procure regularly the statistics +of the trade, both at home and abroad; to provide for the mutual +interchange of information and experience, both scientific and +practical; to collect and preserve all works relating to iron, and to +form a complete cabinet of ores, limestones, and coals; to encourage the +formation of such schools as are designed to give the young iron-master +a proper and thorough scientific training, preparatory to engaging in +practical operations." In pursuance of this wise and liberal policy, the +Association has now published this "Iron-Manufacturer's Guide," +containing, first, a descriptive catalogue of all the furnaces, forges, +and rolling-mills of the United States and Canada; secondly, a +discussion of the physical and chemical properties of iron, and its +combinations with other elements; thirdly, a complete survey of the +geological position, chemical, physical, or mechanical properties, and +geographical distribution of the ores of iron in the United States. + +The directory to the iron-works of the United States and Canada +enumerates 1545 works of various kinds, of which 386 are now abandoned; +560 blast-furnaces, 389 forges, and 210 rolling-mills are now in +operation; and the directory states the position, capacity, and +prominent characteristics of each furnace, forge, or mill, the names of +the owners or agents, and, in many cases, the date of the construction +of the works, and their annual production. The great importance of the +iron-manufacture, as a branch of industry, in this country, is clearly +demonstrated by this very complete catalogue. It shows that in the year +1856 there were nearly twelve hundred active iron-factories in the +United States, and that they produced about eight hundred and fifty +thousand tons of iron, worth fifty millions of dollars. When we consider +that the greater part of the iron thus produced is left in a rough and +crude state, merely extracted from its ores and made ready for the use +of the blacksmith, the machinist, and the engineer,--when we remember +that human labor multiplies by hundreds and by thousands the value of +the raw material, that a bar of iron which costs five dollars will make +three thousand dollars' worth of penknife-blades and two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars' worth of watch-springs, we begin to understand +the importance of the iron-manufacture, as an element of national +wealth, independence, and power. + +A fourth part of all the iron-works which have been constructed in this +country have been abandoned by their projectors, in despair of competing +with the cheap iron from abroad, which the low _ad-valorem_ tariffs have +admitted to the American market. The story which these ruined works +might tell, of hopes disappointed, capital sunk, and labor wasted, would +be long and dreary. From an excellent diagram, appended to the "Guide," +illustrating the duties on iron, the importations, and the price of the +metal, for each year since 1840, we learn that the average annual +importation of iron under the specific tariff of 1842 was 77,328 tons, +while under the _ad-valorem_ tariff of 1846 it was 373,864 tons. The +increase in the importation of foreign iron under the tariff of 1846 was +more than ten times the increase of the population, and more than +thirty-eight times the increase in the domestic production. The +iron-masters of this country have been compelled to struggle against a +host of formidable difficulties,--adverse legislation, the ruinous +competition of English iron, the dearness of labor, and the high rates +of interest on borrowed capital. These have all been met and, let us hope, +in good part overcome. Slowly, and with many hindrances and disasters, +the iron-business is gaining strength, and achieving independence +of foreign competition and the tender mercies of legislators. +Very conclusive evidence of this gradual growth is presented +in the unusually accurate statistics of the "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide." Of the 1,209,913 tons of iron consumed in the United States +in the year 1856, 856,235 tons, or seventy-one per cent, of the whole, +was of domestic manufacture. The catalogue of iron-works shows that +the country now possesses many extensive and well-constructed works, +of which some are still owned by the men who built them, but the +larger part have descended, at great sacrifices, to the hands of +more fortunate proprietors. Beside the accumulated stock of machinery, +knowledge of the ores and fuel has been gained, experience has +refuted many errors and pointed out the dangers and difficulties to +he overcome, the natural channels of communication throughout the +country have been opened, and a large body of skilled workmen has been +trained for the business and seeks steady employment. Whenever a rise in +the price of iron stimulates the manufacture, the domestic production of +iron suddenly expands, and increases with a rapidity which gives +evidence of wonderful elasticity and latent strength. Twice within +twenty years the production of American iron has nearly doubled in a +period of three years. Twelve years ago no railroad-iron was made in the +United States. In 1853 we imported 300,000 tons of rails, and in 1854 +280,000 tons; but in 1855 only 130,000 tons were imported, while 135,000 +tons were made at home, and in 1856, again, nearly one half of the +310,000 tons of rails consumed was of domestic production. The admitted +superiority of the American rails has undoubtedly contributed to this +result. + +In spite of these encouraging signs, these sure indications of the +success which at no distant day will reward this branch of American +industry, it must not be imagined that checks and reverses are hereafter +to be escaped. The production of the year 1857 promised in the summer to +be much larger than that of 1856; but the panic of September wrought the +same effect in the iron-business as in all the other manufactures of the +country, and in the spring of 1858 more than half of the iron-works of +the United States were standing idle. Mr. Lesley states that the returns +received in answer to the circular issued by the Iron-Association, July +1, 1858, were, almost without exception, unfavorable, and that these +replies are sufficient to prove a very serious diminution in the +production of iron for the year 1858. When the manufacture of iron, in +its various branches, has expanded to its true proportions, and has +reached a magnitude and importance second only to the agricultural +interest of the country, the iron-masters of that generation may read in +this first publication of the Iron-Association the record of the +struggles and trials of their more adventurous, but less fortunate +predecessors. + +The construction of the directory which constitutes the first part of +the "Guide" might be improved in several respects. An alphabetical +arrangement of the furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills, in each State, +would be much more convenient for reference than the obscure and +uncertain system which has been followed. If a State can be divided, +like Pennsylvania, into two or three sections, by strongly marked +geological features, it would, perhaps, be well to subdivide the list of +its iron-works into corresponding sections, and then to make the +arrangement of each section alphabetical. But convenience of reference +is the essential property of a directory; and to that convenience the +natural desire to follow a geological or geographical arrangement should +he sacrificed. Some important items of information, such as the means of +transportation, and the distance of each furnace or forge from its +market, are not given in all cases; the power by which the works are +driven, whether steam or water, is not uniformly stated; and the +pressure of the blast used, that very important condition of success in +the management of a furnace, is stated in only a very few instances. A +useful piece of information, seldom given in the descriptions of forges +and rolling-mills, is the source from which the iron used in the works +is obtained; and it is also desirable that the nature of the work done +in each forge or mill should be invariably stated. It would he +interesting to know the number of men employed in the iron-manufacture +throughout the country, and it would not seem difficult for the +Association to add this fact to the very valuable statistics which they +have already collected. The descriptions of abandoned works are not all +printed in small type. If this rule is adopted in the directory, it +should be uniformly adhered to. The maps accompanying the directory, +which were made by the photolithographic process, are all on too small a +scale, and consequently lack clearness. The colored lithographs, which +exhibit the anthracite furnaces of Pennsylvania and the iron works of +the region east of the Hudson River, are altogether the best +illustrations in the book. + +An elaborate discussion of iron as a chemical element occupies another +division of the book. Its purpose is to instruct the iron master in the +chemical properties and relations of the metal with which he deals; and +to this end it should be clear, concise, and definite, and, leaving all +disputed points, should explain the known and well-determined +characteristics of iron and its compounds with other elements. Mr. +Lesley, the compiler of the book, distinctly states in the Preface that +he is no chemist, and we are therefore prepared to meet the occasional +inaccuracies observable in this chemical portion of the "Guide." It +lacks condensation and system; matters of very little moment receive +disproportionate attention; and pages are filled with discussions of +nice points of chemical science still in dispute among professed +chemists, and wholly out of place in what should be a brief elementary +treatise on the known properties of iron. If these questions in dispute +were such as the practical experience of the iron-master might settle, +or, indeed, throw any light upon, there would be an obvious propriety in +stating the points at issue; but if the question concerns the best +chemical name for iron-rust, or the largest possible per cent. of carbon +in steel, the practical metallurgist should not be perplexed with +problems in analytical chemistry which the best chemists have not yet +solved. + +Valuable space is occasionally occupied by the too rhetorical statement +of matters which would have been better presented in a simpler way; +thus, the fervid description of oxygen, however appropriate in Faraday's +admirable lectures before the Royal Institution, is out of place in the +"Iron-Manufacturer's Guide." We must also enter an earnest protest +against the importation, upon any terms, of such words as +"ironoxydulcarbonate," "ironoxydhydrate," and the adjective "anhydrate." +Some descriptions of considerable imaginative power have found place +even in the directory of works. From the description of the Allentown +furnaces we learn, with some surprise, that "no finer object of art +invites the artist"; and again, "that the _repose_ of bygone _centuries_ +seems to sit upon its immense walls, while the roaring _energy_ of the +present day fills it with a truer and better life than the revelry of +Kenilworth or the chivalry of Heidelberg." The average age of the +Allentown works subsequently appears to be nine years. + +Another principal division of Mr. Lesley's book treats of the ores of +iron in the United States. This portion of the book contains much +valuable and interesting information, which has never been published +before in so complete and satisfactory a form. The geographical and +geological position of every ore-bank in the country, which has been +opened and worked, is fully described, with many details of the peculiar +properties, mineralogical associations, and history of each bed or mine. +The inexhaustible wealth of the country in ores of iron is clearly +shown, and the superiority of the American ores to the English needs no +other demonstration than can be found on the pages of this catalogue of +our ore-beds. Two or three geological maps, to illustrate the +distribution of the ores, would have been an instructive addition to the +book. In this section, as in the preceding one on the chemistry of iron, +much space is misapplied to the discussion of questions of structural +geology, of opposing theories of the formation of veins, and other +scientific problems with which the iron-master is not concerned, and +which he cannot be expected to understand, much less to solve. We regret +the more this unnecessary introduction of comparatively irrelevant +matters, when we find, at the close of the volume, that the unexpected +length of the discussion of the ores has prevented the publication of +several chapters on the machinery now in use, the hot-blast and +anthracite coal, the efforts to obtain malleable iron directly from the +ore, and the history and present condition of the iron-manufacture in +America. + +The American Iron-Association, by their Secretary, have accomplished a +very laborious and valuable work, in accumulating and digesting the mass +of facts and statistics embodied in this, the first "Iron-Manufacturer's +Guide"; but the subject is as inexhaustible as the mineral wealth of the +country, and we shall look for the future publications of the society +with much interest. + + +_An Essay on Intuitive Morals_. Being an Attempt to Popularize Ethical +Science. Part I. Theory of Morals. First American Edition, with +Additions and Corrections by the Author. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. +1859. pp. 294. + +Four years ago last March this book appeared in England, published by +Longman; a thin octavo, exciting little attention there, and scarcely +more on this side the water, where the best English books have of late +years found their first appreciation. The first notice of it printed in +this country, so far as we know, appeared in the "Harvard Magazine" for +June, 1855,--a publication so obscure, that, to most readers of the +ATLANTIC, this will be their first knowledge of its existence. About two +years later, Part II appeared in England, and then both books were +reviewed in the "Christian Examiner"; yet, to all intents and purposes, +this new edition is a new book, and we shall treat it as such. We have +as yet a reprint of Part I. only, but we trust the publishers will soon +give us the other,--"The Practice of Morals,"--which, if less valuable +than this, is still so much better than most works of its kind as to +demand a republication. + +The author--a woman--(for, to the shame of our _virile secus_ be it +said, a woman has written the best popular treatise on Ethics in the +language)--divides her First Part into four chapters:-- + + I. What Is the Moral Law? + II. Where the Moral Law is found. + III. That the Moral Law can be obeyed. + IV. Why the Moral Law should be obeyed. + +This, as will be seen, is an exhaustive analysis. To the great question +of the first chapter, after a full discussion, she gives this answer:-- + +"The Moral Law is the resumption of the eternal necessary Obligation of +all Rational Free Agents to do and feel those Sentiments which are +Right. The identification of this law with His will constitutes the +Holiness of the Infinite God. Voluntary and disinterested obedience to +this law constitutes the Virtue of all finite creatures. Virtue is +capable of infinite growth, of endless approach to the Divine nature and +to perfect conformity with the law. God has made all rational free +agents for virtue, and all worlds for rational free agents. _The Moral +Law, therefore, not only reigns throughout His creation_, (all its +behests being enforced thereon by His omnipotence,) _but is itself the +reason why that creation exists_."--pp. 62-63. + +This is certainly good defining, and the passage we have Italicized has +the true Transcendental ring. Indeed, the book is a system of Kantian +Ethics, as the author herself says in her Preface; and the tough old +Königsberg professor has no reason to complain of his gentle expounder. +Unlike most British writers,--with the grand exception of Sir William +Hamilton, the greatest British metaphysician since Locke and Hume,--she +_understands_ Kant, admires and loves him, and so is worthy to develop +his knotty sublimities. This alone would be high praise; but we think +she earns a more original and personal esteem. + +The question of the second chapter she thus answers:-- + +"The Moral Law is found in the Intuitions of the Human Mind. These +Intuitions are natural; but they are also revealed. Our Creator wrought +them into the texture of our souls to form the groundwork of our +thoughts, and made it our duty first to examine and then to erect upon +them by reflection a Science of Morals. But He also continually aids us +in such study, and He increases this aid in the ratio of our obedience. +Thus Moral Intuitions are both Human and Divine, and the paradoxes in +their nature are thereby solved."--p. 136. + +This statement may, perhaps, be received without cavil by most readers; +but the reasoning on which it depends is the weakest part of the book, +and we shall be surprised if some hard-headed divine, who fears that +this doctrine of Intuition will pester his Church, does not find out the +flaws in the argument. It will be urged, for instance, that, in +confessing that the Science of Morals can never be as exact as that of +Mathematics, because we have no terminology for Ethics so exact as for +Geometry, she, in effect, yields the whole question, and leaves us in +the old slough of doubt where Pyrrho and Pascal delighted to thrust us, +and where the Church threatens to keep us, unless we will pay her tolls +and pick our way along her turnpike. But though her major and minor +premises may not be on the best terms with each other,--even though they +may remind us of that preacher of whom Pierrepont Edwards said, "If his +text had the smallpox, his sermon would not catch it,"--her conclusion +is sound, and as inspiring now as when the poet said,-- + + "Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo,"-- + +or when George Fox trudged hither and thither over Europe with the same +noble tune sounding in his ears. + +In the third chapter the old topics are treated, which, according to +Milton, the fallen angels discussed before Adam settled the debate by +sinning,-- + + "Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,"-- + +and it is concluded that the Moral Law can be obeyed:-- + +"1st. Because the Human Will is free. 2d. Because this freedom, though +involving present sin and suffering, is foreseen by God to result +eventually in the Virtue of every creature endowed therewith." + +In this chapter the history of the common doctrine of Predestination is +admirably sketched, (pp. 159-164, note.) and the grounds for our belief +in Free Will more clearly stated than we remember to have seen +elsewhere. Especially fine is her method of reducing Foreordination to +simple Ordination, by directing attention to the fact that with God +there is no Past and Future, but an Endless Now; as Tennyson sings in +"In Memoriam,"-- + + "Oh, if indeed that eye foresee, + Or see, (in Him is no before.)"-- + +and as Dante sang five centuries ago. + +But it is the last chapter which best shows the power of the author and +the pure and generous spirit with which the whole book is filled. Here +she shows why the Moral Law should be obeyed; and dividing the advocates +of Happiness as a motive into three classes, Euthumists, Public +Eudaimonists, and Private Eudaimonists, she refutes them all and +establishes her simple scheme, which she states in these words:-- + +"The law itself, the Eternal Right, for right's own sake, that alone +must be our motive, the spring of our resolution, the ground of our +obedience. Deep from our inmost souls comes forth the mandate, the bare +and simple law claiming the command of our whole existence merely by its +proper right, and disdaining alike to menace or to bribe." + +The terms _Euthumism_ and _Eudaimonism_ are, perhaps, peculiar to this +essay, and may need some explanation. The Euthumist is one who assumes +moral pleasure as a sufficient reason why virtue should be sought; the +Eudaimonist believes we should be virtuous for the sake of affectional, +intellectual, and sensual pleasure; if he means the pleasure of all +mankind, he is a Public Eudaimonist; but if he means the pleasure of the +individual, he is a Private Eudaimonist. Democritus is reckoned the +first among Euthumists; and in England this school has been represented, +among others, by Henry More and Cumberland, by Sharrock, [Footnote: +Sharrock is a name unfamiliar to most readers. His [Greek: Hypothesis +aethikae] published in 1660, contains the first clear statement of +Euthumism made by any Englishman. See p.223.] Hutcheson, and Shaftesbury. +Paley thrust himself among Public Eudaimonists, and our author well +exposes his grovelling morals, aiming to produce the "greatest happiness +of the greatest number," a system which has too long been taught among +the students of our colleges and high schools. But he properly belongs +to the Private Eudaimonists; for this interpreter of ethics to the +ingenuous youth of England and America says, "Virtue is the doing good +to mankind in obedience to the will of God, _and for the sake of +everlasting happiness_. According to which definition, the good of +mankind is the subject, the will of God the rule, _and everlasting +happiness the motive of virtue_." + +It is such heresies as this, and the still grosser pravities into which +the ethics of expediency run, that this book will do much to combat. +Nothing is more needed in our schools for both sexes than the systematic +teaching of the principles here set forth; and we have no doubt this +volume could be used as a text-book, at least with some slight omissions +and additions, such as a competent teacher could well furnish. Portions +of it, indeed, were some years since read by Mrs. Lowell to her classes, +and are now incorporated in her admirable book, "Seed Grain"; nor does +there seem to be any good reason why it should not be introduced at +Cambridge. With a short introduction containing the main principles of +metaphysics, and with the omission of some rhetorical passages unsuited +to a text-book, it might supplant the books of both intellectual and +moral philosophy now in use in our higher schools. + +But it is not as a school-book that this essay is to be considered; it +will find a large and increasing circle of readers among the mature and +the cultivated, and these will perceive that few have thought so +profoundly or written so clearly on these absorbing topics. Take, for +example, the classification of _possible_ beings, made in the first +chapter:-- + +"Proceeding on our premises, that the omnipotence of God is not to be +supposed to include self-contradictions, we observe at the outset, that +(so far as we can understand subjects so transcendent) there were only, +in a moral point of view, three orders of beings possible in the +universe:--1st. One Infinite Being. A Rational Free Agent, raised by the +infinitude of his nature above the possibility of temptation. He is the +only _Holy_ Being. 2d. Finite creatures who are Rational Free Agents, +but exposed by the finity of their natures to continual temptations. +These beings are either _Virtuous_ or _Vicious_. 3d. Finite creatures +who are not rational nor morally free. These beings are _Unmoral_, and +neither virtuous nor vicious."--pp. 24-25. + +Nothing can be shorter or more thorough than this statement, and, if +accepted, it settles many points in theology as well as in ethics. + +Then, too, the comparison, in the last chapter, of the Law of Honor, +considered as a system of morals, with the systems of Paley and Bentham, +shows a fine perception of the true relation of chivalry to ethics, and +gives occasion for one of the most eloquent passages in the book:-- + +"I envy not the moralist who could treat disdainfully of Chivalry. It +was a marvellous principle, that which could make of plighted faith a +law to the most lawless, of protection to weakness a pride to the most +ferocious. While the Church taught that personal duty consisted in +scourgings and fastings, and social duty in the slaughter of Moslems and +burning of Jews, Chivalry roused up a man to reverence himself through +his own courage and truth, and to treat the weakest of his +fellow-creatures with generosity and courtesy.... Recurring to its true +character, the Law of Honor, when duly enlarged and rectified, becomes +highly valuable. We perceive, that, amid all its imperfections and +aberrations, it has been the truest voice of intuition, amid the +lamentations of the believer in 'total depravity,' and the bargaining of +the expediency-seeking experimentalist. While the one represented Virtue +as a Nun and the other as a Shop-woman, the Law of Honor drew her as a +Queen,--faulty, perhaps, but free-born and royal. Much service has this +law done to the world; it has made popular modes of thinking and acting +far nobler than those inculcated from many a pulpit; and the result is +patent, that many a 'publican and sinner,' many an opera-frequenting, +betting, gambling man of the world, is a far safer person with whom to +transact business than the Pharisee who talks most feelingly of the +'frailties of our fallen nature.'"--pp. 267-270. + +The learning shown in the book, though not astonishing, like Sir William +Hamilton's, is sufficient and always at the author's service. The text +throughout, and especially the notes on Causation, Predestination, +Original Sin, and Necessary Truths, will amply support our opinion. But +better than either learning or logic is that noble and devout spirit +pervading every page, and convincing the reader, that, whether the +system advanced be true or false, it is the result of a genuine +experience, and the guide of a pure and generous life. + +The volume is neatly printed, but lacks an index sadly, and shows some +errors resulting from the distance between the author and the +proof-reader. Such is the misuse of the words "woof" and "warp" on page +56; evidently a slip of the pen, since the same terms are correctly used +elsewhere in the volume. + + +_Memoirs of the Empress Catharine II._ Written by herself. With a +Preface by A. HERZEN. Translated from the French. New York: D. Appleton +& Co. 12mo. pp. 309. + +It would seem, that, if any one of the women celebrated in history +should, more than all the others, have shrunk from writing her own +memoirs, that woman was the petty German princess whom opportunity and +her own crafty ambition made absolutest monarch of all the Russias under +the name of Catharine II. And of that abandoned and shameless personal +career which has made her name a reproach to her sex, and covered her +memory with an infamy that the administrative glories of her reign serve +only to cast into a blacker shadow, even she has shrunk from committing +the details to paper. Indeed, in these Memoirs, she alludes to but one +of her amours,--that with Sergius Soltikoff, which was the first, (if we +may be sure that she had a first,)--and which seems clearly to have been +elevated, if not purified, by a true and deep affection. That it was so +appears not by any protestation or even calm assertion of her own, which +in an autobiography might be reasonably doubted, but from the unstudied +tenderness of her allusions to him; from the fact, which indirectly +appears, that he first cooled towards her, and the pang--not of wounded +vanity--which this gave her; and yet more unmistakably from the +forgiveness which she, imperious and relentless as she was, extended, +manifestly, again and again, to her errant lover. + +The Memoirs are confined to events which occurred between 1744 and +1760,--the period of Catharine's girlhood and youthful womanhood; but +although she brings herself before us, a young creature of fifteen, +"with her hair dressed _à la Moise_," (which, in the benightment of our +bearded ignorance, we suppose to mean that astounding style in which the +excellent Mistress Hannah More is represented in the frontispiece to her +Memoirs, with each particular hair standing on end,--a crimped glory of +radiating powder,) she appears no less ambitious, crafty, designing, +selfish, and self-conscious then than when she drops her pen as she is +deepening the traits of the matured woman of thirty. She went to Russia +to be betrothed to the Grand Duke, afterwards Peter III., to whom she +was at first utterly indifferent, and whom she soon began to despise and +regard with personal aversion; and yet when there was a chance that she +might be released from this union, she seems not to have known the +slightest thrill of joy or felt the least sensation of relief, although +she was then not sixteen years old,--so entirely was her mind bent upon +the crown of Russia. Partly to attain her end, and partly because it +suited her intriguing, managing nature, she set herself immediately to +the acquirement of the favor of the Empress on the one hand, and +popularity on the other. The first she sought by an absolute submission +of her will to that of Elizabeth, giving her self-negation an air of +grateful deference; the latter she obtained, as most very popular people +obtain their popularity, by adroit flattery,--the subtlest form of which +was, in her case, as it ever is, the manifestation of an interest in the +affairs of persons utterly indifferent to the flatterer. This moral +emollient she applied, as popular people usually do, without +discrimination. She remarks that she was liked because she was "the same +to everybody"; and it is noteworthy that the same is said almost +invariably of very popular persons, and in way of eulogy, by the very +people into whose favor they have licked their way; the latter always +seeming to be blinded by the titillation of their own cuticles to the +fact that the most worthless and disagreeable individuals--those with +whom they would scorn to be put upon a level--have received the same +coveted evidences of personal regard. When will the world learn that the +man, of whom we sometimes hear and read, who is absolutely without an +enemy, must either be very unscrupulous or very weak? Catharine's +duplicity in this respect seems to have been as constant as it was +artful, during the years in which it was necessary for her purpose to +make friends; and it was rewarded, as it almost always is, when +skilfully practised, with entire success. + +Catharine seems to have written these Memoirs partly for her own +satisfaction and partly to justify her course to her son Paul and his +successors. Therefore they record much that is of little value or +interest to the general reader; and that, indeed, is unintelligible, +except to those who are intimately acquainted with the Russian Court +during the reign of Elizabeth. Such persons will find in these pages +much authentic matter which will confirm or unsettle their previous +belief as to the secret intrigues of that court, political and personal. +To the great mass of readers, the revelations of the internal economy of +the Court of Russia in the middle of the last century, and of the +manners and morals of the persons who composed it, which are freely made +by the author of these imperial confessions, will constitute their +principal, if not their only interest. In this respect they will well +repay the attentive perusal of every person who likes the study of human +nature. The picture which they present is striking, and its various +parts keep alive the attention which its first sight awakens. Yet it +cannot be regarded with pleasure by any reader of undepraved taste; and +a consideration of it is absolutely fatal to the faith which is +cherished by many deluded minds in the social, if not in the ethical +virtues of an ancient aristocracy. In this respect Catharine's "Memoirs" +are not peculiar. For it is remarkable, that in all the published +memoirs, journals, and confessions of members of royal households, +(there may be an exception, but we do not remember it,) court-life +within-doors has appeared devoid of every grace and beauty, and deformed +by all that is coarse, brutal, sordid, and grovelling. Even that grace, +almost a virtue, which has its name from courts, seems not to exist in +them in a genuine form; and instead of it we find only a hollow, +glittering sham, which has but an outward semblance to real courtesy, +and which itself even is produced only on occasions more or less public +and for purposes more or less selfish. + +Russia in its most civilized parts was half barbarous in the days of +Catharine's youth, and society at the Court of St. Petersburg seems to +have been distinguished from that in the other circles of the empire +only by an addition of the vices of civilization to those of barbarism. +The women blended the manners and tastes of Indian squaws and French +_marquises_ of the period; the men modelled themselves on Peter the +Great, and succeeded in imitating him in everything except his wisdom +and patriotism. The business of life was, first, to avoid being sent to +Siberia or Astracan,--next and last, to get other people sent thither; +its pleasure, an alternation of gambling and orgies. Catharine makes +some excuse for her unrestrained sexual license, which shows that she +wrote for posterity. For what need of extenuation in this regard for a +woman whose immediate predecessors were Catharine I., and. Anne and +Elizabeth, and who lived in a court where, on the simultaneous marriage +of three of its ladies, a bet was made between the Hetman Count +Rasoumowsky and the Minister of Denmark,--not which of the brides would +be false to her marriage vows,--that was taken for granted with regard +to all,--but which would be so first! It turned out that he who bet on +the Countess Anne Voronzoff, daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of the +Empire, and bride to Count Strogonoff, who was the plainest of the three +and at the time the most innocent and childlike, won the wager. The bet +was wisely laid; for she was likely to be soonest neglected by her +husband. + +What semblance of courtesy these highborn gamblers, adulterers, and +selfish intriguers showed in their daily life appears in their behavior +to a M. Brockdorf, against whom Catharine had ill feelings, more or less +justifiable. This M. Brockdorf, who was high in favor with the Grand +Duke, was unfortunately ugly--having a long neck, a broad, flat head, +red hair, small, dull, sunken eyes, and the corners of his mouth hanging +down to his chin. So, among those court-bred people, "whenever M. +Brockdorf passed through the apartments, every one called out after him +'Pelican,'" because "this bird was the most hideous we knew of." But +what regard for the feelings of a person of inferior rank could be +expected from his enemies, in a court where the dearest ties and the +tenderest sorrows were dashed aside with the formal brutality recorded +by Catharine in the following remarkable paragraph?-- + +"A few days afterwards, the death of my father was announced to me. It +greatly afflicted me. For a week I was allowed to weep as much as I +pleased; but at the end of that time, Madame Tchoglokoff came to tell me +that I had wept enough,--that the Empress ordered me to leave off,--that +my father was not a king. I told her, I knew that he was not a king; and +she replied, that it was not suitable for a Grand Duchess to mourn for a +longer period a father who had not been a king. In fine, it was arranged +that I should go out on the following Sunday, and wear mourning for six +weeks." + +It is worthy of especial note that these people, though they led this +sensual, selfish, heartless life, trampling on natural affection and +doing as they would not be done by, prided themselves very much on the +orthodoxy of their faith, were sorely afraid of going to hell, and were +consequently very regular and rigid in the performance of their +religious duties. Catharine was no whit behind the rest in this respect. +Though bred a Lutheran, she was most exemplary in her observance of all +the requirements of the Greek Church; and even carried her hypocrisy so +far, that, when, on occasion of a dangerous and probably fatal illness, +it was proposed that she should see a Lutheran clergyman, she replied by +asking for Simon Theodorsky, a prelate of the Greek Church, who came and +had an edifying interview with her. And all this was done, as she says, +for effect, chiefly with the soldiers and common people, among whom it +made a sensation and was much talked of. This, by the way, is the only +reference which occurs in the Memoirs to any interest below that of the +highest nobility. As for the people of Russia, the right to draw their +blood with the knout and make them sweat roubles into the royal treasury +was taken as much for granted as the light and the air, by those who, +either through fraud or force, could sit in the seat of Peter the Great. +They regarded it as no less an appanage or perquisite of that seat than +the jewels in the imperial diadem, and would as soon have thought of +defending a title to the one as to the other. And the possession of the +throne, with the necessary consent of the dominant party of the high +nobility, seems to have been, and still to be, the only requisite for +the unquestioned exercise of this power; for, as to legitimacy and +divine dynastic right, was not Catharine I. a Livoman peasant? Catharine +II. a German princess, who dethroned and put to death the grandson of +Peter the Great? and does she not confess in these Memoirs that her son, +the Emperor Paul, was not the son of Peter's grandson, but of Sergius +Soltikoff? so that in the reigning house of Russia there is not a drop +of the blood of Romanoff. And Catharine's confession, which M. Herzen +emphasizes so strongly, conveys to the Russian nobles no new knowledge +on this subject; for an eminent Russian publicist being asked, on the +appearance of this book, if it were generally known in Russia that Paul +was the son of Soltikoff, replied,--"No one who knew anything ever +doubted it." And perhaps the descendants of the Boiards are quite +content that their sovereign should have illegally sprung from the loins +of a member of one of the oldest and noblest of the purely Russian +families, rather than from those of a prince of the petty house of +Holstein Gottorp. But then what is this principle of Czarism, which is +not a submission to divine right, but which causes one man to sustain, +perhaps to place, another in a position which puts his own life at the +mercy of the other's mere caprice? + +Catharine tells many trifling, but interesting incidents, of various +nature, in these Memoirs: of how, after the birth of her first child, +she was left utterly alone and neglected, so that she famished with +thirst for the lack of some one to bring her water; how her child was +taken from her at its birth, and kept from her, she hardly being allowed +even to see it; how it was always wrapped in fox-skins and seal-skins, +till it lay in a continual bath of perspiration; how the members of the +royal family itself were so badly accommodated, that sometimes they were +made ill by walking through passages open to wind and rain, and +sometimes stifled by over-crowded rooms; how at the imperial +masquerades, during one season, the men were ordered to appear in +women's dresses, and the women in the _propria quae maribus,_--the +former hideous in large whaleboned petticoats and high feathered +head-dresses, the latter looking like scrubby little boys with very +thick legs,--and all that the Empress Elizabeth might show her tall and +graceful figure and what beautiful things she used to walk with, which +Catharine says were the handsomest that she ever saw; how in this court, +where marriage was the mere shadow of a bond, it was yet deemed a matter +of the first nuptial importance that a lady of the court should have her +head dressed for the wedding by the hands of the Empress herself, or, if +she were too ill, by those of the Grand Duchess; how Catharine used, at +Oranienbaum, to dress herself from head to foot in male attire, and go +out in a skiff, accompanied only by an old huntsman, to shoot ducks and +snipe, sometimes doubling the Cape of Oranienbaum, which extends two +versts into the sea,--and how thus the fortunes of the Russian Empire, +during the latter half of the eighteenth century, were at the mercy of a +spring-tide, a gust of wind, or the tipping of a shallop. There is even +a recipe for removing tan and sunburn, which the beautiful Grand Duchess +used at the instance of the beautiful Empress; and, as both the imperial +belles testify to its great efficacy, it would be cruel not to give all +possible publicity to the fact that it was composed of white of egg, +lemon juice, and French brandy; but, alas! the proportion in which these +constituents are to be mixed is not recorded. + +Of the authenticity of these Memoirs there appears to be no reasonable +doubt, and we believe that none has been expressed. They were found, +after the death of Catharine, in a sealed envelope addressed to her son +Paul, in whose lifetime no one saw them but the friend of his childhood, +Prince Kourakine. He copied them; and, about twenty years after the +death of Paul, three or four copies were made from the Kourakine copy. +The Emperor Nicholas caused all these to be seized by the secret police, +and it is only since his death that one or two copies have again made +their appearance at Moscow (where the original is kept) and St. +Petersburg. From one of these M. Herzen made his transcript. They fail +to palliate any of Catharine's crimes, or in the least to brighten her +reputation, and add nothing to our knowledge of her sagacity and her +administrative talents; but they are yet not without very considerable +personal interest and historical value. + + +_Milch Cows and Dairy Farming_; comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and +Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and other Stock; the +Selection of Milch Cows, with a full Explanation of Guenon's Method; the +Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and +Cheese: embodying the most recent Improvements, and adapted to Farming +in the United States and British Provinces, with a Treatise upon the +Dairy Husbandry of Holland; to which is added Horsfall's System of Dairy +Management. By CHARLES L. FLINT, Secretary of the Massachusetts State +Board of Agriculture; Author of a Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants. +Liberally illustrated. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. pp. 416. + +This very useful treatise contains a full account of the best breeds of +cattle and of the most approved methods of crossing so as to develop +qualities particularly desirable; directions for choosing good milkers +by means of certain natural signs; a description of the most useful +grasses and other varieties of fodder; and very minute instructions for +the making of good butter and the proper arrangement and care of +dairies. The author has had the advantage of practical experience as a +dairyman, while his position as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of +Agriculture has afforded him more than common opportunity of learning +the experience of others. + +A volume of this kind cannot fail to commend itself to farmers and +graziers, and will be found valuable also by those who are lucky enough +to own a single cow. The production of good milk, butter, and meat is a +matter of interest to all classes in the community alike; and Mr. +Flint's book, by pointing out frankly the mistakes and deficiencies in +the present methods of our farmers and dairymen, and the best means of +remedying them, will do a good and much-needed service to the public. He +shows the folly of the false system of economy which thinks it good +farming to get the greatest quantity of milk with the least expenditure +of fodder, and which regards poor stock as cheaper because it costs less +money in the original outlay. + +If Dean Swift was right in saying that he who makes two blades of grass +grow where one grew before is of more service to mankind than he who +takes a city, we should be inclined to rank him hardly second as a +benefactor of his race who causes one pound of good butter to be made +where two pounds of bad were made before. We believe that more unsavory +and unwholesome grease is consumed in the United States under the +_alias_ of butter than in any other civilized country, and we trust that +a wide circulation of Mr. Flint's thoroughly executed treatise will tend +to reform a great and growing evil. The tendency in America has always +been to make a shift with what _will do_, rather than to insist on +having what is best; and we welcome this book as likely to act as a +corrective in one department, and that one of the most important. The +value of the volume is increased by numerous illustrations and a good +index. + + * * * * * + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + +The Young Housekeeper's Friend. By Mrs. Cornelius. Revised and Enlarged. +Boston. Brown, Taggard, & Chase. 12mo. pp. 254. 75 cts. + +The New and the Old; or California and India in Romantic Aspects. By +J.W. Palmer, M.D. With Thirteen Illustrations. New York. 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