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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November,
+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: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859
+
+Author: Various
+
+Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9391]
+Release Date: November, 2005
+First Posted: September 28, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NOVEMBER 1859 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project
+Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
+
+A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
+
+VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV.
+
+
+
+
+E. FELICE FORESTI.
+
+
+Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the
+harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such
+exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers
+who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not
+the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy
+of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the
+fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new
+country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees
+of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and
+breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and
+self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the
+bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud
+consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and
+being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when
+first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of
+the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to
+watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest
+thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its
+spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were
+extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open.
+Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple
+facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and
+cordial greeting.
+
+Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose
+high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of
+moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces
+of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but
+with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and
+ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for
+years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and
+literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in
+her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian
+patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and
+the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its
+availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and
+an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the
+chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate
+modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the
+political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of
+existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic
+pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he
+illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own
+eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in
+her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to
+the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely
+fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of
+victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon
+early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the
+stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He
+uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage
+can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of
+being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the
+truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully
+adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of
+a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed
+a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given,
+except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New
+York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture,
+essentially improved his physical condition; but it became
+indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous
+clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy,
+taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent
+adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity,
+and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It
+was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading
+citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his
+appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular
+propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of
+American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city
+which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with
+our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in
+America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple
+and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom
+freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense
+of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his
+declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized
+misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to
+rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our
+purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography.
+"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis
+Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe
+scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo
+Austriaco. Quest' uomo è Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandonò gli agi
+Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose
+battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua
+penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sarà una
+spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.]
+
+Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the
+Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest
+patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the
+peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in
+all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in
+conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of
+the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the
+revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and
+again, spasmodic and abortive _émeutes_, the calm protest of a
+D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property,
+freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision
+useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the
+oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice
+by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this
+deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern
+muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this
+identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the
+letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of
+Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which
+Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their
+self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess
+d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of
+Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with
+political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more
+or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to
+come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart
+from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect
+of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten
+years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That
+Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and
+realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every
+intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the
+Sardinian state, knows.
+
+A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual
+enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent
+countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted
+press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign
+bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly.
+In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign
+tongue, the _caffès_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and
+under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of
+the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the
+eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce
+an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights,
+property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech,
+being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of
+Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and
+zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the
+senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation
+hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the
+inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates
+political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical
+resources become available; talent finds scope, character
+self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and
+genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably
+reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws
+or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite
+extension and salutary reign.
+
+In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into
+the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and
+administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military,
+political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed
+and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his
+studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought,
+and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation
+of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the
+subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the
+inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of
+reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to
+appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when
+suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as
+it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and
+enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete
+feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this
+wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political
+organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest
+princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose
+far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the
+fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to
+hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the
+vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and
+patriotic agricultural class.
+
+Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers
+linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence
+or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to
+detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and
+alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the
+charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed
+stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught
+with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway
+and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the
+Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place
+is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces
+emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is
+no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the
+crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort
+of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our
+footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the
+splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in
+extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous
+school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew
+scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the
+Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city
+dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave
+refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually
+concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of
+ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary
+resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the
+Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this
+halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus
+of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent.
+But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree
+consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later
+generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers,
+and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which
+stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he
+roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers,"
+traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in
+Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were
+slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of
+St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and
+Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It
+is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy
+and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved,
+triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so
+assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal
+Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for
+centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word,
+Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who
+called her "_città bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna
+del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination,
+with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights,
+the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties
+and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and
+State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the
+transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since
+consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway.
+
+When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna,
+whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of
+Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young
+advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is
+this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and
+natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent
+appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of
+Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the
+Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he
+crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian
+to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in
+the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the
+Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial
+knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his
+liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and
+disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and
+courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of
+their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and
+secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the
+Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and
+holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes
+of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The
+delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of
+Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to
+the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this
+mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter
+shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of
+retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the
+chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the
+perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was
+executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or
+even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected
+were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically
+described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was
+denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on,
+to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the
+means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still
+further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they
+had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in
+arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she
+had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the
+imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously
+prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made
+instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of
+the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate,
+uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources
+of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual
+character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes
+roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told
+they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved
+one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety,
+of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to
+startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what
+conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into
+inadvertent disloyalty.
+
+At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the
+son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their
+conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer,
+who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official
+convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved
+upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly
+guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently
+through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to
+the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to
+destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and
+poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the
+vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a
+labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient
+Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped
+from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the
+vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw
+and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to
+his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate
+anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his
+direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred
+compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had
+transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the
+firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray
+the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable
+victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of
+Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that
+suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of
+arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of
+tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and
+sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to
+which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a
+book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were
+shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife
+into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side
+and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on
+the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but,
+probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many
+hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering
+his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two
+Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It
+was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible
+representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a
+secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted
+each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the
+conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a
+crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long
+outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth
+into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his
+allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered,
+and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The
+Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of
+a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed
+the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his
+delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and
+allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical,
+and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the
+public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete
+revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret
+conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move
+the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with
+two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows.
+Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by
+ingenious moral torture.
+
+If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive
+humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for
+picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally
+will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of
+victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler
+will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that
+which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve,
+1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more
+distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only
+spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous
+old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where
+the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in
+dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic
+associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the
+household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and
+Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus,
+the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the
+firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of
+commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the
+cheerful arcades that shade the _caffès_ remind us of the "harmless
+comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome,
+balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here
+caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music,
+love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while
+the shadow of a dark _façade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the
+anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more
+remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the
+beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local
+associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel.
+Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas
+festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with
+spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the
+Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the
+Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San
+Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of
+soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid
+the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory
+of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest,
+such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies
+a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces
+dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on
+all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented,
+from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of
+the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the
+marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the
+few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which
+occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause,
+and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the
+best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny
+had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and
+countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed
+was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral
+facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold
+were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by
+Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of
+imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime;
+ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in
+that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but
+gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration
+upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force,
+and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that
+multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity.
+
+And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear,
+well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it
+was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase,
+_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an
+electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned
+faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these
+simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_,
+called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a
+sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere
+duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for
+fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted.
+
+This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of
+the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of
+the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and
+terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy
+forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more
+than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in
+ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to
+die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance,
+while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid
+itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful
+executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth
+saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years'
+imprisonment.
+
+From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St.
+Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The
+better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the
+_cortége_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs;
+"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when
+night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of
+instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing
+honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police,
+terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to
+every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful
+unto death in vain.
+
+These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications,
+within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples.
+The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of
+the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished
+themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in
+durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or
+European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation,
+and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers,
+advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of
+character. Those known in America, either personally or by their
+writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla,
+Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and
+1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly
+heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as
+a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and
+progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically
+established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction
+invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European
+despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled,
+postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the
+development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph.
+
+The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every
+circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial
+and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still
+night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the
+condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and
+chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches
+they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice
+to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners
+and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary
+weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country
+and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when
+neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can
+adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of
+soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy
+prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of
+a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of
+ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and
+noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the
+strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs,
+respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their
+sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in
+disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very
+commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from
+their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue,
+greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had
+exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of
+Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain
+prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval
+castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before
+the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of
+confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a
+thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of
+malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of
+patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and
+eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a
+mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen
+jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were
+immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court
+and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome;
+an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded
+muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the
+Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world
+was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were
+guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest,
+who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the
+agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired
+in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was
+unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold
+obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the
+very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine.
+Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system
+somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg
+was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of
+Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime,
+and the severest _régime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn,
+and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to
+ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings,
+moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality.
+
+The details of this experience are familiar through current European
+memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian
+prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as
+well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English
+factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in
+the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen
+of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote:
+_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO.
+Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was
+all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that
+noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence
+and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by
+these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect
+intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed
+their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital
+injuries of the _régime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another
+the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by
+gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by
+insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each
+other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an
+indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli
+sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his
+leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday
+in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of
+beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to
+communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original
+edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen
+interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at
+Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the
+captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so
+exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa.
+Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with
+the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in
+such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That,"
+whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless
+mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods
+oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Mémoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par
+ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.]
+
+This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and
+philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of
+justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair
+which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits
+of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of
+robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the
+want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and
+permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard
+him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet
+suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a
+pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official
+in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed
+it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what
+triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the
+solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his
+self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant
+rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth,
+which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into
+the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in
+his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his
+wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance
+of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived
+from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting
+reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the
+habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their
+functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at
+Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the
+legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left
+uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the
+Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual
+expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and
+the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak
+fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go,
+night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred
+or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of
+life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender
+sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of
+knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank,
+existence a void!
+
+Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of
+humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we
+should find it in the self-preservation realized under such
+circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity
+against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and
+pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and
+beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative
+force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and
+uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method
+thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant
+imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts
+in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle.
+Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and
+force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful
+disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart;
+incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion
+from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to
+middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving
+nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America.
+Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress;
+and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a
+single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all
+read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a
+spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the
+companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle
+absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little
+plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate
+flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of
+these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of
+life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to
+tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from
+without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_,
+as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's
+incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the
+supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate
+occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile
+inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will,
+and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the
+twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night
+canopied aggravating dreams.
+
+  "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought,
+  Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought."
+
+Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the
+compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their
+dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died
+(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public
+prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his
+accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning
+them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity
+did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights,
+their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In
+November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had
+welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and
+wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the
+director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with
+congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and
+they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where
+comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and
+newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the
+hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects
+associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the
+hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold
+streets, _caffès_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of
+life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel
+the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living
+history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors,
+converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire
+transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation
+had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a
+reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement,
+prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness;
+they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or
+sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their
+sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their
+very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them
+to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy,
+where a milder atmosphere prevailed.
+
+How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed
+monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and
+kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of
+civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their
+liberation suddenly introduced them!
+
+Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that
+melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It
+was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages
+with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through
+which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns
+where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed
+to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to
+be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the
+Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was
+consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape;
+they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to
+bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local
+celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their
+excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid
+them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred
+and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace
+them.
+
+Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and
+respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between
+prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages
+arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While
+the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished
+appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom
+so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore
+to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she
+attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned
+to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave
+Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of
+Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be
+fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die
+for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I
+have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May
+God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards
+learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of
+Prussia.
+
+On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste,
+and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war
+whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable
+in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter
+of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm
+clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them,
+not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for
+which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly
+two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel
+was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they
+fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they
+beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction
+with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such
+protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed,
+was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground.
+
+Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their
+compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the
+consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles.
+Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his
+purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and
+inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the
+more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend.
+Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and
+kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis
+of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent
+prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his
+dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the
+strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the
+revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the
+frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by
+French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his
+adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and
+unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to
+retrieve the fate of Italy.
+
+Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United
+States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of
+his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his
+character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated
+and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At
+the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent
+had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to
+annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were
+justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent
+moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high
+and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars,
+citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real
+genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with
+the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their
+aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental;
+for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure
+enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but
+most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock.
+Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs
+"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with
+the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the
+sympathy of the civilized world.
+
+The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed
+by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years
+domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitué_ of
+his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous,
+and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of
+antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen
+perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at
+least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days
+of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand,
+and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation
+had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue
+whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the
+age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when
+faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its
+virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's
+humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his
+country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a
+volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico
+under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as
+it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in
+its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a
+landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his
+youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters
+of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions
+peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his
+experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his
+companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and
+usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his
+fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian
+Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to
+the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fêtes_, from the numerous
+friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of
+social enjoyment and genial activity.
+
+Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as
+the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in
+Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists,
+every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in
+reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his
+American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then
+that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the
+spontaneity of his race.
+
+Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly
+Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large
+experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system,
+rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in
+discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English
+politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification
+of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he
+yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like
+those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several
+occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power
+on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn
+in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of
+Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious
+son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he
+sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose
+glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly
+affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the
+prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew
+always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of
+government, because he could discover in them the true love of
+nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension,
+beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely
+tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the
+unchanged serenity of his bearing."
+
+Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography
+almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly
+pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful
+epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer
+and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to
+be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was
+_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof
+is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he
+used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the
+Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he
+called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected
+and honored.
+
+The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as
+the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence
+of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a
+foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport,
+under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had
+so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are
+aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and
+how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may
+never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his
+devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not
+belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and
+philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to
+the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than
+satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of
+Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio,
+breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you
+belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see
+things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage
+developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign
+of the times when the land which protected such an exile was
+represented by him in that of his nativity.
+
+Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource
+thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American
+friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated
+immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand
+pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus
+honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of
+Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an
+effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill
+and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning
+of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his
+eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the
+Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres
+and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory
+of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of
+his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful
+to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient
+city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor,
+the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the
+refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state
+where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest
+aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social
+vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his
+pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the
+Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena,
+through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo,
+by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the
+captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of
+Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of
+which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the
+less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary,
+official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LARVAE.
+
+
+My little maiden of four years old
+  (No myth, but a genuine child is she,
+With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold)
+  Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me.
+
+Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,--
+  As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her,
+She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm
+  A horrible, crawling caterpillar!"
+
+And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother,
+  Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy,
+She added,--"While they were about it, mother,
+  I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!"
+
+They were words to the thought of the soul that turns
+  From the coarser form of a partial growth,
+Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns
+  With an unknown glory to crown them both.
+
+Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes,
+  On whatso beside thee may creep and cling,
+For the possible beauty that underlies
+  The passing phase of the meanest thing!
+
+What if God's great angels, whose waiting love
+  Beholdeth our pitiful life below,
+From the holy height of their heaven above,
+  Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow?
+
+
+
+
+THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*]
+
+[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and
+France.]
+
+[Continued.]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE QUILTING.
+
+By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to
+the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a
+campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to
+their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy
+yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons,
+looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the
+leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at
+which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the
+treasure.
+
+As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the
+gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon,
+with her usual complement of baskets and bags.
+
+"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do
+believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and
+out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house
+heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately
+dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and
+exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white
+napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket
+on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a
+heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage.
+
+"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping
+her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks
+was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid
+two or tree little tings."
+
+Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between
+them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed
+triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the
+great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the
+twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of
+golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green
+leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and
+raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which
+Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue
+delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace,
+whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was
+conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she
+sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty.
+
+"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!"
+
+"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git
+married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey
+oughter hab plenty to do it wid."
+
+"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with
+busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!"
+
+"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with
+proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't
+put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday
+but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk
+someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I,
+'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my
+mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de
+sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de
+ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an'
+Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_
+quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de
+cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An'
+so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de
+'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin'
+good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf
+for his supper."
+
+"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder.
+
+"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar,
+'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her
+fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis
+arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de
+day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken
+sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could."
+
+"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't
+what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was
+thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times
+like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then
+they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say,
+Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up
+to us, and we'll put it through straight."
+
+"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done,
+an' I'll do it."
+
+Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with
+the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut
+the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential
+outpouring to Miss Prissy.
+
+"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn;
+'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat
+'twould be to somebody else, ye know."
+
+Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan.
+
+"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_
+wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar
+a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was
+tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de
+world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is
+r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_
+tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a
+feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm
+waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to
+all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire
+Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on
+him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope
+no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it
+in my bones_."
+
+Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that
+she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this
+particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will
+perceive has its conveniences.
+
+"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last
+year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck
+straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss
+Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'"
+
+"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange
+things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't
+believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in
+the house after."
+
+"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a
+heap more'n dey likes to tell!"
+
+"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was
+watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we
+heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to
+come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just
+dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for
+pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down
+and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I
+see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a
+grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!"
+
+Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her
+voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper.
+
+"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause.
+
+"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it,"
+said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear
+brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes,
+laid him out in white flannel."
+
+"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a
+sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down
+one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an'
+she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a
+man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de
+harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.'
+But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally
+disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any
+way, 'cause he sunk tree times."
+
+"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more
+things in this world than folks know about."
+
+"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to
+nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I
+dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his
+hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de
+water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith,
+wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I
+ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says
+people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to
+de ole 'spensation."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to
+think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?"
+
+"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers
+wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to
+run clar."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You
+see, it may have reference to the state of his soul."
+
+"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream,"
+she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can
+judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_"
+
+"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the
+confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion.
+
+"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't
+like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's
+kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings
+knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit
+_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor."
+
+At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to
+this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss
+Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her
+cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they
+had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew
+around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation,
+upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary
+suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible
+relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this
+strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish.
+
+A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to
+strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and
+facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it
+would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was
+getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was
+to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and
+discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch
+from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her
+spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring,
+half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a
+less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of
+slight intoxication.
+
+But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to
+Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying
+round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins,
+wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the
+notion that she actually existed in forty places at once.
+
+Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an
+altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of
+her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in
+sententious expressions.
+
+"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she
+stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid
+transits through the apartment.
+
+"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?"
+
+"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said
+Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own
+wit.
+
+By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel
+arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy
+Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a
+most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad,
+expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the
+cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced
+our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some
+fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new
+Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon
+Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and
+tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned.
+
+The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo;
+and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over
+it; and conversation went on briskly.
+
+Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with
+hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall
+china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of
+an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two
+quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with
+drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful
+combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it.
+
+"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a
+flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as
+a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that
+Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I
+ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a
+minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or
+leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come
+just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would
+understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a
+dress fitted here, to let me try it."
+
+At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won
+the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her
+needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among
+the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as
+being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical
+opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their
+minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite
+captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she
+lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her
+mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent
+herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than
+from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young
+people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of
+course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with
+the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a
+forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the
+parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company.
+
+Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by
+declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any
+girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting
+up housekeeping in a meeting-house.
+
+"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?"
+
+"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have
+some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet."
+
+"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of
+the ladies.
+
+"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread
+with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years'
+voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married,
+I'm going up to have one of those fellows."
+
+It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this
+very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking,
+conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to
+preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her
+father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine
+of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a
+most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the
+consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison
+that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen
+confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at
+the demonstration.
+
+"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that
+'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk
+about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic
+melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities."
+
+"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding
+now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney
+with any girl."
+
+This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no
+young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled
+Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney
+and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the
+consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh.
+
+"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an
+elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she
+could knit a long cotton stocking in a day."
+
+"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?"
+said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame.
+
+"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a
+pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning
+or fine stitching."
+
+Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the
+chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that
+has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some
+gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at
+everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready
+with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but
+once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn
+were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed
+in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in
+low and gentle tones.
+
+"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to
+me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but
+eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some
+respects the dearest friend I have."
+
+"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except
+that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed
+to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to
+hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in
+the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she
+added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how
+dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really,
+truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"--
+
+"I can," said Mary, firmly.
+
+At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of
+sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths,
+suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor.
+
+Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by
+James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd
+coincidences that make hearts throb.
+
+"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he
+is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this
+come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail
+out of my heart."
+
+Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said
+Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a
+moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss
+Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through
+the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came
+to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his
+study, and all the people are wondering where you are."
+
+Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to
+be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen,
+where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision
+which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the
+trouble of recapitulating in detail.
+
+The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was
+redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's
+pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising
+his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board.
+
+Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted
+together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious
+matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular
+secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote
+family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly
+how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian
+corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by
+hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a
+brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to
+make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put
+down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just
+as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859.
+
+Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with
+excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport
+gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she
+communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not
+trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a
+confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer
+was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited
+young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of
+the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in
+which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious,
+well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that
+by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together.
+
+Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so
+heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not
+last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted
+soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her
+clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on
+the way home, if he found the courage to do so.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the
+Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long,
+sleep settled down on the brown cottage.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to
+sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come
+off yit."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+AN ADVENTURE.
+
+
+A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather
+shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon
+sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous
+stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the
+outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much
+glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had
+its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the
+under or the upper world.
+
+Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them,
+which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in
+high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each
+new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little
+child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose
+strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and
+whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes
+and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which
+seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it
+could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon
+constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of
+nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races,
+whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with
+the most intense persistency lower down.
+
+Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to
+form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than
+to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always
+seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh
+at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic
+coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in
+French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent
+surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different
+from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her
+a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms
+of opera and theatre and romance.
+
+After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a
+point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to
+a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the
+sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining
+day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each
+several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking
+gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet.
+
+Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful
+reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and
+chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze.
+Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her
+as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let
+down its long silky waves upon her shoulders.
+
+"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I
+will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads
+beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that
+is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without
+learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a
+hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity
+this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but
+there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair
+Miranda, look at thyself!"
+
+Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know
+how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the
+rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the
+fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a
+fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths
+of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose
+on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture.
+
+"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a
+true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand."
+
+She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did
+not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de
+Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart
+beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk
+bodice.
+
+"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who
+intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as
+invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with
+either.
+
+Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly
+frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted
+adornments.
+
+"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that
+time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed
+her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural
+impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the
+picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting
+the wearer to the scene."
+
+Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds
+himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and
+character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to
+pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame
+de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and
+compliments.
+
+"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be
+returning to the house."
+
+This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at
+the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty
+air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm.
+
+"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which
+never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused
+time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find
+that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came
+here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without
+some assistance."
+
+Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh
+afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the
+rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had
+been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their
+heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a
+strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a
+frail, unaided woman.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the
+possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any
+exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my
+arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks."
+
+He paused and waited for their answer.
+
+Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the
+wild beating of her heart.
+
+"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks."
+
+"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of
+rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy
+agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards
+them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to
+set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she
+did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a
+feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to
+Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away
+towards the sea.
+
+Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf
+coming in, and the next wave may carry you out."
+
+"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head.
+
+"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her
+arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which
+went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears.
+
+"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist.
+
+She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and
+placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing
+followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around
+the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the
+slight and graceful form were strung with steel.
+
+Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of
+grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the
+coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when
+the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation.
+
+Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the
+incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered
+an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a
+necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the
+circumstances, to refuse.
+
+He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet,
+natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark
+to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying,
+as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience
+from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to
+call soon and inquire after their health.
+
+Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace,
+turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few
+minutes, followed her.
+
+She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her
+breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance,
+she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry.
+
+"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in
+spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking
+your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves,
+we only hurt ourselves with our anger."
+
+"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that
+is gone"----
+
+"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we
+stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is
+so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage
+put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would
+have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you
+thought."
+
+The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and
+took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious,
+rational.
+
+"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you.
+You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart,
+you must not see this man any more."
+
+"But he will call."
+
+"I will see him for you."
+
+"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?"
+
+"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him."
+
+"That is hard;--he will wonder."
+
+"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to
+him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be
+agreeable for us to receive calls from him."
+
+"Mary, _ma chère_, you astonish me!"
+
+"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel,
+wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this
+way. I will protect you."
+
+And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her
+father looked when he protested against the slave-trade.
+
+"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by
+Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear
+saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature;
+he has the angel in him."
+
+"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love."
+
+"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if
+you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the
+rocks!--there were tears in his eyes"
+
+"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend;
+no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad,
+that saw you a few months ago."
+
+"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the
+mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see
+those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her
+summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and
+Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying
+another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that
+sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones.
+
+The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just
+on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant
+she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a
+saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an
+adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and
+no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever
+you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+PLAIN TALK.
+
+
+Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night.
+The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just
+passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked
+upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced
+woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal
+realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities,
+that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their
+hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of
+heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her
+essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words
+of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people
+essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation,
+which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the
+religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form
+essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under
+which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a
+surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading,
+though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized
+and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous
+words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so
+that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in
+her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his
+portrait of an ideal woman:--
+
+  "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat
+  Build in her loftiest, and create an awe
+  About her as a guard angelic placed."
+
+The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was
+spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when
+Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement.
+
+"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de
+Frontignac will not go down."
+
+Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was
+gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked
+eager and agitated.
+
+"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to
+tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness
+yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less."
+
+"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't
+be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am
+afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are
+so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder
+that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful."
+
+"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold
+little hands that trembled in hers.
+
+"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy
+you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy.
+Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully
+forward.
+
+Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him
+good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not
+the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure.
+
+"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?"
+said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation.
+
+"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you."
+
+"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern.
+
+"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you."
+
+Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added,
+
+"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your
+acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean,
+Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we
+should prefer not to receive calls from you."
+
+"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness."
+
+"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery
+in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth
+plainly and in a spirit of love."
+
+"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not
+otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the
+impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of
+understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious
+sentence, but I bow to it in submission."
+
+"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the
+eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of
+easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal
+soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits
+which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great
+injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in
+your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen,
+penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near
+you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable,
+interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that
+reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and
+treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave
+it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have
+treated Madame de Frontignac."
+
+"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what
+representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you,
+our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could
+desire."
+
+"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken
+the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition,
+wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but
+their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember
+the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but
+he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor
+had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to
+give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give
+her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her
+soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a
+light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be?
+one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are
+going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a
+faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all
+men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity
+and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should
+despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own
+heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she
+cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to
+the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very
+soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her,
+and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own
+heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and
+broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing.
+
+Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were
+dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil
+demon of his life.
+
+It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have
+been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and
+women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever
+demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural
+constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or
+vile.
+
+The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was
+struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair,
+inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his
+heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet
+that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole
+wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly
+stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together,
+resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself.
+
+In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and,
+approaching him, said,--
+
+"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the
+liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly."
+
+"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and
+speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern;
+"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I
+only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not
+altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been
+passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real
+nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment
+with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any
+commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me."
+
+"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It
+is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible,
+without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The
+injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and
+greater one to it."
+
+Burr looked thoughtful.
+
+"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks.
+
+Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence
+of every heart.
+
+"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying
+this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your
+fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I
+cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot
+help wishing that you would examine and reconsider."
+
+"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and
+appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs.
+Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control
+of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say,
+not had the effect you would desire."
+
+Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again;
+and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,--
+
+"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe
+me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me."
+
+He bowed, and was gone.
+
+An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his
+seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar
+political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had
+made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man;
+and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his
+short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his
+most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of
+admiration.
+
+It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving
+Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself
+little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which
+Madame de Frontignac still regarded him.
+
+We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so
+singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a
+perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible
+rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object
+of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond
+self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the
+foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a
+disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as
+the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature
+of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the
+asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid
+discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence;
+and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his
+better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then,
+to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective
+ethical creeds.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES.
+
+
+We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a
+few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de
+Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of
+the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chère Sybille_," said
+Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks
+glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voilà
+encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?"
+
+"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you."
+
+"What did you tell him?"
+
+"I told him that you wished me to excuse you."
+
+"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?"
+
+"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary.
+
+"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said
+Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember
+anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and
+never see you any more."
+
+"Oh, _mimi_, never!"
+
+Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look
+of utter despair as went to Mary's heart.
+
+"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah,
+well, what shall Virginie do now?"
+
+"You have your husband," said Mary.
+
+"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him."
+
+"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a
+kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be
+grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may
+come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what
+you say is true, than the one who has injured you so."
+
+"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we
+find it too easy to love our enemies."
+
+"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently
+in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of
+your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As
+you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the
+only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in
+self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you
+can feel for your husband."
+
+"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet
+snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my
+arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head
+upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool
+verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow
+still and quiet like you."
+
+Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to
+be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally
+gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the
+healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to
+enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite
+social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations,
+caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she
+moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by
+acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the
+exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with
+avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a
+wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain
+artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the
+religious life by which she was surrounded.
+
+"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes
+said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she
+added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and
+the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut
+avouer_."
+
+We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may
+not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which
+showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she
+felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in
+the correspondence.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from
+the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most
+worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They
+are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do
+not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let
+us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all
+worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little,
+pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbé, he only smiles;
+and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be.
+
+"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing
+tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like
+Lafontaine's rat.
+
+"These people in the country here in America have a character quite
+their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for
+the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which
+exist in the Old World.
+
+"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always
+industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards
+each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to
+the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other
+man, and marries and has children.
+
+"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are
+perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no
+carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they
+meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or
+two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long,
+long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to
+comprehend.
+
+"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of
+my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has
+such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she
+would certainly have been made a saint.
+
+"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the
+family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above
+this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty
+and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this
+detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so
+proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so
+ashamed for her inconsistencies.
+
+"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for
+the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered,
+what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as
+he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores
+him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however,
+has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man,
+who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the
+cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and
+prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's
+heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have
+gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and
+goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to
+be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know,
+here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants,
+but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning
+and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated
+and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For
+these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all
+things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens
+together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have
+taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which
+makes a noise like the humming of a bee.
+
+"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good
+priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted
+him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and
+religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations
+for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other
+night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the
+neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see.
+
+"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are
+allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together,
+and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties.
+And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their
+marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked.
+This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the
+details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further
+as it progresses.
+
+"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving
+
+"Virginie."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.
+
+
+Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with
+that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters
+when they know precisely what they are about.
+
+The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each
+of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value
+precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive
+and systematic schemes.
+
+It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least,
+to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that
+no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing,
+the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and
+running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently
+slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house.
+
+Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul!
+he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From
+morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy
+consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs.
+Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered
+what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a
+while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to
+pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into
+which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous
+women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first
+pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned
+disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his
+system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the
+ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the
+matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find
+everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have
+unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind
+accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on
+his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not
+a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the
+room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently
+demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed,
+and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed
+through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and
+washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put
+up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there
+was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary.
+But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind
+to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic
+practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by
+simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in
+similar circumstances.
+
+The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in
+every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in
+the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has
+fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic
+fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal
+of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the
+promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises
+that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular
+inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that
+one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the
+existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of
+subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords
+of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our
+Doctor has done.
+
+In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by
+humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod
+of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her
+opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the
+wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical
+part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed
+him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of
+mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay
+spread out upon a table for inspection.
+
+Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively
+downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as
+she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something
+deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required
+to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that
+his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that
+almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was
+repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and
+fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one
+of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had
+taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact,
+the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he
+looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled
+them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with
+grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and
+properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white
+ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley
+on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an
+air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur
+of universal approbation broke out.
+
+"_Il a de la délicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been
+watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud
+acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to
+the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had
+distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he
+retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well
+pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and
+Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held
+a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de
+Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had
+risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into
+the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few
+hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just
+like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might
+almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions.
+
+The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks
+so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put
+away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat
+quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the
+house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had
+surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up
+to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer
+man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming
+solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with
+some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the
+placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat
+pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the
+trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy
+Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek
+wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk
+in a July day.
+
+"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!"
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week,
+but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I
+_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy
+damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all
+the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they
+might be."
+
+We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high
+stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very
+small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always
+indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many
+others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she
+remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however,
+cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the
+confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very
+evident that she had come with one on her mind now.
+
+"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after
+sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has
+something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it.
+
+Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the
+two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated
+cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending
+branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a
+seclusion as perfect as heart could desire.
+
+They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took
+off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her
+black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some
+glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something
+appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident
+signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as
+unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer.
+
+Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover,
+remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary
+could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary
+answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:--
+
+"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister,
+anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would
+anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mary, innocently.
+
+"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I
+_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls
+who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind
+to try."
+
+"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly.
+
+"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy,
+giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while
+mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all
+that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a
+temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that
+there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best
+friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working
+your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't
+know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat
+demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny
+black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder
+with something that she was going to say next.
+
+"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take
+'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?"
+
+"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly.
+
+"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like
+it, don't I?"
+
+"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the
+whole, I think you do."
+
+"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_
+finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you
+have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man
+_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent
+tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides,"
+she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage
+him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the
+doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that
+creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him."
+
+"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?"
+
+"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't!
+Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't
+do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I
+have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to
+do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes."
+
+Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately
+after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:--
+
+"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for
+he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he
+hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects
+himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him,
+and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse
+and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to
+keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his
+body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers
+don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his
+saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was
+perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody
+think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it
+last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had
+derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man
+really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I
+asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody
+says she would make a first-rate minister's wife."
+
+"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary.
+
+"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking
+down.
+
+Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark
+lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were
+nestling, and said, quietly,--
+
+"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the
+matter entirely to his judgment."
+
+"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you
+think it would injure _him_, if I should?"
+
+"I think not, materially," said Mary.
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the
+mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of
+her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There
+isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I
+should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would
+become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that
+I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any
+way."
+
+"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary.
+
+"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it
+these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is
+the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me
+against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue
+with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of
+provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no
+use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think
+about it."
+
+As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet
+with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there
+was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety
+of her face.
+
+Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the
+other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's
+arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale,
+spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and
+radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom.
+
+"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may
+as well walk with me. It's pleasant now."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet."
+
+In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those
+little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and
+juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could
+not leave thinking of.
+
+Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea,
+now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there
+came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were
+harvesting in adjoining meadows.
+
+They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has
+once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that
+_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks
+are apt to be indefinitely extended.
+
+Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the
+world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently
+interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with
+her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if
+they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion
+in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been
+surprised to find it so small.
+
+In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they
+were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of
+returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she
+came home.
+
+[To be continued.]
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+LION LLEWELLYN.
+
+
+Singing, shining, beautiful May
+Lureth me, draweth me, all the day.
+Once, when the season wooed me so,
+Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go,
+Pacing before or close beside,
+Reticent, quaint, and dignified,
+Roaming with me, wandering wide;
+And if ever thy feet inclined,
+Weary with roving, to lag behind,
+When were my arms to aid thee slow?
+"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!"
+
+Not to the pines, my warrior gray,
+Gray and stately and scarred as they,--
+Not to the hill, or the valley glen,
+Shall we wander together again.
+
+Nevermore, in the dead of night,
+Shall I waken in cold affright,--
+Waken at sounds I know too well,
+Growl defiant, and horrid yell,
+Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell
+Strife is raging, and blood is shed,
+Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread.
+Nevermore, from my bed, shall I
+Unto the chamber-window fly,
+
+There, by the wintry moon, to spy
+Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,--
+Mounting still, from the crafty foe
+Creeping and crawling up below;
+And, when thou canst no farther go,
+See thee crouch for the fearful leap
+Off the top of the old well-sweep,
+Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep,
+Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep.
+Nor, for a lameness gotten so,
+Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no!
+
+Nevermore, from my willing hand
+Winning the all I can command,
+Shall be heard the pathetic tone,
+(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,)
+Making thy simple wishes known;
+Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r"
+Of thy tranquil thunderous purr
+Breathe again, to my ear attent,
+Bliss o'erflowing and deep content.
+
+As I fondly muse on thee,
+I recall the spreading tree
+Of thy goodly pedigree,
+Which, of shapely branch or bough,
+Hath no fairer growth than thou;
+And my glance caressing now
+Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow,
+Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not,
+Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot,
+Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch,
+Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch,
+Zillah, Zillah Number Two,
+Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo,
+Hiawatha, And, and If,
+Minnehaha, But, and Tiff,
+Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray,
+Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway,
+Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae,
+Nippenicket, Dido, Puck,
+Minnesinger, Friar Tuck,
+Periwinkle, Winkle Less,
+Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess,
+Midget, Budget, Mayaret,
+Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette,
+Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet,
+Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn,
+Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam,
+Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam,
+Tomtit, Pug, Penelope,
+Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie,
+
+Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan,
+Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban,
+Filibuster, Jonathan,--
+Name them all who may, who can;
+For the half has not been told
+Of the branches I behold
+On the honored parent-stem,
+And the later growth from them.
+
+Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend,
+Brave and gentle to the end,
+Would that I once more might hail,
+Like a banner on the gale,
+Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail!
+And thy furry coat of mail,
+Like the striped and spotted skin
+Of thy savage leopard kin,
+Would I might again caress
+With the old-time tenderness!
+
+Why do I talk of what may not be?
+For the pillow of him I fain would see
+Was changed long since from my motherly knee
+To the garden, under the willow-tree,--
+Weeping-willow and flowering moss.
+Over it riseth nor pile nor cross;
+We, who only have felt his loss,
+Needing no sculptured stone to tell
+How he battled, and how he fell,
+Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well.
+
+What is the destiny of his race?
+Is there, I wonder, no other place
+Whence they come or whither they go?
+Earth-existence the all they know?
+Does the living intelligence
+Die in them with the dying sense?
+Or, from the body passing hence,
+Does it find in another sphere
+Being in higher form than here?
+
+For summers twain, the willow kept
+Its watch where low the warrior slept,
+But, on the third, a blight had crept
+Upon the vigor of its frame;
+Nor knew we how or whence it came.
+
+Whisper it low and fearfully,
+The tale of ghostly mystery;
+For toothless crones and graybeards said
+That from the presence of the dead
+An influence around was shed,
+
+Like warlock's foul, unholy spell,
+Of malisons and curses fell,
+Which steeped that soil with venom dank,
+Of which the fated willow drank.
+
+Whether it were or were not so,
+At least so much as this we know,
+That on the willow fell decay;
+And though, when all things else grew gay,
+It feebly strove to look as they,
+Yet was its summer crown of pride
+Worn lightly, and soon cast aside,
+And when Spring found it, it had died.
+
+A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown,
+Now mark the place of his rest alone.
+
+I see that the soft west-wind to-day
+From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away,
+And wherever its fitful currents flow,
+Rising or falling, swift or slow,
+The tender petals like white wings go,
+Floating, eddying, wavering low,
+Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow;
+And under their light and flickering fall,
+The mound, and the flowering moss, and all,
+Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest.
+
+Thou that often these arms have pressed,
+Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,--
+Thou that takest thy colder rest,
+Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground,
+Close, but untenderly, folded round,--
+Ever, by thy drifted mound,
+Sleep, the Mystery, be found
+Most mysterious, most profound!
+And through her enchanted air,
+Lighter than petals fair,
+Brooding Peace sink downward there;
+And the blasted willow make
+Haunt perpetual, for thy sake!
+
+
+
+
+TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA.
+
+  "It were wise, nay, just,
+  To strike with men a balance: to forgive,
+  If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama.
+
+
+In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories
+and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same
+Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years
+afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of
+_citoyen Français_, when that new order was created by the Revolution.
+At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr.
+Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these
+occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a
+bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had
+been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the
+New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased
+with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with
+regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his
+destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache,
+introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of
+filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or
+assistant surveyor."
+
+The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in
+Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his
+life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a
+shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial
+experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him
+to become an American citizen.
+
+His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a
+free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic,
+--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense.
+With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he
+can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at
+sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible,"
+Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black
+flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered
+and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the
+"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after
+one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed;
+out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive,
+most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away
+from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time
+actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at
+Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and
+an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some
+reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months
+afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found
+employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a
+year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In
+1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist;
+and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for
+his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of
+salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece
+introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous
+Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern
+for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine."
+
+The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was
+separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman.
+After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate.
+
+His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia;
+but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the
+"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions
+were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections
+on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do
+not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still
+occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity.
+But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many
+years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may
+still be read with some interest:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen,
+rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with
+all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated
+beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian
+notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving
+visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private
+recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve
+her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that
+was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in
+her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with
+the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation
+to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation
+of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery
+of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is
+noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of
+her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her
+gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness;
+and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the
+riches of a necromancer's cell."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper,
+introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among
+others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to
+Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this
+communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and
+the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the
+venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen
+appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_,"
+as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his
+contemporaries. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.]
+
+Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as
+were in his hands towards completing a history of the present
+transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next
+spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished
+nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting
+out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to
+surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he
+thought of."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one
+of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England
+the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching
+storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On
+the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies
+would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775.
+During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington
+and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled
+about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came
+Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was
+open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had
+drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag.
+
+From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in
+their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots,
+militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in
+regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make
+out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to
+appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising
+revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament
+could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed
+excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of
+British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by
+the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial
+merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to
+independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion
+to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists
+insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men
+and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of
+Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors
+led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our
+respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of
+it.
+
+Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the
+rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it
+necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished
+to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and
+taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were
+confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a
+deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong
+personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second
+petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was
+disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming,
+and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for
+reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion,
+and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a
+constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief
+in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the
+Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal,
+hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds
+of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to
+dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He
+had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at
+all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which
+disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was
+impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle,
+it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against
+nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in
+January, 1776.
+
+Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the
+mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an
+impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent
+justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be
+managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant.
+_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a
+petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when
+obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few
+years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection
+of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars?
+"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy
+than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear
+of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence
+on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European
+politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation
+necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to
+establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were
+abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if
+not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century
+hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is
+no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the
+will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious
+opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as
+children of the same family, differing only in what is called their
+Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our
+affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of
+independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and
+difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a
+superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will
+become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent
+will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant
+business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about
+it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its
+necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument
+against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much
+weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote
+the same holy book in favour of slavery.
+
+The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true
+patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense".
+Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of
+a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a
+prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was
+beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright
+up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one
+hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr.
+Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams.
+
+It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General
+Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his
+reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded.
+The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to
+France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common
+Sense."
+
+It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence
+doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the
+touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew
+the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid
+a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it
+useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared.
+None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared
+independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread
+through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and
+believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would
+have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation.
+
+If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an
+expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776,
+look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much
+difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later,
+when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in
+the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of
+tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine
+founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote
+politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius
+Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression,
+semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were
+relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations
+of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise
+and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's
+coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the
+like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American
+party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight
+with the rank-and-file as his arguments.
+
+[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge
+to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common
+Sense."]
+
+Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst
+upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by
+all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon
+afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr.
+Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as
+a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had
+he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a
+place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism
+was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and
+even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine
+preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to
+know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee
+affectation, unknown to French idioms.
+
+[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."]
+
+In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp
+to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened
+with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until
+the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and
+Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good
+service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the
+old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and
+cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of
+"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee,
+and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December,
+when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts.
+It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try
+men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this
+crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it
+now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all,"
+he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort
+Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably
+planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the
+place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a
+cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the
+Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions.
+
+This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the
+honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were
+brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to
+demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a
+daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by
+every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every
+State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In
+their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage
+from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better
+calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to
+adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham
+admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as
+necessary and as formidable as its cannon."
+
+The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt
+certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was
+_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and
+ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a
+proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and
+cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who
+should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a
+"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America?
+If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than
+yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If
+you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do
+nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional
+dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to
+contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it;
+if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of
+water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to
+his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as
+much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out
+your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to
+do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation,
+betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In
+speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to
+take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose
+published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to
+Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves
+out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless,
+little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it
+again, but by payment and penitence."
+
+In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the
+Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy
+dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress
+in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a
+short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the
+defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe,
+and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right.
+The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they
+had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who,
+
+  "Unconscious of impending fates,
+  Could push through woods, but not through
+  Gates,"
+
+had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October.
+
+This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France,
+Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's
+admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and
+mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of
+the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America
+that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so
+indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that
+he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and
+paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could
+get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene,
+"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a
+proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the
+madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in
+the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not
+to attempt it.
+
+In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gérard, the
+first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to
+Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed
+Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to
+furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that
+Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to
+the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to
+receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances.
+Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the
+Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with
+Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He
+returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes
+already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no
+vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands,
+the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented.
+Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to
+the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so
+amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of
+it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal
+before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by
+John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to
+know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not
+from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles,
+entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these
+he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M.
+Gérard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false,
+and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party
+feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and
+English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in
+censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence;
+the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the
+Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also
+lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His
+resignation was then accepted.
+
+As the French government persisted in denying that the King had
+furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October,
+1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two
+millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais
+negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But
+neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another
+million.
+
+We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however
+injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best
+friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Loménie, in
+his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the
+justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success.
+He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless
+in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth
+of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim
+to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at
+all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his
+conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and
+recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose
+like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed
+into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The
+immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire
+himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office,
+Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was
+appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania.
+
+[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning
+of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the
+French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the
+Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home
+to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it
+reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de
+Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the
+strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in
+any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of
+Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with
+no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five
+millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were
+allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed
+forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but
+our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the
+money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a
+suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in
+borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial
+character for a nation to obtain.]
+
+Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving
+petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from
+taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and
+read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was
+in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could
+need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and
+mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour.
+"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing
+silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a
+member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he,
+'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there
+represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer.
+We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member
+endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an
+adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had
+neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals
+could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a
+letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the
+urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of
+the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund.
+The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's
+communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two
+hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for
+the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency,
+were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for
+the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best
+results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he
+developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated
+both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine
+followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the
+war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling,
+compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it
+would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to
+drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their
+system of taxation.
+
+Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every
+word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more
+remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did
+not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it,
+and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger
+sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms.
+Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even
+provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient
+which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow
+in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was
+appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a
+million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied
+him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously
+received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a
+present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the
+American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the
+presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a
+trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations
+of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention,
+as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for
+Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a
+half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward,
+which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine
+was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a
+pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel
+Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and
+brought his secretary safely home again.
+
+Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not
+last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union
+expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The
+want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was
+so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of
+Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if
+his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine
+consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect.
+This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage
+occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers.
+A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate
+peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the
+baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between
+such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which
+language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive,
+and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned
+by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression
+every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe
+better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient
+vocabulary.
+
+When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of
+independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis"
+announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the
+greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and
+happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her
+birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to
+the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance
+of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most
+laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began
+with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic
+life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in
+her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the
+reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair
+national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it
+possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies
+civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and
+commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a
+future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I
+ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great
+Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of.
+It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that
+which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he
+anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of
+whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them,
+originated with Thomas Paine.
+
+The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but
+no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had
+enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when
+his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere,
+"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's
+thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for
+there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect,
+much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to
+take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual
+theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away
+to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never
+reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my
+religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake,
+I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of
+this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the
+pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward."
+
+His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving
+not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The
+State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate,
+near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary
+fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred
+pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a
+similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared,
+demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This
+publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his
+grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we
+believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him
+over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the
+cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money.
+
+In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he
+received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky
+Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It
+ran thus:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at
+Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for
+either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see
+you here.
+
+"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this
+country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best
+exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who
+entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who,
+with much pleasure, subscribes himself
+
+"G. WASHINGTON."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of
+the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think
+so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial,"
+worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service.
+Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and
+told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and
+proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at
+last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed
+him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as
+Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and
+spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One
+evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on
+fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his
+Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb,
+is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few
+years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson.
+
+Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in
+Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and
+indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of
+Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical
+Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His
+reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his
+remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker
+or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see
+legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point,
+inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of
+the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by
+foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of
+the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested
+permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in
+Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens
+introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not
+belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was
+agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us;
+for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of
+maintaining a constant correspondence."
+
+In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have
+said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was
+an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that
+period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have
+succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby
+was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and
+twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the
+Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a
+spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the
+principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle
+was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a
+complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown;
+but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the
+working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his
+plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Académie des
+Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the
+celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbé Morellet, the Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of
+'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the
+minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a
+satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following
+resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:--
+
+"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr.
+Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late
+Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of
+Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens
+of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress."
+
+
+
+
+TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD."
+
+
+"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!"
+
+I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of
+the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough.
+Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts
+harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I
+have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for
+belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the
+human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after
+having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I
+determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the
+knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest
+confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had
+reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their
+invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning,
+like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the
+earth. I sunk into a brown study.
+
+In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He
+brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of
+illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and
+operation of his aërial ship.
+
+They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb.
+Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted
+to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains,"
+thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct
+the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an
+absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me,
+were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the
+Patent-Office at Washington.
+
+The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented
+the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of
+passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the
+drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes
+and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the
+atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface,
+and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate
+cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges
+and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above
+all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aëronauts report, there is ever a
+smooth, quiet atmospheric sea.
+
+"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that
+rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in
+ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human
+body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure
+as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly
+from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the
+finger-nails?"
+
+Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an
+angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to
+his ship.
+
+"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long,
+extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins
+always supplied with fresh and wholesome air."
+
+"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked.
+
+"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current,
+whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered
+as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's
+own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see,
+it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M----
+insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and
+the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going
+below, however, it almost instantly ceased."
+
+I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this
+extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power
+was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber,
+or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of
+two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it
+resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and
+resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon,
+that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in
+which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong
+flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened
+and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber.
+Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a
+particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember,
+was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth
+in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain
+the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and
+three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a
+considerable margin for freight.
+
+Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but
+ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine,
+and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to
+render it intelligible by mere description.
+
+The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore
+the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of
+a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided
+into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and
+so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment
+between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending
+from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship,
+connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally
+embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels,
+made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a
+steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the
+propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm,
+of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels.
+
+All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here
+repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined
+lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before
+been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new
+combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that
+the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated
+beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had
+demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics.
+
+I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a
+modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no
+dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of
+integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and
+bearing were those of a true man.
+
+Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old,
+from San Francisco?
+
+No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York
+Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose
+acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without
+pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge
+at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a
+very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a
+warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he
+professed to have made.
+
+In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after
+ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of
+perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object
+of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He
+had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above
+us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath,
+and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first
+trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the
+night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended
+north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow
+of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly
+distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to
+the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable
+results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route,
+northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several
+well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these
+times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states
+of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the
+occasion of these novel voyages.
+
+He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at
+Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand
+trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with
+important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our
+rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out,
+including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the
+head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and
+the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a
+few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city;
+which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back.
+Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in
+the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon
+was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner,
+Mons. De Aëry, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had
+managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on
+her second expedition across the American continent.
+
+Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a
+discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the
+practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform
+the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many
+valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to
+lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature,
+and the onward march of nations.
+
+Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of
+Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the
+prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible
+police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at
+least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence
+of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast
+changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail
+to effect.
+
+To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that
+the principal papers of the country had _attachés_ aboard on the first
+trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors,
+together with De Aëry and himself--were agreed that the matter should
+be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be
+established beyond the possibility of question.
+
+I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had
+been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of
+the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it
+was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to
+Mr. Bonflon.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aëry and myself spent years
+in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On
+the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the
+weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The
+spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the
+mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost
+us five thousand dollars and the labor of years."
+
+I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the
+usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His
+success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of
+its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments
+and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the
+master mind of this master century.
+
+Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held
+him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive
+intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In
+everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with
+originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his
+quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated
+him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his
+equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the
+future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze
+of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no
+confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were
+apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural
+sequences flowing from them.
+
+On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval,
+my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while
+externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was
+plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the
+extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a
+mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we
+nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in
+the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for
+ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger,
+must be left to unravel at its leisure.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or
+three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed
+around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay
+his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to
+return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic
+side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip
+to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party
+himself, and he invited me to accompany him.
+
+I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular
+instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the
+heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing,
+on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at
+high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the
+skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent
+cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aëry and
+himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station,
+or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but
+a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand
+at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on
+board the "Flying Cloud."
+
+I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I
+arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off
+in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be
+dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap
+in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would
+take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed.
+
+In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me
+to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented
+himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had
+returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed
+as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage;
+but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aëry had filled
+out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he
+(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were
+reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr.
+Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in
+doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was
+disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no
+look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no
+opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was
+as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt
+him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but
+the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was
+manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly
+presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or
+unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming
+within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming,
+had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion
+and electric telegraphing.
+
+Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes
+in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with
+a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if
+not reversed. He had seen De Aëry again. One or two of the expected
+passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel
+them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was
+to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the
+following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train.
+De Aëry and several others were already flying over the rail on their
+way to Philadelphia.
+
+I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of
+excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I
+frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to
+my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to
+plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on
+the strange and questionable adventure.
+
+The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon
+and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to
+admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and
+wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into
+a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the
+motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive
+visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected
+with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud."
+
+We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain
+some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the
+middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of
+our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first
+beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus
+satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere
+chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan,
+floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem
+of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make
+obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and
+plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of
+her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a
+great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief
+against the sky.
+
+But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and
+the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were
+already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and
+seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency
+of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement
+immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to
+create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an
+indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was
+attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the
+receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we
+approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway,
+and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period
+intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became
+instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way.
+
+The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible
+to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge
+water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward,
+like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At
+first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and
+distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next
+they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like
+fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains
+followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a
+hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding
+the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our
+course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a
+landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in
+our passage.
+
+What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships;
+but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were
+floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of
+the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the
+stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting
+the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter
+homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to
+the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon
+us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary
+condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail
+to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs.
+Bonflon and De Aëry must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and
+the common destiny of mankind!
+
+I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had
+asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade
+deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity
+of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in
+consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid,
+from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly
+susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case
+myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing,
+proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness,
+invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air.
+
+But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without
+obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal
+glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said
+there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars,
+yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake,
+waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to
+none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft,
+as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void,
+without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing
+to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure,
+however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of
+the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of
+usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified
+experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The
+force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here
+I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had
+likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set
+beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying
+Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to
+compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or
+so, down the rapids of a river.
+
+But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the
+dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher
+altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no
+fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim,
+despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was
+manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily
+greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better
+than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from
+what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid,
+lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or
+haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like
+a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless
+and devoid of life as a dead man's eye.
+
+Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak
+from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the
+comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I
+recognized _attachés_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of
+Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat
+acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than
+myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But
+their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they
+looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the
+windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud,"
+and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of
+what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and
+suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be
+likely to flow from the grand invention.
+
+What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little
+nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the
+absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our
+pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and
+to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, the
+proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds.
+It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness
+and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain
+quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about
+our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on
+nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which
+were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it
+required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it
+from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination.
+
+Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a
+night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature
+asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day
+and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this
+time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away,
+and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with
+all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his
+throne.
+
+But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aërial ocean, in which we
+were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or
+even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating
+plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was
+already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the
+distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a
+succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the
+clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to
+mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains,
+covered with perpetual snow.
+
+I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood
+out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in
+size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north,
+were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount
+Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to
+their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we
+were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and
+myself by Mr. De Aëry, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in
+vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which
+covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the
+exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view.
+
+Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen
+early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up
+with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified
+shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were
+directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt,
+fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity,
+such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out
+their beauty, their mystery, and their strength.
+
+On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the
+void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight
+to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified
+splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible
+to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling
+snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel
+mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand
+or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with
+black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the
+white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and
+precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening
+the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of
+Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name,
+were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us.
+
+No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the
+upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed
+point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of
+daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this
+mountain-scene of enchantment.
+
+De Aëry was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this
+extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired,
+mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an
+occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a
+native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the
+management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were
+gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those
+snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its
+round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised
+my voice and accosted him.
+
+"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this
+Atlas-top?"
+
+"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here."
+
+I went to him.
+
+"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to
+plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head."
+
+"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?"
+
+"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself
+on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching
+the crown of the pinnacle."
+
+I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He
+held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and
+occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride,
+spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the
+"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak,
+glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some
+venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter.
+
+"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aëry. "There is
+not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The
+'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to
+explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the
+bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy
+peak."
+
+"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and
+perish."
+
+"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a
+goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow
+looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag,
+unless I have a firm spot for my feet."
+
+By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern
+alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the
+ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in
+his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with
+a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its
+place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with
+the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of
+ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted
+a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the
+standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the
+farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that
+a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his
+purpose.
+
+A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the
+surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but
+a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like
+white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aëry, losing his
+balance, plunged over and went with it.
+
+We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had
+sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull
+sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an
+immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third
+of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave,
+broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment,
+all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering,
+like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister
+snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling
+and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went.
+
+By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and
+precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and,
+forgetting De Aëry, we watched the development of the phenomenon with
+terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as
+common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened
+and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing
+different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of
+devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction.
+Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its
+batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through
+valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a
+check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man
+would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed.
+Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or
+ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay
+heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us
+for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer
+wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill
+the dwellers among the Alps.
+
+As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts
+reverted to De Aëry. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was
+his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that
+catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many
+hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on
+bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman.
+He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand,
+and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at
+the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his
+voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted
+our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times
+three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the
+spot to De Aëry.
+
+But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious
+question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and
+spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands,
+whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated
+before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of
+snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in
+its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He
+hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great
+care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of
+half an hour, De Aëry, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul,
+rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored
+to our arms.
+
+Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the
+Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our
+number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences
+and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course
+for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us
+and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land,
+ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to
+take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the
+form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities,
+should be quite forgotten.
+
+We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little,
+luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild
+flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild,
+but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The
+foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps
+never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we
+saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops
+of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a
+drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence
+at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake
+at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the
+plateau was inhabited.
+
+Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some
+willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear
+mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam
+Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey
+Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With
+the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and
+songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aëry, as having by a
+hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his
+extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank
+of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much
+pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace.
+
+When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman
+had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his
+sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:--
+
+"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined
+because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to
+lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel
+cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow
+burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was
+pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was
+like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below
+one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the
+struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and
+nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in
+contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent
+avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw
+anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left
+behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at
+the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of
+seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it.
+But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag."
+
+High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for
+his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the
+American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of
+motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present
+failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some
+other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his
+laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In
+this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes.
+
+Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we
+weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a
+ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former
+altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the
+west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes,
+alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental
+enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster,
+until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to
+our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth,
+and we were again afloat in space.
+
+The following night and day were passed like their predecessors.
+Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of
+California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our
+remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of
+us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching
+the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably
+should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It
+was near midnight before all of us were in our berths.
+
+But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The
+excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have
+returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to
+relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to
+have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the
+wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement
+of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play,
+was rather a motion than a sound.
+
+This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange
+bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly
+changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some
+horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as
+though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it
+closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though
+subjected to a like crushing pressure.
+
+How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of
+knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and
+returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary
+events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was
+weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I
+had no voice.
+
+Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I
+attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers,
+undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of
+effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed
+for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain.
+The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out
+above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and
+there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine.
+Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true
+of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the
+Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray
+paper stuck upon a wall.
+
+Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I
+discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of
+the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but
+without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances
+nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange
+visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been
+subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a
+light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately
+its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron
+or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I
+tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a
+scale.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent
+island in the air. It was an immense aërolite; and with this conviction
+came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed
+beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that
+region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these
+meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse
+throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the
+surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at
+the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel
+to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aëry! All
+ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from
+myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of
+death.
+
+Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish,
+to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or
+insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with
+what little strength I had, but in vain.
+
+"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!"
+
+At length he opened his eyes, but did not move.
+
+"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let
+the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack
+of air."
+
+"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer.
+It can't--can't be morning yet."
+
+By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my
+strength.
+
+"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us
+all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!"
+
+With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which,
+like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo
+of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant
+faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious,
+took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him.
+
+From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of
+insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that
+he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our
+situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float
+forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until
+forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving
+atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But
+I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to
+look after their condition.
+
+As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient
+asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser
+air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within
+half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to
+consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights
+exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was
+crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a
+pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies.
+
+Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, when they came to realize the danger from
+which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The
+lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his
+single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept
+aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his
+Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me
+with expressions of obligation.
+
+But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass
+from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the
+main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our
+rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out,
+though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and
+almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should
+announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was
+in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace,
+we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire.
+
+Bonflon and De Aëry rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured
+out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a
+moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into
+which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the
+half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident
+occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing
+the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement,
+except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and
+partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was
+clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and
+themselves took the management of the craft.
+
+De Aëry, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a
+demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like
+the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and
+decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments
+of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the
+engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged,
+crackling ruin.
+
+Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became
+sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful
+rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level,
+on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in
+our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful
+was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the
+dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest!
+But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that
+we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth.
+
+De Aëry was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to
+great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to
+control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played
+about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke
+through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething
+hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had
+perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the
+furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet.
+
+"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he
+shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the
+flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon
+and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our
+number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say
+which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface
+of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and
+the hazard they most dreaded.
+
+The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely
+attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the
+whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass
+of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight,
+to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San
+Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid
+illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than
+astronomer has ever put on record.
+
+But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable
+from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from
+bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing
+upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the
+time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground,
+served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser
+lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most
+fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we
+struck in water instead of on the land.
+
+Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between
+us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half
+suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that
+awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves
+submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again
+by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of
+fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke
+to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound
+by the contrast.
+
+Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we
+kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water
+among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a
+small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but
+obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the
+day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on
+the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into
+each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by
+fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying
+Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones
+were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the
+worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no
+danger.
+
+No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed
+feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal
+safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De
+Aëry, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that
+part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary
+footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine
+by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A
+couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Señor José Dianza, who
+received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of
+robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us
+on to the city of the land of gold.
+
+It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return.
+They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous
+transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus
+route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our
+absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and
+some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their
+recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing
+gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly
+reappeared upon the stage of action.
+
+We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should
+remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought
+a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which
+covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too
+good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so
+near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be
+suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own
+responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to
+the world.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+DOG-TALK.
+
+
+Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the
+middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone
+my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some
+time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of
+dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first
+dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the
+bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming
+from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with
+which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing,
+and hydrophobiaephobia is another.
+
+Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is
+reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as
+much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which
+is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor,
+vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three
+blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his
+shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling
+breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be
+accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently
+inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my
+memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface.
+
+I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not
+prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of
+man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more
+voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow,
+Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of
+others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from
+the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of
+him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as
+tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious
+things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be
+necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man.
+
+Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark,
+so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more
+indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally
+referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for
+instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror,
+and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not
+one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man,
+excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a
+beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is.
+Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the
+"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us
+"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would
+make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything
+very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing
+things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is
+wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles
+beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs
+uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands.
+
+Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot
+concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called
+reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I
+think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals
+stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and
+master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his
+nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his
+ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the
+divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential
+consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite
+possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first
+argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far
+accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their
+descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered
+safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated
+bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least
+eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and
+we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned.
+
+Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a
+thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists
+in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in
+society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his
+first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to
+the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to
+humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a
+collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion,
+empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her
+wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in
+spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I
+have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the
+family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only
+by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which,
+if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I
+was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident
+friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of
+worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest
+to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few
+reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race.
+
+Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however,
+with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let
+me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French
+volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal
+innumerable.
+
+Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived
+principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he
+sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important
+duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was
+generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small
+to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his
+qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to
+collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he
+had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble.
+To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole
+arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his
+exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his
+saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the
+little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always
+regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy
+between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the
+chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded
+alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be
+laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be
+without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the
+inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of
+them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St.
+Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about
+halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it
+from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle
+to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of
+the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the
+holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his
+hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths,
+mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods,
+and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which
+lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer.
+Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag,
+which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose
+attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round
+and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract
+notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely
+in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his
+master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that
+occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia
+had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of
+the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which
+flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as
+he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and
+leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his
+holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes
+as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the
+death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his
+reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause
+of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he
+pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him:
+he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his
+faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well
+with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor
+spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to
+the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money,
+with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master,
+with a look of forgiveness, ere he died.
+
+The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that
+money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew;
+but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a
+retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so
+faithful to him in life and in death.
+
+Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the
+several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame
+Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose
+patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late
+"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the
+Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history,
+however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs
+remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly
+the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick
+Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed
+through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in
+print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and
+found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle
+period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow
+unsung.
+
+Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the
+least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to
+writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate
+notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat
+miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,--
+
+  "The little dogs and all,
+  Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart."
+
+Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such
+stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I
+write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages
+from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race.
+
+Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have
+been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to
+decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase
+of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and
+caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The
+last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity
+of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and
+although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of
+the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept
+up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a
+single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless,
+indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe
+still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo,
+in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago
+supposed to be.
+
+Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of
+bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of
+skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate
+descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The
+daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the
+revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he
+cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by
+his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon
+which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of
+this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from
+entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted.
+Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended
+from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where
+turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have
+found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated
+promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he
+might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable
+relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had
+ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society.
+
+But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a
+myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was
+turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished
+his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in
+figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the
+bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal
+hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a
+fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the
+backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants,
+as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete
+and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs,
+whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast.
+
+In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I
+remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all
+analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into
+conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very
+rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very
+large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the
+comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog."
+Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say
+I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting
+his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed
+me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect
+which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly
+exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose
+memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss,"
+destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of
+the dairy.
+
+Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I
+will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old
+farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not
+particularly long.
+
+Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in
+foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me
+exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery
+Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation,
+having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter.
+While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in
+that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on
+horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions
+being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as,
+treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression
+applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the
+animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger
+made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his
+way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the
+bridle.
+
+"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's
+knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?"
+
+"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted
+consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the
+last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and
+walked 'im whoam."
+
+When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually
+pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on
+this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former
+pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much
+taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to
+you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word
+_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the
+dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs
+are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the
+subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or
+register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the
+label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A
+friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the
+label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard
+Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular
+idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du
+bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad
+young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of
+course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original
+than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage
+of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so
+characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important
+question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to
+_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted,
+when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal
+nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss."
+
+And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than
+he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the
+"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of
+legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of
+those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy
+rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses
+many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in
+general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find
+in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not
+intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar
+odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make
+a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws,
+and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually
+more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of
+prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing
+about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one
+turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact,
+to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I
+speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier,"
+as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to
+obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this
+country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which
+he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks;
+nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size.
+
+Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as
+being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their
+parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I
+have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will
+illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow
+who was a genuine type of his kind.
+
+This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color
+uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or
+of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint,
+by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they
+are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a
+sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black
+stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to
+the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most
+remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of
+these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with
+the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a
+true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of
+the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter
+appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once
+undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk
+could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small
+quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in
+fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself
+into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his
+penitential cell under a chest of drawers.
+
+When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to
+me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he
+availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning
+early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large,
+cold round of beef, which was the _pièce de résistance_ on the table.
+It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it
+wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me."
+The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the
+interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great
+perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for
+there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small
+to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who
+propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over
+claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware
+of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable
+theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef,
+_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice.
+
+Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar
+trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a
+trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a
+year old, I took him up beside me into a high _calèche_, in which we
+were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out
+to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the
+vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of
+his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second,
+and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up
+and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the
+choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that
+hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things
+propelled by horse-power.
+
+A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he
+was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise
+at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in
+worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he
+once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy
+trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small,
+but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him
+from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled,
+head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such
+as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a
+suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that
+cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such
+an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them
+remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a
+suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one,
+and with his tail up.
+
+These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes
+do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after
+having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular
+instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also
+manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason.
+
+One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out
+of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of
+low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle
+tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and
+clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from
+perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been
+subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he
+immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition
+which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared
+comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his
+accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen
+coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the
+house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and
+considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping
+on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen
+aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach
+was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied
+to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind,
+that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting
+undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare
+with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in
+trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him
+had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he
+rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be
+hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the
+kitchen-door.
+
+Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and
+tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters,
+and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I
+am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my
+property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I
+heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much
+attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning,
+however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the
+remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which
+they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could
+have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon
+broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried
+article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into
+a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once,
+evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary
+instinct.
+
+Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out
+of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of
+them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were
+placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained
+access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a
+valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole
+collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an
+otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the
+pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to
+him.
+
+Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and
+addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners
+enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to
+me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of
+this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full;
+and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that
+misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he
+came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks
+but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his
+collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life,
+and I never saw him again.
+
+The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given
+to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility
+for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a
+canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose
+propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made
+an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a
+stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the
+weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and
+fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the
+way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch
+up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By
+throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a
+great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white
+kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the
+purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal,
+besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I
+remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the
+watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a
+clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe.
+
+From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier
+awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion.
+About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs
+us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy,
+began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it
+that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown
+of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's
+Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped.
+Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him
+at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself
+invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable
+Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion
+luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and
+hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of
+work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper,
+disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire.
+One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before
+a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was
+to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission
+which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the
+black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from
+carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved
+finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving
+salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all,
+he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed
+whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the
+drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in
+the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with
+the impressive speculation of the true _flâneur_;--yea, for as men of
+fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher,
+who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from
+his gory stall.
+
+This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of
+course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it
+comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed
+off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in
+his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded
+according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts
+insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier
+with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold
+while he buys.
+
+The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it
+would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off
+by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name
+was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood;
+liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws;
+close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for
+his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise,
+although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which
+included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and
+perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he
+took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was
+to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If
+there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he
+would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them
+like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as
+he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of
+pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of
+unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his
+purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact
+with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If
+pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on,
+assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in
+particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided
+objection to street industrials in general, including Italian
+organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily
+after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a
+tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or
+call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the
+refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the
+superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash,
+top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of
+manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered
+chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching
+classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro
+among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor
+were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal
+panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares.
+
+A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a
+still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his
+proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by
+biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he
+invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me
+so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated
+whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a
+pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the
+extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as
+invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _décrotteur_ the poodle
+instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers;
+for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent
+insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of
+fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing
+suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly
+away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be
+difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate
+him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and
+diplomacy.
+
+One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on
+to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to
+cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce
+bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his
+adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off
+the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for
+him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when
+he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with
+which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound
+thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being
+accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river,
+he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a
+rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat,
+on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like
+air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the
+swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and
+as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his
+friends in waiting.
+
+Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a
+perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the
+crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's
+head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to
+Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of
+his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an
+opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot
+on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick
+was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one
+side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully,
+return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he
+once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom
+he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just
+quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his
+gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of
+which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water,
+setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to
+what was very near being his last gasp.
+
+Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts
+of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature.
+A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between
+the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable
+for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out
+one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of
+rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal
+much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of
+their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the
+animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he
+contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other
+to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a
+majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the
+conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his
+opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating
+foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the
+road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached
+home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel
+in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard.
+
+One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for
+killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it
+appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the
+delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain
+mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline
+inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall
+but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was
+tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red
+Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the
+thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to
+devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he
+might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile
+malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already
+coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great
+raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use
+of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of
+illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the
+ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered
+to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the
+ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of
+a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this
+instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with
+mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left.
+
+It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even
+by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is
+under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a
+well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A
+settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village,
+which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the
+surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a
+hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a
+currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About
+nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer
+crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain
+plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound.
+While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all
+disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to
+the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time,
+proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the
+cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture
+of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on
+his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was
+much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every
+one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one
+miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on
+the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at
+whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much
+mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and
+he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct.
+
+I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one
+for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted
+to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable
+animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on
+Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his
+mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he
+would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the
+shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus,
+though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but,
+as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a
+respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent,
+not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the
+Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the
+same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._]
+
+Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit
+of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic."
+
+
+
+
+THE RECKONING.
+
+
+Your thought may recur with mine
+  To a certain place in the city,
+Where you sometimes have chanced to dine;
+  If not, why, the more's the pity!
+
+Did you notice the delicate way
+  Whereby, with the trencher and cup,
+Comes a hint of the matter of pay,
+  In a counter laid _blank side up_?
+
+Now,--not to pervert the intent
+  Of a courtesy gentle and rare,
+Or observance so civilly meant
+  With disparaging things to compare,--
+
+By the token your messenger brings,
+  Did such services never suggest
+A likeness to manifold things
+  Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest?
+
+Command whatsoever you will,
+  To pamper your folly or pride;
+You shall find, that unfailingly, still,
+  The _counter_ is laid beside,
+
+Silently,--seemingly fair,--
+  Till an angel the disk shall turn,
+And the soul's great debt, the inscription there,
+  On her vision shall burst and burn!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+A TRIP TO CUBA.
+
+MATANZAS.
+
+
+A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at
+high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and
+game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in
+little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the
+hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot
+and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude
+to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and
+at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with
+water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They
+are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the
+long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of
+their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned
+and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the
+journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and
+look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we
+have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say
+that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good
+to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent
+and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the
+gladiator of the tropics.
+
+Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the
+extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our
+trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch
+of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless,
+was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence.
+
+Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how
+lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is
+always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in
+these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is
+too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R.
+James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself
+with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of
+the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on
+thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is
+lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the
+other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks
+from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from
+the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the
+country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades.
+"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and
+remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring
+streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every
+house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings.
+With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of
+Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and
+a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of
+the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your
+eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable
+room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking
+bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you
+will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender
+foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own
+feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of
+upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But
+if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every
+member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your
+forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your
+bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful
+mediation of a mattress.
+
+Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba
+will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any
+speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to
+recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor
+House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba.
+The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table
+almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were,
+methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions,
+sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was
+punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on
+a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry
+bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no
+doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at
+whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his
+guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent
+English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate
+him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There
+is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for
+you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery
+stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be
+your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three.
+
+The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the
+Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the
+Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the
+ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is
+altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the
+doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which
+you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the
+view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the
+early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and
+their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your
+left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a
+cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long,
+but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his
+sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town.
+Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are
+decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to
+a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with,
+"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A
+cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped
+out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea,
+unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with
+thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides
+you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the
+jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature
+is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that
+grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many
+slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with
+sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each
+negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand,
+well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were
+liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries
+and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently
+performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the
+steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with
+palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields,
+where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous
+ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of
+cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish
+or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him
+about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk,
+and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and
+confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming
+nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging
+the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we
+found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom;
+but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a
+wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like
+the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or
+social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to
+us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the
+dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should
+refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over
+his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and
+that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his
+surroundings.
+
+The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is
+to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This
+commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously
+employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female
+aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes,
+carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who
+bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully
+got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that
+they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All
+that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they
+walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed
+dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and
+mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking
+to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing
+is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_,"
+etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin,
+and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not
+imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a
+row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to
+the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince
+considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All
+being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their
+flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them.
+Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground,
+and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with
+the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this
+status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a
+martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles,
+the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of
+eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And
+now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the
+regiment, the _jeunesse dorée_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and
+has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which
+separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The
+ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other
+occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to
+speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes,
+while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_
+are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four
+years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots
+with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for
+notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes
+to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and
+the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most
+uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords
+are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an
+end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in,
+its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and
+lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the
+prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth,
+Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been,
+and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake
+yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the
+Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of
+resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster,
+you know.
+
+
+THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT.
+
+
+"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the
+city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife,
+with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in
+her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the
+Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards."
+
+So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and
+whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So
+he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into
+paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and,
+in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite
+drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but
+much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants
+kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages
+and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their
+saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The
+heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and
+gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the
+waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies
+of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the
+privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a
+degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the
+trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble
+a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of
+this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in
+amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before
+giving an available opinion of their good looks.
+
+If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the
+windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups
+of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous
+cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of
+promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who
+went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving
+the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and
+centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable
+kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are
+sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill
+of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with
+great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as
+negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible
+chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these
+channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a
+cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect
+stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top
+of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere,
+accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains
+of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the
+shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and
+whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical
+castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in
+Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the
+crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups
+parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a
+more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in
+curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and
+the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens.
+
+But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what
+availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive,
+"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by
+nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us
+for our constitution. A visit to the _café_ is suggested and adopted.
+It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid
+aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our
+Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened
+with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate,
+which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation.
+Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an
+underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for
+our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the
+Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and
+finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest
+and the bedless cots await us.
+
+But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer
+us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for
+us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban
+pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and
+smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to
+speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane
+chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard
+piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but
+will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with
+fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban
+winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward
+occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza,
+has got the President's Message. We find Don José in a bedroom darkened
+by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of
+excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious
+bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk
+handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great
+urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and
+their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we
+leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains
+_"á la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of
+the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath
+lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon
+awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the
+next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept.
+
+The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all
+living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant
+drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates
+as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled
+up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does
+not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay
+siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining
+we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the
+President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under
+consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging,
+his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with
+wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave
+with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but
+that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek
+and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner
+on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take
+our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had
+rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the
+soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than
+a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner
+be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore,
+if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely
+die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and
+walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on
+the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of
+fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is
+comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a
+young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of
+having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter
+of a dollar?
+
+But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of
+this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not
+splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It
+kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the
+taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends,
+not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and
+wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad
+to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the
+transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to
+improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that
+the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the
+advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope
+deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and
+_entrées_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of
+the _rôti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three
+supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to
+repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was
+fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup,
+of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and
+onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled
+chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with
+saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and
+vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think,
+from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a
+splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored
+sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have
+eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then
+came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New
+England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge
+tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made
+into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course
+of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own
+plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a
+thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance
+that we should have no more.
+
+A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the
+masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its
+smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat
+beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from
+the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring
+the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to
+direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in
+a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque!
+Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and
+exclaim,--"Yes, Señorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so
+prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and
+thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and
+the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House,
+which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things.
+
+
+GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE.
+
+
+As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the
+appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she
+had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see
+the Spaniards see it.
+
+Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and
+obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not
+husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with
+the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may
+succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural
+master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you
+should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking
+his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate
+convictions may be, the end is, that you do not.
+
+Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in
+these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to
+see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where
+one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting.
+These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely
+covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which
+resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are
+kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond
+fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all
+moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the
+training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles,
+and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_,
+"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth
+forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a
+splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but
+the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics.
+
+The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some
+twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel
+Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don
+Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good
+family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing
+unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his
+occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as
+we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au
+naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to
+their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight,
+which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips
+of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may
+not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the
+while delivering himself with great volubility to his black
+second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose
+there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the
+head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are
+allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and
+breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly
+at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a
+moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round.
+The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don
+Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his
+favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a
+cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave María santísima!_ did one ever see
+such spirit? _Santísima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all
+Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the
+saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One
+of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in
+his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the
+remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on
+his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs
+us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other,
+and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor
+father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and
+cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be
+full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porquería_, "dirt."
+
+We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as
+before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to
+say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses
+no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn
+subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great
+wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and
+is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can
+carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere.
+Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly.
+
+Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their
+persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to
+contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly
+made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of
+theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their
+travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as
+the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads.
+At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its
+appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the
+saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing
+everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don
+Antoñito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the
+_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze
+refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a
+bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with
+no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but
+without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery
+rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks
+his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of
+gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun
+seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy
+sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness.
+We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the
+inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to
+reconcile us to all future highways.
+
+Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore
+travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of
+stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road;
+yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to
+year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort.
+An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of
+smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine
+avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and
+partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane
+aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty
+niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement
+for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French
+and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to
+translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house
+is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all
+the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has
+a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room,
+with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another,
+opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs
+are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a
+draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a
+Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of
+clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a
+firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the
+roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of
+cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across
+one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good
+books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels,
+which his wife fully appreciates.
+
+A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros
+chiquitos,--Anglicè_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find
+their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely
+inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequeñuelos_ cannot
+tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend
+produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as
+usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one
+elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums,
+formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were
+produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive
+instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to
+a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which,
+for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing
+children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon
+for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the
+imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the
+afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went
+next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others,
+contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the
+negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square
+stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we
+found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in
+concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a
+chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just
+before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent
+condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good
+proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on
+estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all.
+We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket.
+Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The
+time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two
+after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night.
+This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little
+gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this
+estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of
+money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they
+had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone
+had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the
+circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer,
+whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements
+of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes
+all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday
+afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until
+four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes
+is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is
+the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South;
+it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to
+go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and
+were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed
+in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our
+friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor
+whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish
+their own funerals.
+
+Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one
+sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a
+paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent;
+but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I
+will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban
+country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes,
+sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a
+characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in
+Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the
+inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however,
+it was only one among many good things, which were made better by
+pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After
+dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found
+Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing
+water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party
+was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the
+head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his
+request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off
+his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton
+handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido
+was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the
+expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the
+phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of
+sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself
+brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he
+had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad
+one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our
+sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface
+from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last
+calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now
+wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which
+the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their
+out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking
+and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers.
+Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller
+children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy
+the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came
+the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to
+take us away.
+
+And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from
+town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the
+masked ball, the Paseo, and the Señorita's beaux? All that durst
+followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque!
+Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one,
+actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and
+galloped off, dragging us after him.
+
+As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet
+made us aware that Don Antoñito, the young friend who had planned and
+accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the
+lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don
+Antoñito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and
+stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a
+brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have
+played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he
+tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony
+made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and
+even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you
+on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is
+even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's
+musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely
+talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that
+rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted
+parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees
+and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call
+again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were
+no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence,
+warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the
+aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day.
+Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a
+sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to
+the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom.
+
+For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night,
+half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always
+expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling
+the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had
+thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The
+luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave
+with entire goodwill.
+
+I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic.
+Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten
+o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the
+steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little
+cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How
+different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk
+on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the
+flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of
+squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of
+that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were
+rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The
+arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was
+occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A
+tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the
+machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths
+being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean
+sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with
+disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began
+to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about
+their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why,
+then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly
+behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept
+arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antoñito, who
+was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see
+them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last
+came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we
+betook ourselves to rest.
+
+Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their
+berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the
+larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran,
+looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was
+tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always
+travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a
+real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went
+to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself
+upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the
+extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that
+murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and
+arousing its fair occupant with "Doña Teresita," or whatever the name
+may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is
+necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between
+the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex
+invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that,
+_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to
+call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The
+male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of
+a compendious and economic arrangement.
+
+And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and
+return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane
+spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong
+shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it
+with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE FIRST AND THE LAST.
+
+
+It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce
+northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen
+air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the
+rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through
+the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at
+them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and
+spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a
+premature shroud of cold white snow.
+
+But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun,
+peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at
+seeing how much had been done in his absence.
+
+Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's
+poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of
+the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two
+stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths
+upon his premises.
+
+Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on
+between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf
+of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching
+competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries
+of the two estates.
+
+To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire
+of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their
+shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded
+Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a
+thing, which he most assuredly never had.
+
+Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad
+evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of
+satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous
+rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous
+plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come
+within a foot of it.
+
+Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful
+champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator
+that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a
+thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly
+opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from
+peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with
+the ammunition so plentifully spread before them.
+
+Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced
+into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with
+an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to
+the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and
+remarkable ornament to that garment.
+
+"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric
+Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable
+missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as
+a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and
+easier to come at than the words which most men would have used.
+
+Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his
+master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that,
+half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next
+instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving,
+however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose.
+The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his
+face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp.
+
+His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and
+derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us"
+could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately
+disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift.
+
+"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken
+woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering
+and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet
+extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried
+heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns.
+They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys."
+
+The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful
+enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,--
+
+"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?"
+
+"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas,
+slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly
+added, with more vivacity,--
+
+"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know
+ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my
+woman,--won't ye?"
+
+"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning,
+nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp
+her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of
+old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes.
+
+"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin
+allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in."
+
+"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the
+compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come
+right in, this way."
+
+"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host
+through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded
+with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never
+seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time."
+
+Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow
+concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch,
+he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic
+nod,--
+
+"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like
+Miss Coffin."
+
+"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly,
+as the door was thrown open.
+
+"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you
+this morning."
+
+A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was
+fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her
+voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that
+"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too."
+
+"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by
+the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk."
+
+"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do
+suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated
+herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced
+her business by saying,--
+
+"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr.
+Widdrinton."
+
+"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas.
+
+"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and
+assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my
+thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had
+ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that
+I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me,
+an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits
+a chance.
+
+"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this.
+Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I
+used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to
+dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o'
+sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place
+to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I
+would take him so.
+
+"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to
+mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said
+he might come,--an' he did, that very day.
+
+"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to
+git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out
+tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin'
+seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor
+an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an'
+told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself.
+
+"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I
+shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there
+jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held
+his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!'
+an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work.
+
+"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books,
+his cloze begun to go.
+
+"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in
+a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed
+drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no
+more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't
+darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last
+night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I
+went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't
+make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good
+while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me
+comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to
+me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took
+aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all
+the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing
+to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin'
+ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it,
+an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him."
+
+"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked
+Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice.
+
+"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez
+I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I
+ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He
+wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt
+of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a
+thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o'
+life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a
+hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on
+him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two
+days an' nights."
+
+"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands
+deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they
+were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,--
+
+"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which
+he ever indulged.
+
+"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the
+consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an'
+see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an'
+be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone,
+an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which,
+if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to
+come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's."
+
+"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs.
+Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered
+the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter
+and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done."
+
+"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye,
+Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet
+to all on us."
+
+"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at
+once about this poor man, won't thee?"
+
+"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and
+I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along."
+
+Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after
+lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge,
+inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a
+piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring."
+
+Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then,
+opening a door, called gently,--
+
+"Faith!"
+
+"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her
+own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of
+age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,--
+
+"What is it, mother?"
+
+"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith."
+
+And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story
+narrated by Mrs. Janes.
+
+"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted
+to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no
+room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan
+sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"--
+
+"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly.
+
+"Thy room, child?"
+
+"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very
+much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the
+orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me."
+
+"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly.
+
+"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother,"
+replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing
+her fondly.
+
+The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which,
+pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the
+strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like
+compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's
+people."
+
+She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,--
+
+"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready
+thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth."
+
+An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door,
+from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in
+blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly
+murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,--
+
+"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in
+after us."
+
+"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted
+from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something,
+carefully enveloped in a cotton case.
+
+"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed
+the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little
+maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she
+thought needed it more than herself.
+
+Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see
+him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him.
+
+"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?"
+said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a
+little more evenly.
+
+"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his
+kind nurse into the room.
+
+"What does thee mean, friend?"
+
+"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and
+leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with
+him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem
+to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe."
+
+"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it.
+You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone.
+
+"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin,
+soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and
+what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep,
+I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some
+broth to strengthen thee."
+
+"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble
+voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face.
+
+"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee
+rather I should?"
+
+"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it."
+
+"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of
+the women, will take thy place."
+
+Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about
+seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned
+her to the bedside.
+
+Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her,
+while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame
+leaning against the wall.
+
+"Girl!"
+
+"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly.
+
+"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep."
+
+"I certainly will not."
+
+"Promise!"
+
+"I do promise."
+
+"Swear!"
+
+"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously
+adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment
+learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in
+the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted
+many of the tenets to which her mother held.
+
+"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I
+will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and
+you will be wrong to doubt my word."
+
+"I don't.--What is your name?"
+
+"Faith."
+
+"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod."
+
+"Ichabod Widdrinton?"
+
+"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you."
+
+"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep."
+
+"Sit there,--where I can see you."
+
+Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not
+prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his
+young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she
+had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in
+health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky
+hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never
+have expressed much of strength or resolution.
+
+The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it
+seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in
+the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow,
+throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a
+long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of
+devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent
+foes.
+
+"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of
+gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of
+the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan,
+sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison.
+
+From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would
+patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and
+silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a
+type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,)
+devoted herself to him.
+
+Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in
+the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose
+grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have
+guessed, would simply say,--
+
+"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared
+with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and
+quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy
+for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was
+forced to yield assent to this simple logic.
+
+A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The
+pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch
+beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their
+attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her
+kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he
+consented to allow the others to do so.
+
+At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin,
+as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,--
+
+"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible."
+
+"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that
+Faith should do so."
+
+"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas,
+readily.
+
+But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he
+caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him
+good-night, and gasped out,--
+
+"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and
+I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the
+last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more."
+
+"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to
+the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny
+him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can
+sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if
+"----
+
+"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee
+unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly
+have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should
+be worse,--won't thee?"
+
+Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was
+prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites
+which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such
+occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed
+uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the
+large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of
+her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for
+her night's perusal.
+
+The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted
+three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man
+suddenly awoke.
+
+As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he
+always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face.
+The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had
+disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile.
+
+"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and
+more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you
+have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to
+talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and
+raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter
+blaze, and then uncover--it."
+
+Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its
+ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber,
+and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having
+shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers,
+opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine
+with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed,
+the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a
+picture.
+
+Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the
+full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his
+powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the
+pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The
+expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between
+those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper
+Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet
+indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable
+by others.
+
+"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And
+they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English
+gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and
+honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new
+country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every
+man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion.
+
+"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in
+the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him
+governor and named a bay after him.
+
+"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture
+painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with
+him as a present to his wife.
+
+"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a
+very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as
+they say in storybooks.
+
+"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small
+portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried.
+
+"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family
+found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the
+traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches
+of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an
+end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the
+family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They
+met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short
+conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name,
+alive.
+
+"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by
+uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it
+more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the
+glory has departed.'
+
+"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered
+their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their
+first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and
+which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and
+despair.
+
+"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing
+weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till
+five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's
+portrait and the curse of the Withringtons.
+
+"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But
+no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed
+which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the
+picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me.
+I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither
+until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of
+life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse.
+
+"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just
+held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on
+the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last."
+
+"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed
+holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it."
+
+"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for
+myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with
+feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed.
+
+"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly.
+"Lie down again and watch me."
+
+Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light
+upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and
+laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked
+beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were
+resisting the fearful doom which threatened it.
+
+At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up
+before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull,
+leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they
+struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them.
+
+"Burn," he hoarsely murmured.
+
+With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently,
+reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace.
+
+The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick
+and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed
+to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it.
+
+She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the
+bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and,
+rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother.
+
+Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber,
+the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last
+sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips.
+
+They had perished together,--the First--and the Last.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.
+
+WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW.
+
+
+You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what
+has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot
+tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however,
+you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the
+household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as
+if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is
+low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical
+Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not
+already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with
+cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you
+slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor.
+
+I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to
+confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was
+sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what
+were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my
+little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly
+unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in
+these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So,
+when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door
+and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a
+nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not
+fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as
+when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will
+count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes
+doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried,
+and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the
+issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is
+counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or
+what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures.
+
+I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little
+conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's
+chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the
+Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking
+at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The
+simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most
+mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in
+disguise.
+
+I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever
+moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks
+and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have
+my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat,"
+composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful
+or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions
+expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing
+to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy
+with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From
+what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what
+ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone,
+and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as
+you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches
+on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the
+surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not
+worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many
+thousand years?
+
+Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it
+any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some
+little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened
+to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these
+specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass
+in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to
+stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming
+planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the
+firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless
+round to the source of life and light.
+
+A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their
+mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag,
+or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common
+enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think
+of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside
+puddles.
+
+But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain,
+when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that
+"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How
+many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have
+horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent!
+
+----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter
+with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to
+the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster.
+It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too
+heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting,
+bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms
+resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions
+specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease
+of the heart or other causes.
+
+Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty,
+Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and
+interrupted.
+
+Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded
+to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is
+at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I
+suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my
+temperament. Thus:--
+
+Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his
+left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding
+watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome
+hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three,
+four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one
+white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in
+the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget
+to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but
+what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if
+pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old
+fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such
+objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As
+I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a
+stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests
+with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I
+missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is
+your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to
+the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am
+ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as
+it is with other men.--God help him!
+
+It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire
+for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I
+must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For
+this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart;
+and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting
+malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity
+at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm
+attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run
+away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of
+Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered
+from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel
+with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes
+you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder
+instead of the haunch, where it should have started from.
+
+Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all
+parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as
+before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral
+valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is
+that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three
+big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which
+I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern
+_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks
+like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to
+embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a
+door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock?
+Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses.
+One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by
+just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of
+the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What
+do those mean?
+
+All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact.
+While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was
+also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to
+deal.
+
+There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain,
+blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out,
+followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all
+three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the
+fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon
+stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French
+physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which
+leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly
+what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as
+a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It
+is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I
+think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences,
+--which expression means you very well know what.
+
+And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come
+out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will
+be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything
+strange, my visits will clear it up.
+
+I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after
+giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an
+imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under
+their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber,
+the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in
+strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in
+broken sentences.
+
+----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And
+the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight.
+Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other
+folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a
+straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall
+slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look
+just as if there was a man underneath.
+
+A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_
+name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood
+and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest
+man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the
+handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch?
+
+----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the
+picture.
+
+He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not
+unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had
+lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait
+hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her!
+Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over?
+
+The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years
+old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New
+England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what
+artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from
+life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and
+the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early
+Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she
+was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old
+carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former
+owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was
+that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George
+Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the
+artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I
+suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of
+young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good
+evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I
+should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she
+had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some
+devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers,
+with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his
+pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight
+suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to
+leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly
+maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses?
+
+She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I
+are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted
+me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the
+board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was
+dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you?
+
+I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie
+still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you
+have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in
+the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from
+digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie
+quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I
+don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't
+doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's
+sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and
+looked through the bars of for so many years!
+
+I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and
+indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often
+a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in
+theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not
+commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of
+thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with
+red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the
+blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and
+crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of
+--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the
+plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both
+callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which
+implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some
+gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by
+my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a
+glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as
+he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest,
+so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself
+at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a
+mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You
+may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of
+pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly
+compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less
+nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for
+others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of
+science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in
+humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as
+I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional
+habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these.
+This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed
+rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his
+ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to
+be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak
+cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and
+I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will
+see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and
+buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by
+this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been
+saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a
+little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head
+with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a
+little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live.
+Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to
+think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I
+lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that
+stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me
+well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell
+you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh
+earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it.
+There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can
+keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill
+upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the
+daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe
+I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the
+morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the
+apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as
+portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes.
+The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object
+near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath
+of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see
+something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the
+figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of
+the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask
+who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was
+pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his
+bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards
+it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I
+first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw
+only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still,
+and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a
+field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I
+turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood
+full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to
+stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was
+momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright
+flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It
+was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether
+sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told
+her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the
+sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant
+that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes
+think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they
+cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the
+bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we
+should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last
+upon their faithful breasts!
+
+With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the
+starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save
+that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a
+stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and
+in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if
+she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no
+breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed
+scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested
+by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted
+sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen
+and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver
+goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her
+milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly
+out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the
+cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and
+with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her
+along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her
+name, but she did not heed my voice.
+
+The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl
+before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I
+should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose
+perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that
+immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see
+me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever
+after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that
+time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and
+the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made
+their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps,
+and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On
+the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I
+trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the
+violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The
+fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a
+pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew
+what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout
+heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his
+face and fill his heart both at once.
+
+Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the
+internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than
+juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be
+guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught
+in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of
+Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put
+it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or
+Eugénie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he
+was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the
+young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian
+beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of
+the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed
+to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a
+cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.
+
+There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind
+suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an
+enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance
+slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had
+made up my mind what I was going to do about it.
+
+When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all
+for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the
+impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did
+not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such
+guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and
+bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then
+at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up.
+
+I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by
+him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to
+care for.
+
+I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and
+persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm.
+Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning.
+There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young
+girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber.
+
+The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my
+cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually
+from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries
+of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive
+sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at
+strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out,
+or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is
+there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the
+house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once
+imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow
+bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we
+remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished
+townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that
+little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or
+persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from
+the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill
+burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling
+the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious
+fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner
+chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice,
+wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of
+the North-End cemetery.
+
+It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page
+in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine
+unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head.
+I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is
+reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think
+about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but
+one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of
+his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last
+strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and
+recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the
+most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him,
+his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind
+still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very
+nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have
+his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she
+could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted
+her. Old babies that we are!
+
+Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed
+for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between
+my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came
+down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until
+after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was
+ordered to tell me.
+
+It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris
+had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that
+chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a
+man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out
+of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These
+good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in
+her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief
+moral reflections.
+
+----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in
+her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human
+history.
+
+----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John,
+so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like
+that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle
+that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know
+how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I
+don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice
+last month.
+
+[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch
+absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the
+time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how
+he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the
+songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more
+considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man
+than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are
+a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks
+uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at
+last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their
+own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is
+hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first
+they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more
+for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of
+those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against
+themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.]
+
+----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting
+by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was
+darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept
+nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be
+indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such
+skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much
+to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I
+could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any
+very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life
+and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She
+followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit.
+
+How long?--she said.
+
+Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One
+of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or
+slow.
+
+The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But
+Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and
+kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd
+be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if
+she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week.
+
+At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back
+against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her
+nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great
+surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his
+own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way,
+but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous
+parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was
+no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat
+side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new
+neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little
+friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even
+girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with
+a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the
+construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from
+their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris,
+whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of
+things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must
+have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much
+patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the
+kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share
+in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of
+ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked
+even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet
+footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to
+the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep,
+or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with.
+
+Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she
+kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me,
+Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill
+herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get
+me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in
+this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you
+leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me.
+
+This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there
+are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the
+larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to
+them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said,
+another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head
+ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this
+one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his
+thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it
+were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the
+past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the
+handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single
+well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or
+other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children.
+Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant
+voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that
+have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that
+the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite
+forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where,
+free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden
+should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose
+"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as
+he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer
+glories.
+
+No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where
+the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one
+has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases
+himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and
+thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up
+his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him
+until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and
+his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little
+bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks
+and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to
+receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have
+died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the
+last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already
+deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great
+majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life
+through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the
+moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often
+called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is
+a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the
+smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which
+hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its
+place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is
+almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain,
+and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the
+legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully
+narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And
+some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next
+world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster
+over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file
+that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a
+foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think
+they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all
+ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future,
+that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert
+have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its
+murmurs as they lay dying.
+
+The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the
+future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is
+extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not
+insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness,
+on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by
+science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call
+_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness.
+There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate
+of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material
+frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less
+impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold
+out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while,
+though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay.
+
+The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his
+remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was
+a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various
+modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The
+landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had
+saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me
+to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to
+the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more
+than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to
+"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned
+before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and
+forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he
+said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate.
+Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the
+late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was
+something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was
+a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could
+not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little
+over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to
+lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of
+these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the
+Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way,
+bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend
+was going to leave behind.
+
+The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish
+snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the
+Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult
+him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r
+intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young
+man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his
+chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and
+they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out.
+
+The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one
+quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man
+down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such
+encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to
+knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do
+happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be
+angry, and get up and give you a thrashing.
+
+So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the
+yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm
+round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble
+art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having
+completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side
+of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens
+that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as
+much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter
+than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary
+was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against
+his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone,
+judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat
+backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little,
+the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered
+between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to
+grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with
+that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so
+frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and
+negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the
+spot by "knocking the man down."
+
+We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy
+blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most
+unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of
+seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor,
+half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar
+and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person
+not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this
+surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a
+little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and
+confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than
+himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish
+the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and
+incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the
+other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little
+science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with
+his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a
+prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in
+the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the
+young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known
+as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to
+another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got
+enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young
+fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the
+other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y'
+like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to
+that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a
+technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by
+running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The
+young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of
+trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves.
+The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two,
+being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish
+attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his
+person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed,
+that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned
+visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and
+rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had
+been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady
+naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah
+not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that
+decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I
+may hereafter allude to.
+
+I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to
+sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man
+begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the
+Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar
+Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking;
+and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you
+had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is
+on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the
+State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a
+fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that
+humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows.
+
+--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your
+curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles,
+doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine.
+Next month you shall hear all about it.
+
+--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at
+the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the
+wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice
+of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in
+her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them.
+
+
+
+
+HYMN OF TRUST.
+
+
+O Love Divine, that stooped to share
+  Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,
+On Thee we cast each earthborn care,
+  We smile at pain while Thou art near!
+
+Though long the weary way we tread,
+  And sorrow crown each lingering year,
+No path we shun, no darkness dread,
+  Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near!
+
+When drooping pleasure turns to grief,
+  And trembling faith is changed to fear,
+The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf
+  Shall softly tell us, Thou art near!
+
+On Thee we fling our burdening woe,
+  O Love Divine, forever dear,
+Content to suffer, while we know,
+  Living and dying, Thou art near!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+ART.
+
+PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID.
+
+
+_Seville, January, 1859_.
+
+I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright
+a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the
+Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills
+of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone
+pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and
+Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till
+you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This
+is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral
+here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other
+cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo
+have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently
+consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very
+often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his
+fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of
+Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly
+arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool
+scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved
+against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving
+alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the
+picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the
+left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A
+few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint.
+A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and
+there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like
+much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture
+which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is
+represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and
+the whole effect is most silvery and delicate.
+
+But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great
+picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half
+kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which
+descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light
+falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and
+throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the
+angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying
+cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in
+Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture
+of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture.
+It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the
+expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the
+extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so
+that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and
+to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt.
+And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot,
+for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt
+what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he
+is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and
+a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as
+Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he
+knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a
+painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so
+different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and
+noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for
+those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that
+we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning.
+Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious
+old corners and over their dear old altars?
+
+
+_Madrid, March, 1859_.
+
+
+You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is
+like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the
+smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the
+coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and
+donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in
+Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it
+showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed
+stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures,
+and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here
+to use your own.
+
+Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his
+pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere
+so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him,
+but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in
+childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with
+large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character,
+one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is
+his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the
+foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her
+dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear,
+broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full
+of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with
+a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no
+substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all
+is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a
+master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page
+pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a
+sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of
+light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I
+suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a
+reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and
+in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated
+the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of
+the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back
+toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant
+has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear
+white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is
+astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of
+painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in
+the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by
+paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation;
+all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I
+think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely
+most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we
+might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like
+him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you
+may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of
+Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of
+--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall
+background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in
+Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So
+much for Velasquez.
+
+But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian,
+who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can
+equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like
+nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing
+and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an
+absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his
+master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep
+blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the
+soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second
+joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him
+stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn
+over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side;
+and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of
+Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog
+leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpática_ in his gray
+eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably
+rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is
+_elegantísimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet,
+and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining,
+against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and
+plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These
+portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his
+best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the
+great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of
+heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth
+to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the
+helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams
+like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the
+landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden
+sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the
+noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history,
+poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An
+entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep
+surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling;
+and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the
+foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her
+lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx
+on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass;
+two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and
+one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining
+on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or
+some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are
+one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit
+of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the
+middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying
+great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny
+hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam
+on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity.
+It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking
+on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and
+passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner.
+The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of
+fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of
+all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the
+work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an
+entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness.
+Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they
+thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the
+Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the
+casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other
+portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not
+already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very
+fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and
+Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable
+in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very
+full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His
+wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn
+horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no
+favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni
+Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely;
+and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a
+Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George.
+
+These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we
+could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are
+committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only
+covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take
+away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss.
+
+I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It
+is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action
+and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and
+exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the
+Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very
+lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is
+faint in color, and most charming in careful execution.
+
+Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those
+at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all
+glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful
+quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels,
+with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which
+these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist
+makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and
+artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred
+reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the
+same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were
+painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors.
+
+It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures
+in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of
+Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV.,
+which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures
+were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in
+Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of
+Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had
+come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that
+Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he
+thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a
+Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after
+Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given
+between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of
+Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you.
+
+"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente,
+E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero,
+Piasendome esser libero e sinciero)
+Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.'
+
+"'Tanto che,' replichè quela persona,
+'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor,
+In Italia nissun ve dà in l' umor,
+Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.'
+
+"Don Diego replichè con tal maniera:
+'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo;
+Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo;
+Tician xè quel che porta la bandiera.'"
+
+Here is a translation:--
+
+The master, with a ceremonious air,
+Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell,
+For to be free and honest suits me well,
+Pleases me not at all, I must declare."
+
+"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown
+On this great painter, in Italy is none
+By whom, indeed, your favor can be won;
+For upon him we all bestow the crown."
+
+Don Diego thereupon to him replies,
+"At Venice may be found the good and fair;
+I give the first place to the pencil there;
+Titian is he who carries off the prize."
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases
+usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL
+BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston:
+Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524.
+
+2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the
+Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Trübner & Company.
+1859. pp. iv., 104.
+
+3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of
+the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By
+GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in
+Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London:
+Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148.
+
+4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases,
+used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a
+Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS.
+Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch.
+1859. pp. 80.
+
+5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc.
+By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii.,
+160.
+
+6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX
+TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman &
+Mason. 1859. pp. 238.
+
+7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses
+different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New
+York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218.
+
+8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM
+SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302.
+
+
+The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in
+1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA."
+Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces,
+has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The
+more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no
+peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have
+modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante
+wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct
+dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred
+years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England,
+eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be
+known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called,
+the tendency is toward uniformity.
+
+In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States,
+the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European
+nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools,
+and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the
+common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably
+on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a
+dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we
+confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has
+been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is
+only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is
+taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a
+vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which
+our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster,
+who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of
+his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English
+composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly
+correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into
+_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the
+mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and
+lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page,
+but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are
+limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very
+throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a
+rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling,
+fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the
+vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living
+green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited
+by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also,
+and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy
+trees.
+
+We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his
+Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we
+are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_
+trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom
+we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_
+to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our
+_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_
+to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an
+_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in
+our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin
+origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives
+but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary
+_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the
+Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the
+_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German
+language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very
+general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_,
+have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them
+an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly
+unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv.
+We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut
+to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the
+Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English
+masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of
+the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and
+Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander
+Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr.
+Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a
+dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of
+Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly
+understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a
+deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the
+hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair,
+ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his
+inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr.
+Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh
+them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848.
+
+In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner.
+That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than
+provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all
+these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice,
+however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial,
+such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot
+in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it
+will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of
+_adversaria_ and comments.
+
+ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a
+supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called
+"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the
+name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly,
+to the mistress of an alehouse.
+
+BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and
+Fielding.
+
+BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a
+certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of
+bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_,
+which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something
+worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our
+"baggage" in the same sense.
+
+[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr.
+Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on
+English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx.,
+note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must
+allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among
+English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second
+edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.]
+
+CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a
+Western phrase exclusively.
+
+CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption
+of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels
+are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for
+what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the
+name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
+
+TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But,
+as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut
+down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction.
+
+TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative
+language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the
+prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit
+for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German
+_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish.
+
+HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_,
+except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has
+befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern
+sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr.
+Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard
+the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in
+England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon
+than _bonnet_ and _gown_.
+
+IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I
+left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among
+us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made
+better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled
+_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was
+published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result
+of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the
+title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find,
+"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were
+_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract
+has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should
+have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use
+long before with the same meaning.
+
+To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And
+Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good
+scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and
+_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:--
+
+  "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_
+  Donna piú su."
+
+LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an
+herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_.
+
+LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon,
+and used wherever English is spoken.
+
+LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German.
+_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once
+heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis
+du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in
+short, to _loaf_ about.
+
+TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes
+_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on
+among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an
+underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_,
+in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr.
+_mesler_, to mix.
+
+TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but
+_Turf_-Slang.
+
+SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English.
+
+TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the
+Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country.
+
+SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of
+Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a
+vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had
+what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and
+Hector Boece.
+
+SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and
+Western." Used also in New York.
+
+SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low).
+
+TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of
+his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is,
+perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary.
+
+TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self."
+It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital
+metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the
+Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces
+in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _étaler_.
+
+STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is
+surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently
+explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in
+the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their
+shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious.
+
+SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of
+the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in
+almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the
+name.
+
+A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett.
+
+A CARRY: portage. _Passim_.
+
+CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England.
+
+CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England.
+
+COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of
+certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the
+archaic form, _Quo' he_.
+
+TO COTTON TO.
+
+DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to
+acknowledging ignorance.
+
+GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England.
+
+LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts.
+
+LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair.
+
+LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means
+weak-willed. Massachusetts.
+
+MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water.
+Massachusetts.
+
+OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England.
+
+OLD DRIVER:     } euphemistic for the
+OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil.
+
+ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger.
+
+ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New
+England.
+
+SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be
+suited, for couldn't be suited.
+
+STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it
+from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of
+the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in
+Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be
+called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it.
+
+STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins.
+
+SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby.
+
+TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England.
+
+WELL-SWEEP.
+
+We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a
+work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the
+amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled
+with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the
+standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year
+to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially
+rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips;
+for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as
+possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is
+often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always
+interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with
+understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite
+conclusion.
+
+[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it
+was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a
+phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also
+Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy
+perversion.]
+
+The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in
+which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems
+to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people.
+Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope
+there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil
+actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and
+"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole
+of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite
+too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes
+off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr.
+Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more
+_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the
+West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my
+tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would
+have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons
+are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog
+under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in
+a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in
+language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole
+neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same
+coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the
+dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning
+comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite
+was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to
+us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy
+mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the
+thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax
+thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o'
+nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those
+bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard
+applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be
+placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold
+weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire
+don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n
+M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and
+left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant
+preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say
+once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will
+get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote
+merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with
+Taylor or South.
+
+The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of
+American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A]
+(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_
+is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that
+the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the
+North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled,
+and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at
+least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set
+down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and
+picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and
+strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B]
+By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and
+picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere
+long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find
+Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do
+when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a
+thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people
+use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write
+very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The
+late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on
+the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young
+hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience
+whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_"
+and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb;
+_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but
+thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little,
+_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan
+achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and
+vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is
+shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our
+having a swan at last.
+
+[Footnote A: _Gedrängtes Handbuch der Fremdwörter_, etc., etc.,
+Leipzig, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made
+a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone
+that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the
+painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter.
+(Thermometer,--12°.) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what
+happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin'
+him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the
+Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin'
+hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o'
+quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down
+through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact,
+of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of
+Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty
+than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness
+of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always
+to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil
+Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself?
+for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of
+what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance
+he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the
+_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A
+thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of
+indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is
+so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy
+thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a
+glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of
+inhabitants."]
+
+Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms
+will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he
+quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To
+SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or
+beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W----
+of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political
+opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)--
+
+"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a
+rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I
+_saved_.'"
+
+We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that
+it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given.
+No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be
+pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr.
+Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this
+neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty
+of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr.
+Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars
+a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed
+comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work
+which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students
+of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan
+of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give
+their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed.
+
+Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised
+edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words,
+which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has
+the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining
+an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the
+middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without
+great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he
+gives the results of much good reading.
+
+Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual.
+
+The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author
+of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the
+name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition
+and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such
+men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a
+bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks,
+though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he
+has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so
+ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the
+currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly
+for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of
+organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus:
+"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence,"
+etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel
+origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman
+who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French
+spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in
+spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On
+another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee
+kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside
+the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his
+Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the
+language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we
+could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we
+find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has
+crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever
+gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious.
+Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the
+memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in
+point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems.
+Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have
+transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin
+is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought
+some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the
+Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a
+better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch
+_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or
+body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_;
+corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties
+we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take
+possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in
+Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs.
+
+Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of
+language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say
+_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in
+the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the
+other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his
+betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the
+Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and
+Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received
+pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still
+sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in
+many parts of England.
+
+Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and
+gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It
+is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the
+exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr.
+Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is
+indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The
+general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the
+debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being
+the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is
+hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with
+what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could
+also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an
+unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says
+that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_,
+and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to
+settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him
+with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the
+pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies
+into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he
+will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas
+which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the
+reputation of it among the unscholarly.
+
+_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J.
+COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In
+Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin
+J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023.
+
+This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a
+condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the
+contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in
+American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity,
+and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_
+which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in
+events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful
+destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local
+historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but
+if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales,"
+for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be
+convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material.
+There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as
+is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country
+meeting-house.
+
+In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the
+"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of
+the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be
+wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and
+that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville,
+who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds
+so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their
+interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which
+we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had
+the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only
+manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us.
+
+One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the
+continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is
+something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the
+politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were
+surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so
+philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry
+about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise
+and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political
+views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question
+to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be
+shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what
+means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another
+question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history
+written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans
+doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_.
+
+The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils
+honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way
+of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the
+enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are
+to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak
+highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it
+is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply
+the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating
+cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the
+pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only
+been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no
+bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the
+same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the
+heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the
+coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told
+that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly,
+intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich
+and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should
+sift her tacts with a coarser sieve.
+
+In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will
+find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors
+will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a
+corresponding economy of fine writing.
+
+_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of
+Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp.
+125.
+
+The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such
+occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series
+of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have
+given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a
+performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments
+and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of
+their debate and their efforts to repel it.
+
+Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the
+knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources
+of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued
+from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration.
+
+The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and
+diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction,
+through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American
+question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the
+arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the
+fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate,
+for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the
+incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf,
+connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish
+minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out
+of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which
+France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself
+confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the
+Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the
+American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed
+neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in
+the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a
+narrative, clear, condensed, and original.
+
+From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily
+reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in
+democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of
+mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to
+which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of
+arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat."
+
+A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of
+art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and
+philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a
+reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown
+to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over
+the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated
+intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people
+for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the
+practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long
+prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that
+labor cannot be honorable where it is not free."
+
+Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of
+the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those
+unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to
+the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable.
+His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old
+republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride
+of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American,
+in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever
+sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration.
+And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political
+rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by
+Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep
+into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and
+ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated.
+Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of
+a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of
+America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of
+France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical
+mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to
+Republican France and to Continental liberty.
+
+The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral
+support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits
+of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities
+struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the
+sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in
+the embarrassments of the present hour.
+
+Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide
+cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr.
+Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves
+than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of
+government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the
+fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but
+rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the
+legislative and judicial functions."
+
+From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing
+of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define
+and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political
+system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of
+liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause"
+itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and
+received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of
+the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and
+has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a
+government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy."
+
+The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he
+discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump
+speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and
+statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing
+pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice
+Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are
+among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must
+have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a
+large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of
+an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of
+self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for
+his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience
+and many of his countrymen.
+
+It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery
+that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of
+republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the
+model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good
+government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station,
+quality, and character of the active offender.
+
+And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land,
+and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary
+between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce,
+and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is
+tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political
+_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America.
+
+Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the
+humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his
+associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in
+the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of
+that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in
+which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of
+the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the
+Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong.
+
+The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively
+disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main
+issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the
+defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an
+averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since
+its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the
+litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he
+was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights
+dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding,
+the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end.
+
+What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the
+Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the
+Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the
+effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause
+controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision
+already made and recorded?
+
+Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief
+justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President,
+and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He
+proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of
+constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of
+Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by
+practical application in the administration of the government of the
+Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the
+Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was
+the official chief.
+
+These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more
+nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been
+without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating
+Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing
+the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers
+which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of
+slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession
+of every power.
+
+We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with
+which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and
+defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of
+Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan &
+Co. 8vo. pp. 381.
+
+The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a
+trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may
+follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has
+been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its
+present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or
+the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of
+which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized
+society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means
+of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty
+in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in
+the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so
+revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's
+experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one
+productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class
+that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so
+indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this
+kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux
+Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in
+its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is
+quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is,
+beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for
+that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story
+of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that
+of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a
+woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is
+manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths"
+has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it,
+that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from
+the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the
+making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic
+study--lost.
+
+The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the
+daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much
+noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is
+handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above
+her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous
+temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault,
+however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman,
+destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life
+was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast,
+a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care
+Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds
+shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not
+ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she
+appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has
+not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and
+she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who
+takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness
+to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a
+third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage.
+Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at
+his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed
+over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an
+infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to
+the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is
+put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who
+allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who
+really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She
+scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds
+him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of
+bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the
+lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they
+part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it
+is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after
+being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the
+last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of
+a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face
+upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously
+uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him
+out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the
+mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find
+her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of
+marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his
+suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the
+small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the
+beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves
+the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought
+himself.
+
+This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen,
+that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough.
+It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character,
+except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and
+narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and
+little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages.
+And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the
+tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it
+reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves
+the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of
+what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might
+have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such
+a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book,
+too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout
+it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that
+is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat
+the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not
+the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains
+in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary
+Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even
+you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society,
+without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice
+Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of
+attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that
+she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of
+society!_
+
+But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is
+not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This
+impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very
+difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language
+seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which
+Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of
+language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she
+acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained
+propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of
+a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of
+cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited
+a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work
+of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of
+the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its
+heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This
+was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of
+her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth,
+that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father
+was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a
+young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her
+unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as
+regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life;
+and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of
+prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money,
+honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings
+her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,)
+she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was
+that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any
+man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she
+speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being
+raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and
+again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire
+to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with
+the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women
+to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and
+for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted
+mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not
+for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our
+whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment
+to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace
+and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about
+this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to
+find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part
+of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome.
+
+_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._
+By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van
+Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366.
+
+The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany
+Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It
+concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It
+concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take
+sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science,
+because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper
+notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It
+concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know
+whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even,
+the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but
+the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned
+lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right
+to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable
+manners.
+
+Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not
+only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness
+of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none
+the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the
+astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a
+less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor,
+too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould
+recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he
+condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen
+since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly
+more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a
+refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense
+of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of
+their body.
+
+
+
+
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+Times of John Milton." Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 312. 75 cts.
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+Presidential Candidates; containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal,
+and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860. By
+D. W. Bartlett. New York. A. B. Burdick. 12mo. pp. 360. $1.00.
+
+Out of the Depths; the Story of a Woman's Life. New York. W. A,
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+A Commentary, Explanatory, Doctrinal, and Practical, on the Epistle to
+the Ephesdans. By R. E. Pattison, D. D., late President of Waterville
+College. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 244. 85 cts.
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+Rhymes of Twenty Years. By Henry Morford. New York. II. Dexter & Co.
+12mo. pp. 214. $1.00.
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+A Manual of Naval Tactics; together with a Brief Critical Analysis of
+the Principal Modern Naval Battles. By James H. Ward, Commander U. S.
+N. With an Appendix, being an Extract from Sir Howard Douglas's "Naval
+Warfare with Steam." New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 312. $2.50.
+
+Essays, Lectures, etc., upon Select Topics in Revealed Theology. By
+Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D., late Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology
+in Yale College. New York. Clark, Austin, & Smith. 8vo. pp. 425. $1.50.
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+The Character and Portraits of Washington. By H. T. Tuckerman.
+Illustrated with all the Prominent Portraits, Proofs on India Paper,
+and a Fine Plate of the Washington Monument, by Crawford, at Richmond,
+Va., from a Photograph of a Drawing, by Ehninger. New York. G. P.
+Putnam. 4to. $6.00.
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+VI., VII., VIII. Histories. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co. 12mo. pp. 564,
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+Almost a Heroine. By the Author of "Charles Auchester," "Counterparts,"
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+
+Germaine. By Edmond About. Boston. J. E. Tilton & Co. 12mo. pp. 341.
+$1.00.
+
+The Puritans; or, the Church, Court, and Parliament of England, during
+the Reigns of Edward Sixth and Queen Elizabeth. By Samuel Hopkins. 3
+vols. Vol. I. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 549. $2.50.
+
+The New American Cyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General
+Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Volume VII.
+Edward--Fueros. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 786. $3.00.
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+The Poetical Works of Winthrop Mackworth Praed. New and enlarged
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25,
+November, 1859, by Various
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November,
+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: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859
+
+Author: Various
+
+Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9391]
+Release Date: November, 2005
+First Posted: September 28, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NOVEMBER 1859 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project
+Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
+
+A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
+
+VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV.
+
+
+
+
+E. FELICE FORESTI.
+
+
+Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the
+harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such
+exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers
+who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not
+the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy
+of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the
+fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new
+country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees
+of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and
+breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and
+self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the
+bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud
+consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and
+being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when
+first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of
+the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to
+watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest
+thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its
+spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were
+extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open.
+Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple
+facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and
+cordial greeting.
+
+Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose
+high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of
+moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces
+of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but
+with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and
+ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for
+years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and
+literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in
+her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian
+patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and
+the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its
+availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and
+an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the
+chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate
+modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the
+political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of
+existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic
+pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he
+illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own
+eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in
+her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to
+the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely
+fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of
+victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon
+early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the
+stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He
+uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage
+can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of
+being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the
+truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully
+adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of
+a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed
+a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given,
+except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New
+York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture,
+essentially improved his physical condition; but it became
+indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous
+clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy,
+taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent
+adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity,
+and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It
+was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading
+citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his
+appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular
+propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of
+American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city
+which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with
+our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in
+America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple
+and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom
+freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense
+of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his
+declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized
+misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to
+rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our
+purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography.
+"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis
+Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe
+scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo
+Austriaco. Quest' uomo e Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandono gli agi
+Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose
+battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua
+penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sara una
+spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.]
+
+Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the
+Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest
+patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the
+peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in
+all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in
+conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of
+the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the
+revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and
+again, spasmodic and abortive _emeutes_, the calm protest of a
+D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property,
+freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision
+useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the
+oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice
+by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this
+deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern
+muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this
+identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the
+letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of
+Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which
+Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their
+self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess
+d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of
+Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with
+political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more
+or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to
+come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart
+from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect
+of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten
+years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That
+Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and
+realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every
+intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the
+Sardinian state, knows.
+
+A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual
+enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent
+countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted
+press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign
+bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly.
+In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign
+tongue, the _caffes_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and
+under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of
+the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the
+eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce
+an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights,
+property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech,
+being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of
+Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and
+zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the
+senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation
+hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the
+inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates
+political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical
+resources become available; talent finds scope, character
+self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and
+genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably
+reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws
+or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite
+extension and salutary reign.
+
+In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into
+the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and
+administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military,
+political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed
+and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his
+studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought,
+and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation
+of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the
+subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the
+inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of
+reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to
+appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when
+suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as
+it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and
+enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete
+feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this
+wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political
+organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest
+princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose
+far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the
+fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to
+hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the
+vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and
+patriotic agricultural class.
+
+Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers
+linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence
+or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to
+detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and
+alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the
+charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed
+stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught
+with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway
+and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the
+Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place
+is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces
+emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is
+no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the
+crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort
+of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our
+footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the
+splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in
+extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous
+school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew
+scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the
+Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city
+dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave
+refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually
+concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of
+ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary
+resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the
+Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this
+halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus
+of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent.
+But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree
+consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later
+generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers,
+and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which
+stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he
+roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers,"
+traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in
+Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were
+slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of
+St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and
+Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It
+is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy
+and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved,
+triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so
+assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal
+Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for
+centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word,
+Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who
+called her "_citta bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna
+del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination,
+with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights,
+the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties
+and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and
+State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the
+transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since
+consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway.
+
+When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna,
+whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of
+Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young
+advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is
+this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and
+natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent
+appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of
+Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the
+Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he
+crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian
+to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in
+the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the
+Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial
+knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his
+liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and
+disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and
+courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of
+their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and
+secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the
+Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and
+holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes
+of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The
+delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of
+Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to
+the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this
+mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter
+shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of
+retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the
+chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the
+perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was
+executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or
+even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected
+were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically
+described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was
+denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on,
+to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the
+means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still
+further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they
+had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in
+arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she
+had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the
+imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously
+prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made
+instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of
+the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate,
+uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources
+of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual
+character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes
+roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told
+they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved
+one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety,
+of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to
+startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what
+conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into
+inadvertent disloyalty.
+
+At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the
+son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their
+conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer,
+who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official
+convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved
+upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly
+guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently
+through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to
+the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to
+destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and
+poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the
+vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a
+labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient
+Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped
+from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the
+vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw
+and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to
+his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate
+anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his
+direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred
+compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had
+transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the
+firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray
+the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable
+victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of
+Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that
+suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of
+arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of
+tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and
+sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to
+which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a
+book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were
+shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife
+into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side
+and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on
+the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but,
+probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many
+hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering
+his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two
+Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It
+was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible
+representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a
+secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted
+each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the
+conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a
+crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long
+outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth
+into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his
+allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered,
+and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The
+Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of
+a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed
+the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his
+delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and
+allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical,
+and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the
+public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete
+revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret
+conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move
+the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with
+two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows.
+Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by
+ingenious moral torture.
+
+If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive
+humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for
+picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally
+will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of
+victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler
+will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that
+which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve,
+1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more
+distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only
+spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous
+old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where
+the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in
+dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic
+associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the
+household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and
+Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus,
+the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the
+firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of
+commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the
+cheerful arcades that shade the _caffes_ remind us of the "harmless
+comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome,
+balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here
+caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music,
+love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while
+the shadow of a dark _facade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the
+anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more
+remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the
+beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local
+associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel.
+Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas
+festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with
+spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the
+Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the
+Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San
+Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of
+soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid
+the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory
+of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest,
+such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies
+a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces
+dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on
+all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented,
+from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of
+the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the
+marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the
+few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which
+occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause,
+and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the
+best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny
+had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and
+countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed
+was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral
+facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold
+were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by
+Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of
+imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime;
+ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in
+that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but
+gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration
+upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force,
+and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that
+multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity.
+
+And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear,
+well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it
+was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase,
+_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an
+electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned
+faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these
+simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_,
+called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a
+sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere
+duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for
+fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted.
+
+This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of
+the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of
+the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and
+terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy
+forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more
+than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in
+ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to
+die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance,
+while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid
+itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful
+executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth
+saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years'
+imprisonment.
+
+From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St.
+Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The
+better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the
+_cortege_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs;
+"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when
+night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of
+instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing
+honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police,
+terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to
+every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful
+unto death in vain.
+
+These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications,
+within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples.
+The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of
+the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished
+themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in
+durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or
+European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation,
+and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers,
+advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of
+character. Those known in America, either personally or by their
+writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla,
+Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and
+1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly
+heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as
+a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and
+progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically
+established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction
+invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European
+despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled,
+postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the
+development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph.
+
+The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every
+circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial
+and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still
+night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the
+condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and
+chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches
+they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice
+to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners
+and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary
+weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country
+and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when
+neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can
+adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of
+soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy
+prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of
+a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of
+ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and
+noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the
+strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs,
+respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their
+sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in
+disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very
+commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from
+their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue,
+greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had
+exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of
+Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain
+prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval
+castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before
+the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of
+confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a
+thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of
+malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of
+patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and
+eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a
+mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen
+jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were
+immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court
+and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome;
+an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded
+muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the
+Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world
+was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were
+guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest,
+who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the
+agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired
+in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was
+unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold
+obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the
+very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine.
+Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system
+somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg
+was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of
+Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime,
+and the severest _regime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn,
+and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to
+ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings,
+moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality.
+
+The details of this experience are familiar through current European
+memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian
+prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as
+well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English
+factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in
+the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen
+of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote:
+_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO.
+Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was
+all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that
+noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence
+and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by
+these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect
+intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed
+their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital
+injuries of the _regime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another
+the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by
+gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by
+insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each
+other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an
+indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli
+sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his
+leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday
+in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of
+beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to
+communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original
+edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen
+interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at
+Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the
+captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so
+exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa.
+Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with
+the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in
+such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That,"
+whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless
+mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods
+oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Memoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par
+ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.]
+
+This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and
+philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of
+justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair
+which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits
+of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of
+robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the
+want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and
+permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard
+him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet
+suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a
+pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official
+in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed
+it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what
+triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the
+solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his
+self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant
+rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth,
+which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into
+the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in
+his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his
+wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance
+of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived
+from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting
+reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the
+habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their
+functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at
+Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the
+legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left
+uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the
+Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual
+expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and
+the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak
+fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go,
+night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred
+or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of
+life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender
+sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of
+knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank,
+existence a void!
+
+Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of
+humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we
+should find it in the self-preservation realized under such
+circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity
+against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and
+pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and
+beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative
+force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and
+uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method
+thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant
+imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts
+in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle.
+Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and
+force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful
+disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart;
+incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion
+from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to
+middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving
+nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America.
+Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress;
+and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a
+single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all
+read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a
+spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the
+companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle
+absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little
+plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate
+flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of
+these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of
+life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to
+tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from
+without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_,
+as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's
+incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the
+supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate
+occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile
+inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will,
+and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the
+twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night
+canopied aggravating dreams.
+
+  "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought,
+  Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought."
+
+Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the
+compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their
+dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died
+(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public
+prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his
+accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning
+them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity
+did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights,
+their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In
+November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had
+welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and
+wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the
+director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with
+congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and
+they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where
+comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and
+newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the
+hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects
+associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the
+hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold
+streets, _caffes_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of
+life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel
+the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living
+history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors,
+converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire
+transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation
+had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a
+reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement,
+prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness;
+they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or
+sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their
+sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their
+very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them
+to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy,
+where a milder atmosphere prevailed.
+
+How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed
+monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and
+kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of
+civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their
+liberation suddenly introduced them!
+
+Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that
+melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It
+was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages
+with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through
+which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns
+where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed
+to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to
+be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the
+Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was
+consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape;
+they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to
+bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local
+celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their
+excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid
+them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred
+and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace
+them.
+
+Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and
+respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between
+prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages
+arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While
+the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished
+appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom
+so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore
+to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she
+attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned
+to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave
+Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of
+Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be
+fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die
+for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I
+have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May
+God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards
+learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of
+Prussia.
+
+On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste,
+and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war
+whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable
+in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter
+of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm
+clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them,
+not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for
+which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly
+two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel
+was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they
+fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they
+beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction
+with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such
+protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed,
+was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground.
+
+Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their
+compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the
+consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles.
+Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his
+purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and
+inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the
+more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend.
+Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and
+kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis
+of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent
+prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his
+dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the
+strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the
+revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the
+frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by
+French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his
+adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and
+unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to
+retrieve the fate of Italy.
+
+Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United
+States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of
+his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his
+character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated
+and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At
+the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent
+had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to
+annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were
+justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent
+moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high
+and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars,
+citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real
+genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with
+the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their
+aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental;
+for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure
+enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but
+most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock.
+Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs
+"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with
+the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the
+sympathy of the civilized world.
+
+The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed
+by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years
+domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitue_ of
+his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous,
+and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of
+antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen
+perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at
+least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days
+of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand,
+and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation
+had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue
+whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the
+age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when
+faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its
+virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's
+humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his
+country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a
+volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico
+under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as
+it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in
+its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a
+landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his
+youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters
+of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions
+peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his
+experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his
+companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and
+usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his
+fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian
+Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to
+the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fetes_, from the numerous
+friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of
+social enjoyment and genial activity.
+
+Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as
+the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in
+Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists,
+every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in
+reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his
+American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then
+that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the
+spontaneity of his race.
+
+Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly
+Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large
+experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system,
+rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in
+discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English
+politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification
+of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he
+yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like
+those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several
+occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power
+on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn
+in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of
+Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious
+son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he
+sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose
+glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly
+affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the
+prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew
+always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of
+government, because he could discover in them the true love of
+nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension,
+beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely
+tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the
+unchanged serenity of his bearing."
+
+Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography
+almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly
+pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful
+epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer
+and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to
+be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was
+_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof
+is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he
+used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the
+Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he
+called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected
+and honored.
+
+The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as
+the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence
+of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a
+foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport,
+under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had
+so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are
+aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and
+how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may
+never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his
+devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not
+belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and
+philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to
+the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than
+satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of
+Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio,
+breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you
+belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see
+things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage
+developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign
+of the times when the land which protected such an exile was
+represented by him in that of his nativity.
+
+Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource
+thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American
+friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated
+immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand
+pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus
+honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of
+Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an
+effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill
+and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning
+of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his
+eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the
+Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres
+and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory
+of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of
+his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful
+to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient
+city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor,
+the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the
+refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state
+where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest
+aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social
+vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his
+pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the
+Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena,
+through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo,
+by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the
+captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of
+Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of
+which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the
+less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary,
+official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LARVAE.
+
+
+My little maiden of four years old
+  (No myth, but a genuine child is she,
+With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold)
+  Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me.
+
+Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,--
+  As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her,
+She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm
+  A horrible, crawling caterpillar!"
+
+And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother,
+  Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy,
+She added,--"While they were about it, mother,
+  I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!"
+
+They were words to the thought of the soul that turns
+  From the coarser form of a partial growth,
+Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns
+  With an unknown glory to crown them both.
+
+Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes,
+  On whatso beside thee may creep and cling,
+For the possible beauty that underlies
+  The passing phase of the meanest thing!
+
+What if God's great angels, whose waiting love
+  Beholdeth our pitiful life below,
+From the holy height of their heaven above,
+  Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow?
+
+
+
+
+THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*]
+
+[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and
+France.]
+
+[Continued.]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE QUILTING.
+
+By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to
+the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a
+campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to
+their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy
+yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons,
+looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the
+leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at
+which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the
+treasure.
+
+As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the
+gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon,
+with her usual complement of baskets and bags.
+
+"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do
+believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and
+out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house
+heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately
+dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and
+exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white
+napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket
+on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a
+heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage.
+
+"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping
+her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks
+was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid
+two or tree little tings."
+
+Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between
+them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed
+triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the
+great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the
+twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of
+golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green
+leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and
+raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which
+Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue
+delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace,
+whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was
+conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she
+sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty.
+
+"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!"
+
+"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git
+married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey
+oughter hab plenty to do it wid."
+
+"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with
+busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!"
+
+"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with
+proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't
+put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday
+but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk
+someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I,
+'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my
+mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de
+sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de
+ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an'
+Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_
+quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de
+cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An'
+so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de
+'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin'
+good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf
+for his supper."
+
+"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder.
+
+"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar,
+'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her
+fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis
+arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de
+day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken
+sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could."
+
+"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't
+what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was
+thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times
+like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then
+they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say,
+Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up
+to us, and we'll put it through straight."
+
+"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done,
+an' I'll do it."
+
+Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with
+the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut
+the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential
+outpouring to Miss Prissy.
+
+"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn;
+'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat
+'twould be to somebody else, ye know."
+
+Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan.
+
+"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_
+wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar
+a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was
+tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de
+world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is
+r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_
+tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a
+feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm
+waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to
+all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire
+Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on
+him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope
+no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it
+in my bones_."
+
+Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that
+she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this
+particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will
+perceive has its conveniences.
+
+"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last
+year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck
+straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss
+Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'"
+
+"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange
+things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't
+believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in
+the house after."
+
+"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a
+heap more'n dey likes to tell!"
+
+"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was
+watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we
+heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to
+come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just
+dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for
+pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down
+and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I
+see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a
+grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!"
+
+Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her
+voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper.
+
+"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause.
+
+"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it,"
+said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear
+brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes,
+laid him out in white flannel."
+
+"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a
+sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down
+one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an'
+she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a
+man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de
+harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.'
+But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally
+disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any
+way, 'cause he sunk tree times."
+
+"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more
+things in this world than folks know about."
+
+"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to
+nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I
+dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his
+hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de
+water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith,
+wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I
+ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says
+people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to
+de ole 'spensation."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to
+think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?"
+
+"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers
+wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to
+run clar."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You
+see, it may have reference to the state of his soul."
+
+"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream,"
+she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can
+judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_"
+
+"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the
+confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion.
+
+"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't
+like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's
+kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings
+knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit
+_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor."
+
+At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to
+this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss
+Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her
+cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they
+had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew
+around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation,
+upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary
+suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible
+relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this
+strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish.
+
+A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to
+strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and
+facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it
+would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was
+getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was
+to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and
+discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch
+from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her
+spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring,
+half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a
+less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of
+slight intoxication.
+
+But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to
+Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying
+round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins,
+wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the
+notion that she actually existed in forty places at once.
+
+Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an
+altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of
+her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in
+sententious expressions.
+
+"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she
+stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid
+transits through the apartment.
+
+"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?"
+
+"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said
+Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own
+wit.
+
+By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel
+arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy
+Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a
+most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad,
+expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the
+cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced
+our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some
+fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new
+Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon
+Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and
+tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned.
+
+The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo;
+and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over
+it; and conversation went on briskly.
+
+Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with
+hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall
+china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of
+an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two
+quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with
+drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful
+combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it.
+
+"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a
+flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as
+a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that
+Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I
+ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a
+minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or
+leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come
+just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would
+understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a
+dress fitted here, to let me try it."
+
+At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won
+the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her
+needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among
+the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as
+being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical
+opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their
+minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite
+captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she
+lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her
+mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent
+herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than
+from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young
+people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of
+course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with
+the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a
+forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the
+parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company.
+
+Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by
+declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any
+girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting
+up housekeeping in a meeting-house.
+
+"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?"
+
+"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have
+some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet."
+
+"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of
+the ladies.
+
+"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread
+with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years'
+voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married,
+I'm going up to have one of those fellows."
+
+It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this
+very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking,
+conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to
+preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her
+father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine
+of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a
+most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the
+consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison
+that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen
+confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at
+the demonstration.
+
+"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that
+'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk
+about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic
+melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities."
+
+"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding
+now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney
+with any girl."
+
+This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no
+young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled
+Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney
+and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the
+consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh.
+
+"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an
+elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she
+could knit a long cotton stocking in a day."
+
+"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?"
+said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame.
+
+"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a
+pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning
+or fine stitching."
+
+Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the
+chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that
+has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some
+gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at
+everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready
+with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but
+once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn
+were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed
+in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in
+low and gentle tones.
+
+"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to
+me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but
+eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some
+respects the dearest friend I have."
+
+"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except
+that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed
+to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to
+hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in
+the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she
+added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how
+dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really,
+truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"--
+
+"I can," said Mary, firmly.
+
+At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of
+sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths,
+suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor.
+
+Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by
+James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd
+coincidences that make hearts throb.
+
+"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he
+is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this
+come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail
+out of my heart."
+
+Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said
+Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a
+moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss
+Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through
+the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came
+to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his
+study, and all the people are wondering where you are."
+
+Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to
+be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen,
+where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision
+which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the
+trouble of recapitulating in detail.
+
+The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was
+redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's
+pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising
+his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board.
+
+Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted
+together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious
+matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular
+secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote
+family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly
+how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian
+corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by
+hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a
+brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to
+make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put
+down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just
+as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859.
+
+Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with
+excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport
+gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she
+communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not
+trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a
+confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer
+was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited
+young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of
+the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in
+which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious,
+well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that
+by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together.
+
+Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so
+heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not
+last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted
+soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her
+clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on
+the way home, if he found the courage to do so.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the
+Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long,
+sleep settled down on the brown cottage.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to
+sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come
+off yit."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+AN ADVENTURE.
+
+
+A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather
+shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon
+sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous
+stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the
+outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much
+glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had
+its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the
+under or the upper world.
+
+Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them,
+which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in
+high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each
+new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little
+child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose
+strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and
+whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes
+and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which
+seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it
+could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon
+constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of
+nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races,
+whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with
+the most intense persistency lower down.
+
+Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to
+form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than
+to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always
+seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh
+at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic
+coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in
+French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent
+surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different
+from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her
+a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms
+of opera and theatre and romance.
+
+After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a
+point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to
+a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the
+sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining
+day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each
+several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking
+gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet.
+
+Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful
+reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and
+chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze.
+Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her
+as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let
+down its long silky waves upon her shoulders.
+
+"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I
+will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads
+beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that
+is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without
+learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a
+hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity
+this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but
+there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair
+Miranda, look at thyself!"
+
+Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know
+how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the
+rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the
+fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a
+fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths
+of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose
+on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture.
+
+"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a
+true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand."
+
+She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did
+not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de
+Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart
+beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk
+bodice.
+
+"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who
+intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as
+invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with
+either.
+
+Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly
+frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted
+adornments.
+
+"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that
+time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed
+her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural
+impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the
+picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting
+the wearer to the scene."
+
+Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds
+himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and
+character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to
+pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame
+de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and
+compliments.
+
+"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be
+returning to the house."
+
+This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at
+the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty
+air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm.
+
+"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which
+never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused
+time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find
+that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came
+here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without
+some assistance."
+
+Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh
+afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the
+rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had
+been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their
+heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a
+strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a
+frail, unaided woman.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the
+possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any
+exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my
+arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks."
+
+He paused and waited for their answer.
+
+Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the
+wild beating of her heart.
+
+"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks."
+
+"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of
+rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy
+agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards
+them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to
+set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she
+did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a
+feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to
+Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away
+towards the sea.
+
+Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf
+coming in, and the next wave may carry you out."
+
+"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head.
+
+"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her
+arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which
+went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears.
+
+"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist.
+
+She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and
+placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing
+followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around
+the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the
+slight and graceful form were strung with steel.
+
+Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of
+grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the
+coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when
+the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation.
+
+Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the
+incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered
+an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a
+necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the
+circumstances, to refuse.
+
+He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet,
+natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark
+to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying,
+as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience
+from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to
+call soon and inquire after their health.
+
+Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace,
+turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few
+minutes, followed her.
+
+She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her
+breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance,
+she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry.
+
+"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in
+spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking
+your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves,
+we only hurt ourselves with our anger."
+
+"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that
+is gone"----
+
+"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we
+stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is
+so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage
+put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would
+have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you
+thought."
+
+The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and
+took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious,
+rational.
+
+"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you.
+You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart,
+you must not see this man any more."
+
+"But he will call."
+
+"I will see him for you."
+
+"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?"
+
+"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him."
+
+"That is hard;--he will wonder."
+
+"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to
+him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be
+agreeable for us to receive calls from him."
+
+"Mary, _ma chere_, you astonish me!"
+
+"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel,
+wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this
+way. I will protect you."
+
+And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her
+father looked when he protested against the slave-trade.
+
+"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by
+Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear
+saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature;
+he has the angel in him."
+
+"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love."
+
+"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if
+you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the
+rocks!--there were tears in his eyes"
+
+"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend;
+no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad,
+that saw you a few months ago."
+
+"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the
+mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see
+those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her
+summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and
+Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying
+another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that
+sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones.
+
+The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just
+on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant
+she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a
+saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an
+adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and
+no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever
+you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+PLAIN TALK.
+
+
+Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night.
+The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just
+passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked
+upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced
+woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal
+realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities,
+that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their
+hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of
+heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her
+essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words
+of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people
+essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation,
+which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the
+religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form
+essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under
+which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a
+surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading,
+though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized
+and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous
+words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so
+that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in
+her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his
+portrait of an ideal woman:--
+
+  "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat
+  Build in her loftiest, and create an awe
+  About her as a guard angelic placed."
+
+The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was
+spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when
+Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement.
+
+"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de
+Frontignac will not go down."
+
+Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was
+gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked
+eager and agitated.
+
+"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to
+tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness
+yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less."
+
+"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't
+be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am
+afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are
+so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder
+that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful."
+
+"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold
+little hands that trembled in hers.
+
+"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy
+you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy.
+Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully
+forward.
+
+Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him
+good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not
+the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure.
+
+"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?"
+said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation.
+
+"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you."
+
+"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern.
+
+"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you."
+
+Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added,
+
+"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your
+acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean,
+Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we
+should prefer not to receive calls from you."
+
+"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness."
+
+"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery
+in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth
+plainly and in a spirit of love."
+
+"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not
+otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the
+impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of
+understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious
+sentence, but I bow to it in submission."
+
+"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the
+eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of
+easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal
+soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits
+which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great
+injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in
+your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen,
+penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near
+you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable,
+interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that
+reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and
+treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave
+it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have
+treated Madame de Frontignac."
+
+"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what
+representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you,
+our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could
+desire."
+
+"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken
+the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition,
+wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but
+their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember
+the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but
+he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor
+had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to
+give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give
+her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her
+soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a
+light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be?
+one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are
+going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a
+faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all
+men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity
+and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should
+despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own
+heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she
+cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to
+the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very
+soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her,
+and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own
+heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and
+broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing.
+
+Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were
+dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil
+demon of his life.
+
+It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have
+been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and
+women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever
+demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural
+constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or
+vile.
+
+The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was
+struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair,
+inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his
+heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet
+that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole
+wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly
+stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together,
+resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself.
+
+In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and,
+approaching him, said,--
+
+"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the
+liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly."
+
+"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and
+speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern;
+"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I
+only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not
+altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been
+passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real
+nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment
+with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any
+commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me."
+
+"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It
+is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible,
+without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The
+injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and
+greater one to it."
+
+Burr looked thoughtful.
+
+"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks.
+
+Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence
+of every heart.
+
+"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying
+this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your
+fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I
+cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot
+help wishing that you would examine and reconsider."
+
+"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and
+appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs.
+Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control
+of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say,
+not had the effect you would desire."
+
+Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again;
+and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,--
+
+"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe
+me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me."
+
+He bowed, and was gone.
+
+An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his
+seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar
+political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had
+made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man;
+and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his
+short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his
+most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of
+admiration.
+
+It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving
+Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself
+little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which
+Madame de Frontignac still regarded him.
+
+We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so
+singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a
+perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible
+rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object
+of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond
+self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the
+foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a
+disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as
+the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature
+of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the
+asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid
+discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence;
+and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his
+better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then,
+to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective
+ethical creeds.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES.
+
+
+We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a
+few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de
+Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of
+the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chere Sybille_," said
+Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks
+glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voila
+encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?"
+
+"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you."
+
+"What did you tell him?"
+
+"I told him that you wished me to excuse you."
+
+"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?"
+
+"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary.
+
+"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said
+Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember
+anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and
+never see you any more."
+
+"Oh, _mimi_, never!"
+
+Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look
+of utter despair as went to Mary's heart.
+
+"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah,
+well, what shall Virginie do now?"
+
+"You have your husband," said Mary.
+
+"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him."
+
+"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a
+kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be
+grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may
+come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what
+you say is true, than the one who has injured you so."
+
+"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we
+find it too easy to love our enemies."
+
+"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently
+in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of
+your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As
+you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the
+only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in
+self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you
+can feel for your husband."
+
+"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet
+snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my
+arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head
+upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool
+verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow
+still and quiet like you."
+
+Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to
+be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally
+gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the
+healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to
+enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite
+social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations,
+caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she
+moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by
+acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the
+exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with
+avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a
+wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain
+artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the
+religious life by which she was surrounded.
+
+"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes
+said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she
+added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and
+the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut
+avouer_."
+
+We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may
+not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which
+showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she
+felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in
+the correspondence.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from
+the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most
+worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They
+are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do
+not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let
+us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all
+worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little,
+pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbe, he only smiles;
+and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be.
+
+"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing
+tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like
+Lafontaine's rat.
+
+"These people in the country here in America have a character quite
+their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for
+the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which
+exist in the Old World.
+
+"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always
+industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards
+each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to
+the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other
+man, and marries and has children.
+
+"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are
+perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no
+carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they
+meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or
+two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long,
+long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to
+comprehend.
+
+"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of
+my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has
+such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she
+would certainly have been made a saint.
+
+"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the
+family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above
+this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty
+and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this
+detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so
+proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so
+ashamed for her inconsistencies.
+
+"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for
+the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered,
+what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as
+he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores
+him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however,
+has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man,
+who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the
+cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and
+prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's
+heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have
+gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and
+goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to
+be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know,
+here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants,
+but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning
+and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated
+and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For
+these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all
+things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens
+together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have
+taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which
+makes a noise like the humming of a bee.
+
+"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good
+priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted
+him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and
+religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations
+for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other
+night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the
+neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see.
+
+"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are
+allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together,
+and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties.
+And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their
+marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked.
+This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the
+details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further
+as it progresses.
+
+"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving
+
+"Virginie."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.
+
+
+Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with
+that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters
+when they know precisely what they are about.
+
+The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each
+of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value
+precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive
+and systematic schemes.
+
+It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least,
+to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that
+no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing,
+the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and
+running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently
+slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house.
+
+Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul!
+he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From
+morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy
+consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs.
+Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered
+what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a
+while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to
+pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into
+which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous
+women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first
+pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned
+disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his
+system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the
+ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the
+matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find
+everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have
+unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind
+accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on
+his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not
+a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the
+room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently
+demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed,
+and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed
+through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and
+washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put
+up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there
+was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary.
+But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind
+to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic
+practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by
+simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in
+similar circumstances.
+
+The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in
+every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in
+the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has
+fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic
+fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal
+of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the
+promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises
+that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular
+inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that
+one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the
+existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of
+subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords
+of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our
+Doctor has done.
+
+In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by
+humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod
+of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her
+opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the
+wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical
+part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed
+him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of
+mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay
+spread out upon a table for inspection.
+
+Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively
+downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as
+she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something
+deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required
+to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that
+his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that
+almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was
+repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and
+fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one
+of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had
+taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact,
+the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he
+looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled
+them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with
+grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and
+properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white
+ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley
+on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an
+air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur
+of universal approbation broke out.
+
+"_Il a de la delicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been
+watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud
+acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to
+the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had
+distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he
+retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well
+pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and
+Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held
+a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de
+Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had
+risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into
+the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few
+hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just
+like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might
+almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions.
+
+The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks
+so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put
+away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat
+quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the
+house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had
+surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up
+to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer
+man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming
+solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with
+some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the
+placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat
+pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the
+trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy
+Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek
+wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk
+in a July day.
+
+"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!"
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week,
+but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I
+_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy
+damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all
+the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they
+might be."
+
+We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high
+stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very
+small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always
+indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many
+others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she
+remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however,
+cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the
+confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very
+evident that she had come with one on her mind now.
+
+"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after
+sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has
+something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it.
+
+Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the
+two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated
+cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending
+branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a
+seclusion as perfect as heart could desire.
+
+They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took
+off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her
+black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some
+glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something
+appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident
+signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as
+unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer.
+
+Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover,
+remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary
+could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary
+answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:--
+
+"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister,
+anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would
+anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mary, innocently.
+
+"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I
+_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls
+who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind
+to try."
+
+"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly.
+
+"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy,
+giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while
+mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all
+that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a
+temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that
+there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best
+friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working
+your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't
+know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat
+demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny
+black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder
+with something that she was going to say next.
+
+"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take
+'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?"
+
+"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly.
+
+"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like
+it, don't I?"
+
+"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the
+whole, I think you do."
+
+"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_
+finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you
+have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man
+_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent
+tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides,"
+she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage
+him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the
+doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that
+creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him."
+
+"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?"
+
+"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't!
+Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't
+do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I
+have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to
+do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes."
+
+Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately
+after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:--
+
+"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for
+he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he
+hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects
+himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him,
+and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse
+and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to
+keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his
+body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers
+don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his
+saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was
+perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody
+think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it
+last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had
+derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man
+really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I
+asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody
+says she would make a first-rate minister's wife."
+
+"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary.
+
+"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking
+down.
+
+Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark
+lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were
+nestling, and said, quietly,--
+
+"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the
+matter entirely to his judgment."
+
+"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you
+think it would injure _him_, if I should?"
+
+"I think not, materially," said Mary.
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the
+mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of
+her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There
+isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I
+should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would
+become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that
+I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any
+way."
+
+"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary.
+
+"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it
+these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is
+the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me
+against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue
+with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of
+provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no
+use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think
+about it."
+
+As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet
+with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there
+was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety
+of her face.
+
+Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the
+other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's
+arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale,
+spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and
+radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom.
+
+"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may
+as well walk with me. It's pleasant now."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet."
+
+In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those
+little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and
+juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could
+not leave thinking of.
+
+Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea,
+now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there
+came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were
+harvesting in adjoining meadows.
+
+They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has
+once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that
+_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks
+are apt to be indefinitely extended.
+
+Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the
+world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently
+interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with
+her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if
+they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion
+in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been
+surprised to find it so small.
+
+In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they
+were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of
+returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she
+came home.
+
+[To be continued.]
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+LION LLEWELLYN.
+
+
+Singing, shining, beautiful May
+Lureth me, draweth me, all the day.
+Once, when the season wooed me so,
+Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go,
+Pacing before or close beside,
+Reticent, quaint, and dignified,
+Roaming with me, wandering wide;
+And if ever thy feet inclined,
+Weary with roving, to lag behind,
+When were my arms to aid thee slow?
+"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!"
+
+Not to the pines, my warrior gray,
+Gray and stately and scarred as they,--
+Not to the hill, or the valley glen,
+Shall we wander together again.
+
+Nevermore, in the dead of night,
+Shall I waken in cold affright,--
+Waken at sounds I know too well,
+Growl defiant, and horrid yell,
+Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell
+Strife is raging, and blood is shed,
+Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread.
+Nevermore, from my bed, shall I
+Unto the chamber-window fly,
+
+There, by the wintry moon, to spy
+Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,--
+Mounting still, from the crafty foe
+Creeping and crawling up below;
+And, when thou canst no farther go,
+See thee crouch for the fearful leap
+Off the top of the old well-sweep,
+Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep,
+Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep.
+Nor, for a lameness gotten so,
+Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no!
+
+Nevermore, from my willing hand
+Winning the all I can command,
+Shall be heard the pathetic tone,
+(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,)
+Making thy simple wishes known;
+Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r"
+Of thy tranquil thunderous purr
+Breathe again, to my ear attent,
+Bliss o'erflowing and deep content.
+
+As I fondly muse on thee,
+I recall the spreading tree
+Of thy goodly pedigree,
+Which, of shapely branch or bough,
+Hath no fairer growth than thou;
+And my glance caressing now
+Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow,
+Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not,
+Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot,
+Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch,
+Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch,
+Zillah, Zillah Number Two,
+Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo,
+Hiawatha, And, and If,
+Minnehaha, But, and Tiff,
+Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray,
+Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway,
+Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae,
+Nippenicket, Dido, Puck,
+Minnesinger, Friar Tuck,
+Periwinkle, Winkle Less,
+Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess,
+Midget, Budget, Mayaret,
+Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette,
+Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet,
+Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn,
+Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam,
+Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam,
+Tomtit, Pug, Penelope,
+Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie,
+
+Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan,
+Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban,
+Filibuster, Jonathan,--
+Name them all who may, who can;
+For the half has not been told
+Of the branches I behold
+On the honored parent-stem,
+And the later growth from them.
+
+Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend,
+Brave and gentle to the end,
+Would that I once more might hail,
+Like a banner on the gale,
+Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail!
+And thy furry coat of mail,
+Like the striped and spotted skin
+Of thy savage leopard kin,
+Would I might again caress
+With the old-time tenderness!
+
+Why do I talk of what may not be?
+For the pillow of him I fain would see
+Was changed long since from my motherly knee
+To the garden, under the willow-tree,--
+Weeping-willow and flowering moss.
+Over it riseth nor pile nor cross;
+We, who only have felt his loss,
+Needing no sculptured stone to tell
+How he battled, and how he fell,
+Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well.
+
+What is the destiny of his race?
+Is there, I wonder, no other place
+Whence they come or whither they go?
+Earth-existence the all they know?
+Does the living intelligence
+Die in them with the dying sense?
+Or, from the body passing hence,
+Does it find in another sphere
+Being in higher form than here?
+
+For summers twain, the willow kept
+Its watch where low the warrior slept,
+But, on the third, a blight had crept
+Upon the vigor of its frame;
+Nor knew we how or whence it came.
+
+Whisper it low and fearfully,
+The tale of ghostly mystery;
+For toothless crones and graybeards said
+That from the presence of the dead
+An influence around was shed,
+
+Like warlock's foul, unholy spell,
+Of malisons and curses fell,
+Which steeped that soil with venom dank,
+Of which the fated willow drank.
+
+Whether it were or were not so,
+At least so much as this we know,
+That on the willow fell decay;
+And though, when all things else grew gay,
+It feebly strove to look as they,
+Yet was its summer crown of pride
+Worn lightly, and soon cast aside,
+And when Spring found it, it had died.
+
+A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown,
+Now mark the place of his rest alone.
+
+I see that the soft west-wind to-day
+From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away,
+And wherever its fitful currents flow,
+Rising or falling, swift or slow,
+The tender petals like white wings go,
+Floating, eddying, wavering low,
+Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow;
+And under their light and flickering fall,
+The mound, and the flowering moss, and all,
+Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest.
+
+Thou that often these arms have pressed,
+Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,--
+Thou that takest thy colder rest,
+Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground,
+Close, but untenderly, folded round,--
+Ever, by thy drifted mound,
+Sleep, the Mystery, be found
+Most mysterious, most profound!
+And through her enchanted air,
+Lighter than petals fair,
+Brooding Peace sink downward there;
+And the blasted willow make
+Haunt perpetual, for thy sake!
+
+
+
+
+TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA.
+
+  "It were wise, nay, just,
+  To strike with men a balance: to forgive,
+  If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama.
+
+
+In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories
+and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same
+Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years
+afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of
+_citoyen Francais_, when that new order was created by the Revolution.
+At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr.
+Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these
+occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a
+bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had
+been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the
+New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased
+with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with
+regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his
+destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache,
+introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of
+filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or
+assistant surveyor."
+
+The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in
+Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his
+life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a
+shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial
+experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him
+to become an American citizen.
+
+His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a
+free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic,
+--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense.
+With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he
+can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at
+sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible,"
+Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black
+flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered
+and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the
+"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after
+one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed;
+out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive,
+most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away
+from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time
+actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at
+Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and
+an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some
+reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months
+afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found
+employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a
+year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In
+1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist;
+and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for
+his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of
+salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece
+introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous
+Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern
+for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine."
+
+The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was
+separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman.
+After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate.
+
+His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia;
+but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the
+"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions
+were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections
+on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do
+not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still
+occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity.
+But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many
+years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may
+still be read with some interest:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen,
+rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with
+all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated
+beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian
+notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving
+visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private
+recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve
+her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that
+was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in
+her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with
+the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation
+to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation
+of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery
+of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is
+noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of
+her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her
+gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness;
+and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the
+riches of a necromancer's cell."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper,
+introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among
+others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to
+Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this
+communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and
+the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the
+venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen
+appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_,"
+as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his
+contemporaries. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.]
+
+Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as
+were in his hands towards completing a history of the present
+transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next
+spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished
+nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting
+out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to
+surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he
+thought of."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one
+of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England
+the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching
+storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On
+the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies
+would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775.
+During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington
+and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled
+about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came
+Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was
+open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had
+drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag.
+
+From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in
+their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots,
+militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in
+regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make
+out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to
+appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising
+revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament
+could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed
+excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of
+British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by
+the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial
+merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to
+independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion
+to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists
+insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men
+and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of
+Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors
+led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our
+respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of
+it.
+
+Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the
+rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it
+necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished
+to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and
+taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were
+confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a
+deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong
+personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second
+petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was
+disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming,
+and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for
+reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion,
+and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a
+constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief
+in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the
+Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal,
+hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds
+of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to
+dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He
+had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at
+all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which
+disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was
+impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle,
+it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against
+nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in
+January, 1776.
+
+Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the
+mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an
+impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent
+justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be
+managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant.
+_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a
+petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when
+obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few
+years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection
+of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars?
+"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy
+than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear
+of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence
+on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European
+politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation
+necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to
+establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were
+abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if
+not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century
+hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is
+no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the
+will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious
+opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as
+children of the same family, differing only in what is called their
+Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our
+affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of
+independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and
+difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a
+superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will
+become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent
+will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant
+business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about
+it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its
+necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument
+against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much
+weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote
+the same holy book in favour of slavery.
+
+The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true
+patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense".
+Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of
+a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a
+prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was
+beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright
+up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one
+hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr.
+Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams.
+
+It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General
+Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his
+reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded.
+The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to
+France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common
+Sense."
+
+It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence
+doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the
+touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew
+the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid
+a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it
+useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared.
+None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared
+independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread
+through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and
+believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would
+have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation.
+
+If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an
+expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776,
+look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much
+difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later,
+when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in
+the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of
+tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine
+founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote
+politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius
+Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression,
+semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were
+relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations
+of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise
+and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's
+coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the
+like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American
+party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight
+with the rank-and-file as his arguments.
+
+[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge
+to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common
+Sense."]
+
+Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst
+upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by
+all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon
+afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr.
+Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as
+a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had
+he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a
+place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism
+was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and
+even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine
+preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to
+know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee
+affectation, unknown to French idioms.
+
+[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."]
+
+In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp
+to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened
+with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until
+the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and
+Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good
+service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the
+old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and
+cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of
+"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee,
+and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December,
+when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts.
+It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try
+men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this
+crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it
+now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all,"
+he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort
+Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably
+planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the
+place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a
+cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the
+Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions.
+
+This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the
+honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were
+brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to
+demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a
+daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by
+every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every
+State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In
+their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage
+from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better
+calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to
+adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham
+admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as
+necessary and as formidable as its cannon."
+
+The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt
+certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was
+_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and
+ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a
+proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and
+cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who
+should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a
+"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America?
+If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than
+yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If
+you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do
+nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional
+dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to
+contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it;
+if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of
+water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to
+his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as
+much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out
+your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to
+do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation,
+betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In
+speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to
+take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose
+published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to
+Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves
+out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless,
+little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it
+again, but by payment and penitence."
+
+In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the
+Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy
+dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress
+in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a
+short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the
+defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe,
+and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right.
+The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they
+had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who,
+
+  "Unconscious of impending fates,
+  Could push through woods, but not through
+  Gates,"
+
+had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October.
+
+This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France,
+Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's
+admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and
+mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of
+the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America
+that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so
+indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that
+he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and
+paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could
+get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene,
+"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a
+proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the
+madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in
+the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not
+to attempt it.
+
+In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gerard, the
+first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to
+Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed
+Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to
+furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that
+Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to
+the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to
+receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances.
+Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the
+Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with
+Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He
+returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes
+already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no
+vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands,
+the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented.
+Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to
+the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so
+amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of
+it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal
+before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by
+John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to
+know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not
+from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles,
+entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these
+he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M.
+Gerard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false,
+and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party
+feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and
+English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in
+censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence;
+the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the
+Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also
+lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His
+resignation was then accepted.
+
+As the French government persisted in denying that the King had
+furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October,
+1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two
+millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais
+negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But
+neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another
+million.
+
+We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however
+injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best
+friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Lomenie, in
+his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the
+justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success.
+He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless
+in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth
+of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim
+to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at
+all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his
+conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and
+recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose
+like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed
+into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The
+immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire
+himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office,
+Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was
+appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania.
+
+[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning
+of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the
+French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the
+Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home
+to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it
+reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de
+Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the
+strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in
+any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of
+Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with
+no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five
+millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were
+allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed
+forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but
+our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the
+money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a
+suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in
+borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial
+character for a nation to obtain.]
+
+Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving
+petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from
+taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and
+read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was
+in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could
+need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and
+mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour.
+"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing
+silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a
+member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he,
+'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there
+represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer.
+We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member
+endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an
+adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had
+neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals
+could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a
+letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the
+urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of
+the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund.
+The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's
+communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two
+hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for
+the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency,
+were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for
+the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best
+results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he
+developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated
+both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine
+followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the
+war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling,
+compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it
+would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to
+drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their
+system of taxation.
+
+Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every
+word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more
+remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did
+not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it,
+and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger
+sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms.
+Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even
+provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient
+which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow
+in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was
+appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a
+million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied
+him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously
+received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a
+present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the
+American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the
+presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a
+trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations
+of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention,
+as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for
+Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a
+half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward,
+which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine
+was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a
+pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel
+Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and
+brought his secretary safely home again.
+
+Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not
+last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union
+expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The
+want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was
+so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of
+Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if
+his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine
+consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect.
+This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage
+occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers.
+A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate
+peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the
+baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between
+such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which
+language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive,
+and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned
+by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression
+every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe
+better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient
+vocabulary.
+
+When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of
+independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis"
+announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the
+greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and
+happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her
+birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to
+the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance
+of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most
+laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began
+with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic
+life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in
+her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the
+reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair
+national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it
+possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies
+civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and
+commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a
+future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I
+ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great
+Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of.
+It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that
+which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he
+anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of
+whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them,
+originated with Thomas Paine.
+
+The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but
+no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had
+enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when
+his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere,
+"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's
+thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for
+there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect,
+much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to
+take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual
+theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away
+to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never
+reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my
+religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake,
+I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of
+this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the
+pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward."
+
+His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving
+not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The
+State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate,
+near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary
+fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred
+pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a
+similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared,
+demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This
+publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his
+grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we
+believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him
+over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the
+cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money.
+
+In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he
+received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky
+Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It
+ran thus:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at
+Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for
+either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see
+you here.
+
+"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this
+country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best
+exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who
+entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who,
+with much pleasure, subscribes himself
+
+"G. WASHINGTON."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of
+the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think
+so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial,"
+worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service.
+Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and
+told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and
+proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at
+last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed
+him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as
+Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and
+spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One
+evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on
+fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his
+Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb,
+is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few
+years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson.
+
+Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in
+Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and
+indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of
+Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical
+Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His
+reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his
+remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker
+or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see
+legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point,
+inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of
+the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by
+foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of
+the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested
+permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in
+Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens
+introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not
+belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was
+agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us;
+for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of
+maintaining a constant correspondence."
+
+In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have
+said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was
+an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that
+period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have
+succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby
+was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and
+twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the
+Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a
+spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the
+principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle
+was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a
+complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown;
+but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the
+working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his
+plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Academie des
+Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the
+celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbe Morellet, the Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of
+'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the
+minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a
+satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following
+resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:--
+
+"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr.
+Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late
+Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of
+Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens
+of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress."
+
+
+
+
+TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD."
+
+
+"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!"
+
+I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of
+the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough.
+Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts
+harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I
+have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for
+belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the
+human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after
+having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I
+determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the
+knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest
+confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had
+reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their
+invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning,
+like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the
+earth. I sunk into a brown study.
+
+In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He
+brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of
+illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and
+operation of his aerial ship.
+
+They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb.
+Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted
+to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains,"
+thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct
+the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an
+absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me,
+were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the
+Patent-Office at Washington.
+
+The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented
+the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of
+passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the
+drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes
+and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the
+atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface,
+and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate
+cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges
+and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above
+all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aeronauts report, there is ever a
+smooth, quiet atmospheric sea.
+
+"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that
+rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in
+ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human
+body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure
+as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly
+from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the
+finger-nails?"
+
+Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an
+angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to
+his ship.
+
+"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long,
+extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins
+always supplied with fresh and wholesome air."
+
+"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked.
+
+"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current,
+whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered
+as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's
+own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see,
+it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M----
+insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and
+the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going
+below, however, it almost instantly ceased."
+
+I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this
+extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power
+was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber,
+or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of
+two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it
+resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and
+resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon,
+that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in
+which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong
+flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened
+and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber.
+Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a
+particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember,
+was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth
+in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain
+the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and
+three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a
+considerable margin for freight.
+
+Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but
+ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine,
+and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to
+render it intelligible by mere description.
+
+The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore
+the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of
+a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided
+into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and
+so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment
+between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending
+from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship,
+connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally
+embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels,
+made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a
+steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the
+propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm,
+of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels.
+
+All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here
+repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined
+lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before
+been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new
+combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that
+the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated
+beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had
+demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics.
+
+I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a
+modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no
+dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of
+integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and
+bearing were those of a true man.
+
+Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old,
+from San Francisco?
+
+No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York
+Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose
+acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without
+pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge
+at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a
+very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a
+warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he
+professed to have made.
+
+In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after
+ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of
+perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object
+of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He
+had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above
+us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath,
+and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first
+trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the
+night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended
+north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow
+of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly
+distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to
+the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable
+results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route,
+northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several
+well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these
+times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states
+of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the
+occasion of these novel voyages.
+
+He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at
+Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand
+trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with
+important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our
+rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out,
+including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the
+head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and
+the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a
+few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city;
+which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back.
+Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in
+the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon
+was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner,
+Mons. De Aery, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had
+managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on
+her second expedition across the American continent.
+
+Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a
+discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the
+practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform
+the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many
+valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to
+lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature,
+and the onward march of nations.
+
+Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of
+Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the
+prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible
+police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at
+least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence
+of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast
+changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail
+to effect.
+
+To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that
+the principal papers of the country had _attaches_ aboard on the first
+trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors,
+together with De Aery and himself--were agreed that the matter should
+be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be
+established beyond the possibility of question.
+
+I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had
+been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of
+the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it
+was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to
+Mr. Bonflon.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aery and myself spent years
+in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On
+the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the
+weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The
+spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the
+mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost
+us five thousand dollars and the labor of years."
+
+I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the
+usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His
+success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of
+its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments
+and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the
+master mind of this master century.
+
+Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held
+him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive
+intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In
+everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with
+originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his
+quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated
+him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his
+equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the
+future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze
+of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no
+confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were
+apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural
+sequences flowing from them.
+
+On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval,
+my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while
+externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was
+plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the
+extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a
+mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we
+nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in
+the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for
+ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger,
+must be left to unravel at its leisure.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or
+three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed
+around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay
+his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to
+return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic
+side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip
+to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party
+himself, and he invited me to accompany him.
+
+I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular
+instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the
+heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing,
+on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at
+high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the
+skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent
+cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aery and
+himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station,
+or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but
+a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand
+at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on
+board the "Flying Cloud."
+
+I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I
+arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off
+in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be
+dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap
+in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would
+take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed.
+
+In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me
+to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented
+himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had
+returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed
+as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage;
+but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aery had filled
+out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he
+(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were
+reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr.
+Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in
+doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was
+disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no
+look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no
+opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was
+as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt
+him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but
+the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was
+manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly
+presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or
+unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming
+within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming,
+had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion
+and electric telegraphing.
+
+Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes
+in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with
+a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if
+not reversed. He had seen De Aery again. One or two of the expected
+passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel
+them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was
+to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the
+following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train.
+De Aery and several others were already flying over the rail on their
+way to Philadelphia.
+
+I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of
+excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I
+frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to
+my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to
+plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on
+the strange and questionable adventure.
+
+The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon
+and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to
+admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and
+wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into
+a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the
+motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive
+visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected
+with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud."
+
+We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain
+some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the
+middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of
+our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first
+beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus
+satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere
+chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan,
+floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem
+of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make
+obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and
+plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of
+her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a
+great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief
+against the sky.
+
+But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and
+the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were
+already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and
+seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency
+of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement
+immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to
+create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an
+indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was
+attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the
+receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we
+approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway,
+and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period
+intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became
+instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way.
+
+The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible
+to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge
+water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward,
+like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At
+first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and
+distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next
+they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like
+fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains
+followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a
+hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding
+the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our
+course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a
+landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in
+our passage.
+
+What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships;
+but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were
+floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of
+the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the
+stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting
+the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter
+homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to
+the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon
+us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary
+condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail
+to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs.
+Bonflon and De Aery must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and
+the common destiny of mankind!
+
+I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had
+asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade
+deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity
+of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in
+consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid,
+from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly
+susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case
+myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing,
+proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness,
+invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air.
+
+But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without
+obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal
+glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said
+there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars,
+yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake,
+waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to
+none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft,
+as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void,
+without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing
+to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure,
+however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of
+the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of
+usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified
+experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The
+force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here
+I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had
+likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set
+beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying
+Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to
+compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or
+so, down the rapids of a river.
+
+But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the
+dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher
+altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no
+fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim,
+despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was
+manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily
+greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better
+than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from
+what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid,
+lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or
+haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like
+a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless
+and devoid of life as a dead man's eye.
+
+Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak
+from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the
+comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I
+recognized _attaches_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of
+Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat
+acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than
+myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But
+their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they
+looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the
+windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud,"
+and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of
+what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and
+suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be
+likely to flow from the grand invention.
+
+What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little
+nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the
+absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our
+pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and
+to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, the
+proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds.
+It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness
+and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain
+quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about
+our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on
+nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which
+were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it
+required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it
+from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination.
+
+Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a
+night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature
+asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day
+and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this
+time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away,
+and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with
+all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his
+throne.
+
+But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aerial ocean, in which we
+were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or
+even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating
+plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was
+already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the
+distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a
+succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the
+clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to
+mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains,
+covered with perpetual snow.
+
+I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood
+out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in
+size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north,
+were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount
+Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to
+their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we
+were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and
+myself by Mr. De Aery, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in
+vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which
+covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the
+exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view.
+
+Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen
+early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up
+with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified
+shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were
+directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt,
+fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity,
+such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out
+their beauty, their mystery, and their strength.
+
+On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the
+void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight
+to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified
+splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible
+to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling
+snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel
+mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand
+or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with
+black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the
+white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and
+precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening
+the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of
+Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name,
+were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us.
+
+No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the
+upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed
+point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of
+daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this
+mountain-scene of enchantment.
+
+De Aery was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this
+extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired,
+mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an
+occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a
+native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the
+management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were
+gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those
+snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its
+round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised
+my voice and accosted him.
+
+"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this
+Atlas-top?"
+
+"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here."
+
+I went to him.
+
+"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to
+plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head."
+
+"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?"
+
+"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself
+on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching
+the crown of the pinnacle."
+
+I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He
+held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and
+occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride,
+spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the
+"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak,
+glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some
+venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter.
+
+"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aery. "There is
+not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The
+'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to
+explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the
+bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy
+peak."
+
+"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and
+perish."
+
+"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a
+goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow
+looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag,
+unless I have a firm spot for my feet."
+
+By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern
+alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the
+ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in
+his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with
+a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its
+place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with
+the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of
+ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted
+a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the
+standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the
+farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that
+a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his
+purpose.
+
+A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the
+surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but
+a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like
+white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aery, losing his
+balance, plunged over and went with it.
+
+We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had
+sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull
+sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an
+immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third
+of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave,
+broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment,
+all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering,
+like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister
+snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling
+and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went.
+
+By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and
+precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and,
+forgetting De Aery, we watched the development of the phenomenon with
+terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as
+common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened
+and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing
+different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of
+devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction.
+Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its
+batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through
+valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a
+check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man
+would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed.
+Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or
+ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay
+heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us
+for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer
+wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill
+the dwellers among the Alps.
+
+As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts
+reverted to De Aery. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was
+his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that
+catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many
+hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on
+bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman.
+He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand,
+and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at
+the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his
+voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted
+our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times
+three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the
+spot to De Aery.
+
+But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious
+question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and
+spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands,
+whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated
+before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of
+snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in
+its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He
+hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great
+care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of
+half an hour, De Aery, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul,
+rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored
+to our arms.
+
+Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the
+Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our
+number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences
+and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course
+for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us
+and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land,
+ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to
+take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the
+form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities,
+should be quite forgotten.
+
+We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little,
+luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild
+flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild,
+but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The
+foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps
+never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we
+saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops
+of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a
+drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence
+at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake
+at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the
+plateau was inhabited.
+
+Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some
+willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear
+mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam
+Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey
+Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With
+the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and
+songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aery, as having by a
+hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his
+extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank
+of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much
+pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace.
+
+When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman
+had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his
+sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:--
+
+"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined
+because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to
+lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel
+cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow
+burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was
+pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was
+like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below
+one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the
+struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and
+nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in
+contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent
+avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw
+anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left
+behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at
+the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of
+seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it.
+But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag."
+
+High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for
+his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the
+American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of
+motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present
+failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some
+other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his
+laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In
+this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes.
+
+Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we
+weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a
+ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former
+altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the
+west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes,
+alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental
+enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster,
+until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to
+our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth,
+and we were again afloat in space.
+
+The following night and day were passed like their predecessors.
+Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of
+California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our
+remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of
+us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching
+the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably
+should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It
+was near midnight before all of us were in our berths.
+
+But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The
+excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have
+returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to
+relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to
+have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the
+wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement
+of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play,
+was rather a motion than a sound.
+
+This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange
+bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly
+changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some
+horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as
+though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it
+closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though
+subjected to a like crushing pressure.
+
+How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of
+knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and
+returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary
+events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was
+weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I
+had no voice.
+
+Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I
+attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers,
+undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of
+effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed
+for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain.
+The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out
+above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and
+there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine.
+Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true
+of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the
+Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray
+paper stuck upon a wall.
+
+Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I
+discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of
+the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but
+without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances
+nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange
+visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been
+subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a
+light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately
+its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron
+or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I
+tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a
+scale.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent
+island in the air. It was an immense aerolite; and with this conviction
+came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed
+beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that
+region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these
+meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse
+throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the
+surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at
+the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel
+to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aery! All
+ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from
+myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of
+death.
+
+Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish,
+to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or
+insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with
+what little strength I had, but in vain.
+
+"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!"
+
+At length he opened his eyes, but did not move.
+
+"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let
+the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack
+of air."
+
+"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer.
+It can't--can't be morning yet."
+
+By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my
+strength.
+
+"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us
+all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!"
+
+With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which,
+like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo
+of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant
+faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious,
+took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him.
+
+From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of
+insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that
+he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our
+situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float
+forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until
+forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving
+atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But
+I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to
+look after their condition.
+
+As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient
+asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser
+air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within
+half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to
+consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights
+exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was
+crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a
+pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies.
+
+Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, when they came to realize the danger from
+which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The
+lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his
+single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept
+aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his
+Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me
+with expressions of obligation.
+
+But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass
+from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the
+main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our
+rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out,
+though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and
+almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should
+announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was
+in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace,
+we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire.
+
+Bonflon and De Aery rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured
+out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a
+moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into
+which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the
+half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident
+occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing
+the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement,
+except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and
+partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was
+clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and
+themselves took the management of the craft.
+
+De Aery, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a
+demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like
+the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and
+decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments
+of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the
+engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged,
+crackling ruin.
+
+Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became
+sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful
+rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level,
+on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in
+our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful
+was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the
+dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest!
+But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that
+we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth.
+
+De Aery was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to
+great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to
+control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played
+about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke
+through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething
+hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had
+perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the
+furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet.
+
+"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he
+shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the
+flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon
+and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our
+number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say
+which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface
+of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and
+the hazard they most dreaded.
+
+The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely
+attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the
+whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass
+of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight,
+to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San
+Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid
+illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than
+astronomer has ever put on record.
+
+But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable
+from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from
+bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing
+upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the
+time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground,
+served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser
+lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most
+fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we
+struck in water instead of on the land.
+
+Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between
+us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half
+suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that
+awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves
+submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again
+by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of
+fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke
+to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound
+by the contrast.
+
+Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we
+kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water
+among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a
+small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but
+obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the
+day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on
+the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into
+each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by
+fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying
+Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones
+were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the
+worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no
+danger.
+
+No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed
+feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal
+safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De
+Aery, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that
+part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary
+footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine
+by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A
+couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Senor Jose Dianza, who
+received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of
+robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us
+on to the city of the land of gold.
+
+It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return.
+They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous
+transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus
+route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our
+absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and
+some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their
+recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing
+gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly
+reappeared upon the stage of action.
+
+We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should
+remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought
+a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which
+covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too
+good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so
+near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be
+suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own
+responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to
+the world.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+DOG-TALK.
+
+
+Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the
+middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone
+my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some
+time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of
+dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first
+dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the
+bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming
+from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with
+which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing,
+and hydrophobiaephobia is another.
+
+Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is
+reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as
+much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which
+is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor,
+vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three
+blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his
+shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling
+breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be
+accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently
+inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my
+memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface.
+
+I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not
+prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of
+man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more
+voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow,
+Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of
+others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from
+the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of
+him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as
+tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious
+things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be
+necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man.
+
+Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark,
+so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more
+indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally
+referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for
+instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror,
+and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not
+one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man,
+excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a
+beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is.
+Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the
+"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us
+"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would
+make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything
+very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing
+things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is
+wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles
+beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs
+uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands.
+
+Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot
+concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called
+reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I
+think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals
+stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and
+master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his
+nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his
+ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the
+divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential
+consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite
+possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first
+argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far
+accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their
+descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered
+safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated
+bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least
+eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and
+we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned.
+
+Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a
+thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists
+in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in
+society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his
+first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to
+the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to
+humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a
+collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion,
+empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her
+wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in
+spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I
+have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the
+family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only
+by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which,
+if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I
+was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident
+friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of
+worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest
+to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few
+reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race.
+
+Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however,
+with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let
+me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French
+volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal
+innumerable.
+
+Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived
+principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he
+sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important
+duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was
+generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small
+to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his
+qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to
+collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he
+had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble.
+To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole
+arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his
+exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his
+saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the
+little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always
+regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy
+between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the
+chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded
+alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be
+laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be
+without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the
+inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of
+them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St.
+Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about
+halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it
+from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle
+to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of
+the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the
+holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his
+hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths,
+mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods,
+and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which
+lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer.
+Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag,
+which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose
+attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round
+and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract
+notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely
+in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his
+master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that
+occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia
+had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of
+the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which
+flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as
+he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and
+leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his
+holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes
+as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the
+death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his
+reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause
+of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he
+pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him:
+he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his
+faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well
+with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor
+spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to
+the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money,
+with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master,
+with a look of forgiveness, ere he died.
+
+The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that
+money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew;
+but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a
+retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so
+faithful to him in life and in death.
+
+Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the
+several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame
+Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose
+patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late
+"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the
+Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history,
+however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs
+remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly
+the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick
+Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed
+through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in
+print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and
+found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle
+period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow
+unsung.
+
+Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the
+least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to
+writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate
+notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat
+miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,--
+
+  "The little dogs and all,
+  Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart."
+
+Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such
+stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I
+write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages
+from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race.
+
+Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have
+been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to
+decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase
+of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and
+caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The
+last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity
+of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and
+although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of
+the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept
+up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a
+single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless,
+indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe
+still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo,
+in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago
+supposed to be.
+
+Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of
+bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of
+skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate
+descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The
+daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the
+revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he
+cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by
+his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon
+which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of
+this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from
+entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted.
+Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended
+from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where
+turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have
+found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated
+promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he
+might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable
+relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had
+ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society.
+
+But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a
+myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was
+turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished
+his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in
+figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the
+bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal
+hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a
+fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the
+backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants,
+as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete
+and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs,
+whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast.
+
+In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I
+remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all
+analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into
+conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very
+rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very
+large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the
+comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog."
+Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say
+I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting
+his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed
+me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect
+which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly
+exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose
+memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss,"
+destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of
+the dairy.
+
+Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I
+will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old
+farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not
+particularly long.
+
+Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in
+foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me
+exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery
+Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation,
+having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter.
+While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in
+that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on
+horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions
+being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as,
+treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression
+applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the
+animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger
+made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his
+way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the
+bridle.
+
+"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's
+knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?"
+
+"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted
+consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the
+last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and
+walked 'im whoam."
+
+When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually
+pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on
+this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former
+pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much
+taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to
+you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word
+_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the
+dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs
+are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the
+subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or
+register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the
+label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A
+friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the
+label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard
+Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular
+idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du
+bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad
+young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of
+course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original
+than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage
+of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so
+characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important
+question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to
+_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted,
+when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal
+nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss."
+
+And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than
+he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the
+"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of
+legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of
+those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy
+rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses
+many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in
+general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find
+in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not
+intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar
+odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make
+a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws,
+and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually
+more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of
+prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing
+about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one
+turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact,
+to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I
+speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier,"
+as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to
+obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this
+country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which
+he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks;
+nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size.
+
+Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as
+being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their
+parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I
+have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will
+illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow
+who was a genuine type of his kind.
+
+This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color
+uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or
+of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint,
+by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they
+are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a
+sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black
+stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to
+the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most
+remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of
+these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with
+the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a
+true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of
+the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter
+appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once
+undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk
+could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small
+quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in
+fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself
+into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his
+penitential cell under a chest of drawers.
+
+When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to
+me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he
+availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning
+early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large,
+cold round of beef, which was the _piece de resistance_ on the table.
+It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it
+wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me."
+The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the
+interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great
+perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for
+there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small
+to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who
+propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over
+claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware
+of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable
+theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef,
+_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice.
+
+Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar
+trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a
+trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a
+year old, I took him up beside me into a high _caleche_, in which we
+were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out
+to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the
+vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of
+his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second,
+and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up
+and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the
+choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that
+hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things
+propelled by horse-power.
+
+A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he
+was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise
+at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in
+worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he
+once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy
+trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small,
+but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him
+from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled,
+head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such
+as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a
+suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that
+cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such
+an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them
+remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a
+suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one,
+and with his tail up.
+
+These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes
+do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after
+having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular
+instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also
+manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason.
+
+One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out
+of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of
+low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle
+tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and
+clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from
+perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been
+subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he
+immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition
+which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared
+comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his
+accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen
+coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the
+house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and
+considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping
+on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen
+aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach
+was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied
+to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind,
+that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting
+undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare
+with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in
+trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him
+had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he
+rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be
+hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the
+kitchen-door.
+
+Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and
+tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters,
+and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I
+am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my
+property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I
+heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much
+attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning,
+however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the
+remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which
+they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could
+have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon
+broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried
+article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into
+a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once,
+evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary
+instinct.
+
+Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out
+of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of
+them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were
+placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained
+access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a
+valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole
+collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an
+otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the
+pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to
+him.
+
+Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and
+addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners
+enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to
+me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of
+this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full;
+and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that
+misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he
+came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks
+but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his
+collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life,
+and I never saw him again.
+
+The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given
+to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility
+for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a
+canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose
+propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made
+an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a
+stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the
+weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and
+fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the
+way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch
+up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By
+throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a
+great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white
+kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the
+purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal,
+besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I
+remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the
+watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a
+clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe.
+
+From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier
+awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion.
+About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs
+us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy,
+began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it
+that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown
+of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's
+Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped.
+Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him
+at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself
+invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable
+Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion
+luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and
+hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of
+work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper,
+disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire.
+One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before
+a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was
+to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission
+which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the
+black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from
+carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved
+finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving
+salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all,
+he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed
+whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the
+drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in
+the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with
+the impressive speculation of the true _flaneur_;--yea, for as men of
+fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher,
+who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from
+his gory stall.
+
+This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of
+course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it
+comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed
+off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in
+his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded
+according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts
+insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier
+with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold
+while he buys.
+
+The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it
+would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off
+by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name
+was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood;
+liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws;
+close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for
+his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise,
+although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which
+included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and
+perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he
+took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was
+to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If
+there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he
+would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them
+like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as
+he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of
+pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of
+unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his
+purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact
+with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If
+pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on,
+assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in
+particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided
+objection to street industrials in general, including Italian
+organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily
+after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a
+tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or
+call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the
+refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the
+superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash,
+top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of
+manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered
+chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching
+classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro
+among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor
+were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal
+panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares.
+
+A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a
+still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his
+proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by
+biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he
+invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me
+so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated
+whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a
+pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the
+extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as
+invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _decrotteur_ the poodle
+instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers;
+for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent
+insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of
+fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing
+suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly
+away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be
+difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate
+him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and
+diplomacy.
+
+One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on
+to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to
+cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce
+bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his
+adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off
+the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for
+him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when
+he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with
+which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound
+thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being
+accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river,
+he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a
+rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat,
+on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like
+air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the
+swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and
+as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his
+friends in waiting.
+
+Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a
+perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the
+crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's
+head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to
+Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of
+his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an
+opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot
+on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick
+was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one
+side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully,
+return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he
+once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom
+he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just
+quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his
+gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of
+which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water,
+setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to
+what was very near being his last gasp.
+
+Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts
+of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature.
+A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between
+the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable
+for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out
+one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of
+rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal
+much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of
+their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the
+animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he
+contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other
+to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a
+majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the
+conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his
+opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating
+foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the
+road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached
+home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel
+in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard.
+
+One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for
+killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it
+appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the
+delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain
+mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline
+inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall
+but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was
+tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red
+Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the
+thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to
+devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he
+might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile
+malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already
+coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great
+raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use
+of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of
+illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the
+ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered
+to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the
+ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of
+a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this
+instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with
+mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left.
+
+It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even
+by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is
+under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a
+well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A
+settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village,
+which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the
+surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a
+hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a
+currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About
+nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer
+crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain
+plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound.
+While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all
+disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to
+the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time,
+proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the
+cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture
+of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on
+his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was
+much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every
+one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one
+miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on
+the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at
+whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much
+mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and
+he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct.
+
+I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one
+for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted
+to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable
+animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on
+Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his
+mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he
+would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the
+shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus,
+though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but,
+as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a
+respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent,
+not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the
+Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the
+same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._]
+
+Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit
+of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic."
+
+
+
+
+THE RECKONING.
+
+
+Your thought may recur with mine
+  To a certain place in the city,
+Where you sometimes have chanced to dine;
+  If not, why, the more's the pity!
+
+Did you notice the delicate way
+  Whereby, with the trencher and cup,
+Comes a hint of the matter of pay,
+  In a counter laid _blank side up_?
+
+Now,--not to pervert the intent
+  Of a courtesy gentle and rare,
+Or observance so civilly meant
+  With disparaging things to compare,--
+
+By the token your messenger brings,
+  Did such services never suggest
+A likeness to manifold things
+  Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest?
+
+Command whatsoever you will,
+  To pamper your folly or pride;
+You shall find, that unfailingly, still,
+  The _counter_ is laid beside,
+
+Silently,--seemingly fair,--
+  Till an angel the disk shall turn,
+And the soul's great debt, the inscription there,
+  On her vision shall burst and burn!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+A TRIP TO CUBA.
+
+MATANZAS.
+
+
+A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at
+high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and
+game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in
+little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the
+hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot
+and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude
+to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and
+at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with
+water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They
+are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the
+long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of
+their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned
+and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the
+journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and
+look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we
+have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say
+that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good
+to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent
+and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the
+gladiator of the tropics.
+
+Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the
+extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our
+trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch
+of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless,
+was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence.
+
+Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how
+lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is
+always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in
+these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is
+too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R.
+James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself
+with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of
+the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on
+thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is
+lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the
+other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks
+from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from
+the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the
+country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades.
+"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and
+remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring
+streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every
+house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings.
+With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of
+Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and
+a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of
+the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your
+eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable
+room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking
+bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you
+will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender
+foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own
+feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of
+upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But
+if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every
+member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your
+forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your
+bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful
+mediation of a mattress.
+
+Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba
+will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any
+speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to
+recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor
+House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba.
+The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table
+almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were,
+methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions,
+sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was
+punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on
+a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry
+bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no
+doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at
+whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his
+guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent
+English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate
+him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There
+is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for
+you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery
+stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be
+your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three.
+
+The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the
+Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the
+Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the
+ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is
+altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the
+doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which
+you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the
+view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the
+early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and
+their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your
+left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a
+cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long,
+but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his
+sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town.
+Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are
+decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to
+a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with,
+"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A
+cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped
+out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea,
+unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with
+thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides
+you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the
+jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature
+is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that
+grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many
+slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with
+sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each
+negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand,
+well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were
+liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries
+and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently
+performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the
+steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with
+palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields,
+where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous
+ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of
+cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish
+or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him
+about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk,
+and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and
+confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming
+nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging
+the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we
+found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom;
+but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a
+wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like
+the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or
+social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to
+us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the
+dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should
+refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over
+his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and
+that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his
+surroundings.
+
+The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is
+to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This
+commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously
+employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female
+aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes,
+carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who
+bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully
+got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that
+they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All
+that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they
+walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed
+dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and
+mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking
+to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing
+is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_,"
+etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin,
+and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not
+imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a
+row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to
+the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince
+considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All
+being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their
+flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them.
+Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground,
+and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with
+the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this
+status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a
+martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles,
+the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of
+eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And
+now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the
+regiment, the _jeunesse doree_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and
+has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which
+separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The
+ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other
+occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to
+speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes,
+while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_
+are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four
+years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots
+with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for
+notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes
+to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and
+the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most
+uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords
+are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an
+end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in,
+its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and
+lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the
+prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth,
+Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been,
+and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake
+yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the
+Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of
+resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster,
+you know.
+
+
+THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT.
+
+
+"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the
+city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife,
+with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in
+her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the
+Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards."
+
+So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and
+whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So
+he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into
+paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and,
+in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite
+drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but
+much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants
+kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages
+and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their
+saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The
+heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and
+gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the
+waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies
+of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the
+privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a
+degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the
+trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble
+a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of
+this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in
+amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before
+giving an available opinion of their good looks.
+
+If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the
+windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups
+of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous
+cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of
+promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who
+went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving
+the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and
+centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable
+kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are
+sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill
+of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with
+great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as
+negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible
+chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these
+channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a
+cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect
+stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top
+of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere,
+accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains
+of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the
+shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and
+whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical
+castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in
+Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the
+crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups
+parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a
+more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in
+curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and
+the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens.
+
+But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what
+availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive,
+"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by
+nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us
+for our constitution. A visit to the _cafe_ is suggested and adopted.
+It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid
+aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our
+Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened
+with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate,
+which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation.
+Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an
+underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for
+our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the
+Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and
+finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest
+and the bedless cots await us.
+
+But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer
+us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for
+us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban
+pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and
+smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to
+speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane
+chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard
+piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but
+will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with
+fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban
+winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward
+occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza,
+has got the President's Message. We find Don Jose in a bedroom darkened
+by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of
+excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious
+bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk
+handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great
+urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and
+their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we
+leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains
+_"a la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of
+the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath
+lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon
+awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the
+next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept.
+
+The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all
+living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant
+drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates
+as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled
+up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does
+not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay
+siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining
+we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the
+President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under
+consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging,
+his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with
+wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave
+with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but
+that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek
+and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner
+on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take
+our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had
+rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the
+soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than
+a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner
+be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore,
+if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely
+die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and
+walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on
+the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of
+fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is
+comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a
+young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of
+having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter
+of a dollar?
+
+But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of
+this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not
+splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It
+kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the
+taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends,
+not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and
+wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad
+to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the
+transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to
+improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that
+the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the
+advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope
+deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and
+_entrees_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of
+the _roti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three
+supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to
+repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was
+fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup,
+of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and
+onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled
+chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with
+saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and
+vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think,
+from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a
+splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored
+sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have
+eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then
+came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New
+England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge
+tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made
+into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course
+of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own
+plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a
+thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance
+that we should have no more.
+
+A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the
+masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its
+smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat
+beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from
+the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring
+the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to
+direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in
+a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque!
+Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and
+exclaim,--"Yes, Senorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so
+prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and
+thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and
+the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House,
+which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things.
+
+
+GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE.
+
+
+As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the
+appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she
+had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see
+the Spaniards see it.
+
+Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and
+obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not
+husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with
+the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may
+succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural
+master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you
+should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking
+his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate
+convictions may be, the end is, that you do not.
+
+Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in
+these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to
+see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where
+one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting.
+These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely
+covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which
+resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are
+kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond
+fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all
+moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the
+training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles,
+and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_,
+"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth
+forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a
+splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but
+the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics.
+
+The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some
+twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel
+Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don
+Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good
+family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing
+unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his
+occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as
+we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au
+naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to
+their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight,
+which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips
+of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may
+not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the
+while delivering himself with great volubility to his black
+second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose
+there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the
+head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are
+allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and
+breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly
+at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a
+moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round.
+The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don
+Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his
+favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a
+cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave Maria santisima!_ did one ever see
+such spirit? _Santisima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all
+Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the
+saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One
+of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in
+his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the
+remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on
+his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs
+us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other,
+and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor
+father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and
+cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be
+full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porqueria_, "dirt."
+
+We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as
+before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to
+say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses
+no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn
+subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great
+wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and
+is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can
+carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere.
+Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly.
+
+Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their
+persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to
+contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly
+made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of
+theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their
+travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as
+the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads.
+At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its
+appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the
+saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing
+everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don
+Antonito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the
+_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze
+refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a
+bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with
+no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but
+without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery
+rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks
+his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of
+gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun
+seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy
+sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness.
+We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the
+inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to
+reconcile us to all future highways.
+
+Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore
+travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of
+stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road;
+yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to
+year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort.
+An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of
+smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine
+avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and
+partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane
+aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty
+niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement
+for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French
+and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to
+translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house
+is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all
+the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has
+a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room,
+with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another,
+opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs
+are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a
+draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a
+Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of
+clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a
+firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the
+roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of
+cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across
+one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good
+books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels,
+which his wife fully appreciates.
+
+A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros
+chiquitos,--Anglice_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find
+their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely
+inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequenuelos_ cannot
+tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend
+produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as
+usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one
+elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums,
+formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were
+produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive
+instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to
+a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which,
+for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing
+children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon
+for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the
+imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the
+afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went
+next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others,
+contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the
+negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square
+stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we
+found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in
+concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a
+chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just
+before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent
+condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good
+proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on
+estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all.
+We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket.
+Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The
+time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two
+after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night.
+This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little
+gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this
+estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of
+money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they
+had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone
+had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the
+circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer,
+whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements
+of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes
+all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday
+afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until
+four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes
+is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is
+the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South;
+it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to
+go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and
+were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed
+in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our
+friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor
+whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish
+their own funerals.
+
+Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one
+sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a
+paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent;
+but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I
+will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban
+country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes,
+sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a
+characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in
+Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the
+inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however,
+it was only one among many good things, which were made better by
+pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After
+dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found
+Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing
+water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party
+was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the
+head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his
+request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off
+his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton
+handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido
+was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the
+expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the
+phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of
+sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself
+brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he
+had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad
+one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our
+sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface
+from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last
+calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now
+wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which
+the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their
+out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking
+and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers.
+Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller
+children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy
+the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came
+the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to
+take us away.
+
+And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from
+town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the
+masked ball, the Paseo, and the Senorita's beaux? All that durst
+followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque!
+Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one,
+actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and
+galloped off, dragging us after him.
+
+As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet
+made us aware that Don Antonito, the young friend who had planned and
+accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the
+lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don
+Antonito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and
+stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a
+brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have
+played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he
+tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony
+made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and
+even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you
+on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is
+even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's
+musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely
+talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that
+rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted
+parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees
+and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call
+again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were
+no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence,
+warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the
+aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day.
+Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a
+sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to
+the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom.
+
+For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night,
+half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always
+expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling
+the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had
+thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The
+luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave
+with entire goodwill.
+
+I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic.
+Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten
+o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the
+steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little
+cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How
+different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk
+on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the
+flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of
+squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of
+that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were
+rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The
+arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was
+occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A
+tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the
+machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths
+being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean
+sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with
+disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began
+to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about
+their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why,
+then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly
+behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept
+arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antonito, who
+was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see
+them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last
+came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we
+betook ourselves to rest.
+
+Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their
+berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the
+larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran,
+looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was
+tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always
+travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a
+real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went
+to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself
+upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the
+extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that
+murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and
+arousing its fair occupant with "Dona Teresita," or whatever the name
+may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is
+necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between
+the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex
+invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that,
+_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to
+call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The
+male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of
+a compendious and economic arrangement.
+
+And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and
+return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane
+spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong
+shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it
+with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE FIRST AND THE LAST.
+
+
+It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce
+northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen
+air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the
+rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through
+the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at
+them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and
+spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a
+premature shroud of cold white snow.
+
+But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun,
+peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at
+seeing how much had been done in his absence.
+
+Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's
+poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of
+the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two
+stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths
+upon his premises.
+
+Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on
+between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf
+of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching
+competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries
+of the two estates.
+
+To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire
+of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their
+shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded
+Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a
+thing, which he most assuredly never had.
+
+Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad
+evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of
+satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous
+rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous
+plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come
+within a foot of it.
+
+Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful
+champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator
+that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a
+thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly
+opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from
+peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with
+the ammunition so plentifully spread before them.
+
+Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced
+into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with
+an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to
+the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and
+remarkable ornament to that garment.
+
+"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric
+Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable
+missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as
+a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and
+easier to come at than the words which most men would have used.
+
+Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his
+master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that,
+half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next
+instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving,
+however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose.
+The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his
+face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp.
+
+His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and
+derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us"
+could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately
+disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift.
+
+"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken
+woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering
+and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet
+extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried
+heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns.
+They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys."
+
+The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful
+enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,--
+
+"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?"
+
+"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas,
+slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly
+added, with more vivacity,--
+
+"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know
+ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my
+woman,--won't ye?"
+
+"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning,
+nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp
+her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of
+old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes.
+
+"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin
+allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in."
+
+"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the
+compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come
+right in, this way."
+
+"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host
+through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded
+with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never
+seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time."
+
+Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow
+concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch,
+he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic
+nod,--
+
+"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like
+Miss Coffin."
+
+"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly,
+as the door was thrown open.
+
+"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you
+this morning."
+
+A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was
+fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her
+voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that
+"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too."
+
+"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by
+the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk."
+
+"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do
+suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated
+herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced
+her business by saying,--
+
+"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr.
+Widdrinton."
+
+"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas.
+
+"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and
+assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my
+thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had
+ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that
+I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me,
+an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits
+a chance.
+
+"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this.
+Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I
+used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to
+dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o'
+sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place
+to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I
+would take him so.
+
+"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to
+mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said
+he might come,--an' he did, that very day.
+
+"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to
+git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out
+tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin'
+seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor
+an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an'
+told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself.
+
+"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I
+shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there
+jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held
+his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!'
+an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work.
+
+"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books,
+his cloze begun to go.
+
+"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in
+a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed
+drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no
+more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't
+darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last
+night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I
+went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't
+make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good
+while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me
+comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to
+me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took
+aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all
+the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing
+to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin'
+ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it,
+an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him."
+
+"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked
+Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice.
+
+"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez
+I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I
+ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He
+wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt
+of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a
+thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o'
+life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a
+hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on
+him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two
+days an' nights."
+
+"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands
+deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they
+were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,--
+
+"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which
+he ever indulged.
+
+"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the
+consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an'
+see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an'
+be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone,
+an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which,
+if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to
+come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's."
+
+"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs.
+Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered
+the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter
+and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done."
+
+"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye,
+Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet
+to all on us."
+
+"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at
+once about this poor man, won't thee?"
+
+"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and
+I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along."
+
+Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after
+lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge,
+inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a
+piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring."
+
+Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then,
+opening a door, called gently,--
+
+"Faith!"
+
+"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her
+own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of
+age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,--
+
+"What is it, mother?"
+
+"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith."
+
+And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story
+narrated by Mrs. Janes.
+
+"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted
+to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no
+room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan
+sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"--
+
+"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly.
+
+"Thy room, child?"
+
+"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very
+much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the
+orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me."
+
+"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly.
+
+"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother,"
+replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing
+her fondly.
+
+The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which,
+pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the
+strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like
+compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's
+people."
+
+She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,--
+
+"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready
+thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth."
+
+An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door,
+from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in
+blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly
+murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,--
+
+"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in
+after us."
+
+"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted
+from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something,
+carefully enveloped in a cotton case.
+
+"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed
+the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little
+maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she
+thought needed it more than herself.
+
+Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see
+him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him.
+
+"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?"
+said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a
+little more evenly.
+
+"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his
+kind nurse into the room.
+
+"What does thee mean, friend?"
+
+"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and
+leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with
+him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem
+to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe."
+
+"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it.
+You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone.
+
+"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin,
+soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and
+what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep,
+I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some
+broth to strengthen thee."
+
+"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble
+voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face.
+
+"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee
+rather I should?"
+
+"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it."
+
+"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of
+the women, will take thy place."
+
+Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about
+seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned
+her to the bedside.
+
+Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her,
+while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame
+leaning against the wall.
+
+"Girl!"
+
+"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly.
+
+"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep."
+
+"I certainly will not."
+
+"Promise!"
+
+"I do promise."
+
+"Swear!"
+
+"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously
+adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment
+learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in
+the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted
+many of the tenets to which her mother held.
+
+"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I
+will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and
+you will be wrong to doubt my word."
+
+"I don't.--What is your name?"
+
+"Faith."
+
+"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod."
+
+"Ichabod Widdrinton?"
+
+"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you."
+
+"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep."
+
+"Sit there,--where I can see you."
+
+Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not
+prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his
+young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she
+had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in
+health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky
+hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never
+have expressed much of strength or resolution.
+
+The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it
+seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in
+the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow,
+throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a
+long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of
+devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent
+foes.
+
+"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of
+gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of
+the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan,
+sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison.
+
+From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would
+patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and
+silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a
+type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,)
+devoted herself to him.
+
+Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in
+the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose
+grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have
+guessed, would simply say,--
+
+"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared
+with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and
+quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy
+for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was
+forced to yield assent to this simple logic.
+
+A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The
+pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch
+beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their
+attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her
+kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he
+consented to allow the others to do so.
+
+At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin,
+as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,--
+
+"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible."
+
+"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that
+Faith should do so."
+
+"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas,
+readily.
+
+But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he
+caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him
+good-night, and gasped out,--
+
+"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and
+I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the
+last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more."
+
+"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to
+the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny
+him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can
+sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if
+"----
+
+"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee
+unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly
+have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should
+be worse,--won't thee?"
+
+Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was
+prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites
+which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such
+occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed
+uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the
+large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of
+her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for
+her night's perusal.
+
+The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted
+three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man
+suddenly awoke.
+
+As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he
+always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face.
+The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had
+disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile.
+
+"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and
+more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you
+have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to
+talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and
+raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter
+blaze, and then uncover--it."
+
+Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its
+ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber,
+and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having
+shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers,
+opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine
+with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed,
+the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a
+picture.
+
+Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the
+full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his
+powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the
+pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The
+expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between
+those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper
+Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet
+indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable
+by others.
+
+"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And
+they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English
+gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and
+honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new
+country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every
+man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion.
+
+"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in
+the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him
+governor and named a bay after him.
+
+"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture
+painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with
+him as a present to his wife.
+
+"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a
+very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as
+they say in storybooks.
+
+"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small
+portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried.
+
+"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family
+found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the
+traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches
+of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an
+end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the
+family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They
+met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short
+conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name,
+alive.
+
+"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by
+uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it
+more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the
+glory has departed.'
+
+"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered
+their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their
+first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and
+which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and
+despair.
+
+"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing
+weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till
+five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's
+portrait and the curse of the Withringtons.
+
+"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But
+no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed
+which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the
+picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me.
+I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither
+until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of
+life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse.
+
+"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just
+held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on
+the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last."
+
+"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed
+holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it."
+
+"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for
+myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with
+feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed.
+
+"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly.
+"Lie down again and watch me."
+
+Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light
+upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and
+laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked
+beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were
+resisting the fearful doom which threatened it.
+
+At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up
+before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull,
+leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they
+struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them.
+
+"Burn," he hoarsely murmured.
+
+With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently,
+reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace.
+
+The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick
+and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed
+to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it.
+
+She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the
+bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and,
+rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother.
+
+Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber,
+the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last
+sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips.
+
+They had perished together,--the First--and the Last.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.
+
+WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW.
+
+
+You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what
+has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot
+tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however,
+you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the
+household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as
+if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is
+low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical
+Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not
+already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with
+cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you
+slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor.
+
+I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to
+confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was
+sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what
+were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my
+little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly
+unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in
+these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So,
+when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door
+and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a
+nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not
+fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as
+when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will
+count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes
+doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried,
+and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the
+issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is
+counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or
+what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures.
+
+I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little
+conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's
+chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the
+Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking
+at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The
+simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most
+mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in
+disguise.
+
+I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever
+moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks
+and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have
+my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat,"
+composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful
+or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions
+expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing
+to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy
+with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From
+what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what
+ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone,
+and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as
+you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches
+on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the
+surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not
+worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many
+thousand years?
+
+Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it
+any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some
+little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened
+to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these
+specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass
+in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to
+stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming
+planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the
+firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless
+round to the source of life and light.
+
+A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their
+mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag,
+or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common
+enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think
+of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside
+puddles.
+
+But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain,
+when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that
+"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How
+many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have
+horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent!
+
+----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter
+with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to
+the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster.
+It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too
+heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting,
+bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms
+resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions
+specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease
+of the heart or other causes.
+
+Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty,
+Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and
+interrupted.
+
+Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded
+to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is
+at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I
+suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my
+temperament. Thus:--
+
+Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his
+left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding
+watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome
+hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three,
+four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one
+white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in
+the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget
+to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but
+what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if
+pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old
+fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such
+objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As
+I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a
+stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests
+with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I
+missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is
+your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to
+the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am
+ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as
+it is with other men.--God help him!
+
+It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire
+for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I
+must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For
+this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart;
+and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting
+malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity
+at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm
+attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run
+away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of
+Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered
+from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel
+with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes
+you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder
+instead of the haunch, where it should have started from.
+
+Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all
+parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as
+before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral
+valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is
+that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three
+big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which
+I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern
+_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks
+like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to
+embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a
+door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock?
+Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses.
+One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by
+just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of
+the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What
+do those mean?
+
+All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact.
+While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was
+also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to
+deal.
+
+There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain,
+blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out,
+followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all
+three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the
+fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon
+stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French
+physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which
+leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly
+what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as
+a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It
+is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I
+think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences,
+--which expression means you very well know what.
+
+And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come
+out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will
+be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything
+strange, my visits will clear it up.
+
+I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after
+giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an
+imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under
+their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber,
+the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in
+strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in
+broken sentences.
+
+----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And
+the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight.
+Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other
+folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a
+straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall
+slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look
+just as if there was a man underneath.
+
+A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_
+name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood
+and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest
+man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the
+handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch?
+
+----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the
+picture.
+
+He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not
+unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had
+lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait
+hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her!
+Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over?
+
+The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years
+old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New
+England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what
+artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from
+life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and
+the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early
+Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she
+was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old
+carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former
+owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was
+that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George
+Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the
+artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I
+suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of
+young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good
+evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I
+should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she
+had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some
+devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers,
+with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his
+pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight
+suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to
+leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly
+maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses?
+
+She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I
+are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted
+me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the
+board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was
+dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you?
+
+I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie
+still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you
+have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in
+the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from
+digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie
+quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I
+don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't
+doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's
+sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and
+looked through the bars of for so many years!
+
+I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and
+indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often
+a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in
+theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not
+commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of
+thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with
+red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the
+blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and
+crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of
+--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the
+plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both
+callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which
+implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some
+gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by
+my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a
+glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as
+he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest,
+so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself
+at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a
+mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You
+may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of
+pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly
+compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less
+nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for
+others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of
+science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in
+humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as
+I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional
+habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these.
+This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed
+rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his
+ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to
+be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak
+cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and
+I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will
+see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and
+buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by
+this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been
+saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a
+little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head
+with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a
+little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live.
+Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to
+think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I
+lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that
+stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me
+well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell
+you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh
+earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it.
+There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can
+keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill
+upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the
+daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe
+I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the
+morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the
+apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as
+portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes.
+The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object
+near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath
+of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see
+something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the
+figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of
+the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask
+who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was
+pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his
+bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards
+it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I
+first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw
+only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still,
+and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a
+field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I
+turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood
+full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to
+stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was
+momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright
+flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It
+was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether
+sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told
+her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the
+sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant
+that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes
+think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they
+cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the
+bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we
+should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last
+upon their faithful breasts!
+
+With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the
+starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save
+that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a
+stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and
+in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if
+she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no
+breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed
+scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested
+by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted
+sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen
+and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver
+goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her
+milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly
+out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the
+cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and
+with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her
+along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her
+name, but she did not heed my voice.
+
+The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl
+before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I
+should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose
+perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that
+immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see
+me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever
+after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that
+time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and
+the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made
+their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps,
+and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On
+the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I
+trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the
+violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The
+fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a
+pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew
+what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout
+heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his
+face and fill his heart both at once.
+
+Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the
+internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than
+juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be
+guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught
+in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of
+Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put
+it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or
+Eugenie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he
+was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the
+young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian
+beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of
+the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed
+to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a
+cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.
+
+There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind
+suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an
+enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance
+slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had
+made up my mind what I was going to do about it.
+
+When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all
+for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the
+impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did
+not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such
+guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and
+bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then
+at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up.
+
+I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by
+him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to
+care for.
+
+I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and
+persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm.
+Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning.
+There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young
+girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber.
+
+The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my
+cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually
+from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries
+of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive
+sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at
+strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out,
+or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is
+there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the
+house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once
+imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow
+bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we
+remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished
+townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that
+little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or
+persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from
+the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill
+burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling
+the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious
+fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner
+chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice,
+wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of
+the North-End cemetery.
+
+It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page
+in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine
+unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head.
+I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is
+reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think
+about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but
+one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of
+his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last
+strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and
+recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the
+most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him,
+his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind
+still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very
+nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have
+his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she
+could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted
+her. Old babies that we are!
+
+Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed
+for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between
+my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came
+down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until
+after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was
+ordered to tell me.
+
+It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris
+had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that
+chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a
+man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out
+of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These
+good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in
+her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief
+moral reflections.
+
+----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in
+her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human
+history.
+
+----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John,
+so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like
+that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle
+that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know
+how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I
+don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice
+last month.
+
+[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch
+absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the
+time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how
+he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the
+songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more
+considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man
+than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are
+a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks
+uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at
+last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their
+own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is
+hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first
+they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more
+for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of
+those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against
+themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.]
+
+----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting
+by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was
+darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept
+nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be
+indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such
+skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much
+to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I
+could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any
+very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life
+and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She
+followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit.
+
+How long?--she said.
+
+Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One
+of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or
+slow.
+
+The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But
+Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and
+kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd
+be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if
+she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week.
+
+At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back
+against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her
+nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great
+surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his
+own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way,
+but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous
+parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was
+no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat
+side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new
+neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little
+friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even
+girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with
+a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the
+construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from
+their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris,
+whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of
+things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must
+have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much
+patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the
+kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share
+in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of
+ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked
+even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet
+footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to
+the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep,
+or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with.
+
+Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she
+kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me,
+Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill
+herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get
+me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in
+this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you
+leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me.
+
+This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there
+are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the
+larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to
+them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said,
+another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head
+ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this
+one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his
+thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it
+were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the
+past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the
+handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single
+well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or
+other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children.
+Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant
+voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that
+have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that
+the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite
+forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where,
+free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden
+should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose
+"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as
+he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer
+glories.
+
+No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where
+the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one
+has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases
+himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and
+thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up
+his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him
+until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and
+his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little
+bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks
+and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to
+receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have
+died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the
+last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already
+deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great
+majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life
+through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the
+moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often
+called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is
+a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the
+smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which
+hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its
+place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is
+almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain,
+and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the
+legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully
+narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And
+some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next
+world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster
+over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file
+that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a
+foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think
+they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all
+ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future,
+that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert
+have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its
+murmurs as they lay dying.
+
+The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the
+future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is
+extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not
+insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness,
+on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by
+science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call
+_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness.
+There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate
+of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material
+frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less
+impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold
+out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while,
+though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay.
+
+The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his
+remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was
+a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various
+modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The
+landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had
+saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me
+to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to
+the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more
+than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to
+"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned
+before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and
+forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he
+said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate.
+Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the
+late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was
+something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was
+a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could
+not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little
+over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to
+lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of
+these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the
+Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way,
+bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend
+was going to leave behind.
+
+The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish
+snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the
+Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult
+him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r
+intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young
+man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his
+chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and
+they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out.
+
+The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one
+quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man
+down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such
+encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to
+knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do
+happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be
+angry, and get up and give you a thrashing.
+
+So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the
+yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm
+round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble
+art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having
+completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side
+of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens
+that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as
+much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter
+than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary
+was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against
+his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone,
+judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat
+backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little,
+the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered
+between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to
+grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with
+that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so
+frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and
+negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the
+spot by "knocking the man down."
+
+We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy
+blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most
+unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of
+seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor,
+half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar
+and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person
+not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this
+surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a
+little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and
+confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than
+himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish
+the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and
+incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the
+other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little
+science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with
+his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a
+prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in
+the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the
+young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known
+as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to
+another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got
+enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young
+fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the
+other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y'
+like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to
+that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a
+technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by
+running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The
+young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of
+trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves.
+The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two,
+being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish
+attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his
+person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed,
+that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned
+visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and
+rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had
+been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady
+naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah
+not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that
+decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I
+may hereafter allude to.
+
+I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to
+sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man
+begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the
+Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar
+Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking;
+and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you
+had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is
+on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the
+State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a
+fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that
+humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows.
+
+--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your
+curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles,
+doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine.
+Next month you shall hear all about it.
+
+--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at
+the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the
+wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice
+of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in
+her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them.
+
+
+
+
+HYMN OF TRUST.
+
+
+O Love Divine, that stooped to share
+  Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,
+On Thee we cast each earthborn care,
+  We smile at pain while Thou art near!
+
+Though long the weary way we tread,
+  And sorrow crown each lingering year,
+No path we shun, no darkness dread,
+  Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near!
+
+When drooping pleasure turns to grief,
+  And trembling faith is changed to fear,
+The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf
+  Shall softly tell us, Thou art near!
+
+On Thee we fling our burdening woe,
+  O Love Divine, forever dear,
+Content to suffer, while we know,
+  Living and dying, Thou art near!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+ART.
+
+PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID.
+
+
+_Seville, January, 1859_.
+
+I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright
+a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the
+Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills
+of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone
+pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and
+Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till
+you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This
+is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral
+here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other
+cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo
+have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently
+consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very
+often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his
+fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of
+Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly
+arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool
+scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved
+against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving
+alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the
+picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the
+left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A
+few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint.
+A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and
+there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like
+much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture
+which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is
+represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and
+the whole effect is most silvery and delicate.
+
+But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great
+picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half
+kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which
+descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light
+falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and
+throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the
+angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying
+cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in
+Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture
+of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture.
+It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the
+expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the
+extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so
+that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and
+to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt.
+And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot,
+for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt
+what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he
+is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and
+a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as
+Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he
+knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a
+painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so
+different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and
+noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for
+those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that
+we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning.
+Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious
+old corners and over their dear old altars?
+
+
+_Madrid, March, 1859_.
+
+
+You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is
+like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the
+smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the
+coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and
+donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in
+Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it
+showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed
+stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures,
+and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here
+to use your own.
+
+Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his
+pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere
+so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him,
+but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in
+childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with
+large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character,
+one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is
+his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the
+foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her
+dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear,
+broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full
+of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with
+a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no
+substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all
+is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a
+master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page
+pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a
+sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of
+light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I
+suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a
+reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and
+in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated
+the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of
+the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back
+toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant
+has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear
+white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is
+astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of
+painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in
+the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by
+paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation;
+all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I
+think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely
+most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we
+might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like
+him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you
+may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of
+Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of
+--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall
+background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in
+Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So
+much for Velasquez.
+
+But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian,
+who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can
+equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like
+nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing
+and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an
+absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his
+master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep
+blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the
+soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second
+joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him
+stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn
+over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side;
+and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of
+Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog
+leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpatica_ in his gray
+eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably
+rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is
+_elegantisimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet,
+and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining,
+against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and
+plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These
+portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his
+best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the
+great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of
+heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth
+to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the
+helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams
+like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the
+landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden
+sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the
+noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history,
+poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An
+entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep
+surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling;
+and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the
+foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her
+lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx
+on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass;
+two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and
+one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining
+on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or
+some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are
+one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit
+of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the
+middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying
+great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny
+hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam
+on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity.
+It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking
+on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and
+passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner.
+The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of
+fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of
+all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the
+work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an
+entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness.
+Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they
+thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the
+Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the
+casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other
+portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not
+already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very
+fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and
+Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable
+in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very
+full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His
+wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn
+horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no
+favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni
+Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely;
+and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a
+Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George.
+
+These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we
+could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are
+committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only
+covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take
+away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss.
+
+I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It
+is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action
+and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and
+exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the
+Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very
+lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is
+faint in color, and most charming in careful execution.
+
+Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those
+at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all
+glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful
+quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels,
+with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which
+these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist
+makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and
+artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred
+reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the
+same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were
+painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors.
+
+It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures
+in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of
+Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV.,
+which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures
+were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in
+Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of
+Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had
+come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that
+Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he
+thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a
+Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after
+Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given
+between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of
+Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you.
+
+"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente,
+E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero,
+Piasendome esser libero e sinciero)
+Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.'
+
+"'Tanto che,' repliche quela persona,
+'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor,
+In Italia nissun ve da in l' umor,
+Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.'
+
+"Don Diego repliche con tal maniera:
+'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo;
+Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo;
+Tician xe quel che porta la bandiera.'"
+
+Here is a translation:--
+
+The master, with a ceremonious air,
+Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell,
+For to be free and honest suits me well,
+Pleases me not at all, I must declare."
+
+"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown
+On this great painter, in Italy is none
+By whom, indeed, your favor can be won;
+For upon him we all bestow the crown."
+
+Don Diego thereupon to him replies,
+"At Venice may be found the good and fair;
+I give the first place to the pencil there;
+Titian is he who carries off the prize."
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases
+usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL
+BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston:
+Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524.
+
+2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the
+Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Truebner & Company.
+1859. pp. iv., 104.
+
+3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of
+the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By
+GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in
+Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London:
+Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148.
+
+4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases,
+used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a
+Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS.
+Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch.
+1859. pp. 80.
+
+5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc.
+By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii.,
+160.
+
+6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX
+TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman &
+Mason. 1859. pp. 238.
+
+7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses
+different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New
+York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218.
+
+8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM
+SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302.
+
+
+The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in
+1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA."
+Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces,
+has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The
+more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no
+peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have
+modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante
+wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct
+dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred
+years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England,
+eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be
+known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called,
+the tendency is toward uniformity.
+
+In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States,
+the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European
+nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools,
+and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the
+common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably
+on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a
+dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we
+confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has
+been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is
+only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is
+taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a
+vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which
+our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster,
+who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of
+his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English
+composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly
+correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into
+_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the
+mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and
+lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page,
+but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are
+limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very
+throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a
+rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling,
+fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the
+vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living
+green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited
+by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also,
+and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy
+trees.
+
+We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his
+Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we
+are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_
+trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom
+we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_
+to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our
+_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_
+to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an
+_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in
+our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin
+origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives
+but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary
+_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the
+Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the
+_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German
+language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very
+general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_,
+have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them
+an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly
+unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv.
+We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut
+to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the
+Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English
+masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of
+the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and
+Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander
+Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr.
+Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a
+dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of
+Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly
+understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a
+deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the
+hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair,
+ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his
+inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr.
+Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh
+them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848.
+
+In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner.
+That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than
+provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all
+these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice,
+however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial,
+such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot
+in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it
+will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of
+_adversaria_ and comments.
+
+ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a
+supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called
+"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the
+name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly,
+to the mistress of an alehouse.
+
+BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and
+Fielding.
+
+BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a
+certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of
+bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_,
+which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something
+worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our
+"baggage" in the same sense.
+
+[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr.
+Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on
+English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx.,
+note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must
+allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among
+English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second
+edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.]
+
+CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a
+Western phrase exclusively.
+
+CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption
+of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels
+are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for
+what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the
+name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
+
+TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But,
+as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut
+down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction.
+
+TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative
+language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the
+prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit
+for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German
+_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish.
+
+HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_,
+except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has
+befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern
+sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr.
+Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard
+the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in
+England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon
+than _bonnet_ and _gown_.
+
+IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I
+left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among
+us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made
+better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled
+_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was
+published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result
+of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the
+title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find,
+"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were
+_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract
+has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should
+have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use
+long before with the same meaning.
+
+To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And
+Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good
+scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and
+_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:--
+
+  "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_
+  Donna piu su."
+
+LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an
+herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_.
+
+LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon,
+and used wherever English is spoken.
+
+LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German.
+_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once
+heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis
+du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in
+short, to _loaf_ about.
+
+TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes
+_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on
+among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an
+underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_,
+in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr.
+_mesler_, to mix.
+
+TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but
+_Turf_-Slang.
+
+SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English.
+
+TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the
+Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country.
+
+SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of
+Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a
+vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had
+what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and
+Hector Boece.
+
+SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and
+Western." Used also in New York.
+
+SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low).
+
+TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of
+his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is,
+perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary.
+
+TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self."
+It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital
+metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the
+Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces
+in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _etaler_.
+
+STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is
+surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently
+explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in
+the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their
+shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious.
+
+SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of
+the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in
+almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the
+name.
+
+A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett.
+
+A CARRY: portage. _Passim_.
+
+CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England.
+
+CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England.
+
+COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of
+certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the
+archaic form, _Quo' he_.
+
+TO COTTON TO.
+
+DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to
+acknowledging ignorance.
+
+GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England.
+
+LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts.
+
+LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair.
+
+LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means
+weak-willed. Massachusetts.
+
+MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water.
+Massachusetts.
+
+OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England.
+
+OLD DRIVER:     } euphemistic for the
+OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil.
+
+ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger.
+
+ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New
+England.
+
+SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be
+suited, for couldn't be suited.
+
+STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it
+from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of
+the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in
+Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be
+called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it.
+
+STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins.
+
+SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby.
+
+TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England.
+
+WELL-SWEEP.
+
+We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a
+work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the
+amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled
+with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the
+standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year
+to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially
+rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips;
+for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as
+possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is
+often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always
+interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with
+understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite
+conclusion.
+
+[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it
+was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a
+phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also
+Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy
+perversion.]
+
+The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in
+which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems
+to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people.
+Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope
+there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil
+actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and
+"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole
+of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite
+too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes
+off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr.
+Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more
+_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the
+West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my
+tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would
+have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons
+are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog
+under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in
+a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in
+language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole
+neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same
+coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the
+dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning
+comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite
+was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to
+us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy
+mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the
+thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax
+thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o'
+nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those
+bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard
+applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be
+placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold
+weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire
+don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n
+M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and
+left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant
+preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say
+once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will
+get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote
+merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with
+Taylor or South.
+
+The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of
+American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A]
+(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_
+is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that
+the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the
+North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled,
+and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at
+least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set
+down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and
+picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and
+strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B]
+By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and
+picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere
+long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find
+Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do
+when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a
+thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people
+use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write
+very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The
+late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on
+the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young
+hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience
+whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_"
+and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb;
+_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but
+thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little,
+_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan
+achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and
+vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is
+shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our
+having a swan at last.
+
+[Footnote A: _Gedraengtes Handbuch der Fremdwoerter_, etc., etc.,
+Leipzig, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made
+a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone
+that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the
+painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter.
+(Thermometer,--12 deg..) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what
+happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin'
+him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the
+Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin'
+hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o'
+quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down
+through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact,
+of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of
+Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty
+than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness
+of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always
+to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil
+Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself?
+for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of
+what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance
+he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the
+_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A
+thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of
+indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is
+so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy
+thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a
+glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of
+inhabitants."]
+
+Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms
+will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he
+quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To
+SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or
+beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W----
+of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political
+opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)--
+
+"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a
+rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I
+_saved_.'"
+
+We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that
+it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given.
+No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be
+pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr.
+Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this
+neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty
+of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr.
+Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars
+a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed
+comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work
+which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students
+of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan
+of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give
+their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed.
+
+Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised
+edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words,
+which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has
+the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining
+an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the
+middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without
+great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he
+gives the results of much good reading.
+
+Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual.
+
+The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author
+of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the
+name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition
+and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such
+men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a
+bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks,
+though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he
+has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so
+ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the
+currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly
+for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of
+organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus:
+"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence,"
+etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel
+origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman
+who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French
+spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in
+spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On
+another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee
+kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside
+the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his
+Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the
+language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we
+could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we
+find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has
+crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever
+gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious.
+Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the
+memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in
+point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems.
+Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have
+transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin
+is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought
+some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the
+Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a
+better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch
+_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or
+body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_;
+corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties
+we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take
+possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in
+Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs.
+
+Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of
+language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say
+_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in
+the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the
+other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his
+betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the
+Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and
+Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received
+pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still
+sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in
+many parts of England.
+
+Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and
+gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It
+is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the
+exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr.
+Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is
+indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The
+general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the
+debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being
+the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is
+hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with
+what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could
+also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an
+unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says
+that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_,
+and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to
+settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him
+with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the
+pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies
+into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he
+will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas
+which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the
+reputation of it among the unscholarly.
+
+_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J.
+COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In
+Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin
+J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023.
+
+This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a
+condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the
+contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in
+American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity,
+and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_
+which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in
+events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful
+destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local
+historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but
+if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales,"
+for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be
+convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material.
+There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as
+is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country
+meeting-house.
+
+In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the
+"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of
+the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be
+wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and
+that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville,
+who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds
+so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their
+interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which
+we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had
+the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only
+manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us.
+
+One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the
+continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is
+something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the
+politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were
+surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so
+philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry
+about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise
+and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political
+views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question
+to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be
+shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what
+means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another
+question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history
+written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans
+doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_.
+
+The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils
+honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way
+of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the
+enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are
+to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak
+highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it
+is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply
+the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating
+cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the
+pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only
+been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no
+bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the
+same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the
+heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the
+coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told
+that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly,
+intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich
+and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should
+sift her tacts with a coarser sieve.
+
+In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will
+find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors
+will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a
+corresponding economy of fine writing.
+
+_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of
+Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp.
+125.
+
+The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such
+occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series
+of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have
+given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a
+performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments
+and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of
+their debate and their efforts to repel it.
+
+Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the
+knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources
+of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued
+from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration.
+
+The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and
+diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction,
+through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American
+question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the
+arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the
+fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate,
+for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the
+incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf,
+connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish
+minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out
+of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which
+France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself
+confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the
+Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the
+American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed
+neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in
+the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a
+narrative, clear, condensed, and original.
+
+From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily
+reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in
+democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of
+mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to
+which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of
+arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat."
+
+A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of
+art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and
+philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a
+reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown
+to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over
+the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated
+intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people
+for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the
+practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long
+prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that
+labor cannot be honorable where it is not free."
+
+Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of
+the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those
+unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to
+the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable.
+His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old
+republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride
+of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American,
+in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever
+sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration.
+And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political
+rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by
+Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep
+into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and
+ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated.
+Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of
+a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of
+America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of
+France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical
+mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to
+Republican France and to Continental liberty.
+
+The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral
+support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits
+of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities
+struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the
+sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in
+the embarrassments of the present hour.
+
+Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide
+cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr.
+Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves
+than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of
+government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the
+fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but
+rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the
+legislative and judicial functions."
+
+From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing
+of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define
+and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political
+system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of
+liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause"
+itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and
+received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of
+the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and
+has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a
+government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy."
+
+The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he
+discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump
+speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and
+statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing
+pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice
+Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are
+among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must
+have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a
+large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of
+an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of
+self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for
+his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience
+and many of his countrymen.
+
+It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery
+that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of
+republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the
+model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good
+government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station,
+quality, and character of the active offender.
+
+And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land,
+and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary
+between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce,
+and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is
+tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political
+_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America.
+
+Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the
+humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his
+associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in
+the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of
+that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in
+which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of
+the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the
+Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong.
+
+The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively
+disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main
+issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the
+defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an
+averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since
+its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the
+litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he
+was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights
+dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding,
+the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end.
+
+What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the
+Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the
+Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the
+effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause
+controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision
+already made and recorded?
+
+Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief
+justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President,
+and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He
+proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of
+constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of
+Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by
+practical application in the administration of the government of the
+Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the
+Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was
+the official chief.
+
+These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more
+nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been
+without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating
+Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing
+the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers
+which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of
+slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession
+of every power.
+
+We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with
+which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and
+defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of
+Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan &
+Co. 8vo. pp. 381.
+
+The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a
+trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may
+follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has
+been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its
+present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or
+the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of
+which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized
+society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means
+of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty
+in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in
+the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so
+revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's
+experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one
+productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class
+that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so
+indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this
+kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux
+Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in
+its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is
+quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is,
+beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for
+that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story
+of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that
+of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a
+woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is
+manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths"
+has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it,
+that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from
+the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the
+making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic
+study--lost.
+
+The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the
+daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much
+noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is
+handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above
+her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous
+temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault,
+however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman,
+destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life
+was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast,
+a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care
+Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds
+shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not
+ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she
+appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has
+not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and
+she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who
+takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness
+to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a
+third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage.
+Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at
+his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed
+over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an
+infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to
+the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is
+put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who
+allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who
+really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She
+scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds
+him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of
+bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the
+lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they
+part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it
+is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after
+being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the
+last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of
+a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face
+upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously
+uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him
+out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the
+mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find
+her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of
+marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his
+suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the
+small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the
+beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves
+the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought
+himself.
+
+This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen,
+that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough.
+It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character,
+except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and
+narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and
+little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages.
+And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the
+tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it
+reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves
+the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of
+what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might
+have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such
+a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book,
+too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout
+it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that
+is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat
+the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not
+the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains
+in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary
+Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even
+you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society,
+without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice
+Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of
+attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that
+she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of
+society!_
+
+But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is
+not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This
+impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very
+difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language
+seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which
+Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of
+language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she
+acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained
+propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of
+a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of
+cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited
+a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work
+of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of
+the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its
+heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This
+was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of
+her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth,
+that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father
+was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a
+young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her
+unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as
+regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life;
+and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of
+prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money,
+honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings
+her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,)
+she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was
+that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any
+man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she
+speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being
+raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and
+again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire
+to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with
+the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women
+to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and
+for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted
+mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not
+for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our
+whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment
+to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace
+and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about
+this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to
+find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part
+of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome.
+
+_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._
+By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van
+Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366.
+
+The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany
+Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It
+concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It
+concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take
+sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science,
+because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper
+notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It
+concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know
+whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even,
+the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but
+the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned
+lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right
+to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable
+manners.
+
+Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not
+only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness
+of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none
+the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the
+astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a
+less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor,
+too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould
+recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he
+condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen
+since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly
+more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a
+refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense
+of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of
+their body.
+
+
+
+
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+
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25,
+November, 1859, by Various
+
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diff --git a/9391.zip b/9391.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859
+by  Various
+(#25 in our series by  Various)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
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+Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859
+
+Author:  Various
+
+Release Date: November, 2005  [EBook #9391]
+[This file was first posted on September 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 4, NO. 25, NOVEMBER, 1859 ***
+
+
+
+
+E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
+
+A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
+
+VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV.
+
+
+
+
+E. FELICE FORESTI.
+
+
+Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the
+harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such
+exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers
+who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not
+the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy
+of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the
+fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new
+country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees
+of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and
+breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and
+self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the
+bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud
+consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and
+being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when
+first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of
+the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to
+watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest
+thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its
+spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were
+extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open.
+Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple
+facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and
+cordial greeting.
+
+Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose
+high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of
+moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces
+of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but
+with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and
+ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for
+years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and
+literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in
+her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian
+patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and
+the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its
+availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and
+an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the
+chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate
+modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the
+political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of
+existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic
+pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he
+illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own
+eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in
+her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to
+the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely
+fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of
+victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon
+early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the
+stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He
+uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage
+can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of
+being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the
+truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully
+adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of
+a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed
+a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given,
+except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New
+York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture,
+essentially improved his physical condition; but it became
+indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous
+clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy,
+taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent
+adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity,
+and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It
+was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading
+citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his
+appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular
+propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of
+American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city
+which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with
+our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in
+America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple
+and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom
+freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense
+of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his
+declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized
+misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to
+rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our
+purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography.
+"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis
+Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe
+scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo
+Austriaco. Quest' uomo e Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandono gli agi
+Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose
+battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua
+penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sara una
+spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.]
+
+Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the
+Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest
+patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the
+peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in
+all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in
+conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of
+the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the
+revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and
+again, spasmodic and abortive _emeutes_, the calm protest of a
+D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property,
+freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision
+useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the
+oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice
+by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this
+deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern
+muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this
+identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the
+letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of
+Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which
+Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their
+self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess
+d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of
+Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with
+political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more
+or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to
+come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart
+from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect
+of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten
+years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That
+Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and
+realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every
+intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the
+Sardinian state, knows.
+
+A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual
+enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent
+countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted
+press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign
+bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly.
+In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign
+tongue, the _caffes_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and
+under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of
+the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the
+eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce
+an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights,
+property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech,
+being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of
+Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and
+zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the
+senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation
+hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the
+inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates
+political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical
+resources become available; talent finds scope, character
+self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and
+genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably
+reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws
+or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite
+extension and salutary reign.
+
+In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into
+the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and
+administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military,
+political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed
+and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his
+studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought,
+and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation
+of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the
+subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the
+inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of
+reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to
+appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when
+suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as
+it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and
+enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete
+feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this
+wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political
+organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest
+princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose
+far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the
+fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to
+hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the
+vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and
+patriotic agricultural class.
+
+Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers
+linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence
+or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to
+detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and
+alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the
+charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed
+stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught
+with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway
+and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the
+Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place
+is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces
+emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is
+no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the
+crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort
+of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our
+footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the
+splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in
+extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous
+school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew
+scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the
+Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city
+dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave
+refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually
+concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of
+ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary
+resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the
+Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this
+halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus
+of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent.
+But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree
+consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later
+generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers,
+and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which
+stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he
+roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers,"
+traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in
+Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were
+slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of
+St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and
+Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It
+is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy
+and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved,
+triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so
+assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal
+Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for
+centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word,
+Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who
+called her "_citta bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna
+del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination,
+with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights,
+the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties
+and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and
+State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the
+transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since
+consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway.
+
+When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna,
+whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of
+Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young
+advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is
+this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and
+natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent
+appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of
+Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the
+Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he
+crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian
+to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in
+the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the
+Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial
+knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his
+liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and
+disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and
+courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of
+their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and
+secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the
+Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and
+holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes
+of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The
+delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of
+Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to
+the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this
+mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter
+shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of
+retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the
+chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the
+perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was
+executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or
+even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected
+were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically
+described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was
+denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on,
+to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the
+means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still
+further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they
+had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in
+arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she
+had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the
+imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously
+prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made
+instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of
+the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate,
+uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources
+of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual
+character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes
+roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told
+they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved
+one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety,
+of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to
+startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what
+conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into
+inadvertent disloyalty.
+
+At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the
+son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their
+conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer,
+who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official
+convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved
+upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly
+guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently
+through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to
+the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to
+destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and
+poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the
+vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a
+labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient
+Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped
+from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the
+vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw
+and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to
+his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate
+anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his
+direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred
+compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had
+transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the
+firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray
+the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable
+victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of
+Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that
+suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of
+arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of
+tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and
+sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to
+which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a
+book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were
+shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife
+into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side
+and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on
+the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but,
+probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many
+hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering
+his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two
+Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It
+was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible
+representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a
+secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted
+each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the
+conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a
+crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long
+outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth
+into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his
+allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered,
+and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The
+Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of
+a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed
+the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his
+delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and
+allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical,
+and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the
+public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete
+revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret
+conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move
+the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with
+two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows.
+Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by
+ingenious moral torture.
+
+If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive
+humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for
+picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally
+will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of
+victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler
+will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that
+which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve,
+1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more
+distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only
+spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous
+old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where
+the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in
+dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic
+associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the
+household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and
+Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus,
+the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the
+firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of
+commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the
+cheerful arcades that shade the _caffes_ remind us of the "harmless
+comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome,
+balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here
+caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music,
+love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while
+the shadow of a dark _facade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the
+anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more
+remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the
+beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local
+associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel.
+Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas
+festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with
+spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the
+Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the
+Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San
+Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of
+soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid
+the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory
+of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest,
+such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies
+a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces
+dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on
+all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented,
+from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of
+the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the
+marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the
+few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which
+occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause,
+and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the
+best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny
+had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and
+countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed
+was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral
+facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold
+were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by
+Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of
+imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime;
+ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in
+that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but
+gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration
+upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force,
+and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that
+multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity.
+
+And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear,
+well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it
+was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase,
+_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an
+electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned
+faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these
+simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_,
+called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a
+sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere
+duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for
+fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted.
+
+This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of
+the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of
+the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and
+terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy
+forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more
+than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in
+ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to
+die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance,
+while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid
+itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful
+executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth
+saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years'
+imprisonment.
+
+From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St.
+Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The
+better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the
+_cortege_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs;
+"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when
+night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of
+instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing
+honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police,
+terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to
+every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful
+unto death in vain.
+
+These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications,
+within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples.
+The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of
+the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished
+themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in
+durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or
+European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation,
+and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers,
+advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of
+character. Those known in America, either personally or by their
+writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla,
+Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and
+1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly
+heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as
+a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and
+progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically
+established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction
+invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European
+despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled,
+postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the
+development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph.
+
+The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every
+circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial
+and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still
+night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the
+condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and
+chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches
+they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice
+to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners
+and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary
+weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country
+and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when
+neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can
+adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of
+soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy
+prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of
+a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of
+ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and
+noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the
+strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs,
+respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their
+sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in
+disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very
+commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from
+their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue,
+greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had
+exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of
+Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain
+prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval
+castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before
+the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of
+confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a
+thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of
+malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of
+patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and
+eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a
+mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen
+jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were
+immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court
+and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome;
+an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded
+muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the
+Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world
+was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were
+guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest,
+who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the
+agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired
+in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was
+unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold
+obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the
+very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine.
+Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system
+somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg
+was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of
+Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime,
+and the severest _regime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn,
+and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to
+ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings,
+moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality.
+
+The details of this experience are familiar through current European
+memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian
+prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as
+well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English
+factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in
+the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen
+of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote:
+_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO.
+Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was
+all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that
+noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence
+and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by
+these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect
+intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed
+their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital
+injuries of the _regime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another
+the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by
+gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by
+insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each
+other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an
+indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli
+sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his
+leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday
+in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of
+beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to
+communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original
+edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen
+interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at
+Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the
+captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so
+exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa.
+Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with
+the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in
+such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That,"
+whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless
+mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods
+oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Memoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par
+ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.]
+
+This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and
+philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of
+justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair
+which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits
+of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of
+robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the
+want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and
+permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard
+him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet
+suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a
+pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official
+in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed
+it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what
+triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the
+solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his
+self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant
+rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth,
+which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into
+the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in
+his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his
+wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance
+of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived
+from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting
+reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the
+habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their
+functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at
+Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the
+legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left
+uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the
+Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual
+expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and
+the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak
+fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go,
+night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred
+or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of
+life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender
+sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of
+knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank,
+existence a void!
+
+Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of
+humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we
+should find it in the self-preservation realized under such
+circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity
+against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and
+pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and
+beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative
+force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and
+uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method
+thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant
+imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts
+in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle.
+Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and
+force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful
+disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart;
+incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion
+from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to
+middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving
+nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America.
+Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress;
+and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a
+single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all
+read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a
+spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the
+companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle
+absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little
+plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate
+flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of
+these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of
+life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to
+tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from
+without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_,
+as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's
+incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the
+supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate
+occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile
+inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will,
+and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the
+twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night
+canopied aggravating dreams.
+
+  "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought,
+  Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought."
+
+Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the
+compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their
+dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died
+(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public
+prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his
+accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning
+them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity
+did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights,
+their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In
+November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had
+welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and
+wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the
+director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with
+congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and
+they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where
+comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and
+newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the
+hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects
+associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the
+hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold
+streets, _caffes_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of
+life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel
+the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living
+history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors,
+converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire
+transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation
+had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a
+reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement,
+prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness;
+they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or
+sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their
+sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their
+very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them
+to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy,
+where a milder atmosphere prevailed.
+
+How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed
+monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and
+kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of
+civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their
+liberation suddenly introduced them!
+
+Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that
+melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It
+was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages
+with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through
+which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns
+where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed
+to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to
+be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the
+Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was
+consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape;
+they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to
+bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local
+celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their
+excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid
+them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred
+and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace
+them.
+
+Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and
+respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between
+prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages
+arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While
+the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished
+appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom
+so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore
+to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she
+attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned
+to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave
+Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of
+Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be
+fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die
+for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I
+have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May
+God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards
+learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of
+Prussia.
+
+On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste,
+and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war
+whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable
+in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter
+of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm
+clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them,
+not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for
+which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly
+two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel
+was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they
+fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they
+beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction
+with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such
+protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed,
+was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground.
+
+Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their
+compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the
+consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles.
+Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his
+purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and
+inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the
+more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend.
+Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and
+kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis
+of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent
+prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his
+dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the
+strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the
+revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the
+frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by
+French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his
+adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and
+unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to
+retrieve the fate of Italy.
+
+Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United
+States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of
+his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his
+character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated
+and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At
+the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent
+had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to
+annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were
+justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent
+moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high
+and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars,
+citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real
+genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with
+the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their
+aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental;
+for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure
+enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but
+most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock.
+Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs
+"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with
+the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the
+sympathy of the civilized world.
+
+The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed
+by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years
+domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitue_ of
+his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous,
+and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of
+antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen
+perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at
+least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days
+of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand,
+and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation
+had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue
+whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the
+age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when
+faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its
+virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's
+humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his
+country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a
+volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico
+under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as
+it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in
+its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a
+landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his
+youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters
+of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions
+peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his
+experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his
+companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and
+usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his
+fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian
+Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to
+the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fetes_, from the numerous
+friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of
+social enjoyment and genial activity.
+
+Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as
+the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in
+Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists,
+every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in
+reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his
+American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then
+that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the
+spontaneity of his race.
+
+Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly
+Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large
+experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system,
+rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in
+discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English
+politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification
+of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he
+yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like
+those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several
+occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power
+on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn
+in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of
+Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious
+son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he
+sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose
+glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly
+affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the
+prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew
+always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of
+government, because he could discover in them the true love of
+nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension,
+beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely
+tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the
+unchanged serenity of his bearing."
+
+Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography
+almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly
+pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful
+epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer
+and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to
+be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was
+_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof
+is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he
+used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the
+Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he
+called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected
+and honored.
+
+The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as
+the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence
+of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a
+foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport,
+under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had
+so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are
+aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and
+how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may
+never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his
+devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not
+belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and
+philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to
+the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than
+satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of
+Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio,
+breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you
+belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see
+things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage
+developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign
+of the times when the land which protected such an exile was
+represented by him in that of his nativity.
+
+Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource
+thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American
+friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated
+immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand
+pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus
+honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of
+Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an
+effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill
+and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning
+of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his
+eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the
+Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres
+and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory
+of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of
+his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful
+to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient
+city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor,
+the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the
+refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state
+where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest
+aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social
+vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his
+pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the
+Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena,
+through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo,
+by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the
+captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of
+Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of
+which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the
+less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary,
+official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LARVAE.
+
+
+My little maiden of four years old
+  (No myth, but a genuine child is she,
+With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold)
+  Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me.
+
+Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,--
+  As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her,
+She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm
+  A horrible, crawling caterpillar!"
+
+And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother,
+  Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy,
+She added,--"While they were about it, mother,
+  I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!"
+
+They were words to the thought of the soul that turns
+  From the coarser form of a partial growth,
+Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns
+  With an unknown glory to crown them both.
+
+Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes,
+  On whatso beside thee may creep and cling,
+For the possible beauty that underlies
+  The passing phase of the meanest thing!
+
+What if God's great angels, whose waiting love
+  Beholdeth our pitiful life below,
+From the holy height of their heaven above,
+  Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow?
+
+
+
+
+THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*]
+
+[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and
+France.]
+
+[Continued.]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE QUILTING.
+
+By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to
+the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a
+campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to
+their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy
+yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons,
+looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the
+leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at
+which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the
+treasure.
+
+As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the
+gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon,
+with her usual complement of baskets and bags.
+
+"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do
+believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and
+out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house
+heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately
+dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and
+exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white
+napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket
+on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a
+heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage.
+
+"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping
+her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks
+was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid
+two or tree little tings."
+
+Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between
+them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed
+triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the
+great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the
+twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of
+golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green
+leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and
+raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which
+Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue
+delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace,
+whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was
+conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she
+sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty.
+
+"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!"
+
+"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git
+married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey
+oughter hab plenty to do it wid."
+
+"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with
+busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!"
+
+"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with
+proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't
+put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday
+but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk
+someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I,
+'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my
+mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de
+sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de
+ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an'
+Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_
+quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de
+cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An'
+so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de
+'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin'
+good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf
+for his supper."
+
+"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder.
+
+"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar,
+'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her
+fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis
+arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de
+day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken
+sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could."
+
+"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't
+what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was
+thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times
+like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then
+they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say,
+Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up
+to us, and we'll put it through straight."
+
+"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done,
+an' I'll do it."
+
+Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with
+the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut
+the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential
+outpouring to Miss Prissy.
+
+"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn;
+'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat
+'twould be to somebody else, ye know."
+
+Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan.
+
+"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_
+wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar
+a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was
+tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de
+world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is
+r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_
+tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a
+feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm
+waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to
+all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire
+Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on
+him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope
+no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it
+in my bones_."
+
+Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that
+she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this
+particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will
+perceive has its conveniences.
+
+"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last
+year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck
+straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss
+Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'"
+
+"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange
+things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't
+believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in
+the house after."
+
+"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a
+heap more'n dey likes to tell!"
+
+"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was
+watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we
+heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to
+come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just
+dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for
+pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down
+and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I
+see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a
+grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!"
+
+Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her
+voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper.
+
+"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause.
+
+"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it,"
+said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear
+brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes,
+laid him out in white flannel."
+
+"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a
+sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down
+one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an'
+she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a
+man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de
+harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.'
+But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally
+disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any
+way, 'cause he sunk tree times."
+
+"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more
+things in this world than folks know about."
+
+"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to
+nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I
+dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his
+hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de
+water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith,
+wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I
+ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says
+people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to
+de ole 'spensation."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to
+think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?"
+
+"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers
+wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to
+run clar."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You
+see, it may have reference to the state of his soul."
+
+"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream,"
+she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can
+judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_"
+
+"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the
+confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion.
+
+"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't
+like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's
+kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings
+knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit
+_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor."
+
+At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to
+this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss
+Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her
+cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they
+had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew
+around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation,
+upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary
+suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible
+relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this
+strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish.
+
+A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to
+strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and
+facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it
+would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was
+getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was
+to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and
+discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch
+from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her
+spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring,
+half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a
+less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of
+slight intoxication.
+
+But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to
+Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying
+round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins,
+wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the
+notion that she actually existed in forty places at once.
+
+Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an
+altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of
+her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in
+sententious expressions.
+
+"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she
+stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid
+transits through the apartment.
+
+"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?"
+
+"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said
+Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own
+wit.
+
+By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel
+arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy
+Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a
+most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad,
+expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the
+cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced
+our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some
+fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new
+Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon
+Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and
+tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned.
+
+The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo;
+and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over
+it; and conversation went on briskly.
+
+Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with
+hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall
+china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of
+an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two
+quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with
+drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful
+combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it.
+
+"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a
+flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as
+a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that
+Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I
+ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a
+minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or
+leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come
+just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would
+understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a
+dress fitted here, to let me try it."
+
+At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won
+the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her
+needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among
+the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as
+being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical
+opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their
+minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite
+captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she
+lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her
+mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent
+herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than
+from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young
+people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of
+course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with
+the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a
+forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the
+parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company.
+
+Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by
+declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any
+girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting
+up housekeeping in a meeting-house.
+
+"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?"
+
+"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have
+some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet."
+
+"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of
+the ladies.
+
+"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread
+with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years'
+voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married,
+I'm going up to have one of those fellows."
+
+It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this
+very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking,
+conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to
+preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her
+father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine
+of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a
+most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the
+consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison
+that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen
+confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at
+the demonstration.
+
+"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that
+'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk
+about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic
+melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities."
+
+"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding
+now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney
+with any girl."
+
+This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no
+young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled
+Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney
+and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the
+consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh.
+
+"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an
+elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she
+could knit a long cotton stocking in a day."
+
+"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?"
+said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame.
+
+"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a
+pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning
+or fine stitching."
+
+Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the
+chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that
+has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some
+gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at
+everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready
+with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but
+once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn
+were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed
+in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in
+low and gentle tones.
+
+"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to
+me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but
+eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some
+respects the dearest friend I have."
+
+"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except
+that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed
+to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to
+hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in
+the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she
+added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how
+dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really,
+truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"--
+
+"I can," said Mary, firmly.
+
+At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of
+sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths,
+suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor.
+
+Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by
+James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd
+coincidences that make hearts throb.
+
+"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he
+is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this
+come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail
+out of my heart."
+
+Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said
+Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a
+moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss
+Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through
+the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came
+to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his
+study, and all the people are wondering where you are."
+
+Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to
+be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen,
+where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision
+which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the
+trouble of recapitulating in detail.
+
+The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was
+redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's
+pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising
+his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board.
+
+Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted
+together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious
+matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular
+secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote
+family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly
+how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian
+corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by
+hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a
+brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to
+make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put
+down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just
+as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859.
+
+Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with
+excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport
+gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she
+communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not
+trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a
+confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer
+was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited
+young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of
+the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in
+which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious,
+well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that
+by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together.
+
+Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so
+heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not
+last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted
+soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her
+clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on
+the way home, if he found the courage to do so.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the
+Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long,
+sleep settled down on the brown cottage.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to
+sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come
+off yit."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+AN ADVENTURE.
+
+
+A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather
+shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon
+sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous
+stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the
+outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much
+glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had
+its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the
+under or the upper world.
+
+Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them,
+which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in
+high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each
+new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little
+child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose
+strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and
+whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes
+and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which
+seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it
+could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon
+constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of
+nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races,
+whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with
+the most intense persistency lower down.
+
+Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to
+form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than
+to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always
+seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh
+at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic
+coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in
+French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent
+surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different
+from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her
+a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms
+of opera and theatre and romance.
+
+After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a
+point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to
+a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the
+sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining
+day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each
+several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking
+gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet.
+
+Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful
+reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and
+chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze.
+Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her
+as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let
+down its long silky waves upon her shoulders.
+
+"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I
+will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads
+beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that
+is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without
+learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a
+hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity
+this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but
+there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair
+Miranda, look at thyself!"
+
+Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know
+how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the
+rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the
+fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a
+fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths
+of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose
+on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture.
+
+"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a
+true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand."
+
+She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did
+not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de
+Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart
+beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk
+bodice.
+
+"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who
+intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as
+invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with
+either.
+
+Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly
+frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted
+adornments.
+
+"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that
+time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed
+her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural
+impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the
+picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting
+the wearer to the scene."
+
+Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds
+himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and
+character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to
+pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame
+de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and
+compliments.
+
+"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be
+returning to the house."
+
+This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at
+the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty
+air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm.
+
+"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which
+never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused
+time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find
+that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came
+here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without
+some assistance."
+
+Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh
+afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the
+rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had
+been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their
+heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a
+strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a
+frail, unaided woman.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the
+possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any
+exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my
+arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks."
+
+He paused and waited for their answer.
+
+Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the
+wild beating of her heart.
+
+"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks."
+
+"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of
+rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy
+agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards
+them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to
+set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she
+did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a
+feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to
+Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away
+towards the sea.
+
+Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf
+coming in, and the next wave may carry you out."
+
+"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head.
+
+"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her
+arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which
+went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears.
+
+"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist.
+
+She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and
+placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing
+followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around
+the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the
+slight and graceful form were strung with steel.
+
+Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of
+grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the
+coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when
+the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation.
+
+Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the
+incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered
+an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a
+necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the
+circumstances, to refuse.
+
+He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet,
+natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark
+to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying,
+as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience
+from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to
+call soon and inquire after their health.
+
+Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace,
+turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few
+minutes, followed her.
+
+She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her
+breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance,
+she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry.
+
+"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in
+spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking
+your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves,
+we only hurt ourselves with our anger."
+
+"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that
+is gone"----
+
+"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we
+stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is
+so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage
+put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would
+have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you
+thought."
+
+The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and
+took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious,
+rational.
+
+"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you.
+You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart,
+you must not see this man any more."
+
+"But he will call."
+
+"I will see him for you."
+
+"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?"
+
+"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him."
+
+"That is hard;--he will wonder."
+
+"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to
+him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be
+agreeable for us to receive calls from him."
+
+"Mary, _ma chere_, you astonish me!"
+
+"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel,
+wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this
+way. I will protect you."
+
+And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her
+father looked when he protested against the slave-trade.
+
+"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by
+Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear
+saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature;
+he has the angel in him."
+
+"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love."
+
+"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if
+you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the
+rocks!--there were tears in his eyes"
+
+"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend;
+no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad,
+that saw you a few months ago."
+
+"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the
+mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see
+those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her
+summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and
+Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying
+another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that
+sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones.
+
+The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just
+on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant
+she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a
+saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an
+adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and
+no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever
+you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+PLAIN TALK.
+
+
+Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night.
+The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just
+passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked
+upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced
+woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal
+realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities,
+that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their
+hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of
+heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her
+essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words
+of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people
+essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation,
+which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the
+religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form
+essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under
+which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a
+surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading,
+though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized
+and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous
+words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so
+that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in
+her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his
+portrait of an ideal woman:--
+
+  "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat
+  Build in her loftiest, and create an awe
+  About her as a guard angelic placed."
+
+The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was
+spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when
+Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement.
+
+"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de
+Frontignac will not go down."
+
+Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was
+gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked
+eager and agitated.
+
+"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to
+tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness
+yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less."
+
+"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't
+be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am
+afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are
+so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder
+that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful."
+
+"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold
+little hands that trembled in hers.
+
+"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy
+you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy.
+Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully
+forward.
+
+Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him
+good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not
+the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure.
+
+"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?"
+said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation.
+
+"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you."
+
+"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern.
+
+"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you."
+
+Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added,
+
+"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your
+acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean,
+Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we
+should prefer not to receive calls from you."
+
+"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness."
+
+"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery
+in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth
+plainly and in a spirit of love."
+
+"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not
+otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the
+impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of
+understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious
+sentence, but I bow to it in submission."
+
+"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the
+eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of
+easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal
+soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits
+which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great
+injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in
+your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen,
+penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near
+you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable,
+interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that
+reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and
+treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave
+it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have
+treated Madame de Frontignac."
+
+"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what
+representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you,
+our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could
+desire."
+
+"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken
+the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition,
+wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but
+their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember
+the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but
+he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor
+had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to
+give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give
+her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her
+soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a
+light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be?
+one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are
+going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a
+faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all
+men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity
+and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should
+despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own
+heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she
+cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to
+the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very
+soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her,
+and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own
+heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and
+broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing.
+
+Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were
+dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil
+demon of his life.
+
+It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have
+been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and
+women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever
+demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural
+constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or
+vile.
+
+The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was
+struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair,
+inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his
+heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet
+that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole
+wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly
+stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together,
+resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself.
+
+In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and,
+approaching him, said,--
+
+"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the
+liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly."
+
+"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and
+speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern;
+"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I
+only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not
+altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been
+passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real
+nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment
+with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any
+commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me."
+
+"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It
+is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible,
+without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The
+injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and
+greater one to it."
+
+Burr looked thoughtful.
+
+"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks.
+
+Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence
+of every heart.
+
+"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying
+this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your
+fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I
+cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot
+help wishing that you would examine and reconsider."
+
+"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and
+appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs.
+Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control
+of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say,
+not had the effect you would desire."
+
+Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again;
+and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,--
+
+"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe
+me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me."
+
+He bowed, and was gone.
+
+An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his
+seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar
+political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had
+made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man;
+and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his
+short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his
+most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of
+admiration.
+
+It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving
+Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself
+little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which
+Madame de Frontignac still regarded him.
+
+We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so
+singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a
+perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible
+rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object
+of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond
+self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the
+foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a
+disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as
+the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature
+of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the
+asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid
+discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence;
+and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his
+better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then,
+to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective
+ethical creeds.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES.
+
+
+We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a
+few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de
+Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of
+the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chere Sybille_," said
+Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks
+glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voila
+encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?"
+
+"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you."
+
+"What did you tell him?"
+
+"I told him that you wished me to excuse you."
+
+"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?"
+
+"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary.
+
+"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said
+Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember
+anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and
+never see you any more."
+
+"Oh, _mimi_, never!"
+
+Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look
+of utter despair as went to Mary's heart.
+
+"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah,
+well, what shall Virginie do now?"
+
+"You have your husband," said Mary.
+
+"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him."
+
+"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a
+kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be
+grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may
+come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what
+you say is true, than the one who has injured you so."
+
+"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we
+find it too easy to love our enemies."
+
+"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently
+in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of
+your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As
+you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the
+only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in
+self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you
+can feel for your husband."
+
+"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet
+snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my
+arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head
+upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool
+verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow
+still and quiet like you."
+
+Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to
+be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally
+gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the
+healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to
+enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite
+social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations,
+caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she
+moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by
+acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the
+exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with
+avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a
+wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain
+artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the
+religious life by which she was surrounded.
+
+"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes
+said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she
+added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and
+the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut
+avouer_."
+
+We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may
+not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which
+showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she
+felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in
+the correspondence.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from
+the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most
+worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They
+are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do
+not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let
+us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all
+worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little,
+pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbe, he only smiles;
+and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be.
+
+"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing
+tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like
+Lafontaine's rat.
+
+"These people in the country here in America have a character quite
+their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for
+the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which
+exist in the Old World.
+
+"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always
+industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards
+each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to
+the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other
+man, and marries and has children.
+
+"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are
+perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no
+carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they
+meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or
+two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long,
+long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to
+comprehend.
+
+"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of
+my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has
+such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she
+would certainly have been made a saint.
+
+"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the
+family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above
+this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty
+and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this
+detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so
+proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so
+ashamed for her inconsistencies.
+
+"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for
+the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered,
+what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as
+he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores
+him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however,
+has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man,
+who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the
+cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and
+prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's
+heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have
+gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and
+goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to
+be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know,
+here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants,
+but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning
+and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated
+and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For
+these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all
+things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens
+together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have
+taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which
+makes a noise like the humming of a bee.
+
+"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good
+priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted
+him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and
+religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations
+for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other
+night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the
+neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see.
+
+"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are
+allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together,
+and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties.
+And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their
+marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked.
+This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the
+details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further
+as it progresses.
+
+"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving
+
+"Virginie."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.
+
+
+Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with
+that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters
+when they know precisely what they are about.
+
+The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each
+of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value
+precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive
+and systematic schemes.
+
+It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least,
+to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that
+no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing,
+the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and
+running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently
+slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house.
+
+Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul!
+he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From
+morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy
+consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs.
+Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered
+what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a
+while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to
+pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into
+which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous
+women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first
+pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned
+disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his
+system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the
+ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the
+matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find
+everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have
+unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind
+accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on
+his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not
+a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the
+room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently
+demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed,
+and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed
+through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and
+washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put
+up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there
+was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary.
+But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind
+to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic
+practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by
+simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in
+similar circumstances.
+
+The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in
+every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in
+the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has
+fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic
+fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal
+of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the
+promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises
+that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular
+inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that
+one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the
+existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of
+subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords
+of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our
+Doctor has done.
+
+In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by
+humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod
+of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her
+opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the
+wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical
+part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed
+him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of
+mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay
+spread out upon a table for inspection.
+
+Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively
+downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as
+she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something
+deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required
+to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that
+his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that
+almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was
+repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and
+fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one
+of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had
+taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact,
+the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he
+looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled
+them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with
+grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and
+properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white
+ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley
+on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an
+air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur
+of universal approbation broke out.
+
+"_Il a de la delicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been
+watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud
+acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to
+the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had
+distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he
+retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well
+pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and
+Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held
+a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de
+Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had
+risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into
+the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few
+hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just
+like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might
+almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions.
+
+The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks
+so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put
+away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat
+quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the
+house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had
+surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up
+to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer
+man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming
+solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with
+some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the
+placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat
+pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the
+trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy
+Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek
+wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk
+in a July day.
+
+"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!"
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week,
+but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I
+_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy
+damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all
+the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they
+might be."
+
+We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high
+stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very
+small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always
+indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many
+others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she
+remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however,
+cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the
+confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very
+evident that she had come with one on her mind now.
+
+"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after
+sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has
+something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it.
+
+Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the
+two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated
+cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending
+branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a
+seclusion as perfect as heart could desire.
+
+They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took
+off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her
+black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some
+glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something
+appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident
+signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as
+unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer.
+
+Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover,
+remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary
+could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary
+answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:--
+
+"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister,
+anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would
+anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mary, innocently.
+
+"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I
+_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls
+who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind
+to try."
+
+"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly.
+
+"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy,
+giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while
+mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all
+that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a
+temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that
+there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best
+friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working
+your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't
+know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat
+demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny
+black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder
+with something that she was going to say next.
+
+"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take
+'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?"
+
+"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly.
+
+"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like
+it, don't I?"
+
+"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the
+whole, I think you do."
+
+"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_
+finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you
+have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man
+_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent
+tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides,"
+she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage
+him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the
+doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that
+creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him."
+
+"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?"
+
+"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't!
+Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't
+do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I
+have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to
+do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes."
+
+Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately
+after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:--
+
+"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for
+he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he
+hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects
+himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him,
+and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse
+and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to
+keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his
+body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers
+don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his
+saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was
+perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody
+think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it
+last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had
+derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man
+really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I
+asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody
+says she would make a first-rate minister's wife."
+
+"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary.
+
+"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking
+down.
+
+Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark
+lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were
+nestling, and said, quietly,--
+
+"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the
+matter entirely to his judgment."
+
+"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you
+think it would injure _him_, if I should?"
+
+"I think not, materially," said Mary.
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the
+mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of
+her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There
+isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I
+should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would
+become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that
+I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any
+way."
+
+"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary.
+
+"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it
+these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is
+the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me
+against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue
+with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of
+provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no
+use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think
+about it."
+
+As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet
+with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there
+was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety
+of her face.
+
+Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the
+other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's
+arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale,
+spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and
+radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom.
+
+"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may
+as well walk with me. It's pleasant now."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet."
+
+In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those
+little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and
+juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could
+not leave thinking of.
+
+Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea,
+now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there
+came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were
+harvesting in adjoining meadows.
+
+They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has
+once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that
+_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks
+are apt to be indefinitely extended.
+
+Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the
+world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently
+interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with
+her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if
+they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion
+in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been
+surprised to find it so small.
+
+In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they
+were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of
+returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she
+came home.
+
+[To be continued.]
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+LION LLEWELLYN.
+
+
+Singing, shining, beautiful May
+Lureth me, draweth me, all the day.
+Once, when the season wooed me so,
+Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go,
+Pacing before or close beside,
+Reticent, quaint, and dignified,
+Roaming with me, wandering wide;
+And if ever thy feet inclined,
+Weary with roving, to lag behind,
+When were my arms to aid thee slow?
+"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!"
+
+Not to the pines, my warrior gray,
+Gray and stately and scarred as they,--
+Not to the hill, or the valley glen,
+Shall we wander together again.
+
+Nevermore, in the dead of night,
+Shall I waken in cold affright,--
+Waken at sounds I know too well,
+Growl defiant, and horrid yell,
+Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell
+Strife is raging, and blood is shed,
+Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread.
+Nevermore, from my bed, shall I
+Unto the chamber-window fly,
+
+There, by the wintry moon, to spy
+Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,--
+Mounting still, from the crafty foe
+Creeping and crawling up below;
+And, when thou canst no farther go,
+See thee crouch for the fearful leap
+Off the top of the old well-sweep,
+Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep,
+Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep.
+Nor, for a lameness gotten so,
+Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no!
+
+Nevermore, from my willing hand
+Winning the all I can command,
+Shall be heard the pathetic tone,
+(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,)
+Making thy simple wishes known;
+Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r"
+Of thy tranquil thunderous purr
+Breathe again, to my ear attent,
+Bliss o'erflowing and deep content.
+
+As I fondly muse on thee,
+I recall the spreading tree
+Of thy goodly pedigree,
+Which, of shapely branch or bough,
+Hath no fairer growth than thou;
+And my glance caressing now
+Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow,
+Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not,
+Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot,
+Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch,
+Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch,
+Zillah, Zillah Number Two,
+Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo,
+Hiawatha, And, and If,
+Minnehaha, But, and Tiff,
+Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray,
+Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway,
+Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae,
+Nippenicket, Dido, Puck,
+Minnesinger, Friar Tuck,
+Periwinkle, Winkle Less,
+Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess,
+Midget, Budget, Mayaret,
+Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette,
+Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet,
+Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn,
+Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam,
+Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam,
+Tomtit, Pug, Penelope,
+Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie,
+
+Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan,
+Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban,
+Filibuster, Jonathan,--
+Name them all who may, who can;
+For the half has not been told
+Of the branches I behold
+On the honored parent-stem,
+And the later growth from them.
+
+Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend,
+Brave and gentle to the end,
+Would that I once more might hail,
+Like a banner on the gale,
+Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail!
+And thy furry coat of mail,
+Like the striped and spotted skin
+Of thy savage leopard kin,
+Would I might again caress
+With the old-time tenderness!
+
+Why do I talk of what may not be?
+For the pillow of him I fain would see
+Was changed long since from my motherly knee
+To the garden, under the willow-tree,--
+Weeping-willow and flowering moss.
+Over it riseth nor pile nor cross;
+We, who only have felt his loss,
+Needing no sculptured stone to tell
+How he battled, and how he fell,
+Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well.
+
+What is the destiny of his race?
+Is there, I wonder, no other place
+Whence they come or whither they go?
+Earth-existence the all they know?
+Does the living intelligence
+Die in them with the dying sense?
+Or, from the body passing hence,
+Does it find in another sphere
+Being in higher form than here?
+
+For summers twain, the willow kept
+Its watch where low the warrior slept,
+But, on the third, a blight had crept
+Upon the vigor of its frame;
+Nor knew we how or whence it came.
+
+Whisper it low and fearfully,
+The tale of ghostly mystery;
+For toothless crones and graybeards said
+That from the presence of the dead
+An influence around was shed,
+
+Like warlock's foul, unholy spell,
+Of malisons and curses fell,
+Which steeped that soil with venom dank,
+Of which the fated willow drank.
+
+Whether it were or were not so,
+At least so much as this we know,
+That on the willow fell decay;
+And though, when all things else grew gay,
+It feebly strove to look as they,
+Yet was its summer crown of pride
+Worn lightly, and soon cast aside,
+And when Spring found it, it had died.
+
+A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown,
+Now mark the place of his rest alone.
+
+I see that the soft west-wind to-day
+From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away,
+And wherever its fitful currents flow,
+Rising or falling, swift or slow,
+The tender petals like white wings go,
+Floating, eddying, wavering low,
+Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow;
+And under their light and flickering fall,
+The mound, and the flowering moss, and all,
+Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest.
+
+Thou that often these arms have pressed,
+Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,--
+Thou that takest thy colder rest,
+Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground,
+Close, but untenderly, folded round,--
+Ever, by thy drifted mound,
+Sleep, the Mystery, be found
+Most mysterious, most profound!
+And through her enchanted air,
+Lighter than petals fair,
+Brooding Peace sink downward there;
+And the blasted willow make
+Haunt perpetual, for thy sake!
+
+
+
+
+TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA.
+
+  "It were wise, nay, just,
+  To strike with men a balance: to forgive,
+  If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama.
+
+
+In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories
+and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same
+Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years
+afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of
+_citoyen Francais_, when that new order was created by the Revolution.
+At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr.
+Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these
+occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a
+bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had
+been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the
+New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased
+with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with
+regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his
+destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache,
+introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of
+filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or
+assistant surveyor."
+
+The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in
+Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his
+life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a
+shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial
+experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him
+to become an American citizen.
+
+His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a
+free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic,
+--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense.
+With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he
+can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at
+sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible,"
+Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black
+flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered
+and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the
+"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after
+one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed;
+out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive,
+most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away
+from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time
+actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at
+Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and
+an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some
+reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months
+afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found
+employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a
+year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In
+1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist;
+and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for
+his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of
+salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece
+introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous
+Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern
+for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine."
+
+The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was
+separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman.
+After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate.
+
+His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia;
+but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the
+"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions
+were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections
+on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do
+not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still
+occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity.
+But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many
+years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may
+still be read with some interest:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen,
+rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with
+all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated
+beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian
+notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving
+visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private
+recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve
+her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that
+was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in
+her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with
+the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation
+to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation
+of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery
+of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is
+noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of
+her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her
+gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness;
+and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the
+riches of a necromancer's cell."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper,
+introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among
+others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to
+Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this
+communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and
+the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the
+venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen
+appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_,"
+as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his
+contemporaries. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.]
+
+Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as
+were in his hands towards completing a history of the present
+transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next
+spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished
+nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting
+out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to
+surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he
+thought of."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one
+of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England
+the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching
+storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On
+the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies
+would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775.
+During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington
+and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled
+about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came
+Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was
+open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had
+drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag.
+
+From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in
+their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots,
+militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in
+regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make
+out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to
+appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising
+revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament
+could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed
+excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of
+British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by
+the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial
+merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to
+independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion
+to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists
+insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men
+and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of
+Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors
+led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our
+respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of
+it.
+
+Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the
+rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it
+necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished
+to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and
+taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were
+confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a
+deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong
+personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second
+petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was
+disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming,
+and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for
+reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion,
+and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a
+constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief
+in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the
+Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal,
+hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds
+of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to
+dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He
+had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at
+all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which
+disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was
+impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle,
+it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against
+nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in
+January, 1776.
+
+Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the
+mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an
+impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent
+justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be
+managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant.
+_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a
+petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when
+obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few
+years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection
+of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars?
+"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy
+than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear
+of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence
+on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European
+politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation
+necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to
+establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were
+abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if
+not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century
+hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is
+no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the
+will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious
+opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as
+children of the same family, differing only in what is called their
+Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our
+affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of
+independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and
+difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a
+superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will
+become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent
+will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant
+business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about
+it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its
+necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument
+against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much
+weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote
+the same holy book in favour of slavery.
+
+The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true
+patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense".
+Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of
+a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a
+prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was
+beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright
+up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one
+hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr.
+Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams.
+
+It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General
+Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his
+reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded.
+The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to
+France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common
+Sense."
+
+It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence
+doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the
+touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew
+the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid
+a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it
+useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared.
+None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared
+independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread
+through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and
+believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would
+have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation.
+
+If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an
+expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776,
+look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much
+difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later,
+when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in
+the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of
+tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine
+founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote
+politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius
+Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression,
+semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were
+relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations
+of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise
+and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's
+coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the
+like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American
+party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight
+with the rank-and-file as his arguments.
+
+[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge
+to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common
+Sense."]
+
+Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst
+upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by
+all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon
+afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr.
+Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as
+a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had
+he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a
+place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism
+was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and
+even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine
+preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to
+know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee
+affectation, unknown to French idioms.
+
+[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."]
+
+In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp
+to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened
+with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until
+the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and
+Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good
+service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the
+old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and
+cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of
+"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee,
+and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December,
+when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts.
+It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try
+men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this
+crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it
+now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all,"
+he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort
+Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably
+planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the
+place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a
+cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the
+Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions.
+
+This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the
+honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were
+brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to
+demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a
+daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by
+every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every
+State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In
+their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage
+from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better
+calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to
+adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham
+admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as
+necessary and as formidable as its cannon."
+
+The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt
+certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was
+_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and
+ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a
+proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and
+cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who
+should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a
+"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America?
+If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than
+yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If
+you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do
+nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional
+dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to
+contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it;
+if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of
+water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to
+his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as
+much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out
+your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to
+do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation,
+betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In
+speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to
+take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose
+published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to
+Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves
+out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless,
+little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it
+again, but by payment and penitence."
+
+In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the
+Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy
+dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress
+in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a
+short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the
+defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe,
+and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right.
+The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they
+had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who,
+
+  "Unconscious of impending fates,
+  Could push through woods, but not through
+  Gates,"
+
+had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October.
+
+This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France,
+Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's
+admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and
+mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of
+the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America
+that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so
+indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that
+he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and
+paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could
+get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene,
+"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a
+proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the
+madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in
+the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not
+to attempt it.
+
+In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gerard, the
+first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to
+Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed
+Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to
+furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that
+Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to
+the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to
+receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances.
+Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the
+Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with
+Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He
+returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes
+already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no
+vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands,
+the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented.
+Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to
+the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so
+amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of
+it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal
+before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by
+John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to
+know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not
+from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles,
+entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these
+he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M.
+Gerard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false,
+and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party
+feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and
+English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in
+censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence;
+the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the
+Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also
+lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His
+resignation was then accepted.
+
+As the French government persisted in denying that the King had
+furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October,
+1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two
+millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais
+negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But
+neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another
+million.
+
+We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however
+injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best
+friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Lomenie, in
+his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the
+justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success.
+He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless
+in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth
+of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim
+to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at
+all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his
+conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and
+recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose
+like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed
+into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The
+immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire
+himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office,
+Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was
+appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania.
+
+[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning
+of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the
+French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the
+Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home
+to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it
+reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de
+Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the
+strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in
+any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of
+Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with
+no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five
+millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were
+allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed
+forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but
+our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the
+money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a
+suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in
+borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial
+character for a nation to obtain.]
+
+Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving
+petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from
+taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and
+read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was
+in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could
+need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and
+mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour.
+"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing
+silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a
+member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he,
+'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there
+represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer.
+We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member
+endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an
+adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had
+neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals
+could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a
+letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the
+urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of
+the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund.
+The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's
+communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two
+hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for
+the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency,
+were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for
+the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best
+results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he
+developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated
+both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine
+followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the
+war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling,
+compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it
+would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to
+drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their
+system of taxation.
+
+Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every
+word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more
+remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did
+not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it,
+and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger
+sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms.
+Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even
+provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient
+which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow
+in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was
+appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a
+million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied
+him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously
+received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a
+present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the
+American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the
+presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a
+trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations
+of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention,
+as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for
+Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a
+half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward,
+which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine
+was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a
+pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel
+Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and
+brought his secretary safely home again.
+
+Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not
+last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union
+expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The
+want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was
+so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of
+Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if
+his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine
+consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect.
+This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage
+occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers.
+A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate
+peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the
+baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between
+such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which
+language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive,
+and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned
+by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression
+every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe
+better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient
+vocabulary.
+
+When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of
+independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis"
+announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the
+greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and
+happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her
+birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to
+the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance
+of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most
+laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began
+with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic
+life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in
+her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the
+reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair
+national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it
+possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies
+civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and
+commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a
+future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I
+ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great
+Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of.
+It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that
+which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he
+anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of
+whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them,
+originated with Thomas Paine.
+
+The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but
+no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had
+enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when
+his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere,
+"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's
+thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for
+there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect,
+much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to
+take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual
+theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away
+to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never
+reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my
+religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake,
+I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of
+this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the
+pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward."
+
+His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving
+not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The
+State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate,
+near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary
+fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred
+pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a
+similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared,
+demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This
+publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his
+grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we
+believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him
+over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the
+cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money.
+
+In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he
+received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky
+Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It
+ran thus:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at
+Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for
+either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see
+you here.
+
+"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this
+country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best
+exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who
+entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who,
+with much pleasure, subscribes himself
+
+"G. WASHINGTON."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of
+the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think
+so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial,"
+worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service.
+Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and
+told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and
+proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at
+last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed
+him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as
+Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and
+spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One
+evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on
+fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his
+Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb,
+is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few
+years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson.
+
+Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in
+Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and
+indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of
+Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical
+Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His
+reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his
+remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker
+or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see
+legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point,
+inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of
+the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by
+foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of
+the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested
+permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in
+Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens
+introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not
+belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was
+agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us;
+for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of
+maintaining a constant correspondence."
+
+In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have
+said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was
+an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that
+period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have
+succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby
+was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and
+twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the
+Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a
+spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the
+principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle
+was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a
+complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown;
+but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the
+working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his
+plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Academie des
+Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the
+celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbe Morellet, the Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of
+'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the
+minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a
+satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following
+resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:--
+
+"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr.
+Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late
+Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of
+Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens
+of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress."
+
+
+
+
+TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD."
+
+
+"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!"
+
+I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of
+the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough.
+Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts
+harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I
+have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for
+belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the
+human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after
+having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I
+determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the
+knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest
+confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had
+reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their
+invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning,
+like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the
+earth. I sunk into a brown study.
+
+In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He
+brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of
+illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and
+operation of his aerial ship.
+
+They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb.
+Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted
+to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains,"
+thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct
+the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an
+absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me,
+were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the
+Patent-Office at Washington.
+
+The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented
+the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of
+passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the
+drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes
+and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the
+atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface,
+and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate
+cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges
+and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above
+all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aeronauts report, there is ever a
+smooth, quiet atmospheric sea.
+
+"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that
+rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in
+ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human
+body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure
+as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly
+from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the
+finger-nails?"
+
+Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an
+angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to
+his ship.
+
+"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long,
+extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins
+always supplied with fresh and wholesome air."
+
+"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked.
+
+"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current,
+whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered
+as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's
+own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see,
+it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M----
+insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and
+the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going
+below, however, it almost instantly ceased."
+
+I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this
+extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power
+was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber,
+or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of
+two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it
+resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and
+resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon,
+that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in
+which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong
+flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened
+and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber.
+Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a
+particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember,
+was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth
+in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain
+the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and
+three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a
+considerable margin for freight.
+
+Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but
+ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine,
+and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to
+render it intelligible by mere description.
+
+The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore
+the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of
+a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided
+into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and
+so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment
+between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending
+from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship,
+connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally
+embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels,
+made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a
+steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the
+propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm,
+of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels.
+
+All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here
+repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined
+lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before
+been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new
+combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that
+the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated
+beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had
+demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics.
+
+I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a
+modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no
+dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of
+integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and
+bearing were those of a true man.
+
+Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old,
+from San Francisco?
+
+No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York
+Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose
+acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without
+pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge
+at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a
+very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a
+warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he
+professed to have made.
+
+In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after
+ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of
+perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object
+of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He
+had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above
+us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath,
+and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first
+trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the
+night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended
+north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow
+of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly
+distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to
+the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable
+results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route,
+northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several
+well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these
+times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states
+of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the
+occasion of these novel voyages.
+
+He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at
+Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand
+trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with
+important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our
+rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out,
+including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the
+head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and
+the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a
+few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city;
+which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back.
+Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in
+the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon
+was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner,
+Mons. De Aery, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had
+managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on
+her second expedition across the American continent.
+
+Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a
+discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the
+practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform
+the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many
+valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to
+lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature,
+and the onward march of nations.
+
+Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of
+Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the
+prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible
+police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at
+least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence
+of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast
+changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail
+to effect.
+
+To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that
+the principal papers of the country had _attaches_ aboard on the first
+trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors,
+together with De Aery and himself--were agreed that the matter should
+be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be
+established beyond the possibility of question.
+
+I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had
+been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of
+the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it
+was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to
+Mr. Bonflon.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aery and myself spent years
+in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On
+the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the
+weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The
+spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the
+mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost
+us five thousand dollars and the labor of years."
+
+I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the
+usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His
+success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of
+its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments
+and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the
+master mind of this master century.
+
+Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held
+him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive
+intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In
+everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with
+originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his
+quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated
+him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his
+equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the
+future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze
+of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no
+confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were
+apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural
+sequences flowing from them.
+
+On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval,
+my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while
+externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was
+plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the
+extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a
+mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we
+nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in
+the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for
+ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger,
+must be left to unravel at its leisure.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or
+three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed
+around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay
+his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to
+return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic
+side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip
+to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party
+himself, and he invited me to accompany him.
+
+I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular
+instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the
+heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing,
+on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at
+high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the
+skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent
+cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aery and
+himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station,
+or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but
+a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand
+at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on
+board the "Flying Cloud."
+
+I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I
+arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off
+in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be
+dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap
+in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would
+take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed.
+
+In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me
+to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented
+himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had
+returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed
+as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage;
+but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aery had filled
+out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he
+(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were
+reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr.
+Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in
+doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was
+disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no
+look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no
+opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was
+as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt
+him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but
+the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was
+manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly
+presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or
+unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming
+within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming,
+had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion
+and electric telegraphing.
+
+Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes
+in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with
+a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if
+not reversed. He had seen De Aery again. One or two of the expected
+passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel
+them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was
+to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the
+following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train.
+De Aery and several others were already flying over the rail on their
+way to Philadelphia.
+
+I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of
+excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I
+frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to
+my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to
+plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on
+the strange and questionable adventure.
+
+The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon
+and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to
+admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and
+wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into
+a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the
+motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive
+visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected
+with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud."
+
+We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain
+some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the
+middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of
+our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first
+beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus
+satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere
+chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan,
+floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem
+of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make
+obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and
+plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of
+her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a
+great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief
+against the sky.
+
+But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and
+the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were
+already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and
+seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency
+of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement
+immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to
+create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an
+indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was
+attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the
+receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we
+approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway,
+and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period
+intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became
+instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way.
+
+The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible
+to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge
+water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward,
+like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At
+first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and
+distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next
+they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like
+fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains
+followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a
+hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding
+the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our
+course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a
+landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in
+our passage.
+
+What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships;
+but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were
+floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of
+the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the
+stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting
+the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter
+homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to
+the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon
+us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary
+condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail
+to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs.
+Bonflon and De Aery must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and
+the common destiny of mankind!
+
+I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had
+asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade
+deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity
+of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in
+consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid,
+from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly
+susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case
+myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing,
+proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness,
+invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air.
+
+But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without
+obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal
+glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said
+there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars,
+yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake,
+waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to
+none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft,
+as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void,
+without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing
+to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure,
+however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of
+the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of
+usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified
+experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The
+force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here
+I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had
+likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set
+beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying
+Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to
+compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or
+so, down the rapids of a river.
+
+But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the
+dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher
+altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no
+fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim,
+despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was
+manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily
+greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better
+than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from
+what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid,
+lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or
+haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like
+a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless
+and devoid of life as a dead man's eye.
+
+Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak
+from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the
+comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I
+recognized _attaches_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of
+Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat
+acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than
+myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But
+their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they
+looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the
+windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud,"
+and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of
+what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and
+suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be
+likely to flow from the grand invention.
+
+What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little
+nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the
+absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our
+pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and
+to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, the
+proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds.
+It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness
+and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain
+quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about
+our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on
+nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which
+were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it
+required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it
+from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination.
+
+Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a
+night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature
+asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day
+and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this
+time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away,
+and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with
+all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his
+throne.
+
+But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aerial ocean, in which we
+were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or
+even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating
+plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was
+already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the
+distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a
+succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the
+clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to
+mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains,
+covered with perpetual snow.
+
+I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood
+out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in
+size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north,
+were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount
+Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to
+their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we
+were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and
+myself by Mr. De Aery, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in
+vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which
+covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the
+exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view.
+
+Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen
+early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up
+with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified
+shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were
+directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt,
+fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity,
+such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out
+their beauty, their mystery, and their strength.
+
+On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the
+void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight
+to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified
+splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible
+to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling
+snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel
+mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand
+or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with
+black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the
+white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and
+precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening
+the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of
+Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name,
+were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us.
+
+No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the
+upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed
+point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of
+daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this
+mountain-scene of enchantment.
+
+De Aery was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this
+extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired,
+mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an
+occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a
+native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the
+management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were
+gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those
+snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its
+round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised
+my voice and accosted him.
+
+"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this
+Atlas-top?"
+
+"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here."
+
+I went to him.
+
+"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to
+plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head."
+
+"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?"
+
+"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself
+on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching
+the crown of the pinnacle."
+
+I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He
+held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and
+occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride,
+spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the
+"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak,
+glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some
+venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter.
+
+"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aery. "There is
+not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The
+'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to
+explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the
+bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy
+peak."
+
+"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and
+perish."
+
+"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a
+goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow
+looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag,
+unless I have a firm spot for my feet."
+
+By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern
+alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the
+ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in
+his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with
+a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its
+place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with
+the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of
+ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted
+a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the
+standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the
+farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that
+a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his
+purpose.
+
+A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the
+surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but
+a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like
+white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aery, losing his
+balance, plunged over and went with it.
+
+We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had
+sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull
+sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an
+immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third
+of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave,
+broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment,
+all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering,
+like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister
+snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling
+and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went.
+
+By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and
+precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and,
+forgetting De Aery, we watched the development of the phenomenon with
+terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as
+common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened
+and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing
+different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of
+devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction.
+Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its
+batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through
+valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a
+check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man
+would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed.
+Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or
+ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay
+heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us
+for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer
+wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill
+the dwellers among the Alps.
+
+As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts
+reverted to De Aery. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was
+his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that
+catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many
+hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on
+bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman.
+He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand,
+and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at
+the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his
+voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted
+our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times
+three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the
+spot to De Aery.
+
+But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious
+question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and
+spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands,
+whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated
+before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of
+snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in
+its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He
+hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great
+care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of
+half an hour, De Aery, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul,
+rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored
+to our arms.
+
+Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the
+Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our
+number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences
+and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course
+for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us
+and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land,
+ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to
+take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the
+form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities,
+should be quite forgotten.
+
+We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little,
+luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild
+flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild,
+but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The
+foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps
+never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we
+saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops
+of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a
+drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence
+at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake
+at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the
+plateau was inhabited.
+
+Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some
+willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear
+mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam
+Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey
+Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With
+the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and
+songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aery, as having by a
+hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his
+extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank
+of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much
+pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace.
+
+When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman
+had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his
+sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:--
+
+"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined
+because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to
+lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel
+cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow
+burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was
+pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was
+like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below
+one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the
+struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and
+nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in
+contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent
+avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw
+anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left
+behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at
+the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of
+seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it.
+But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag."
+
+High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for
+his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the
+American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of
+motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present
+failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some
+other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his
+laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In
+this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes.
+
+Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we
+weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a
+ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former
+altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the
+west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes,
+alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental
+enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster,
+until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to
+our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth,
+and we were again afloat in space.
+
+The following night and day were passed like their predecessors.
+Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of
+California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our
+remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of
+us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching
+the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably
+should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It
+was near midnight before all of us were in our berths.
+
+But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The
+excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have
+returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to
+relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to
+have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the
+wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement
+of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play,
+was rather a motion than a sound.
+
+This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange
+bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly
+changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some
+horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as
+though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it
+closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though
+subjected to a like crushing pressure.
+
+How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of
+knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and
+returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary
+events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was
+weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I
+had no voice.
+
+Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I
+attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers,
+undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of
+effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed
+for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain.
+The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out
+above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and
+there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine.
+Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true
+of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the
+Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray
+paper stuck upon a wall.
+
+Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I
+discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of
+the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but
+without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances
+nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange
+visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been
+subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a
+light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately
+its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron
+or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I
+tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a
+scale.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent
+island in the air. It was an immense aerolite; and with this conviction
+came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed
+beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that
+region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these
+meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse
+throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the
+surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at
+the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel
+to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aery! All
+ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from
+myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of
+death.
+
+Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish,
+to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or
+insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with
+what little strength I had, but in vain.
+
+"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!"
+
+At length he opened his eyes, but did not move.
+
+"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let
+the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack
+of air."
+
+"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer.
+It can't--can't be morning yet."
+
+By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my
+strength.
+
+"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us
+all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!"
+
+With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which,
+like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo
+of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant
+faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious,
+took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him.
+
+From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of
+insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that
+he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our
+situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float
+forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until
+forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving
+atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But
+I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to
+look after their condition.
+
+As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient
+asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser
+air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within
+half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to
+consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights
+exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was
+crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a
+pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies.
+
+Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, when they came to realize the danger from
+which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The
+lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his
+single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept
+aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his
+Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me
+with expressions of obligation.
+
+But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass
+from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the
+main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our
+rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out,
+though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and
+almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should
+announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was
+in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace,
+we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire.
+
+Bonflon and De Aery rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured
+out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a
+moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into
+which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the
+half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident
+occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing
+the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement,
+except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and
+partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was
+clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and
+themselves took the management of the craft.
+
+De Aery, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a
+demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like
+the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and
+decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments
+of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the
+engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged,
+crackling ruin.
+
+Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became
+sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful
+rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level,
+on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in
+our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful
+was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the
+dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest!
+But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that
+we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth.
+
+De Aery was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to
+great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to
+control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played
+about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke
+through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething
+hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had
+perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the
+furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet.
+
+"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he
+shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the
+flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon
+and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our
+number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say
+which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface
+of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and
+the hazard they most dreaded.
+
+The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely
+attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the
+whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass
+of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight,
+to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San
+Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid
+illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than
+astronomer has ever put on record.
+
+But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable
+from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from
+bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing
+upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the
+time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground,
+served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser
+lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most
+fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we
+struck in water instead of on the land.
+
+Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between
+us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half
+suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that
+awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves
+submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again
+by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of
+fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke
+to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound
+by the contrast.
+
+Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we
+kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water
+among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a
+small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but
+obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the
+day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on
+the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into
+each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by
+fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying
+Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones
+were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the
+worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no
+danger.
+
+No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed
+feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal
+safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De
+Aery, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that
+part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary
+footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine
+by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A
+couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Senor Jose Dianza, who
+received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of
+robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us
+on to the city of the land of gold.
+
+It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return.
+They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous
+transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus
+route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our
+absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and
+some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their
+recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing
+gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly
+reappeared upon the stage of action.
+
+We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should
+remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought
+a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which
+covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too
+good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so
+near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be
+suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own
+responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to
+the world.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+DOG-TALK.
+
+
+Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the
+middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone
+my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some
+time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of
+dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first
+dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the
+bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming
+from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with
+which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing,
+and hydrophobiaephobia is another.
+
+Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is
+reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as
+much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which
+is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor,
+vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three
+blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his
+shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling
+breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be
+accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently
+inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my
+memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface.
+
+I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not
+prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of
+man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more
+voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow,
+Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of
+others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from
+the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of
+him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as
+tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious
+things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be
+necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man.
+
+Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark,
+so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more
+indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally
+referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for
+instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror,
+and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not
+one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man,
+excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a
+beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is.
+Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the
+"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us
+"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would
+make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything
+very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing
+things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is
+wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles
+beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs
+uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands.
+
+Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot
+concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called
+reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I
+think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals
+stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and
+master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his
+nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his
+ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the
+divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential
+consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite
+possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first
+argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far
+accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their
+descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered
+safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated
+bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least
+eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and
+we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned.
+
+Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a
+thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists
+in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in
+society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his
+first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to
+the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to
+humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a
+collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion,
+empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her
+wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in
+spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I
+have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the
+family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only
+by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which,
+if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I
+was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident
+friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of
+worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest
+to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few
+reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race.
+
+Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however,
+with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let
+me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French
+volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal
+innumerable.
+
+Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived
+principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he
+sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important
+duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was
+generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small
+to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his
+qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to
+collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he
+had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble.
+To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole
+arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his
+exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his
+saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the
+little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always
+regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy
+between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the
+chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded
+alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be
+laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be
+without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the
+inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of
+them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St.
+Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about
+halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it
+from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle
+to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of
+the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the
+holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his
+hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths,
+mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods,
+and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which
+lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer.
+Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag,
+which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose
+attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round
+and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract
+notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely
+in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his
+master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that
+occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia
+had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of
+the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which
+flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as
+he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and
+leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his
+holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes
+as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the
+death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his
+reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause
+of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he
+pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him:
+he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his
+faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well
+with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor
+spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to
+the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money,
+with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master,
+with a look of forgiveness, ere he died.
+
+The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that
+money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew;
+but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a
+retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so
+faithful to him in life and in death.
+
+Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the
+several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame
+Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose
+patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late
+"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the
+Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history,
+however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs
+remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly
+the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick
+Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed
+through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in
+print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and
+found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle
+period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow
+unsung.
+
+Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the
+least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to
+writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate
+notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat
+miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,--
+
+  "The little dogs and all,
+  Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart."
+
+Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such
+stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I
+write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages
+from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race.
+
+Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have
+been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to
+decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase
+of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and
+caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The
+last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity
+of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and
+although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of
+the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept
+up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a
+single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless,
+indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe
+still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo,
+in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago
+supposed to be.
+
+Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of
+bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of
+skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate
+descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The
+daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the
+revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he
+cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by
+his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon
+which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of
+this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from
+entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted.
+Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended
+from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where
+turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have
+found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated
+promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he
+might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable
+relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had
+ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society.
+
+But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a
+myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was
+turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished
+his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in
+figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the
+bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal
+hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a
+fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the
+backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants,
+as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete
+and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs,
+whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast.
+
+In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I
+remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all
+analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into
+conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very
+rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very
+large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the
+comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog."
+Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say
+I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting
+his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed
+me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect
+which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly
+exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose
+memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss,"
+destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of
+the dairy.
+
+Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I
+will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old
+farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not
+particularly long.
+
+Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in
+foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me
+exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery
+Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation,
+having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter.
+While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in
+that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on
+horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions
+being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as,
+treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression
+applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the
+animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger
+made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his
+way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the
+bridle.
+
+"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's
+knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?"
+
+"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted
+consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the
+last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and
+walked 'im whoam."
+
+When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually
+pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on
+this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former
+pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much
+taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to
+you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word
+_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the
+dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs
+are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the
+subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or
+register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the
+label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A
+friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the
+label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard
+Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular
+idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du
+bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad
+young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of
+course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original
+than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage
+of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so
+characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important
+question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to
+_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted,
+when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal
+nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss."
+
+And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than
+he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the
+"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of
+legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of
+those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy
+rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses
+many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in
+general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find
+in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not
+intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar
+odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make
+a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws,
+and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually
+more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of
+prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing
+about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one
+turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact,
+to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I
+speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier,"
+as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to
+obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this
+country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which
+he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks;
+nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size.
+
+Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as
+being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their
+parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I
+have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will
+illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow
+who was a genuine type of his kind.
+
+This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color
+uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or
+of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint,
+by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they
+are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a
+sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black
+stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to
+the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most
+remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of
+these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with
+the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a
+true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of
+the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter
+appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once
+undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk
+could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small
+quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in
+fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself
+into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his
+penitential cell under a chest of drawers.
+
+When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to
+me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he
+availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning
+early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large,
+cold round of beef, which was the _piece de resistance_ on the table.
+It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it
+wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me."
+The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the
+interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great
+perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for
+there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small
+to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who
+propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over
+claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware
+of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable
+theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef,
+_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice.
+
+Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar
+trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a
+trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a
+year old, I took him up beside me into a high _caleche_, in which we
+were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out
+to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the
+vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of
+his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second,
+and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up
+and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the
+choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that
+hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things
+propelled by horse-power.
+
+A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he
+was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise
+at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in
+worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he
+once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy
+trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small,
+but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him
+from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled,
+head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such
+as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a
+suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that
+cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such
+an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them
+remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a
+suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one,
+and with his tail up.
+
+These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes
+do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after
+having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular
+instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also
+manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason.
+
+One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out
+of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of
+low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle
+tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and
+clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from
+perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been
+subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he
+immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition
+which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared
+comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his
+accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen
+coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the
+house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and
+considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping
+on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen
+aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach
+was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied
+to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind,
+that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting
+undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare
+with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in
+trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him
+had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he
+rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be
+hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the
+kitchen-door.
+
+Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and
+tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters,
+and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I
+am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my
+property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I
+heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much
+attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning,
+however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the
+remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which
+they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could
+have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon
+broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried
+article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into
+a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once,
+evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary
+instinct.
+
+Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out
+of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of
+them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were
+placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained
+access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a
+valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole
+collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an
+otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the
+pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to
+him.
+
+Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and
+addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners
+enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to
+me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of
+this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full;
+and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that
+misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he
+came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks
+but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his
+collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life,
+and I never saw him again.
+
+The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given
+to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility
+for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a
+canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose
+propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made
+an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a
+stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the
+weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and
+fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the
+way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch
+up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By
+throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a
+great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white
+kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the
+purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal,
+besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I
+remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the
+watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a
+clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe.
+
+From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier
+awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion.
+About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs
+us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy,
+began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it
+that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown
+of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's
+Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped.
+Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him
+at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself
+invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable
+Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion
+luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and
+hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of
+work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper,
+disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire.
+One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before
+a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was
+to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission
+which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the
+black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from
+carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved
+finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving
+salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all,
+he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed
+whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the
+drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in
+the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with
+the impressive speculation of the true _flaneur_;--yea, for as men of
+fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher,
+who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from
+his gory stall.
+
+This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of
+course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it
+comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed
+off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in
+his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded
+according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts
+insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier
+with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold
+while he buys.
+
+The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it
+would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off
+by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name
+was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood;
+liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws;
+close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for
+his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise,
+although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which
+included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and
+perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he
+took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was
+to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If
+there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he
+would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them
+like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as
+he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of
+pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of
+unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his
+purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact
+with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If
+pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on,
+assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in
+particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided
+objection to street industrials in general, including Italian
+organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily
+after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a
+tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or
+call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the
+refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the
+superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash,
+top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of
+manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered
+chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching
+classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro
+among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor
+were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal
+panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares.
+
+A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a
+still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his
+proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by
+biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he
+invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me
+so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated
+whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a
+pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the
+extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as
+invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _decrotteur_ the poodle
+instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers;
+for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent
+insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of
+fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing
+suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly
+away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be
+difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate
+him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and
+diplomacy.
+
+One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on
+to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to
+cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce
+bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his
+adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off
+the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for
+him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when
+he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with
+which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound
+thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being
+accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river,
+he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a
+rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat,
+on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like
+air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the
+swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and
+as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his
+friends in waiting.
+
+Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a
+perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the
+crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's
+head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to
+Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of
+his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an
+opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot
+on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick
+was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one
+side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully,
+return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he
+once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom
+he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just
+quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his
+gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of
+which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water,
+setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to
+what was very near being his last gasp.
+
+Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts
+of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature.
+A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between
+the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable
+for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out
+one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of
+rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal
+much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of
+their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the
+animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he
+contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other
+to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a
+majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the
+conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his
+opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating
+foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the
+road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached
+home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel
+in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard.
+
+One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for
+killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it
+appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the
+delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain
+mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline
+inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall
+but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was
+tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red
+Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the
+thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to
+devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he
+might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile
+malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already
+coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great
+raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use
+of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of
+illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the
+ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered
+to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the
+ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of
+a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this
+instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with
+mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left.
+
+It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even
+by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is
+under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a
+well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A
+settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village,
+which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the
+surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a
+hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a
+currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About
+nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer
+crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain
+plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound.
+While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all
+disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to
+the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time,
+proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the
+cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture
+of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on
+his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was
+much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every
+one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one
+miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on
+the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at
+whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much
+mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and
+he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct.
+
+I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one
+for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted
+to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable
+animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on
+Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his
+mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he
+would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the
+shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus,
+though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but,
+as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a
+respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent,
+not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the
+Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the
+same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._]
+
+Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit
+of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic."
+
+
+
+
+THE RECKONING.
+
+
+Your thought may recur with mine
+  To a certain place in the city,
+Where you sometimes have chanced to dine;
+  If not, why, the more's the pity!
+
+Did you notice the delicate way
+  Whereby, with the trencher and cup,
+Comes a hint of the matter of pay,
+  In a counter laid _blank side up_?
+
+Now,--not to pervert the intent
+  Of a courtesy gentle and rare,
+Or observance so civilly meant
+  With disparaging things to compare,--
+
+By the token your messenger brings,
+  Did such services never suggest
+A likeness to manifold things
+  Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest?
+
+Command whatsoever you will,
+  To pamper your folly or pride;
+You shall find, that unfailingly, still,
+  The _counter_ is laid beside,
+
+Silently,--seemingly fair,--
+  Till an angel the disk shall turn,
+And the soul's great debt, the inscription there,
+  On her vision shall burst and burn!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+A TRIP TO CUBA.
+
+MATANZAS.
+
+
+A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at
+high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and
+game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in
+little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the
+hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot
+and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude
+to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and
+at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with
+water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They
+are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the
+long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of
+their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned
+and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the
+journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and
+look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we
+have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say
+that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good
+to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent
+and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the
+gladiator of the tropics.
+
+Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the
+extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our
+trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch
+of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless,
+was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence.
+
+Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how
+lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is
+always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in
+these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is
+too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R.
+James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself
+with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of
+the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on
+thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is
+lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the
+other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks
+from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from
+the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the
+country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades.
+"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and
+remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring
+streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every
+house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings.
+With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of
+Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and
+a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of
+the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your
+eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable
+room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking
+bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you
+will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender
+foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own
+feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of
+upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But
+if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every
+member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your
+forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your
+bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful
+mediation of a mattress.
+
+Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba
+will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any
+speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to
+recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor
+House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba.
+The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table
+almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were,
+methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions,
+sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was
+punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on
+a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry
+bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no
+doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at
+whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his
+guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent
+English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate
+him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There
+is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for
+you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery
+stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be
+your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three.
+
+The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the
+Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the
+Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the
+ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is
+altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the
+doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which
+you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the
+view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the
+early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and
+their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your
+left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a
+cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long,
+but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his
+sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town.
+Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are
+decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to
+a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with,
+"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A
+cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped
+out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea,
+unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with
+thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides
+you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the
+jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature
+is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that
+grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many
+slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with
+sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each
+negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand,
+well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were
+liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries
+and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently
+performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the
+steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with
+palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields,
+where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous
+ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of
+cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish
+or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him
+about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk,
+and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and
+confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming
+nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging
+the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we
+found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom;
+but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a
+wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like
+the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or
+social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to
+us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the
+dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should
+refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over
+his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and
+that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his
+surroundings.
+
+The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is
+to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This
+commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously
+employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female
+aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes,
+carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who
+bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully
+got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that
+they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All
+that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they
+walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed
+dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and
+mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking
+to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing
+is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_,"
+etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin,
+and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not
+imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a
+row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to
+the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince
+considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All
+being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their
+flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them.
+Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground,
+and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with
+the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this
+status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a
+martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles,
+the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of
+eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And
+now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the
+regiment, the _jeunesse doree_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and
+has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which
+separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The
+ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other
+occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to
+speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes,
+while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_
+are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four
+years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots
+with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for
+notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes
+to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and
+the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most
+uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords
+are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an
+end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in,
+its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and
+lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the
+prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth,
+Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been,
+and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake
+yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the
+Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of
+resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster,
+you know.
+
+
+THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT.
+
+
+"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the
+city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife,
+with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in
+her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the
+Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards."
+
+So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and
+whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So
+he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into
+paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and,
+in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite
+drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but
+much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants
+kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages
+and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their
+saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The
+heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and
+gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the
+waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies
+of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the
+privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a
+degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the
+trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble
+a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of
+this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in
+amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before
+giving an available opinion of their good looks.
+
+If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the
+windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups
+of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous
+cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of
+promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who
+went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving
+the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and
+centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable
+kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are
+sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill
+of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with
+great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as
+negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible
+chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these
+channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a
+cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect
+stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top
+of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere,
+accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains
+of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the
+shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and
+whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical
+castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in
+Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the
+crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups
+parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a
+more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in
+curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and
+the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens.
+
+But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what
+availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive,
+"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by
+nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us
+for our constitution. A visit to the _cafe_ is suggested and adopted.
+It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid
+aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our
+Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened
+with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate,
+which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation.
+Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an
+underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for
+our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the
+Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and
+finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest
+and the bedless cots await us.
+
+But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer
+us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for
+us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban
+pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and
+smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to
+speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane
+chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard
+piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but
+will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with
+fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban
+winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward
+occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza,
+has got the President's Message. We find Don Jose in a bedroom darkened
+by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of
+excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious
+bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk
+handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great
+urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and
+their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we
+leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains
+_"a la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of
+the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath
+lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon
+awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the
+next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept.
+
+The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all
+living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant
+drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates
+as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled
+up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does
+not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay
+siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining
+we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the
+President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under
+consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging,
+his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with
+wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave
+with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but
+that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek
+and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner
+on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take
+our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had
+rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the
+soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than
+a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner
+be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore,
+if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely
+die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and
+walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on
+the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of
+fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is
+comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a
+young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of
+having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter
+of a dollar?
+
+But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of
+this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not
+splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It
+kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the
+taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends,
+not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and
+wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad
+to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the
+transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to
+improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that
+the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the
+advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope
+deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and
+_entrees_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of
+the _roti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three
+supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to
+repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was
+fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup,
+of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and
+onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled
+chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with
+saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and
+vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think,
+from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a
+splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored
+sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have
+eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then
+came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New
+England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge
+tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made
+into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course
+of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own
+plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a
+thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance
+that we should have no more.
+
+A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the
+masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its
+smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat
+beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from
+the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring
+the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to
+direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in
+a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque!
+Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and
+exclaim,--"Yes, Senorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so
+prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and
+thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and
+the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House,
+which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things.
+
+
+GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE.
+
+
+As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the
+appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she
+had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see
+the Spaniards see it.
+
+Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and
+obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not
+husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with
+the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may
+succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural
+master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you
+should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking
+his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate
+convictions may be, the end is, that you do not.
+
+Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in
+these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to
+see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where
+one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting.
+These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely
+covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which
+resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are
+kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond
+fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all
+moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the
+training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles,
+and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_,
+"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth
+forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a
+splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but
+the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics.
+
+The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some
+twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel
+Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don
+Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good
+family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing
+unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his
+occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as
+we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au
+naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to
+their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight,
+which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips
+of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may
+not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the
+while delivering himself with great volubility to his black
+second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose
+there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the
+head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are
+allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and
+breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly
+at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a
+moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round.
+The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don
+Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his
+favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a
+cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave Maria santisima!_ did one ever see
+such spirit? _Santisima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all
+Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the
+saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One
+of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in
+his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the
+remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on
+his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs
+us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other,
+and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor
+father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and
+cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be
+full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porqueria_, "dirt."
+
+We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as
+before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to
+say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses
+no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn
+subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great
+wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and
+is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can
+carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere.
+Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly.
+
+Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their
+persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to
+contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly
+made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of
+theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their
+travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as
+the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads.
+At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its
+appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the
+saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing
+everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don
+Antonito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the
+_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze
+refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a
+bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with
+no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but
+without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery
+rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks
+his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of
+gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun
+seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy
+sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness.
+We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the
+inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to
+reconcile us to all future highways.
+
+Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore
+travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of
+stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road;
+yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to
+year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort.
+An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of
+smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine
+avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and
+partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane
+aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty
+niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement
+for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French
+and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to
+translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house
+is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all
+the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has
+a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room,
+with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another,
+opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs
+are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a
+draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a
+Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of
+clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a
+firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the
+roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of
+cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across
+one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good
+books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels,
+which his wife fully appreciates.
+
+A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros
+chiquitos,--Anglice_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find
+their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely
+inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequenuelos_ cannot
+tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend
+produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as
+usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one
+elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums,
+formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were
+produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive
+instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to
+a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which,
+for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing
+children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon
+for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the
+imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the
+afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went
+next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others,
+contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the
+negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square
+stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we
+found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in
+concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a
+chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just
+before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent
+condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good
+proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on
+estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all.
+We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket.
+Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The
+time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two
+after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night.
+This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little
+gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this
+estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of
+money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they
+had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone
+had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the
+circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer,
+whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements
+of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes
+all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday
+afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until
+four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes
+is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is
+the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South;
+it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to
+go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and
+were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed
+in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our
+friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor
+whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish
+their own funerals.
+
+Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one
+sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a
+paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent;
+but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I
+will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban
+country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes,
+sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a
+characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in
+Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the
+inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however,
+it was only one among many good things, which were made better by
+pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After
+dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found
+Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing
+water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party
+was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the
+head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his
+request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off
+his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton
+handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido
+was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the
+expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the
+phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of
+sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself
+brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he
+had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad
+one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our
+sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface
+from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last
+calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now
+wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which
+the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their
+out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking
+and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers.
+Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller
+children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy
+the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came
+the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to
+take us away.
+
+And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from
+town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the
+masked ball, the Paseo, and the Senorita's beaux? All that durst
+followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque!
+Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one,
+actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and
+galloped off, dragging us after him.
+
+As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet
+made us aware that Don Antonito, the young friend who had planned and
+accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the
+lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don
+Antonito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and
+stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a
+brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have
+played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he
+tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony
+made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and
+even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you
+on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is
+even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's
+musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely
+talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that
+rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted
+parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees
+and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call
+again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were
+no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence,
+warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the
+aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day.
+Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a
+sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to
+the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom.
+
+For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night,
+half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always
+expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling
+the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had
+thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The
+luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave
+with entire goodwill.
+
+I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic.
+Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten
+o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the
+steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little
+cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How
+different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk
+on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the
+flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of
+squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of
+that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were
+rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The
+arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was
+occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A
+tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the
+machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths
+being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean
+sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with
+disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began
+to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about
+their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why,
+then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly
+behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept
+arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antonito, who
+was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see
+them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last
+came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we
+betook ourselves to rest.
+
+Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their
+berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the
+larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran,
+looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was
+tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always
+travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a
+real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went
+to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself
+upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the
+extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that
+murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and
+arousing its fair occupant with "Dona Teresita," or whatever the name
+may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is
+necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between
+the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex
+invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that,
+_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to
+call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The
+male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of
+a compendious and economic arrangement.
+
+And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and
+return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane
+spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong
+shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it
+with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE FIRST AND THE LAST.
+
+
+It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce
+northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen
+air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the
+rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through
+the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at
+them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and
+spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a
+premature shroud of cold white snow.
+
+But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun,
+peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at
+seeing how much had been done in his absence.
+
+Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's
+poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of
+the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two
+stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths
+upon his premises.
+
+Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on
+between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf
+of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching
+competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries
+of the two estates.
+
+To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire
+of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their
+shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded
+Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a
+thing, which he most assuredly never had.
+
+Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad
+evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of
+satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous
+rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous
+plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come
+within a foot of it.
+
+Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful
+champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator
+that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a
+thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly
+opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from
+peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with
+the ammunition so plentifully spread before them.
+
+Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced
+into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with
+an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to
+the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and
+remarkable ornament to that garment.
+
+"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric
+Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable
+missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as
+a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and
+easier to come at than the words which most men would have used.
+
+Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his
+master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that,
+half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next
+instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving,
+however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose.
+The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his
+face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp.
+
+His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and
+derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us"
+could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately
+disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift.
+
+"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken
+woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering
+and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet
+extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried
+heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns.
+They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys."
+
+The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful
+enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,--
+
+"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?"
+
+"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas,
+slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly
+added, with more vivacity,--
+
+"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know
+ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my
+woman,--won't ye?"
+
+"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning,
+nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp
+her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of
+old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes.
+
+"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin
+allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in."
+
+"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the
+compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come
+right in, this way."
+
+"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host
+through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded
+with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never
+seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time."
+
+Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow
+concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch,
+he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic
+nod,--
+
+"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like
+Miss Coffin."
+
+"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly,
+as the door was thrown open.
+
+"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you
+this morning."
+
+A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was
+fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her
+voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that
+"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too."
+
+"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by
+the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk."
+
+"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do
+suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated
+herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced
+her business by saying,--
+
+"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr.
+Widdrinton."
+
+"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas.
+
+"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and
+assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my
+thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had
+ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that
+I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me,
+an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits
+a chance.
+
+"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this.
+Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I
+used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to
+dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o'
+sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place
+to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I
+would take him so.
+
+"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to
+mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said
+he might come,--an' he did, that very day.
+
+"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to
+git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out
+tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin'
+seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor
+an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an'
+told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself.
+
+"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I
+shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there
+jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held
+his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!'
+an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work.
+
+"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books,
+his cloze begun to go.
+
+"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in
+a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed
+drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no
+more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't
+darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last
+night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I
+went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't
+make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good
+while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me
+comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to
+me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took
+aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all
+the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing
+to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin'
+ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it,
+an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him."
+
+"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked
+Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice.
+
+"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez
+I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I
+ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He
+wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt
+of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a
+thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o'
+life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a
+hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on
+him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two
+days an' nights."
+
+"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands
+deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they
+were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,--
+
+"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which
+he ever indulged.
+
+"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the
+consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an'
+see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an'
+be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone,
+an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which,
+if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to
+come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's."
+
+"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs.
+Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered
+the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter
+and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done."
+
+"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye,
+Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet
+to all on us."
+
+"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at
+once about this poor man, won't thee?"
+
+"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and
+I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along."
+
+Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after
+lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge,
+inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a
+piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring."
+
+Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then,
+opening a door, called gently,--
+
+"Faith!"
+
+"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her
+own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of
+age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,--
+
+"What is it, mother?"
+
+"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith."
+
+And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story
+narrated by Mrs. Janes.
+
+"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted
+to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no
+room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan
+sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"--
+
+"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly.
+
+"Thy room, child?"
+
+"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very
+much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the
+orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me."
+
+"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly.
+
+"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother,"
+replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing
+her fondly.
+
+The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which,
+pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the
+strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like
+compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's
+people."
+
+She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,--
+
+"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready
+thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth."
+
+An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door,
+from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in
+blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly
+murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,--
+
+"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in
+after us."
+
+"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted
+from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something,
+carefully enveloped in a cotton case.
+
+"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed
+the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little
+maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she
+thought needed it more than herself.
+
+Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see
+him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him.
+
+"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?"
+said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a
+little more evenly.
+
+"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his
+kind nurse into the room.
+
+"What does thee mean, friend?"
+
+"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and
+leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with
+him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem
+to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe."
+
+"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it.
+You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone.
+
+"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin,
+soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and
+what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep,
+I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some
+broth to strengthen thee."
+
+"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble
+voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face.
+
+"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee
+rather I should?"
+
+"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it."
+
+"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of
+the women, will take thy place."
+
+Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about
+seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned
+her to the bedside.
+
+Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her,
+while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame
+leaning against the wall.
+
+"Girl!"
+
+"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly.
+
+"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep."
+
+"I certainly will not."
+
+"Promise!"
+
+"I do promise."
+
+"Swear!"
+
+"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously
+adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment
+learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in
+the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted
+many of the tenets to which her mother held.
+
+"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I
+will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and
+you will be wrong to doubt my word."
+
+"I don't.--What is your name?"
+
+"Faith."
+
+"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod."
+
+"Ichabod Widdrinton?"
+
+"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you."
+
+"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep."
+
+"Sit there,--where I can see you."
+
+Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not
+prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his
+young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she
+had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in
+health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky
+hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never
+have expressed much of strength or resolution.
+
+The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it
+seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in
+the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow,
+throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a
+long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of
+devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent
+foes.
+
+"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of
+gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of
+the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan,
+sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison.
+
+From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would
+patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and
+silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a
+type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,)
+devoted herself to him.
+
+Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in
+the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose
+grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have
+guessed, would simply say,--
+
+"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared
+with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and
+quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy
+for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was
+forced to yield assent to this simple logic.
+
+A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The
+pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch
+beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their
+attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her
+kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he
+consented to allow the others to do so.
+
+At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin,
+as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,--
+
+"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible."
+
+"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that
+Faith should do so."
+
+"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas,
+readily.
+
+But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he
+caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him
+good-night, and gasped out,--
+
+"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and
+I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the
+last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more."
+
+"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to
+the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny
+him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can
+sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if
+"----
+
+"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee
+unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly
+have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should
+be worse,--won't thee?"
+
+Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was
+prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites
+which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such
+occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed
+uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the
+large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of
+her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for
+her night's perusal.
+
+The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted
+three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man
+suddenly awoke.
+
+As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he
+always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face.
+The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had
+disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile.
+
+"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and
+more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you
+have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to
+talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and
+raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter
+blaze, and then uncover--it."
+
+Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its
+ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber,
+and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having
+shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers,
+opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine
+with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed,
+the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a
+picture.
+
+Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the
+full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his
+powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the
+pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The
+expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between
+those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper
+Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet
+indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable
+by others.
+
+"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And
+they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English
+gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and
+honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new
+country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every
+man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion.
+
+"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in
+the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him
+governor and named a bay after him.
+
+"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture
+painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with
+him as a present to his wife.
+
+"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a
+very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as
+they say in storybooks.
+
+"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small
+portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried.
+
+"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family
+found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the
+traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches
+of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an
+end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the
+family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They
+met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short
+conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name,
+alive.
+
+"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by
+uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it
+more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the
+glory has departed.'
+
+"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered
+their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their
+first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and
+which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and
+despair.
+
+"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing
+weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till
+five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's
+portrait and the curse of the Withringtons.
+
+"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But
+no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed
+which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the
+picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me.
+I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither
+until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of
+life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse.
+
+"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just
+held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on
+the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last."
+
+"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed
+holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it."
+
+"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for
+myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with
+feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed.
+
+"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly.
+"Lie down again and watch me."
+
+Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light
+upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and
+laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked
+beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were
+resisting the fearful doom which threatened it.
+
+At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up
+before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull,
+leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they
+struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them.
+
+"Burn," he hoarsely murmured.
+
+With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently,
+reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace.
+
+The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick
+and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed
+to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it.
+
+She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the
+bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and,
+rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother.
+
+Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber,
+the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last
+sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips.
+
+They had perished together,--the First--and the Last.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.
+
+WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW.
+
+
+You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what
+has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot
+tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however,
+you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the
+household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as
+if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is
+low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical
+Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not
+already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with
+cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you
+slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor.
+
+I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to
+confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was
+sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what
+were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my
+little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly
+unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in
+these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So,
+when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door
+and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a
+nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not
+fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as
+when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will
+count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes
+doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried,
+and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the
+issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is
+counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or
+what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures.
+
+I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little
+conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's
+chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the
+Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking
+at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The
+simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most
+mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in
+disguise.
+
+I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever
+moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks
+and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have
+my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat,"
+composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful
+or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions
+expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing
+to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy
+with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From
+what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what
+ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone,
+and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as
+you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches
+on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the
+surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not
+worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many
+thousand years?
+
+Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it
+any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some
+little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened
+to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these
+specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass
+in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to
+stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming
+planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the
+firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless
+round to the source of life and light.
+
+A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their
+mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag,
+or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common
+enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think
+of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside
+puddles.
+
+But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain,
+when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that
+"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How
+many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have
+horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent!
+
+----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter
+with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to
+the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster.
+It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too
+heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting,
+bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms
+resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions
+specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease
+of the heart or other causes.
+
+Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty,
+Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and
+interrupted.
+
+Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded
+to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is
+at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I
+suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my
+temperament. Thus:--
+
+Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his
+left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding
+watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome
+hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three,
+four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one
+white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in
+the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget
+to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but
+what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if
+pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old
+fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such
+objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As
+I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a
+stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests
+with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I
+missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is
+your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to
+the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am
+ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as
+it is with other men.--God help him!
+
+It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire
+for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I
+must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For
+this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart;
+and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting
+malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity
+at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm
+attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run
+away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of
+Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered
+from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel
+with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes
+you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder
+instead of the haunch, where it should have started from.
+
+Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all
+parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as
+before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral
+valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is
+that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three
+big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which
+I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern
+_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks
+like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to
+embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a
+door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock?
+Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses.
+One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by
+just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of
+the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What
+do those mean?
+
+All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact.
+While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was
+also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to
+deal.
+
+There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain,
+blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out,
+followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all
+three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the
+fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon
+stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French
+physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which
+leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly
+what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as
+a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It
+is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I
+think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences,
+--which expression means you very well know what.
+
+And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come
+out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will
+be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything
+strange, my visits will clear it up.
+
+I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after
+giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an
+imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under
+their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber,
+the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in
+strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in
+broken sentences.
+
+----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And
+the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight.
+Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other
+folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a
+straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall
+slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look
+just as if there was a man underneath.
+
+A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_
+name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood
+and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest
+man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the
+handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch?
+
+----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the
+picture.
+
+He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not
+unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had
+lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait
+hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her!
+Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over?
+
+The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years
+old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New
+England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what
+artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from
+life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and
+the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early
+Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she
+was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old
+carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former
+owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was
+that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George
+Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the
+artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I
+suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of
+young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good
+evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I
+should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she
+had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some
+devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers,
+with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his
+pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight
+suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to
+leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly
+maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses?
+
+She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I
+are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted
+me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the
+board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was
+dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you?
+
+I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie
+still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you
+have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in
+the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from
+digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie
+quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I
+don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't
+doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's
+sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and
+looked through the bars of for so many years!
+
+I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and
+indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often
+a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in
+theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not
+commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of
+thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with
+red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the
+blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and
+crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of
+--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the
+plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both
+callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which
+implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some
+gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by
+my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a
+glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as
+he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest,
+so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself
+at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a
+mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You
+may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of
+pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly
+compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less
+nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for
+others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of
+science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in
+humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as
+I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional
+habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these.
+This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed
+rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his
+ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to
+be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak
+cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and
+I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will
+see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and
+buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by
+this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been
+saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a
+little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head
+with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a
+little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live.
+Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to
+think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I
+lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that
+stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me
+well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell
+you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh
+earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it.
+There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can
+keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill
+upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the
+daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe
+I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the
+morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the
+apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as
+portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes.
+The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object
+near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath
+of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see
+something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the
+figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of
+the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask
+who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was
+pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his
+bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards
+it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I
+first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw
+only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still,
+and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a
+field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I
+turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood
+full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to
+stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was
+momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright
+flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It
+was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether
+sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told
+her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the
+sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant
+that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes
+think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they
+cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the
+bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we
+should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last
+upon their faithful breasts!
+
+With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the
+starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save
+that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a
+stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and
+in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if
+she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no
+breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed
+scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested
+by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted
+sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen
+and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver
+goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her
+milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly
+out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the
+cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and
+with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her
+along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her
+name, but she did not heed my voice.
+
+The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl
+before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I
+should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose
+perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that
+immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see
+me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever
+after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that
+time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and
+the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made
+their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps,
+and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On
+the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I
+trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the
+violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The
+fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a
+pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew
+what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout
+heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his
+face and fill his heart both at once.
+
+Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the
+internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than
+juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be
+guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught
+in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of
+Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put
+it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or
+Eugenie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he
+was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the
+young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian
+beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of
+the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed
+to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a
+cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.
+
+There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind
+suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an
+enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance
+slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had
+made up my mind what I was going to do about it.
+
+When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all
+for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the
+impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did
+not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such
+guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and
+bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then
+at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up.
+
+I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by
+him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to
+care for.
+
+I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and
+persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm.
+Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning.
+There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young
+girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber.
+
+The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my
+cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually
+from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries
+of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive
+sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at
+strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out,
+or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is
+there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the
+house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once
+imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow
+bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we
+remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished
+townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that
+little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or
+persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from
+the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill
+burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling
+the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious
+fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner
+chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice,
+wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of
+the North-End cemetery.
+
+It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page
+in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine
+unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head.
+I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is
+reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think
+about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but
+one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of
+his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last
+strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and
+recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the
+most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him,
+his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind
+still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very
+nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have
+his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she
+could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted
+her. Old babies that we are!
+
+Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed
+for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between
+my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came
+down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until
+after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was
+ordered to tell me.
+
+It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris
+had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that
+chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a
+man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out
+of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These
+good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in
+her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief
+moral reflections.
+
+----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in
+her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human
+history.
+
+----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John,
+so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like
+that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle
+that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know
+how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I
+don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice
+last month.
+
+[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch
+absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the
+time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how
+he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the
+songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more
+considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man
+than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are
+a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks
+uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at
+last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their
+own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is
+hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first
+they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more
+for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of
+those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against
+themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.]
+
+----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting
+by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was
+darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept
+nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be
+indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such
+skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much
+to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I
+could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any
+very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life
+and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She
+followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit.
+
+How long?--she said.
+
+Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One
+of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or
+slow.
+
+The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But
+Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and
+kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd
+be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if
+she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week.
+
+At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back
+against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her
+nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great
+surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his
+own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way,
+but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous
+parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was
+no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat
+side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new
+neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little
+friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even
+girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with
+a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the
+construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from
+their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris,
+whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of
+things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must
+have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much
+patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the
+kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share
+in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of
+ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked
+even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet
+footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to
+the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep,
+or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with.
+
+Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she
+kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me,
+Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill
+herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get
+me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in
+this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you
+leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me.
+
+This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there
+are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the
+larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to
+them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said,
+another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head
+ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this
+one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his
+thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it
+were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the
+past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the
+handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single
+well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or
+other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children.
+Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant
+voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that
+have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that
+the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite
+forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where,
+free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden
+should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose
+"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as
+he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer
+glories.
+
+No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where
+the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one
+has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases
+himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and
+thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up
+his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him
+until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and
+his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little
+bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks
+and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to
+receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have
+died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the
+last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already
+deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great
+majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life
+through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the
+moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often
+called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is
+a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the
+smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which
+hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its
+place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is
+almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain,
+and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the
+legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully
+narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And
+some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next
+world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster
+over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file
+that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a
+foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think
+they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all
+ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future,
+that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert
+have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its
+murmurs as they lay dying.
+
+The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the
+future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is
+extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not
+insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness,
+on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by
+science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call
+_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness.
+There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate
+of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material
+frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less
+impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold
+out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while,
+though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay.
+
+The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his
+remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was
+a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various
+modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The
+landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had
+saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me
+to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to
+the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more
+than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to
+"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned
+before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and
+forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he
+said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate.
+Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the
+late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was
+something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was
+a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could
+not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little
+over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to
+lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of
+these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the
+Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way,
+bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend
+was going to leave behind.
+
+The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish
+snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the
+Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult
+him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r
+intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young
+man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his
+chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and
+they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out.
+
+The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one
+quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man
+down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such
+encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to
+knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do
+happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be
+angry, and get up and give you a thrashing.
+
+So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the
+yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm
+round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble
+art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having
+completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side
+of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens
+that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as
+much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter
+than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary
+was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against
+his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone,
+judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat
+backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little,
+the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered
+between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to
+grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with
+that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so
+frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and
+negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the
+spot by "knocking the man down."
+
+We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy
+blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most
+unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of
+seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor,
+half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar
+and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person
+not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this
+surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a
+little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and
+confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than
+himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish
+the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and
+incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the
+other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little
+science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with
+his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a
+prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in
+the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the
+young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known
+as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to
+another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got
+enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young
+fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the
+other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y'
+like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to
+that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a
+technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by
+running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The
+young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of
+trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves.
+The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two,
+being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish
+attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his
+person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed,
+that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned
+visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and
+rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had
+been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady
+naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah
+not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that
+decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I
+may hereafter allude to.
+
+I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to
+sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man
+begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the
+Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar
+Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking;
+and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you
+had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is
+on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the
+State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a
+fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that
+humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows.
+
+--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your
+curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles,
+doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine.
+Next month you shall hear all about it.
+
+--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at
+the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the
+wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice
+of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in
+her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them.
+
+
+
+
+HYMN OF TRUST.
+
+
+O Love Divine, that stooped to share
+  Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,
+On Thee we cast each earthborn care,
+  We smile at pain while Thou art near!
+
+Though long the weary way we tread,
+  And sorrow crown each lingering year,
+No path we shun, no darkness dread,
+  Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near!
+
+When drooping pleasure turns to grief,
+  And trembling faith is changed to fear,
+The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf
+  Shall softly tell us, Thou art near!
+
+On Thee we fling our burdening woe,
+  O Love Divine, forever dear,
+Content to suffer, while we know,
+  Living and dying, Thou art near!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+ART.
+
+PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID.
+
+
+_Seville, January, 1859_.
+
+I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright
+a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the
+Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills
+of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone
+pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and
+Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till
+you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This
+is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral
+here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other
+cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo
+have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently
+consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very
+often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his
+fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of
+Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly
+arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool
+scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved
+against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving
+alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the
+picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the
+left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A
+few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint.
+A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and
+there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like
+much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture
+which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is
+represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and
+the whole effect is most silvery and delicate.
+
+But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great
+picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half
+kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which
+descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light
+falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and
+throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the
+angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying
+cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in
+Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture
+of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture.
+It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the
+expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the
+extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so
+that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and
+to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt.
+And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot,
+for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt
+what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he
+is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and
+a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as
+Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he
+knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a
+painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so
+different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and
+noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for
+those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that
+we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning.
+Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious
+old corners and over their dear old altars?
+
+
+_Madrid, March, 1859_.
+
+
+You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is
+like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the
+smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the
+coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and
+donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in
+Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it
+showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed
+stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures,
+and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here
+to use your own.
+
+Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his
+pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere
+so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him,
+but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in
+childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with
+large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character,
+one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is
+his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the
+foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her
+dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear,
+broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full
+of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with
+a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no
+substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all
+is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a
+master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page
+pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a
+sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of
+light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I
+suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a
+reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and
+in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated
+the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of
+the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back
+toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant
+has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear
+white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is
+astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of
+painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in
+the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by
+paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation;
+all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I
+think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely
+most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we
+might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like
+him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you
+may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of
+Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of
+--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall
+background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in
+Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So
+much for Velasquez.
+
+But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian,
+who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can
+equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like
+nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing
+and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an
+absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his
+master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep
+blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the
+soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second
+joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him
+stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn
+over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side;
+and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of
+Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog
+leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpatica_ in his gray
+eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably
+rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is
+_elegantisimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet,
+and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining,
+against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and
+plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These
+portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his
+best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the
+great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of
+heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth
+to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the
+helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams
+like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the
+landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden
+sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the
+noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history,
+poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An
+entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep
+surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling;
+and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the
+foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her
+lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx
+on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass;
+two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and
+one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining
+on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or
+some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are
+one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit
+of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the
+middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying
+great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny
+hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam
+on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity.
+It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking
+on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and
+passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner.
+The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of
+fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of
+all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the
+work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an
+entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness.
+Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they
+thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the
+Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the
+casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other
+portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not
+already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very
+fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and
+Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable
+in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very
+full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His
+wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn
+horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no
+favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni
+Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely;
+and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a
+Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George.
+
+These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we
+could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are
+committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only
+covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take
+away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss.
+
+I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It
+is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action
+and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and
+exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the
+Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very
+lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is
+faint in color, and most charming in careful execution.
+
+Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those
+at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all
+glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful
+quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels,
+with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which
+these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist
+makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and
+artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred
+reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the
+same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were
+painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors.
+
+It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures
+in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of
+Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV.,
+which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures
+were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in
+Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of
+Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had
+come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that
+Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he
+thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a
+Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after
+Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given
+between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of
+Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you.
+
+"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente,
+E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero,
+Piasendome esser libero e sinciero)
+Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.'
+
+"'Tanto che,' repliche quela persona,
+'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor,
+In Italia nissun ve da in l' umor,
+Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.'
+
+"Don Diego repliche con tal maniera:
+'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo;
+Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo;
+Tician xe quel che porta la bandiera.'"
+
+Here is a translation:--
+
+The master, with a ceremonious air,
+Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell,
+For to be free and honest suits me well,
+Pleases me not at all, I must declare."
+
+"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown
+On this great painter, in Italy is none
+By whom, indeed, your favor can be won;
+For upon him we all bestow the crown."
+
+Don Diego thereupon to him replies,
+"At Venice may be found the good and fair;
+I give the first place to the pencil there;
+Titian is he who carries off the prize."
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases
+usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL
+BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston:
+Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524.
+
+2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the
+Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Truebner & Company.
+1859. pp. iv., 104.
+
+3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of
+the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By
+GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in
+Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London:
+Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148.
+
+4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases,
+used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a
+Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS.
+Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch.
+1859. pp. 80.
+
+5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc.
+By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii.,
+160.
+
+6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX
+TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman &
+Mason. 1859. pp. 238.
+
+7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses
+different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New
+York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218.
+
+8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM
+SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302.
+
+
+The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in
+1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA."
+Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces,
+has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The
+more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no
+peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have
+modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante
+wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct
+dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred
+years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England,
+eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be
+known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called,
+the tendency is toward uniformity.
+
+In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States,
+the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European
+nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools,
+and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the
+common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably
+on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a
+dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we
+confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has
+been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is
+only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is
+taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a
+vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which
+our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster,
+who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of
+his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English
+composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly
+correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into
+_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the
+mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and
+lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page,
+but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are
+limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very
+throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a
+rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling,
+fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the
+vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living
+green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited
+by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also,
+and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy
+trees.
+
+We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his
+Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we
+are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_
+trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom
+we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_
+to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our
+_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_
+to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an
+_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in
+our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin
+origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives
+but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary
+_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the
+Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the
+_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German
+language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very
+general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_,
+have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them
+an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly
+unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv.
+We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut
+to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the
+Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English
+masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of
+the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and
+Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander
+Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr.
+Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a
+dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of
+Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly
+understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a
+deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the
+hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair,
+ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his
+inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr.
+Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh
+them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848.
+
+In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner.
+That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than
+provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all
+these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice,
+however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial,
+such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot
+in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it
+will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of
+_adversaria_ and comments.
+
+ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a
+supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called
+"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the
+name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly,
+to the mistress of an alehouse.
+
+BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and
+Fielding.
+
+BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a
+certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of
+bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_,
+which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something
+worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our
+"baggage" in the same sense.
+
+[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr.
+Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on
+English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx.,
+note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must
+allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among
+English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second
+edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.]
+
+CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a
+Western phrase exclusively.
+
+CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption
+of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels
+are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for
+what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the
+name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
+
+TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But,
+as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut
+down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction.
+
+TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative
+language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the
+prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit
+for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German
+_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish.
+
+HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_,
+except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has
+befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern
+sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr.
+Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard
+the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in
+England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon
+than _bonnet_ and _gown_.
+
+IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I
+left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among
+us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made
+better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled
+_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was
+published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result
+of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the
+title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find,
+"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were
+_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract
+has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should
+have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use
+long before with the same meaning.
+
+To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And
+Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good
+scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and
+_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:--
+
+  "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_
+  Donna piu su."
+
+LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an
+herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_.
+
+LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon,
+and used wherever English is spoken.
+
+LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German.
+_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once
+heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis
+du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in
+short, to _loaf_ about.
+
+TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes
+_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on
+among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an
+underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_,
+in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr.
+_mesler_, to mix.
+
+TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but
+_Turf_-Slang.
+
+SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English.
+
+TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the
+Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country.
+
+SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of
+Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a
+vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had
+what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and
+Hector Boece.
+
+SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and
+Western." Used also in New York.
+
+SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low).
+
+TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of
+his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is,
+perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary.
+
+TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self."
+It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital
+metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the
+Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces
+in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _etaler_.
+
+STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is
+surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently
+explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in
+the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their
+shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious.
+
+SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of
+the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in
+almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the
+name.
+
+A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett.
+
+A CARRY: portage. _Passim_.
+
+CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England.
+
+CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England.
+
+COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of
+certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the
+archaic form, _Quo' he_.
+
+TO COTTON TO.
+
+DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to
+acknowledging ignorance.
+
+GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England.
+
+LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts.
+
+LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair.
+
+LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means
+weak-willed. Massachusetts.
+
+MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water.
+Massachusetts.
+
+OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England.
+
+OLD DRIVER:     } euphemistic for the
+OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil.
+
+ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger.
+
+ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New
+England.
+
+SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be
+suited, for couldn't be suited.
+
+STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it
+from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of
+the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in
+Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be
+called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it.
+
+STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins.
+
+SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby.
+
+TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England.
+
+WELL-SWEEP.
+
+We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a
+work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the
+amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled
+with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the
+standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year
+to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially
+rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips;
+for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as
+possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is
+often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always
+interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with
+understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite
+conclusion.
+
+[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it
+was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a
+phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also
+Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy
+perversion.]
+
+The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in
+which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems
+to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people.
+Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope
+there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil
+actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and
+"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole
+of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite
+too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes
+off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr.
+Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more
+_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the
+West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my
+tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would
+have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons
+are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog
+under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in
+a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in
+language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole
+neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same
+coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the
+dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning
+comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite
+was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to
+us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy
+mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the
+thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax
+thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o'
+nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those
+bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard
+applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be
+placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold
+weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire
+don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n
+M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and
+left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant
+preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say
+once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will
+get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote
+merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with
+Taylor or South.
+
+The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of
+American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A]
+(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_
+is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that
+the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the
+North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled,
+and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at
+least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set
+down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and
+picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and
+strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B]
+By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and
+picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere
+long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find
+Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do
+when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a
+thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people
+use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write
+very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The
+late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on
+the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young
+hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience
+whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_"
+and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb;
+_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but
+thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little,
+_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan
+achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and
+vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is
+shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our
+having a swan at last.
+
+[Footnote A: _Gedraengtes Handbuch der Fremdwoerter_, etc., etc.,
+Leipzig, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made
+a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone
+that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the
+painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter.
+(Thermometer,--12 deg..) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what
+happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin'
+him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the
+Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin'
+hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o'
+quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down
+through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact,
+of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of
+Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty
+than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness
+of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always
+to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil
+Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself?
+for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of
+what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance
+he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the
+_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A
+thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of
+indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is
+so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy
+thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a
+glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of
+inhabitants."]
+
+Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms
+will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he
+quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To
+SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or
+beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W----
+of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political
+opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)--
+
+"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a
+rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I
+_saved_.'"
+
+We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that
+it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given.
+No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be
+pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr.
+Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this
+neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty
+of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr.
+Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars
+a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed
+comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work
+which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students
+of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan
+of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give
+their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed.
+
+Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised
+edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words,
+which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has
+the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining
+an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the
+middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without
+great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he
+gives the results of much good reading.
+
+Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual.
+
+The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author
+of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the
+name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition
+and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such
+men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a
+bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks,
+though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he
+has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so
+ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the
+currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly
+for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of
+organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus:
+"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence,"
+etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel
+origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman
+who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French
+spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in
+spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On
+another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee
+kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside
+the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his
+Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the
+language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we
+could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we
+find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has
+crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever
+gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious.
+Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the
+memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in
+point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems.
+Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have
+transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin
+is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought
+some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the
+Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a
+better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch
+_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or
+body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_;
+corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties
+we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take
+possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in
+Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs.
+
+Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of
+language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say
+_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in
+the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the
+other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his
+betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the
+Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and
+Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received
+pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still
+sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in
+many parts of England.
+
+Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and
+gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It
+is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the
+exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr.
+Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is
+indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The
+general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the
+debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being
+the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is
+hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with
+what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could
+also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an
+unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says
+that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_,
+and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to
+settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him
+with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the
+pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies
+into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he
+will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas
+which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the
+reputation of it among the unscholarly.
+
+_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J.
+COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In
+Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin
+J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023.
+
+This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a
+condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the
+contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in
+American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity,
+and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_
+which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in
+events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful
+destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local
+historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but
+if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales,"
+for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be
+convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material.
+There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as
+is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country
+meeting-house.
+
+In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the
+"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of
+the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be
+wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and
+that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville,
+who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds
+so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their
+interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which
+we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had
+the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only
+manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us.
+
+One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the
+continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is
+something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the
+politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were
+surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so
+philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry
+about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise
+and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political
+views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question
+to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be
+shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what
+means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another
+question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history
+written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans
+doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_.
+
+The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils
+honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way
+of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the
+enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are
+to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak
+highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it
+is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply
+the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating
+cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the
+pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only
+been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no
+bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the
+same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the
+heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the
+coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told
+that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly,
+intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich
+and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should
+sift her tacts with a coarser sieve.
+
+In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will
+find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors
+will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a
+corresponding economy of fine writing.
+
+_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of
+Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp.
+125.
+
+The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such
+occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series
+of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have
+given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a
+performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments
+and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of
+their debate and their efforts to repel it.
+
+Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the
+knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources
+of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued
+from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration.
+
+The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and
+diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction,
+through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American
+question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the
+arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the
+fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate,
+for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the
+incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf,
+connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish
+minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out
+of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which
+France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself
+confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the
+Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the
+American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed
+neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in
+the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a
+narrative, clear, condensed, and original.
+
+From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily
+reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in
+democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of
+mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to
+which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of
+arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat."
+
+A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of
+art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and
+philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a
+reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown
+to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over
+the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated
+intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people
+for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the
+practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long
+prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that
+labor cannot be honorable where it is not free."
+
+Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of
+the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those
+unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to
+the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable.
+His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old
+republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride
+of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American,
+in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever
+sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration.
+And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political
+rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by
+Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep
+into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and
+ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated.
+Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of
+a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of
+America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of
+France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical
+mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to
+Republican France and to Continental liberty.
+
+The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral
+support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits
+of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities
+struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the
+sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in
+the embarrassments of the present hour.
+
+Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide
+cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr.
+Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves
+than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of
+government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the
+fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but
+rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the
+legislative and judicial functions."
+
+From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing
+of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define
+and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political
+system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of
+liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause"
+itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and
+received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of
+the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and
+has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a
+government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy."
+
+The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he
+discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump
+speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and
+statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing
+pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice
+Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are
+among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must
+have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a
+large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of
+an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of
+self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for
+his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience
+and many of his countrymen.
+
+It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery
+that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of
+republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the
+model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good
+government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station,
+quality, and character of the active offender.
+
+And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land,
+and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary
+between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce,
+and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is
+tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political
+_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America.
+
+Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the
+humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his
+associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in
+the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of
+that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in
+which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of
+the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the
+Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong.
+
+The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively
+disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main
+issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the
+defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an
+averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since
+its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the
+litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he
+was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights
+dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding,
+the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end.
+
+What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the
+Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the
+Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the
+effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause
+controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision
+already made and recorded?
+
+Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief
+justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President,
+and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He
+proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of
+constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of
+Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by
+practical application in the administration of the government of the
+Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the
+Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was
+the official chief.
+
+These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more
+nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been
+without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating
+Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing
+the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers
+which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of
+slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession
+of every power.
+
+We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with
+which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and
+defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of
+Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan &
+Co. 8vo. pp. 381.
+
+The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a
+trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may
+follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has
+been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its
+present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or
+the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of
+which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized
+society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means
+of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty
+in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in
+the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so
+revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's
+experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one
+productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class
+that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so
+indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this
+kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux
+Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in
+its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is
+quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is,
+beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for
+that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story
+of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that
+of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a
+woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is
+manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths"
+has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it,
+that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from
+the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the
+making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic
+study--lost.
+
+The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the
+daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much
+noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is
+handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above
+her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous
+temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault,
+however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman,
+destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life
+was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast,
+a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care
+Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds
+shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not
+ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she
+appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has
+not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and
+she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who
+takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness
+to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a
+third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage.
+Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at
+his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed
+over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an
+infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to
+the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is
+put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who
+allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who
+really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She
+scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds
+him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of
+bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the
+lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they
+part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it
+is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after
+being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the
+last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of
+a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face
+upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously
+uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him
+out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the
+mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find
+her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of
+marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his
+suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the
+small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the
+beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves
+the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought
+himself.
+
+This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen,
+that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough.
+It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character,
+except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and
+narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and
+little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages.
+And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the
+tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it
+reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves
+the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of
+what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might
+have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such
+a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book,
+too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout
+it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that
+is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat
+the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not
+the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains
+in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary
+Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even
+you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society,
+without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice
+Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of
+attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that
+she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of
+society!_
+
+But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is
+not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This
+impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very
+difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language
+seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which
+Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of
+language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she
+acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained
+propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of
+a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of
+cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited
+a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work
+of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of
+the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its
+heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This
+was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of
+her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth,
+that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father
+was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a
+young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her
+unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as
+regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life;
+and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of
+prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money,
+honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings
+her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,)
+she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was
+that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any
+man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she
+speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being
+raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and
+again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire
+to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with
+the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women
+to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and
+for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted
+mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not
+for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our
+whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment
+to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace
+and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about
+this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to
+find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part
+of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome.
+
+_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._
+By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van
+Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366.
+
+The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany
+Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It
+concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It
+concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take
+sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science,
+because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper
+notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It
+concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know
+whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even,
+the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but
+the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned
+lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right
+to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable
+manners.
+
+Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not
+only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness
+of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none
+the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the
+astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a
+less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor,
+too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould
+recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he
+condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen
+since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly
+more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a
+refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense
+of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of
+their body.
+
+
+
+
+RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.
+
+
+Black Diamonds, gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South. By Edward A.
+Pollard, of Virginia. New York. Pudney and Russell. 12mo. pp. 122. 50
+cts.
+
+Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders; or the Cogitations
+and Confessions of an Aged Physician. By William A. Alcott, M.D.
+Boston. John P. Jewett & Co. 12mo. pp. 384. $1.00.
+
+Modern Philology; its Discoveries, History, and Influence, Tabular
+Views, and an Index. By Benjamin W. Dwight. New York. A.S. Barnes &
+Burr. 8vo. pp. 354. $1.75.
+
+The Mississippi Bubble; a Memoir of John Law. By Adolphe Thiers, Author
+of "The Consulate and Empire." To which are added Authentic Accounts of
+the Darien Expedition and the South Sea Scheme. Translated and edited
+by Frank S. Fiske. New York. W.A. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 338. $1.00.
+
+The Use and Abuse of Tobacco. By John Lizar. From the Eighth Edinburgh
+Edition. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 16mo. pp. 136. 50 cts.
+
+Alcohol; its Place and Power. By James Miller. From the Nineteenth
+Glasgow Edition. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 16mo. pp. 178. 50
+cts.
+
+Life of Colonel David Crockett, written by Himself. Philadelphia. G. G.
+Evans. 12mo. pp. 405. $1.00.
+
+The Diseases of Cattle. By George H. Dadd. Boston. John P. Jewett & Co.
+12mo. pp. 395. $1.25.
+
+My Third Book. A Collection of Tales. By Louise Chandler Moulton. New
+York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 434. $1.00.
+
+Henry St. John, Gentleman, of "Flower of Hundreds," in the County of
+Prince George, Virginia. A Tale of 1774-75. By John Esten Cooke, Author
+of the "Virginia Comedians," etc. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo.
+pp. 503. $1.00.
+
+Rab and his Friends. By John Brown, M.D. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.
+18mo. pp. 81. 15 cts.
+
+Letters on Modern Agriculture. By Baron von Liebig. Edited by John
+Blyth, M.D., Professor of Chemistry, Queen's College, Oxford. New York.
+John Wiley. 12mo. pp. 233. 76 cts.
+
+Thirty Years in the Arctic Regions; or the Adventures of Sir John
+Franklin. New York. H. Dayton & Co. 12mo. pp. 473. $1.25.
+
+A Dictionary of Love; containing a Definition of all the Terms used in
+the History of the Tender Passion. By Theocritus, Junior. New York.
+Dick & Fitzgerald. 12mo. pp. 275. $1.00.
+
+Miss Slimmens's Window, and other Papers. By Mrs. Murk Peabody. With
+Humorous Illustrations. New York. Derby & Jackson. 12mo. pp. 312.
+$1.00.
+
+The Life, Travels, and Books of Alexander von Humboldt. With an
+Introduction by Bayard Taylor. New York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo. pp.
+482. $1.25.
+
+The Book of the First American Chess Congress; containing the
+Proceedings of that Celebrated Assemblage, held in New York in the Year
+1857; with the Papers read in its Sessions, the Games played in the
+Grand Tournament, and the Stratagems entered in the Problem Tournay;
+together with Sketches of the History of Chess in the Old and New
+World. By Daniel Willard Fiske, M. A. New York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo.
+pp. 363. $1.50.
+
+The Rectory of Moreland; or, My Duty. Boston. J. E. Tilton & Co. 12mo.
+pp. 339. $1.00.
+
+British Novelists and their Styles; being a Critical Sketch of the
+History of British Prose Fiction. By David Masson, M. A., Professor of
+English Literature, University College, London. Author of "The Life and
+Times of John Milton." Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 312. 75 cts.
+
+Fiji and the Fijians. By Thomas Williams and James Calvert, late
+Missionaries in Fiji. Edited by George Stringer Rowe. New York. D.
+Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 540. $2.50.
+
+Presidential Candidates; containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal,
+and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860. By
+D. W. Bartlett. New York. A. B. Burdick. 12mo. pp. 360. $1.00.
+
+Out of the Depths; the Story of a Woman's Life. New York. W. A,
+Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.00.
+
+A Commentary, Explanatory, Doctrinal, and Practical, on the Epistle to
+the Ephesdans. By R. E. Pattison, D. D., late President of Waterville
+College. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 244. 85 cts.
+
+Rhymes of Twenty Years. By Henry Morford. New York. II. Dexter & Co.
+12mo. pp. 214. $1.00.
+
+A Manual of Naval Tactics; together with a Brief Critical Analysis of
+the Principal Modern Naval Battles. By James H. Ward, Commander U. S.
+N. With an Appendix, being an Extract from Sir Howard Douglas's "Naval
+Warfare with Steam." New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 312. $2.50.
+
+Essays, Lectures, etc., upon Select Topics in Revealed Theology. By
+Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D., late Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology
+in Yale College. New York. Clark, Austin, & Smith. 8vo. pp. 425. $1.50.
+
+The Character and Portraits of Washington. By H. T. Tuckerman.
+Illustrated with all the Prominent Portraits, Proofs on India Paper,
+and a Fine Plate of the Washington Monument, by Crawford, at Richmond,
+Va., from a Photograph of a Drawing, by Ehninger. New York. G. P.
+Putnam. 4to. $6.00.
+
+The Works of William Shakespeare. Edited by Richard Grunt White. Vols.
+VI., VII., VIII. Histories. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co. 12mo. pp. 564,
+468, 453. per vol. $1.50.
+
+The Good News of God. Sermons by Charles Kingsley, Hector of Eversley.
+New York. Burt, Hutchinson, & Abbey. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.00.
+
+Beulah, By Augusta J. Evens. New York. Derby & Jackson 12mo. pp. 510.
+$1.25.
+
+History of the Life and Times of James Madison. By William C. Rives.
+Volume I. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co. 8vo. pp. 660. $2.25.
+
+Life of Hannibal. By Thomas Arnold, D. D. New York. Sheldon & Co. 18mo.
+pp. 320. 50 cts.
+
+Life of Thomas a Becket. By Henry Hart Milman, D. D., Dean of St.
+Paul's. New York. Sheldon & Co. 18mo. pp. 246. 50 cts.
+
+The Logic of Political Economy; and other Papers. By Thomas De Quincey.
+Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 387. 75 cts.
+
+Paul the Preacher; or a Popular and Practical Exposition of his
+Discourses and Speeches, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. By
+John Eadie, D. D., LL. D. New York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp.
+453. $1.25.
+
+The Teacher's Assistant, or Hints and Methods in School Discipline and
+Instruction; being a Series of Familiar Letters to one entering upon
+the Teacher's Work. By Charles Northend, A. M. Boston. Crosby, Nichols,
+& Co. 12mo. pp. 583. $1.00.
+
+Parties and their Principles; a Manual of Political Intelligence,
+exhibiting the Origin, Growth, and Character of the National Parties.
+With an Appendix, containing Valuable and General Statistical
+Information. By Arthur Holmes. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp.
+394. $1.00.
+
+Four Years Aboard the Whale-Ship. Embracing Cruises in the Pacific,
+Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans, in the Years 1855-59. By
+William B. Whitecar, Jr. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp.
+413. $1.00.
+
+The History of the Whig Party. By R. Mackintosh Ormsby. Boston. Crosby,
+Nichols, & Co, 12mo. pp. 377. $1.00.
+
+Rills from the Fountain of Life; or, Sermons to Children. By Rev.
+Richard Newton, D. D., Rector of St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia. New
+York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 220. 75 cts.
+
+Life in Jesus; a Memoir of Mrs. Mary Winslow, arranged from her
+Correspondence, Diary, and Thoughts. By her Son, Octavius Window, D. D.
+New York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 426. $1.00.
+
+Almost a Heroine. By the Author of "Charles Auchester," "Counterparts,"
+etc., etc. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 399. $1.00.
+
+Life in Tuscany. By Mabel Shaman Crawford. From the London Edition. New
+York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. 339. $1.00.
+
+Germaine. By Edmond About. Boston. J. E. Tilton & Co. 12mo. pp. 341.
+$1.00.
+
+The Puritans; or, the Church, Court, and Parliament of England, during
+the Reigns of Edward Sixth and Queen Elizabeth. By Samuel Hopkins. 3
+vols. Vol. I. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 549. $2.50.
+
+The New American Cyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General
+Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Volume VII.
+Edward--Fueros. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 786. $3.00.
+
+The Poetical Works of Winthrop Mackworth Praed. New and enlarged
+Edition. 2 vols. New York. Redfield. 12mo. pp. 310, 304. $2.00.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 4, NO. 25, NOVEMBER, 1859 ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859
+by  Various
+(#25 in our series by  Various)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
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+Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859
+
+Author:  Various
+
+Release Date: November, 2005  [EBook #9391]
+[This file was first posted on September 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 4, NO. 25, NOVEMBER, 1859 ***
+
+
+
+
+E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
+
+A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
+
+VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV.
+
+
+
+
+E. FELICE FORESTI.
+
+
+Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the
+harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such
+exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers
+who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not
+the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy
+of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the
+fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new
+country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees
+of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and
+breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and
+self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the
+bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud
+consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and
+being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when
+first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of
+the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to
+watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest
+thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its
+spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were
+extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open.
+Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple
+facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and
+cordial greeting.
+
+Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose
+high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of
+moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces
+of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but
+with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and
+ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for
+years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and
+literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in
+her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian
+patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and
+the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its
+availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and
+an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the
+chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate
+modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the
+political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of
+existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic
+pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he
+illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own
+eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in
+her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to
+the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely
+fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of
+victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon
+early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the
+stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He
+uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage
+can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of
+being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the
+truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully
+adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of
+a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed
+a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given,
+except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New
+York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture,
+essentially improved his physical condition; but it became
+indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous
+clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy,
+taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent
+adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity,
+and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It
+was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading
+citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his
+appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular
+propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of
+American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city
+which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with
+our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in
+America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple
+and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom
+freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense
+of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his
+declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized
+misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to
+rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our
+purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography.
+"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis
+Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe
+scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo
+Austriaco. Quest' uomo è Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandonò gli agi
+Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose
+battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua
+penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sarà una
+spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.]
+
+Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the
+Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest
+patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the
+peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in
+all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in
+conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of
+the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the
+revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and
+again, spasmodic and abortive _émeutes_, the calm protest of a
+D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property,
+freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision
+useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the
+oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice
+by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this
+deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern
+muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this
+identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the
+letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of
+Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which
+Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their
+self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess
+d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of
+Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with
+political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more
+or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to
+come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart
+from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect
+of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten
+years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That
+Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and
+realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every
+intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the
+Sardinian state, knows.
+
+A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual
+enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent
+countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted
+press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign
+bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly.
+In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign
+tongue, the _caffès_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and
+under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of
+the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the
+eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce
+an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights,
+property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech,
+being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of
+Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and
+zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the
+senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation
+hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the
+inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates
+political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical
+resources become available; talent finds scope, character
+self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and
+genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably
+reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws
+or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite
+extension and salutary reign.
+
+In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into
+the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and
+administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military,
+political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed
+and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his
+studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought,
+and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation
+of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the
+subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the
+inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of
+reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to
+appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when
+suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as
+it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and
+enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete
+feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this
+wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political
+organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest
+princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose
+far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the
+fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to
+hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the
+vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and
+patriotic agricultural class.
+
+Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers
+linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence
+or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to
+detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and
+alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the
+charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed
+stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught
+with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway
+and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the
+Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place
+is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces
+emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is
+no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the
+crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort
+of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our
+footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the
+splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in
+extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous
+school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew
+scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the
+Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city
+dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave
+refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually
+concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of
+ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary
+resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the
+Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this
+halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus
+of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent.
+But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree
+consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later
+generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers,
+and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which
+stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he
+roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers,"
+traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in
+Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were
+slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of
+St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and
+Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It
+is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy
+and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved,
+triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so
+assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal
+Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for
+centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word,
+Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who
+called her "_città bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna
+del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination,
+with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights,
+the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties
+and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and
+State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the
+transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since
+consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway.
+
+When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna,
+whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of
+Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young
+advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is
+this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and
+natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent
+appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of
+Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the
+Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he
+crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian
+to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in
+the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the
+Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial
+knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his
+liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and
+disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and
+courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of
+their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and
+secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the
+Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and
+holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes
+of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The
+delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of
+Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to
+the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this
+mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter
+shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of
+retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the
+chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the
+perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was
+executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or
+even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected
+were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically
+described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was
+denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on,
+to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the
+means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still
+further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they
+had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in
+arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she
+had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the
+imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously
+prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made
+instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of
+the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate,
+uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources
+of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual
+character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes
+roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told
+they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved
+one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety,
+of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to
+startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what
+conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into
+inadvertent disloyalty.
+
+At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the
+son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their
+conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer,
+who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official
+convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved
+upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly
+guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently
+through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to
+the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to
+destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and
+poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the
+vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a
+labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient
+Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped
+from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the
+vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw
+and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to
+his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate
+anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his
+direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred
+compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had
+transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the
+firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray
+the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable
+victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of
+Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that
+suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of
+arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of
+tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and
+sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to
+which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a
+book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were
+shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife
+into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side
+and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on
+the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but,
+probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many
+hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering
+his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two
+Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It
+was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible
+representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a
+secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted
+each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the
+conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a
+crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long
+outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth
+into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his
+allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered,
+and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The
+Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of
+a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed
+the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his
+delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and
+allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical,
+and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the
+public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete
+revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret
+conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move
+the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with
+two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows.
+Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by
+ingenious moral torture.
+
+If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive
+humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for
+picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally
+will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of
+victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler
+will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that
+which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve,
+1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more
+distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only
+spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous
+old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where
+the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in
+dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic
+associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the
+household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and
+Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus,
+the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the
+firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of
+commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the
+cheerful arcades that shade the _caffès_ remind us of the "harmless
+comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome,
+balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here
+caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music,
+love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while
+the shadow of a dark _façade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the
+anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more
+remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the
+beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local
+associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel.
+Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas
+festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with
+spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the
+Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the
+Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San
+Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of
+soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid
+the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory
+of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest,
+such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies
+a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces
+dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on
+all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented,
+from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of
+the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the
+marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the
+few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which
+occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause,
+and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the
+best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny
+had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and
+countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed
+was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral
+facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold
+were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by
+Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of
+imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime;
+ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in
+that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but
+gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration
+upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force,
+and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that
+multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity.
+
+And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear,
+well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it
+was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase,
+_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an
+electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned
+faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these
+simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_,
+called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a
+sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere
+duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for
+fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted.
+
+This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of
+the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of
+the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and
+terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy
+forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more
+than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in
+ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to
+die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance,
+while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid
+itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful
+executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth
+saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years'
+imprisonment.
+
+From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St.
+Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The
+better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the
+_cortége_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs;
+"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when
+night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of
+instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing
+honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police,
+terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to
+every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful
+unto death in vain.
+
+These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications,
+within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples.
+The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of
+the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished
+themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in
+durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or
+European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation,
+and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers,
+advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of
+character. Those known in America, either personally or by their
+writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla,
+Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and
+1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly
+heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as
+a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and
+progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically
+established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction
+invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European
+despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled,
+postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the
+development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph.
+
+The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every
+circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial
+and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still
+night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the
+condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and
+chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches
+they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice
+to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners
+and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary
+weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country
+and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when
+neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can
+adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of
+soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy
+prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of
+a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of
+ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and
+noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the
+strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs,
+respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their
+sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in
+disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very
+commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from
+their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue,
+greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had
+exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of
+Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain
+prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval
+castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before
+the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of
+confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a
+thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of
+malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of
+patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and
+eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a
+mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen
+jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were
+immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court
+and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome;
+an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded
+muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the
+Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world
+was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were
+guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest,
+who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the
+agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired
+in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was
+unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold
+obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the
+very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine.
+Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system
+somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg
+was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of
+Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime,
+and the severest _régime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn,
+and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to
+ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings,
+moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality.
+
+The details of this experience are familiar through current European
+memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian
+prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as
+well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English
+factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in
+the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen
+of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote:
+_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO.
+Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was
+all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that
+noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence
+and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by
+these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect
+intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed
+their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital
+injuries of the _régime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another
+the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by
+gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by
+insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each
+other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an
+indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli
+sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his
+leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday
+in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of
+beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to
+communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original
+edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen
+interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at
+Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the
+captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so
+exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa.
+Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with
+the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in
+such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That,"
+whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless
+mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods
+oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Mémoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par
+ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.]
+
+This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and
+philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of
+justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair
+which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits
+of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of
+robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the
+want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and
+permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard
+him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet
+suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a
+pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official
+in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed
+it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what
+triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the
+solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his
+self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant
+rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth,
+which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into
+the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in
+his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his
+wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance
+of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived
+from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting
+reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the
+habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their
+functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at
+Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the
+legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left
+uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the
+Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual
+expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and
+the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak
+fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go,
+night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred
+or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of
+life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender
+sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of
+knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank,
+existence a void!
+
+Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of
+humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we
+should find it in the self-preservation realized under such
+circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity
+against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and
+pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and
+beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative
+force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and
+uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method
+thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant
+imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts
+in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle.
+Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and
+force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful
+disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart;
+incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion
+from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to
+middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving
+nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America.
+Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress;
+and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a
+single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all
+read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a
+spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the
+companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle
+absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little
+plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate
+flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of
+these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of
+life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to
+tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from
+without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_,
+as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's
+incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the
+supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate
+occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile
+inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will,
+and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the
+twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night
+canopied aggravating dreams.
+
+  "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought,
+  Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought."
+
+Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the
+compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their
+dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died
+(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public
+prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his
+accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning
+them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity
+did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights,
+their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In
+November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had
+welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and
+wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the
+director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with
+congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and
+they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where
+comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and
+newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the
+hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects
+associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the
+hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold
+streets, _caffès_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of
+life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel
+the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living
+history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors,
+converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire
+transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation
+had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a
+reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement,
+prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness;
+they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or
+sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their
+sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their
+very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them
+to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy,
+where a milder atmosphere prevailed.
+
+How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed
+monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and
+kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of
+civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their
+liberation suddenly introduced them!
+
+Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that
+melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It
+was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages
+with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through
+which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns
+where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed
+to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to
+be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the
+Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was
+consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape;
+they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to
+bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local
+celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their
+excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid
+them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred
+and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace
+them.
+
+Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and
+respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between
+prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages
+arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While
+the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished
+appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom
+so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore
+to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she
+attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned
+to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave
+Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of
+Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be
+fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die
+for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I
+have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May
+God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards
+learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of
+Prussia.
+
+On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste,
+and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war
+whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable
+in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter
+of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm
+clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them,
+not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for
+which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly
+two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel
+was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they
+fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they
+beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction
+with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such
+protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed,
+was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground.
+
+Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their
+compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the
+consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles.
+Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his
+purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and
+inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the
+more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend.
+Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and
+kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis
+of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent
+prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his
+dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the
+strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the
+revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the
+frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by
+French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his
+adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and
+unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to
+retrieve the fate of Italy.
+
+Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United
+States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of
+his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his
+character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated
+and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At
+the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent
+had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to
+annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were
+justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent
+moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high
+and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars,
+citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real
+genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with
+the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their
+aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental;
+for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure
+enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but
+most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock.
+Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs
+"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with
+the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the
+sympathy of the civilized world.
+
+The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed
+by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years
+domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitué_ of
+his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous,
+and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of
+antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen
+perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at
+least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days
+of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand,
+and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation
+had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue
+whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the
+age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when
+faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its
+virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's
+humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his
+country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a
+volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico
+under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as
+it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in
+its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a
+landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his
+youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters
+of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions
+peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his
+experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his
+companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and
+usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his
+fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian
+Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to
+the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fêtes_, from the numerous
+friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of
+social enjoyment and genial activity.
+
+Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as
+the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in
+Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists,
+every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in
+reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his
+American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then
+that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the
+spontaneity of his race.
+
+Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly
+Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large
+experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system,
+rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in
+discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English
+politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification
+of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he
+yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like
+those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several
+occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power
+on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn
+in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of
+Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious
+son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he
+sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose
+glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly
+affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the
+prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew
+always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of
+government, because he could discover in them the true love of
+nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension,
+beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely
+tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the
+unchanged serenity of his bearing."
+
+Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography
+almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly
+pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful
+epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer
+and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to
+be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was
+_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof
+is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he
+used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the
+Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he
+called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected
+and honored.
+
+The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as
+the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence
+of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a
+foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport,
+under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had
+so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are
+aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and
+how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may
+never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his
+devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not
+belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and
+philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to
+the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than
+satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of
+Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio,
+breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you
+belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see
+things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage
+developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign
+of the times when the land which protected such an exile was
+represented by him in that of his nativity.
+
+Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource
+thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American
+friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated
+immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand
+pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus
+honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of
+Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an
+effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill
+and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning
+of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his
+eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the
+Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres
+and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory
+of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of
+his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful
+to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient
+city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor,
+the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the
+refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state
+where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest
+aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social
+vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his
+pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the
+Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena,
+through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo,
+by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the
+captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of
+Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of
+which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the
+less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary,
+official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LARVAE.
+
+
+My little maiden of four years old
+  (No myth, but a genuine child is she,
+With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold)
+  Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me.
+
+Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,--
+  As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her,
+She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm
+  A horrible, crawling caterpillar!"
+
+And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother,
+  Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy,
+She added,--"While they were about it, mother,
+  I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!"
+
+They were words to the thought of the soul that turns
+  From the coarser form of a partial growth,
+Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns
+  With an unknown glory to crown them both.
+
+Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes,
+  On whatso beside thee may creep and cling,
+For the possible beauty that underlies
+  The passing phase of the meanest thing!
+
+What if God's great angels, whose waiting love
+  Beholdeth our pitiful life below,
+From the holy height of their heaven above,
+  Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow?
+
+
+
+
+THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*]
+
+[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and
+France.]
+
+[Continued.]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE QUILTING.
+
+By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to
+the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a
+campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to
+their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy
+yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons,
+looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the
+leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at
+which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the
+treasure.
+
+As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the
+gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon,
+with her usual complement of baskets and bags.
+
+"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do
+believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and
+out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house
+heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately
+dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and
+exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white
+napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket
+on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a
+heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage.
+
+"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping
+her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks
+was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid
+two or tree little tings."
+
+Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between
+them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed
+triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the
+great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the
+twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of
+golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green
+leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and
+raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which
+Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue
+delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace,
+whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was
+conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she
+sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty.
+
+"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!"
+
+"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git
+married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey
+oughter hab plenty to do it wid."
+
+"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with
+busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!"
+
+"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with
+proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't
+put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday
+but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk
+someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I,
+'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my
+mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de
+sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de
+ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an'
+Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_
+quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de
+cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An'
+so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de
+'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin'
+good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf
+for his supper."
+
+"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder.
+
+"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar,
+'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her
+fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis
+arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de
+day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken
+sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could."
+
+"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't
+what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was
+thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times
+like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then
+they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say,
+Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up
+to us, and we'll put it through straight."
+
+"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done,
+an' I'll do it."
+
+Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with
+the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut
+the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential
+outpouring to Miss Prissy.
+
+"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn;
+'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat
+'twould be to somebody else, ye know."
+
+Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan.
+
+"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_
+wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar
+a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was
+tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de
+world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is
+r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_
+tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a
+feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm
+waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to
+all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire
+Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on
+him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope
+no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it
+in my bones_."
+
+Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that
+she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this
+particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will
+perceive has its conveniences.
+
+"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last
+year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck
+straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss
+Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'"
+
+"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange
+things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't
+believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in
+the house after."
+
+"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a
+heap more'n dey likes to tell!"
+
+"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was
+watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we
+heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to
+come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just
+dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for
+pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down
+and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I
+see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a
+grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!"
+
+Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her
+voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper.
+
+"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause.
+
+"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it,"
+said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear
+brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes,
+laid him out in white flannel."
+
+"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a
+sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down
+one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an'
+she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a
+man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de
+harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.'
+But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally
+disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any
+way, 'cause he sunk tree times."
+
+"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more
+things in this world than folks know about."
+
+"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to
+nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I
+dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his
+hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de
+water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith,
+wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I
+ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says
+people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to
+de ole 'spensation."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to
+think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?"
+
+"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers
+wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to
+run clar."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You
+see, it may have reference to the state of his soul."
+
+"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream,"
+she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can
+judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_"
+
+"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the
+confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion.
+
+"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't
+like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's
+kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings
+knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit
+_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor."
+
+At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to
+this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss
+Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her
+cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they
+had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew
+around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation,
+upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary
+suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible
+relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this
+strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish.
+
+A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to
+strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and
+facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it
+would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was
+getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was
+to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and
+discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch
+from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her
+spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring,
+half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a
+less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of
+slight intoxication.
+
+But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to
+Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying
+round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins,
+wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the
+notion that she actually existed in forty places at once.
+
+Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an
+altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of
+her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in
+sententious expressions.
+
+"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she
+stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid
+transits through the apartment.
+
+"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?"
+
+"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said
+Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own
+wit.
+
+By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel
+arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy
+Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a
+most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad,
+expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the
+cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced
+our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some
+fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new
+Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon
+Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and
+tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned.
+
+The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo;
+and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over
+it; and conversation went on briskly.
+
+Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with
+hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall
+china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of
+an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two
+quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with
+drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful
+combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it.
+
+"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a
+flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as
+a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that
+Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I
+ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a
+minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or
+leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come
+just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would
+understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a
+dress fitted here, to let me try it."
+
+At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won
+the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her
+needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among
+the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as
+being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical
+opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their
+minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite
+captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she
+lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her
+mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent
+herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than
+from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young
+people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of
+course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with
+the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a
+forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the
+parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company.
+
+Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by
+declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any
+girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting
+up housekeeping in a meeting-house.
+
+"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?"
+
+"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have
+some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet."
+
+"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of
+the ladies.
+
+"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread
+with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years'
+voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married,
+I'm going up to have one of those fellows."
+
+It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this
+very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking,
+conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to
+preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her
+father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine
+of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a
+most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the
+consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison
+that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen
+confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at
+the demonstration.
+
+"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that
+'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk
+about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic
+melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities."
+
+"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding
+now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney
+with any girl."
+
+This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no
+young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled
+Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney
+and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the
+consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh.
+
+"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an
+elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she
+could knit a long cotton stocking in a day."
+
+"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?"
+said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame.
+
+"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a
+pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning
+or fine stitching."
+
+Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the
+chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that
+has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some
+gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at
+everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready
+with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but
+once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn
+were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed
+in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in
+low and gentle tones.
+
+"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to
+me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but
+eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some
+respects the dearest friend I have."
+
+"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except
+that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed
+to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to
+hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in
+the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she
+added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how
+dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really,
+truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"--
+
+"I can," said Mary, firmly.
+
+At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of
+sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths,
+suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor.
+
+Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by
+James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd
+coincidences that make hearts throb.
+
+"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he
+is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this
+come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail
+out of my heart."
+
+Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said
+Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a
+moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss
+Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through
+the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came
+to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his
+study, and all the people are wondering where you are."
+
+Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to
+be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen,
+where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision
+which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the
+trouble of recapitulating in detail.
+
+The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was
+redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's
+pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising
+his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board.
+
+Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted
+together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious
+matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular
+secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote
+family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly
+how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian
+corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by
+hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a
+brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to
+make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put
+down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just
+as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859.
+
+Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with
+excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport
+gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she
+communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not
+trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a
+confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer
+was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited
+young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of
+the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in
+which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious,
+well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that
+by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together.
+
+Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so
+heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not
+last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted
+soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her
+clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on
+the way home, if he found the courage to do so.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the
+Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long,
+sleep settled down on the brown cottage.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to
+sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come
+off yit."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+AN ADVENTURE.
+
+
+A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather
+shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon
+sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous
+stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the
+outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much
+glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had
+its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the
+under or the upper world.
+
+Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them,
+which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in
+high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each
+new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little
+child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose
+strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and
+whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes
+and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which
+seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it
+could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon
+constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of
+nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races,
+whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with
+the most intense persistency lower down.
+
+Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to
+form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than
+to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always
+seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh
+at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic
+coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in
+French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent
+surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different
+from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her
+a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms
+of opera and theatre and romance.
+
+After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a
+point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to
+a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the
+sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining
+day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each
+several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking
+gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet.
+
+Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful
+reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and
+chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze.
+Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her
+as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let
+down its long silky waves upon her shoulders.
+
+"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I
+will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads
+beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that
+is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without
+learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a
+hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity
+this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but
+there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair
+Miranda, look at thyself!"
+
+Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know
+how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the
+rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the
+fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a
+fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths
+of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose
+on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture.
+
+"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a
+true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand."
+
+She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did
+not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de
+Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart
+beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk
+bodice.
+
+"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who
+intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as
+invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with
+either.
+
+Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly
+frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted
+adornments.
+
+"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that
+time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed
+her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural
+impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the
+picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting
+the wearer to the scene."
+
+Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds
+himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and
+character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to
+pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame
+de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and
+compliments.
+
+"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be
+returning to the house."
+
+This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at
+the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty
+air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm.
+
+"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which
+never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused
+time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find
+that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came
+here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without
+some assistance."
+
+Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh
+afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the
+rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had
+been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their
+heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a
+strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a
+frail, unaided woman.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the
+possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any
+exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my
+arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks."
+
+He paused and waited for their answer.
+
+Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the
+wild beating of her heart.
+
+"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks."
+
+"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of
+rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy
+agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards
+them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to
+set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she
+did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a
+feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to
+Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away
+towards the sea.
+
+Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet.
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf
+coming in, and the next wave may carry you out."
+
+"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head.
+
+"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her
+arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which
+went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears.
+
+"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist.
+
+She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and
+placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing
+followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around
+the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the
+slight and graceful form were strung with steel.
+
+Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of
+grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the
+coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when
+the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation.
+
+Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the
+incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered
+an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a
+necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the
+circumstances, to refuse.
+
+He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet,
+natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark
+to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying,
+as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience
+from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to
+call soon and inquire after their health.
+
+Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace,
+turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few
+minutes, followed her.
+
+She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her
+breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance,
+she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry.
+
+"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in
+spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking
+your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves,
+we only hurt ourselves with our anger."
+
+"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that
+is gone"----
+
+"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we
+stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is
+so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage
+put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would
+have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you
+thought."
+
+The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and
+took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious,
+rational.
+
+"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you.
+You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart,
+you must not see this man any more."
+
+"But he will call."
+
+"I will see him for you."
+
+"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?"
+
+"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him."
+
+"That is hard;--he will wonder."
+
+"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to
+him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be
+agreeable for us to receive calls from him."
+
+"Mary, _ma chère_, you astonish me!"
+
+"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel,
+wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this
+way. I will protect you."
+
+And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her
+father looked when he protested against the slave-trade.
+
+"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by
+Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear
+saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature;
+he has the angel in him."
+
+"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love."
+
+"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if
+you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the
+rocks!--there were tears in his eyes"
+
+"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend;
+no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad,
+that saw you a few months ago."
+
+"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the
+mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see
+those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her
+summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and
+Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying
+another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that
+sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones.
+
+The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just
+on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant
+she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a
+saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an
+adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and
+no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever
+you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+PLAIN TALK.
+
+
+Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night.
+The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just
+passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked
+upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced
+woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal
+realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities,
+that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their
+hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of
+heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her
+essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words
+of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people
+essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation,
+which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the
+religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form
+essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under
+which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a
+surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading,
+though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized
+and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous
+words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so
+that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in
+her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his
+portrait of an ideal woman:--
+
+  "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat
+  Build in her loftiest, and create an awe
+  About her as a guard angelic placed."
+
+The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was
+spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when
+Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement.
+
+"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de
+Frontignac will not go down."
+
+Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was
+gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked
+eager and agitated.
+
+"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to
+tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness
+yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less."
+
+"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't
+be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am
+afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are
+so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder
+that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful."
+
+"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold
+little hands that trembled in hers.
+
+"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy
+you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy.
+Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully
+forward.
+
+Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him
+good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not
+the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure.
+
+"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?"
+said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation.
+
+"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you."
+
+"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern.
+
+"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you."
+
+Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added,
+
+"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your
+acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean,
+Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we
+should prefer not to receive calls from you."
+
+"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness."
+
+"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery
+in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth
+plainly and in a spirit of love."
+
+"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not
+otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the
+impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of
+understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious
+sentence, but I bow to it in submission."
+
+"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the
+eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of
+easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal
+soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits
+which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great
+injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in
+your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen,
+penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near
+you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable,
+interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that
+reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and
+treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave
+it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have
+treated Madame de Frontignac."
+
+"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what
+representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you,
+our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could
+desire."
+
+"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken
+the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition,
+wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but
+their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember
+the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but
+he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor
+had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to
+give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give
+her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her
+soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a
+light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be?
+one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are
+going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a
+faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all
+men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity
+and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should
+despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own
+heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she
+cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to
+the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very
+soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her,
+and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own
+heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and
+broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing.
+
+Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were
+dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil
+demon of his life.
+
+It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have
+been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and
+women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever
+demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural
+constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or
+vile.
+
+The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was
+struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair,
+inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his
+heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet
+that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole
+wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly
+stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together,
+resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself.
+
+In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and,
+approaching him, said,--
+
+"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the
+liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly."
+
+"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and
+speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern;
+"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I
+only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not
+altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been
+passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real
+nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment
+with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any
+commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me."
+
+"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It
+is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible,
+without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The
+injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and
+greater one to it."
+
+Burr looked thoughtful.
+
+"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks.
+
+Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence
+of every heart.
+
+"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying
+this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your
+fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I
+cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot
+help wishing that you would examine and reconsider."
+
+"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and
+appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs.
+Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control
+of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say,
+not had the effect you would desire."
+
+Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again;
+and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,--
+
+"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe
+me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me."
+
+He bowed, and was gone.
+
+An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his
+seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar
+political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had
+made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man;
+and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his
+short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his
+most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of
+admiration.
+
+It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving
+Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself
+little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which
+Madame de Frontignac still regarded him.
+
+We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so
+singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a
+perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible
+rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object
+of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond
+self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the
+foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a
+disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as
+the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature
+of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the
+asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid
+discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence;
+and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his
+better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then,
+to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective
+ethical creeds.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES.
+
+
+We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a
+few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de
+Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of
+the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chère Sybille_," said
+Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks
+glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voilà
+encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?"
+
+"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you."
+
+"What did you tell him?"
+
+"I told him that you wished me to excuse you."
+
+"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?"
+
+"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary.
+
+"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said
+Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember
+anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and
+never see you any more."
+
+"Oh, _mimi_, never!"
+
+Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look
+of utter despair as went to Mary's heart.
+
+"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah,
+well, what shall Virginie do now?"
+
+"You have your husband," said Mary.
+
+"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him."
+
+"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac.
+
+"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a
+kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be
+grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may
+come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what
+you say is true, than the one who has injured you so."
+
+"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we
+find it too easy to love our enemies."
+
+"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently
+in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of
+your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As
+you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the
+only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in
+self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you
+can feel for your husband."
+
+"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet
+snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my
+arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head
+upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool
+verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow
+still and quiet like you."
+
+Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to
+be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally
+gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the
+healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to
+enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite
+social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations,
+caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she
+moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by
+acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the
+exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with
+avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a
+wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain
+artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the
+religious life by which she was surrounded.
+
+"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes
+said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she
+added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and
+the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut
+avouer_."
+
+We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may
+not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which
+showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she
+felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in
+the correspondence.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from
+the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most
+worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They
+are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do
+not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let
+us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all
+worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little,
+pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbé, he only smiles;
+and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be.
+
+"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing
+tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like
+Lafontaine's rat.
+
+"These people in the country here in America have a character quite
+their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for
+the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which
+exist in the Old World.
+
+"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always
+industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards
+each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to
+the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other
+man, and marries and has children.
+
+"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are
+perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no
+carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they
+meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or
+two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long,
+long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to
+comprehend.
+
+"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of
+my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has
+such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she
+would certainly have been made a saint.
+
+"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the
+family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above
+this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty
+and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this
+detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so
+proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so
+ashamed for her inconsistencies.
+
+"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for
+the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered,
+what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as
+he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores
+him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however,
+has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man,
+who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the
+cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and
+prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's
+heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have
+gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and
+goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to
+be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know,
+here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants,
+but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning
+and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated
+and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For
+these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all
+things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens
+together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have
+taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which
+makes a noise like the humming of a bee.
+
+"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good
+priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted
+him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and
+religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations
+for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other
+night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the
+neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see.
+
+"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are
+allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together,
+and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties.
+And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their
+marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked.
+This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the
+details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further
+as it progresses.
+
+"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving
+
+"Virginie."
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.
+
+
+Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with
+that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters
+when they know precisely what they are about.
+
+The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each
+of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value
+precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive
+and systematic schemes.
+
+It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least,
+to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that
+no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing,
+the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and
+running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently
+slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house.
+
+Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul!
+he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From
+morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy
+consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs.
+Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered
+what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a
+while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to
+pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into
+which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous
+women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first
+pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned
+disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his
+system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the
+ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the
+matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find
+everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have
+unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind
+accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on
+his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not
+a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the
+room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently
+demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed,
+and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed
+through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and
+washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put
+up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there
+was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary.
+But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind
+to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic
+practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by
+simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in
+similar circumstances.
+
+The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in
+every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in
+the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has
+fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic
+fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal
+of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the
+promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises
+that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular
+inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that
+one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the
+existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of
+subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords
+of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our
+Doctor has done.
+
+In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by
+humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod
+of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her
+opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the
+wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical
+part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed
+him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of
+mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay
+spread out upon a table for inspection.
+
+Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively
+downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as
+she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something
+deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required
+to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that
+his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that
+almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was
+repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and
+fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one
+of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had
+taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact,
+the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he
+looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled
+them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with
+grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and
+properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white
+ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley
+on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an
+air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur
+of universal approbation broke out.
+
+"_Il a de la délicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been
+watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud
+acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to
+the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had
+distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he
+retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well
+pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and
+Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held
+a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de
+Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had
+risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into
+the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few
+hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just
+like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might
+almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions.
+
+The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks
+so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put
+away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat
+quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the
+house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had
+surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up
+to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer
+man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming
+solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with
+some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the
+placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat
+pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the
+trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy
+Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek
+wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk
+in a July day.
+
+"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!"
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week,
+but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I
+_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy
+damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all
+the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they
+might be."
+
+We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high
+stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very
+small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always
+indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many
+others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she
+remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however,
+cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the
+confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very
+evident that she had come with one on her mind now.
+
+"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after
+sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has
+something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it.
+
+Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the
+two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated
+cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending
+branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a
+seclusion as perfect as heart could desire.
+
+They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took
+off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her
+black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some
+glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something
+appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident
+signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as
+unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer.
+
+Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover,
+remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary
+could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary
+answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:--
+
+"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister,
+anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would
+anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mary, innocently.
+
+"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I
+_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls
+who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind
+to try."
+
+"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly.
+
+"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy,
+giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while
+mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all
+that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a
+temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that
+there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best
+friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working
+your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't
+know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat
+demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny
+black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder
+with something that she was going to say next.
+
+"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take
+'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?"
+
+"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly.
+
+"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like
+it, don't I?"
+
+"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the
+whole, I think you do."
+
+"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_
+finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you
+have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man
+_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent
+tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides,"
+she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage
+him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the
+doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that
+creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him."
+
+"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?"
+
+"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't!
+Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't
+do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I
+have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to
+do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes."
+
+Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately
+after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:--
+
+"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for
+he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he
+hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects
+himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him,
+and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse
+and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to
+keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his
+body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers
+don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his
+saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was
+perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody
+think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it
+last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had
+derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man
+really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I
+asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody
+says she would make a first-rate minister's wife."
+
+"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary.
+
+"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking
+down.
+
+Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark
+lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were
+nestling, and said, quietly,--
+
+"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the
+matter entirely to his judgment."
+
+"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you
+think it would injure _him_, if I should?"
+
+"I think not, materially," said Mary.
+
+"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the
+mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of
+her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There
+isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I
+should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would
+become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that
+I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any
+way."
+
+"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary.
+
+"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it
+these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is
+the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me
+against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue
+with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of
+provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no
+use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think
+about it."
+
+As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet
+with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there
+was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety
+of her face.
+
+Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the
+other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's
+arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale,
+spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and
+radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom.
+
+"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may
+as well walk with me. It's pleasant now."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet."
+
+In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those
+little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and
+juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could
+not leave thinking of.
+
+Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea,
+now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there
+came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were
+harvesting in adjoining meadows.
+
+They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has
+once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that
+_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks
+are apt to be indefinitely extended.
+
+Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the
+world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently
+interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with
+her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if
+they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion
+in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been
+surprised to find it so small.
+
+In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they
+were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of
+returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she
+came home.
+
+[To be continued.]
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+LION LLEWELLYN.
+
+
+Singing, shining, beautiful May
+Lureth me, draweth me, all the day.
+Once, when the season wooed me so,
+Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go,
+Pacing before or close beside,
+Reticent, quaint, and dignified,
+Roaming with me, wandering wide;
+And if ever thy feet inclined,
+Weary with roving, to lag behind,
+When were my arms to aid thee slow?
+"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!"
+
+Not to the pines, my warrior gray,
+Gray and stately and scarred as they,--
+Not to the hill, or the valley glen,
+Shall we wander together again.
+
+Nevermore, in the dead of night,
+Shall I waken in cold affright,--
+Waken at sounds I know too well,
+Growl defiant, and horrid yell,
+Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell
+Strife is raging, and blood is shed,
+Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread.
+Nevermore, from my bed, shall I
+Unto the chamber-window fly,
+
+There, by the wintry moon, to spy
+Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,--
+Mounting still, from the crafty foe
+Creeping and crawling up below;
+And, when thou canst no farther go,
+See thee crouch for the fearful leap
+Off the top of the old well-sweep,
+Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep,
+Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep.
+Nor, for a lameness gotten so,
+Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no!
+
+Nevermore, from my willing hand
+Winning the all I can command,
+Shall be heard the pathetic tone,
+(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,)
+Making thy simple wishes known;
+Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r"
+Of thy tranquil thunderous purr
+Breathe again, to my ear attent,
+Bliss o'erflowing and deep content.
+
+As I fondly muse on thee,
+I recall the spreading tree
+Of thy goodly pedigree,
+Which, of shapely branch or bough,
+Hath no fairer growth than thou;
+And my glance caressing now
+Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow,
+Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not,
+Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot,
+Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch,
+Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch,
+Zillah, Zillah Number Two,
+Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo,
+Hiawatha, And, and If,
+Minnehaha, But, and Tiff,
+Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray,
+Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway,
+Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae,
+Nippenicket, Dido, Puck,
+Minnesinger, Friar Tuck,
+Periwinkle, Winkle Less,
+Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess,
+Midget, Budget, Mayaret,
+Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette,
+Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet,
+Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn,
+Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam,
+Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam,
+Tomtit, Pug, Penelope,
+Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie,
+
+Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan,
+Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban,
+Filibuster, Jonathan,--
+Name them all who may, who can;
+For the half has not been told
+Of the branches I behold
+On the honored parent-stem,
+And the later growth from them.
+
+Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend,
+Brave and gentle to the end,
+Would that I once more might hail,
+Like a banner on the gale,
+Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail!
+And thy furry coat of mail,
+Like the striped and spotted skin
+Of thy savage leopard kin,
+Would I might again caress
+With the old-time tenderness!
+
+Why do I talk of what may not be?
+For the pillow of him I fain would see
+Was changed long since from my motherly knee
+To the garden, under the willow-tree,--
+Weeping-willow and flowering moss.
+Over it riseth nor pile nor cross;
+We, who only have felt his loss,
+Needing no sculptured stone to tell
+How he battled, and how he fell,
+Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well.
+
+What is the destiny of his race?
+Is there, I wonder, no other place
+Whence they come or whither they go?
+Earth-existence the all they know?
+Does the living intelligence
+Die in them with the dying sense?
+Or, from the body passing hence,
+Does it find in another sphere
+Being in higher form than here?
+
+For summers twain, the willow kept
+Its watch where low the warrior slept,
+But, on the third, a blight had crept
+Upon the vigor of its frame;
+Nor knew we how or whence it came.
+
+Whisper it low and fearfully,
+The tale of ghostly mystery;
+For toothless crones and graybeards said
+That from the presence of the dead
+An influence around was shed,
+
+Like warlock's foul, unholy spell,
+Of malisons and curses fell,
+Which steeped that soil with venom dank,
+Of which the fated willow drank.
+
+Whether it were or were not so,
+At least so much as this we know,
+That on the willow fell decay;
+And though, when all things else grew gay,
+It feebly strove to look as they,
+Yet was its summer crown of pride
+Worn lightly, and soon cast aside,
+And when Spring found it, it had died.
+
+A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown,
+Now mark the place of his rest alone.
+
+I see that the soft west-wind to-day
+From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away,
+And wherever its fitful currents flow,
+Rising or falling, swift or slow,
+The tender petals like white wings go,
+Floating, eddying, wavering low,
+Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow;
+And under their light and flickering fall,
+The mound, and the flowering moss, and all,
+Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest.
+
+Thou that often these arms have pressed,
+Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,--
+Thou that takest thy colder rest,
+Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground,
+Close, but untenderly, folded round,--
+Ever, by thy drifted mound,
+Sleep, the Mystery, be found
+Most mysterious, most profound!
+And through her enchanted air,
+Lighter than petals fair,
+Brooding Peace sink downward there;
+And the blasted willow make
+Haunt perpetual, for thy sake!
+
+
+
+
+TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA.
+
+  "It were wise, nay, just,
+  To strike with men a balance: to forgive,
+  If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama.
+
+
+In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories
+and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same
+Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years
+afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of
+_citoyen Français_, when that new order was created by the Revolution.
+At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr.
+Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these
+occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a
+bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had
+been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the
+New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased
+with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with
+regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his
+destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache,
+introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of
+filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or
+assistant surveyor."
+
+The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in
+Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his
+life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a
+shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial
+experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him
+to become an American citizen.
+
+His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a
+free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic,
+--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense.
+With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he
+can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at
+sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible,"
+Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black
+flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered
+and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the
+"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after
+one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed;
+out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive,
+most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away
+from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time
+actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at
+Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and
+an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some
+reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months
+afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found
+employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a
+year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In
+1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist;
+and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for
+his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of
+salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece
+introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous
+Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern
+for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine."
+
+The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was
+separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman.
+After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate.
+
+His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia;
+but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the
+"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions
+were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections
+on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do
+not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still
+occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity.
+But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many
+years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may
+still be read with some interest:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen,
+rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with
+all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated
+beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian
+notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving
+visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private
+recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve
+her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that
+was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in
+her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with
+the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation
+to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation
+of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery
+of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is
+noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of
+her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her
+gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness;
+and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the
+riches of a necromancer's cell."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper,
+introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among
+others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to
+Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this
+communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and
+the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the
+venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen
+appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_,"
+as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his
+contemporaries. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.]
+
+Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as
+were in his hands towards completing a history of the present
+transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next
+spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished
+nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting
+out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to
+surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he
+thought of."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one
+of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England
+the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching
+storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On
+the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies
+would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775.
+During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington
+and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled
+about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came
+Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was
+open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had
+drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag.
+
+From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in
+their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots,
+militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in
+regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make
+out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to
+appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising
+revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament
+could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed
+excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of
+British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by
+the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial
+merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to
+independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion
+to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists
+insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men
+and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of
+Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors
+led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our
+respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of
+it.
+
+Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the
+rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it
+necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished
+to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and
+taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were
+confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a
+deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong
+personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second
+petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was
+disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming,
+and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for
+reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion,
+and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a
+constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief
+in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the
+Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal,
+hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds
+of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to
+dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He
+had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at
+all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which
+disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was
+impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle,
+it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against
+nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in
+January, 1776.
+
+Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the
+mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an
+impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent
+justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be
+managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant.
+_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a
+petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when
+obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few
+years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection
+of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars?
+"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy
+than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear
+of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence
+on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European
+politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation
+necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to
+establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were
+abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if
+not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century
+hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is
+no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the
+will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious
+opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as
+children of the same family, differing only in what is called their
+Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our
+affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of
+independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and
+difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a
+superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will
+become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent
+will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant
+business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about
+it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its
+necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument
+against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much
+weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote
+the same holy book in favour of slavery.
+
+The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true
+patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense".
+Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of
+a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a
+prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was
+beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright
+up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one
+hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr.
+Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams.
+
+It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General
+Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his
+reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded.
+The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to
+France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common
+Sense."
+
+It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence
+doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the
+touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew
+the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid
+a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it
+useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared.
+None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared
+independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread
+through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and
+believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would
+have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation.
+
+If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an
+expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776,
+look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much
+difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later,
+when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in
+the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of
+tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine
+founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote
+politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius
+Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression,
+semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were
+relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations
+of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise
+and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's
+coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the
+like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American
+party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight
+with the rank-and-file as his arguments.
+
+[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge
+to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common
+Sense."]
+
+Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst
+upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by
+all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon
+afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr.
+Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as
+a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had
+he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a
+place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism
+was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and
+even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine
+preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to
+know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee
+affectation, unknown to French idioms.
+
+[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."]
+
+In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp
+to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened
+with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until
+the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and
+Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good
+service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the
+old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and
+cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of
+"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee,
+and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December,
+when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts.
+It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try
+men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this
+crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it
+now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all,"
+he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort
+Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably
+planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the
+place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a
+cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the
+Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions.
+
+This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the
+honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were
+brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to
+demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a
+daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by
+every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every
+State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In
+their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage
+from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better
+calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to
+adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham
+admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as
+necessary and as formidable as its cannon."
+
+The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt
+certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was
+_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and
+ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a
+proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and
+cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who
+should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a
+"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America?
+If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than
+yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If
+you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do
+nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional
+dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to
+contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it;
+if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of
+water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to
+his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as
+much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out
+your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to
+do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation,
+betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In
+speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to
+take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose
+published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to
+Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves
+out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless,
+little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it
+again, but by payment and penitence."
+
+In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the
+Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy
+dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress
+in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a
+short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the
+defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe,
+and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right.
+The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they
+had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who,
+
+  "Unconscious of impending fates,
+  Could push through woods, but not through
+  Gates,"
+
+had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October.
+
+This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France,
+Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's
+admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and
+mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of
+the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America
+that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so
+indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that
+he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and
+paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could
+get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene,
+"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a
+proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the
+madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in
+the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not
+to attempt it.
+
+In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gérard, the
+first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to
+Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed
+Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to
+furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that
+Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to
+the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to
+receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances.
+Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the
+Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with
+Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He
+returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes
+already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no
+vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands,
+the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented.
+Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to
+the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so
+amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of
+it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal
+before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by
+John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to
+know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not
+from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles,
+entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these
+he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M.
+Gérard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false,
+and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party
+feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and
+English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in
+censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence;
+the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the
+Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also
+lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His
+resignation was then accepted.
+
+As the French government persisted in denying that the King had
+furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October,
+1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two
+millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais
+negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But
+neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another
+million.
+
+We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however
+injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best
+friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Loménie, in
+his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the
+justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success.
+He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless
+in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth
+of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim
+to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at
+all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his
+conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and
+recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose
+like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed
+into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The
+immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire
+himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office,
+Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was
+appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania.
+
+[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning
+of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the
+French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the
+Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home
+to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it
+reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de
+Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the
+strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in
+any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of
+Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with
+no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five
+millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were
+allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed
+forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but
+our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the
+money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a
+suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in
+borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial
+character for a nation to obtain.]
+
+Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving
+petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from
+taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and
+read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was
+in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could
+need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and
+mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour.
+"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing
+silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a
+member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he,
+'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there
+represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer.
+We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member
+endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an
+adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had
+neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals
+could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a
+letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the
+urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of
+the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund.
+The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's
+communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two
+hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for
+the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency,
+were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for
+the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best
+results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he
+developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated
+both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine
+followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the
+war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling,
+compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it
+would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to
+drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their
+system of taxation.
+
+Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every
+word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more
+remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did
+not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it,
+and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger
+sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms.
+Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even
+provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient
+which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow
+in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was
+appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a
+million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied
+him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously
+received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a
+present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the
+American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the
+presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a
+trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations
+of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention,
+as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for
+Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a
+half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward,
+which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine
+was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a
+pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel
+Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and
+brought his secretary safely home again.
+
+Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not
+last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union
+expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The
+want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was
+so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of
+Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if
+his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine
+consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect.
+This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage
+occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers.
+A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate
+peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the
+baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between
+such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which
+language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive,
+and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned
+by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression
+every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe
+better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient
+vocabulary.
+
+When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of
+independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis"
+announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the
+greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and
+happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her
+birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to
+the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance
+of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most
+laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began
+with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic
+life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in
+her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the
+reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair
+national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it
+possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies
+civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and
+commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a
+future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I
+ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great
+Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of.
+It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that
+which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he
+anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of
+whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them,
+originated with Thomas Paine.
+
+The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but
+no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had
+enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when
+his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere,
+"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's
+thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for
+there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect,
+much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to
+take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual
+theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away
+to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never
+reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my
+religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake,
+I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of
+this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the
+pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward."
+
+His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving
+not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The
+State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate,
+near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary
+fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred
+pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a
+similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared,
+demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This
+publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his
+grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we
+believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him
+over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the
+cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money.
+
+In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he
+received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky
+Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It
+ran thus:--
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at
+Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for
+either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see
+you here.
+
+"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this
+country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best
+exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who
+entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who,
+with much pleasure, subscribes himself
+
+"G. WASHINGTON."
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of
+the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think
+so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial,"
+worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service.
+Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and
+told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and
+proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at
+last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed
+him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as
+Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and
+spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One
+evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on
+fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his
+Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb,
+is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few
+years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson.
+
+Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in
+Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and
+indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of
+Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical
+Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His
+reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his
+remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker
+or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see
+legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point,
+inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of
+the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by
+foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of
+the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested
+permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in
+Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens
+introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not
+belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was
+agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us;
+for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of
+maintaining a constant correspondence."
+
+In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have
+said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was
+an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that
+period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have
+succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby
+was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and
+twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the
+Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a
+spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the
+principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle
+was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a
+complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown;
+but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the
+working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his
+plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Académie des
+Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the
+celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbé Morellet, the Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of
+'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the
+minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a
+satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following
+resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:--
+
+"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr.
+Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late
+Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of
+Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens
+of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress."
+
+
+
+
+TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD."
+
+
+"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!"
+
+I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of
+the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough.
+Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts
+harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I
+have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for
+belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the
+human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after
+having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I
+determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the
+knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest
+confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had
+reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their
+invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning,
+like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the
+earth. I sunk into a brown study.
+
+In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He
+brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of
+illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and
+operation of his aërial ship.
+
+They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb.
+Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted
+to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains,"
+thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct
+the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an
+absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me,
+were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the
+Patent-Office at Washington.
+
+The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented
+the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of
+passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the
+drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes
+and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the
+atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface,
+and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate
+cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges
+and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above
+all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aëronauts report, there is ever a
+smooth, quiet atmospheric sea.
+
+"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that
+rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in
+ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human
+body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure
+as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly
+from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the
+finger-nails?"
+
+Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an
+angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to
+his ship.
+
+"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long,
+extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins
+always supplied with fresh and wholesome air."
+
+"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked.
+
+"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current,
+whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered
+as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's
+own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see,
+it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M----
+insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and
+the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going
+below, however, it almost instantly ceased."
+
+I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this
+extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power
+was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber,
+or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of
+two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it
+resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and
+resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon,
+that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in
+which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong
+flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened
+and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber.
+Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a
+particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember,
+was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth
+in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain
+the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and
+three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a
+considerable margin for freight.
+
+Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but
+ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine,
+and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to
+render it intelligible by mere description.
+
+The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore
+the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of
+a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided
+into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and
+so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment
+between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending
+from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship,
+connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally
+embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels,
+made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a
+steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the
+propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm,
+of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels.
+
+All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here
+repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined
+lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before
+been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new
+combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that
+the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated
+beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had
+demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics.
+
+I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a
+modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no
+dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of
+integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and
+bearing were those of a true man.
+
+Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old,
+from San Francisco?
+
+No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York
+Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose
+acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without
+pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge
+at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a
+very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a
+warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he
+professed to have made.
+
+In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after
+ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of
+perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object
+of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He
+had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above
+us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath,
+and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first
+trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the
+night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended
+north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow
+of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly
+distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to
+the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable
+results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route,
+northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several
+well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these
+times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states
+of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the
+occasion of these novel voyages.
+
+He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at
+Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand
+trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with
+important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our
+rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out,
+including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the
+head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and
+the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a
+few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city;
+which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back.
+Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in
+the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon
+was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner,
+Mons. De Aëry, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had
+managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on
+her second expedition across the American continent.
+
+Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a
+discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the
+practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform
+the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many
+valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to
+lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature,
+and the onward march of nations.
+
+Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of
+Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the
+prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible
+police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at
+least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence
+of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast
+changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail
+to effect.
+
+To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that
+the principal papers of the country had _attachés_ aboard on the first
+trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors,
+together with De Aëry and himself--were agreed that the matter should
+be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be
+established beyond the possibility of question.
+
+I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had
+been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of
+the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it
+was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to
+Mr. Bonflon.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aëry and myself spent years
+in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On
+the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the
+weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The
+spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the
+mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost
+us five thousand dollars and the labor of years."
+
+I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the
+usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His
+success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of
+its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments
+and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the
+master mind of this master century.
+
+Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held
+him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive
+intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In
+everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with
+originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his
+quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated
+him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his
+equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the
+future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze
+of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no
+confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were
+apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural
+sequences flowing from them.
+
+On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval,
+my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while
+externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was
+plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the
+extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a
+mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we
+nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in
+the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for
+ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger,
+must be left to unravel at its leisure.
+
+Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or
+three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed
+around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay
+his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to
+return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic
+side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip
+to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party
+himself, and he invited me to accompany him.
+
+I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular
+instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the
+heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing,
+on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at
+high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the
+skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent
+cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aëry and
+himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station,
+or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but
+a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand
+at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on
+board the "Flying Cloud."
+
+I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I
+arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off
+in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be
+dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap
+in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would
+take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed.
+
+In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me
+to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented
+himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had
+returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed
+as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage;
+but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aëry had filled
+out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he
+(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were
+reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr.
+Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in
+doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was
+disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no
+look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no
+opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was
+as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt
+him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but
+the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was
+manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly
+presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or
+unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming
+within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming,
+had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion
+and electric telegraphing.
+
+Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes
+in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with
+a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if
+not reversed. He had seen De Aëry again. One or two of the expected
+passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel
+them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was
+to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the
+following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train.
+De Aëry and several others were already flying over the rail on their
+way to Philadelphia.
+
+I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of
+excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I
+frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to
+my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to
+plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on
+the strange and questionable adventure.
+
+The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon
+and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to
+admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and
+wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into
+a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the
+motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive
+visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected
+with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud."
+
+We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain
+some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the
+middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of
+our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first
+beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus
+satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere
+chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan,
+floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem
+of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make
+obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and
+plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of
+her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a
+great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief
+against the sky.
+
+But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and
+the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were
+already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and
+seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency
+of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement
+immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to
+create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an
+indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was
+attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the
+receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we
+approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway,
+and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period
+intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became
+instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way.
+
+The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible
+to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge
+water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward,
+like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At
+first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and
+distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next
+they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like
+fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains
+followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a
+hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding
+the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our
+course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a
+landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in
+our passage.
+
+What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships;
+but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were
+floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of
+the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the
+stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting
+the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter
+homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to
+the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon
+us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary
+condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail
+to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs.
+Bonflon and De Aëry must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and
+the common destiny of mankind!
+
+I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had
+asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade
+deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity
+of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in
+consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid,
+from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly
+susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case
+myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing,
+proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness,
+invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air.
+
+But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without
+obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal
+glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said
+there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars,
+yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake,
+waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to
+none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft,
+as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void,
+without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing
+to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure,
+however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of
+the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of
+usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified
+experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The
+force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here
+I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had
+likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set
+beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying
+Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to
+compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or
+so, down the rapids of a river.
+
+But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the
+dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher
+altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no
+fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim,
+despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was
+manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily
+greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better
+than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from
+what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid,
+lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or
+haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like
+a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless
+and devoid of life as a dead man's eye.
+
+Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak
+from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the
+comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I
+recognized _attachés_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of
+Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat
+acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than
+myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But
+their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they
+looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the
+windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud,"
+and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of
+what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and
+suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be
+likely to flow from the grand invention.
+
+What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little
+nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the
+absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our
+pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and
+to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, the
+proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds.
+It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness
+and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain
+quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about
+our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on
+nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which
+were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it
+required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it
+from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination.
+
+Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a
+night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature
+asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day
+and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this
+time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away,
+and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with
+all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his
+throne.
+
+But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aërial ocean, in which we
+were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or
+even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating
+plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was
+already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the
+distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a
+succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the
+clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to
+mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains,
+covered with perpetual snow.
+
+I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood
+out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in
+size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north,
+were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount
+Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to
+their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we
+were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and
+myself by Mr. De Aëry, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in
+vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which
+covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the
+exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view.
+
+Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen
+early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up
+with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified
+shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were
+directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt,
+fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity,
+such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out
+their beauty, their mystery, and their strength.
+
+On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the
+void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight
+to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified
+splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible
+to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling
+snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel
+mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand
+or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with
+black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the
+white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and
+precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening
+the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of
+Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name,
+were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us.
+
+No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the
+upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed
+point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of
+daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this
+mountain-scene of enchantment.
+
+De Aëry was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this
+extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired,
+mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an
+occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a
+native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the
+management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were
+gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those
+snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its
+round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised
+my voice and accosted him.
+
+"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this
+Atlas-top?"
+
+"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here."
+
+I went to him.
+
+"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to
+plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head."
+
+"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?"
+
+"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself
+on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching
+the crown of the pinnacle."
+
+I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He
+held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and
+occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride,
+spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the
+"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak,
+glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some
+venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter.
+
+"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aëry. "There is
+not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The
+'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to
+explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the
+bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy
+peak."
+
+"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and
+perish."
+
+"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a
+goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow
+looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag,
+unless I have a firm spot for my feet."
+
+By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern
+alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the
+ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in
+his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with
+a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its
+place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with
+the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of
+ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted
+a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the
+standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the
+farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that
+a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his
+purpose.
+
+A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the
+surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but
+a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like
+white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aëry, losing his
+balance, plunged over and went with it.
+
+We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had
+sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull
+sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an
+immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third
+of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave,
+broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment,
+all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering,
+like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister
+snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling
+and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went.
+
+By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and
+precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and,
+forgetting De Aëry, we watched the development of the phenomenon with
+terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as
+common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened
+and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing
+different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of
+devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction.
+Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its
+batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through
+valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a
+check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man
+would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed.
+Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or
+ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay
+heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us
+for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer
+wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill
+the dwellers among the Alps.
+
+As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts
+reverted to De Aëry. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was
+his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that
+catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many
+hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on
+bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman.
+He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand,
+and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at
+the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his
+voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted
+our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times
+three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the
+spot to De Aëry.
+
+But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious
+question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and
+spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands,
+whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated
+before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of
+snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in
+its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He
+hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great
+care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of
+half an hour, De Aëry, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul,
+rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored
+to our arms.
+
+Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the
+Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our
+number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences
+and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course
+for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us
+and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land,
+ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to
+take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the
+form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities,
+should be quite forgotten.
+
+We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little,
+luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild
+flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild,
+but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The
+foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps
+never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we
+saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops
+of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a
+drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence
+at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake
+at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the
+plateau was inhabited.
+
+Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some
+willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear
+mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam
+Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey
+Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With
+the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and
+songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aëry, as having by a
+hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his
+extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank
+of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much
+pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace.
+
+When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman
+had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his
+sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:--
+
+"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined
+because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to
+lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel
+cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow
+burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was
+pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was
+like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below
+one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the
+struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and
+nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in
+contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent
+avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw
+anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left
+behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at
+the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of
+seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it.
+But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag."
+
+High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for
+his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the
+American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of
+motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present
+failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some
+other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his
+laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In
+this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes.
+
+Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we
+weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a
+ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former
+altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the
+west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes,
+alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental
+enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster,
+until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to
+our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth,
+and we were again afloat in space.
+
+The following night and day were passed like their predecessors.
+Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of
+California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our
+remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of
+us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching
+the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably
+should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It
+was near midnight before all of us were in our berths.
+
+But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The
+excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have
+returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to
+relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to
+have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the
+wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement
+of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play,
+was rather a motion than a sound.
+
+This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange
+bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly
+changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some
+horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as
+though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it
+closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though
+subjected to a like crushing pressure.
+
+How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of
+knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and
+returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary
+events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was
+weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I
+had no voice.
+
+Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I
+attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers,
+undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of
+effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed
+for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain.
+The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out
+above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and
+there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine.
+Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true
+of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the
+Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray
+paper stuck upon a wall.
+
+Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I
+discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of
+the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but
+without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances
+nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange
+visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been
+subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a
+light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately
+its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron
+or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I
+tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a
+scale.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent
+island in the air. It was an immense aërolite; and with this conviction
+came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed
+beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that
+region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these
+meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse
+throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the
+surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at
+the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel
+to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aëry! All
+ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from
+myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of
+death.
+
+Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish,
+to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or
+insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with
+what little strength I had, but in vain.
+
+"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!"
+
+At length he opened his eyes, but did not move.
+
+"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let
+the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack
+of air."
+
+"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer.
+It can't--can't be morning yet."
+
+By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my
+strength.
+
+"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us
+all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!"
+
+With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which,
+like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo
+of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant
+faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious,
+took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him.
+
+From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of
+insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that
+he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our
+situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float
+forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until
+forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving
+atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But
+I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to
+look after their condition.
+
+As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient
+asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser
+air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within
+half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to
+consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights
+exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was
+crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a
+pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies.
+
+Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, when they came to realize the danger from
+which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The
+lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his
+single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept
+aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his
+Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me
+with expressions of obligation.
+
+But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass
+from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the
+main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our
+rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out,
+though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and
+almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should
+announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was
+in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace,
+we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire.
+
+Bonflon and De Aëry rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured
+out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a
+moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into
+which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the
+half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident
+occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing
+the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement,
+except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and
+partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was
+clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and
+themselves took the management of the craft.
+
+De Aëry, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a
+demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like
+the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and
+decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments
+of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the
+engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged,
+crackling ruin.
+
+Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became
+sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful
+rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level,
+on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in
+our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful
+was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the
+dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest!
+But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that
+we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth.
+
+De Aëry was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to
+great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to
+control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played
+about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke
+through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething
+hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had
+perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the
+furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet.
+
+"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he
+shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the
+flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon
+and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our
+number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say
+which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface
+of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and
+the hazard they most dreaded.
+
+The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely
+attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the
+whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass
+of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight,
+to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San
+Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid
+illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than
+astronomer has ever put on record.
+
+But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable
+from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from
+bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing
+upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the
+time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground,
+served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser
+lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most
+fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we
+struck in water instead of on the land.
+
+Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between
+us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half
+suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that
+awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves
+submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again
+by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of
+fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke
+to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound
+by the contrast.
+
+Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we
+kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water
+among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a
+small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but
+obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the
+day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on
+the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into
+each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by
+fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying
+Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones
+were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the
+worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no
+danger.
+
+No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed
+feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal
+safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De
+Aëry, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that
+part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary
+footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine
+by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A
+couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Señor José Dianza, who
+received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of
+robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us
+on to the city of the land of gold.
+
+It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return.
+They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous
+transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus
+route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our
+absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and
+some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their
+recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing
+gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly
+reappeared upon the stage of action.
+
+We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should
+remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought
+a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which
+covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too
+good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so
+near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be
+suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own
+responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to
+the world.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+DOG-TALK.
+
+
+Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the
+middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone
+my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some
+time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of
+dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first
+dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the
+bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming
+from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with
+which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing,
+and hydrophobiaephobia is another.
+
+Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is
+reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as
+much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which
+is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor,
+vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three
+blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his
+shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling
+breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be
+accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently
+inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my
+memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface.
+
+I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not
+prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of
+man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more
+voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow,
+Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of
+others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from
+the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of
+him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as
+tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious
+things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be
+necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man.
+
+Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark,
+so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more
+indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally
+referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for
+instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror,
+and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not
+one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man,
+excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a
+beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is.
+Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the
+"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us
+"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would
+make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything
+very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing
+things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is
+wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles
+beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs
+uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands.
+
+Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot
+concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called
+reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I
+think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals
+stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and
+master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his
+nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his
+ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the
+divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential
+consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite
+possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first
+argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far
+accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their
+descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered
+safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated
+bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least
+eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and
+we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned.
+
+Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a
+thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists
+in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in
+society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his
+first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to
+the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to
+humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a
+collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion,
+empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her
+wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in
+spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I
+have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the
+family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only
+by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which,
+if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I
+was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident
+friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of
+worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest
+to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few
+reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race.
+
+Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however,
+with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let
+me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French
+volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal
+innumerable.
+
+Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived
+principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he
+sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important
+duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was
+generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small
+to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his
+qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to
+collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he
+had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble.
+To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole
+arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his
+exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his
+saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the
+little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always
+regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy
+between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the
+chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded
+alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be
+laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be
+without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the
+inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of
+them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St.
+Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about
+halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it
+from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle
+to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of
+the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the
+holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his
+hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths,
+mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods,
+and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which
+lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer.
+Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag,
+which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose
+attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round
+and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract
+notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely
+in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his
+master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that
+occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia
+had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of
+the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which
+flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as
+he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and
+leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his
+holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes
+as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the
+death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his
+reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause
+of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he
+pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him:
+he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his
+faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well
+with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor
+spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to
+the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money,
+with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master,
+with a look of forgiveness, ere he died.
+
+The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that
+money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew;
+but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a
+retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so
+faithful to him in life and in death.
+
+Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the
+several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame
+Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose
+patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late
+"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the
+Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history,
+however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs
+remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly
+the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick
+Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed
+through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in
+print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and
+found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle
+period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow
+unsung.
+
+Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the
+least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to
+writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate
+notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat
+miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,--
+
+  "The little dogs and all,
+  Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart."
+
+Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such
+stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I
+write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages
+from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race.
+
+Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have
+been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to
+decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase
+of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and
+caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The
+last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity
+of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and
+although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of
+the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept
+up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a
+single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless,
+indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe
+still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo,
+in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago
+supposed to be.
+
+Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of
+bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of
+skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate
+descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The
+daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the
+revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he
+cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by
+his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon
+which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of
+this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from
+entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted.
+Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended
+from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where
+turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have
+found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated
+promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he
+might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable
+relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had
+ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society.
+
+But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a
+myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was
+turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished
+his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in
+figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the
+bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal
+hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a
+fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the
+backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants,
+as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete
+and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs,
+whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast.
+
+In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I
+remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all
+analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into
+conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very
+rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very
+large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the
+comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog."
+Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say
+I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting
+his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed
+me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect
+which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly
+exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose
+memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss,"
+destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of
+the dairy.
+
+Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I
+will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old
+farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not
+particularly long.
+
+Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in
+foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me
+exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery
+Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation,
+having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter.
+While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in
+that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on
+horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions
+being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as,
+treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression
+applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the
+animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger
+made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his
+way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the
+bridle.
+
+"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's
+knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?"
+
+"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted
+consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the
+last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and
+walked 'im whoam."
+
+When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually
+pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on
+this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former
+pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much
+taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to
+you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word
+_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the
+dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs
+are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the
+subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or
+register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the
+label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A
+friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the
+label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard
+Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular
+idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du
+bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad
+young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of
+course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original
+than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage
+of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so
+characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important
+question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to
+_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted,
+when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal
+nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss."
+
+And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than
+he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the
+"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of
+legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of
+those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy
+rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses
+many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in
+general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find
+in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not
+intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar
+odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make
+a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws,
+and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually
+more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of
+prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing
+about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one
+turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact,
+to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I
+speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier,"
+as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to
+obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this
+country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which
+he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks;
+nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size.
+
+Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as
+being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their
+parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I
+have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will
+illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow
+who was a genuine type of his kind.
+
+This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color
+uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or
+of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint,
+by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they
+are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a
+sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black
+stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to
+the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most
+remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of
+these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with
+the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a
+true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of
+the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter
+appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once
+undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk
+could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small
+quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in
+fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself
+into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his
+penitential cell under a chest of drawers.
+
+When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to
+me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he
+availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning
+early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large,
+cold round of beef, which was the _pièce de résistance_ on the table.
+It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it
+wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me."
+The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the
+interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great
+perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for
+there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small
+to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who
+propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over
+claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware
+of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable
+theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef,
+_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice.
+
+Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar
+trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a
+trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a
+year old, I took him up beside me into a high _calèche_, in which we
+were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out
+to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the
+vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of
+his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second,
+and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up
+and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the
+choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that
+hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things
+propelled by horse-power.
+
+A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he
+was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise
+at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in
+worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he
+once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy
+trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small,
+but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him
+from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled,
+head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such
+as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a
+suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that
+cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such
+an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them
+remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a
+suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one,
+and with his tail up.
+
+These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes
+do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after
+having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular
+instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also
+manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason.
+
+One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out
+of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of
+low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle
+tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and
+clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from
+perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been
+subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he
+immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition
+which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared
+comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his
+accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen
+coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the
+house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and
+considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping
+on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen
+aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach
+was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied
+to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind,
+that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting
+undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare
+with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in
+trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him
+had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he
+rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be
+hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the
+kitchen-door.
+
+Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and
+tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters,
+and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I
+am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my
+property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I
+heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much
+attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning,
+however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the
+remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which
+they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could
+have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon
+broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried
+article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into
+a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once,
+evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary
+instinct.
+
+Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out
+of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of
+them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were
+placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained
+access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a
+valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole
+collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an
+otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the
+pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to
+him.
+
+Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and
+addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners
+enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to
+me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of
+this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full;
+and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that
+misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he
+came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks
+but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his
+collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life,
+and I never saw him again.
+
+The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given
+to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility
+for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a
+canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose
+propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made
+an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a
+stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the
+weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and
+fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the
+way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch
+up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By
+throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a
+great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white
+kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the
+purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal,
+besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I
+remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the
+watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a
+clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe.
+
+From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier
+awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion.
+About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs
+us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy,
+began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it
+that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown
+of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's
+Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped.
+Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him
+at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself
+invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable
+Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion
+luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and
+hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of
+work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper,
+disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire.
+One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before
+a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was
+to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission
+which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the
+black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from
+carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved
+finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving
+salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all,
+he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed
+whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the
+drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in
+the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with
+the impressive speculation of the true _flâneur_;--yea, for as men of
+fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher,
+who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from
+his gory stall.
+
+This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of
+course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it
+comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed
+off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in
+his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded
+according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts
+insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier
+with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold
+while he buys.
+
+The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it
+would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off
+by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name
+was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood;
+liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws;
+close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for
+his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise,
+although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which
+included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and
+perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he
+took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was
+to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If
+there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he
+would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them
+like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as
+he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of
+pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of
+unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his
+purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact
+with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If
+pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on,
+assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in
+particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided
+objection to street industrials in general, including Italian
+organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily
+after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a
+tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or
+call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the
+refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the
+superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash,
+top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of
+manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered
+chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching
+classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro
+among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor
+were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal
+panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares.
+
+A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a
+still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his
+proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by
+biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he
+invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me
+so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated
+whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a
+pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the
+extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as
+invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _décrotteur_ the poodle
+instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers;
+for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent
+insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of
+fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing
+suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly
+away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be
+difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate
+him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and
+diplomacy.
+
+One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on
+to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to
+cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce
+bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his
+adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off
+the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for
+him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when
+he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with
+which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound
+thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being
+accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river,
+he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a
+rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat,
+on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like
+air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the
+swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and
+as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his
+friends in waiting.
+
+Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a
+perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the
+crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's
+head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to
+Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of
+his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an
+opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot
+on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick
+was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one
+side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully,
+return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he
+once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom
+he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just
+quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his
+gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of
+which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water,
+setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to
+what was very near being his last gasp.
+
+Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts
+of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature.
+A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between
+the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable
+for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out
+one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of
+rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal
+much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of
+their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the
+animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he
+contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other
+to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a
+majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the
+conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his
+opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating
+foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the
+road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached
+home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel
+in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard.
+
+One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for
+killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it
+appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the
+delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain
+mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline
+inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall
+but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was
+tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red
+Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the
+thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to
+devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he
+might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile
+malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already
+coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great
+raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use
+of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of
+illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the
+ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered
+to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the
+ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of
+a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this
+instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with
+mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left.
+
+It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even
+by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is
+under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a
+well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A
+settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village,
+which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the
+surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a
+hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a
+currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About
+nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer
+crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain
+plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound.
+While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all
+disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to
+the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time,
+proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the
+cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture
+of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on
+his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was
+much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every
+one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one
+miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on
+the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at
+whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much
+mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and
+he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct.
+
+I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one
+for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted
+to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable
+animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on
+Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his
+mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he
+would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the
+shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus,
+though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but,
+as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a
+respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent,
+not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the
+Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the
+same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._]
+
+Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit
+of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic."
+
+
+
+
+THE RECKONING.
+
+
+Your thought may recur with mine
+  To a certain place in the city,
+Where you sometimes have chanced to dine;
+  If not, why, the more's the pity!
+
+Did you notice the delicate way
+  Whereby, with the trencher and cup,
+Comes a hint of the matter of pay,
+  In a counter laid _blank side up_?
+
+Now,--not to pervert the intent
+  Of a courtesy gentle and rare,
+Or observance so civilly meant
+  With disparaging things to compare,--
+
+By the token your messenger brings,
+  Did such services never suggest
+A likeness to manifold things
+  Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest?
+
+Command whatsoever you will,
+  To pamper your folly or pride;
+You shall find, that unfailingly, still,
+  The _counter_ is laid beside,
+
+Silently,--seemingly fair,--
+  Till an angel the disk shall turn,
+And the soul's great debt, the inscription there,
+  On her vision shall burst and burn!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+A TRIP TO CUBA.
+
+MATANZAS.
+
+
+A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at
+high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and
+game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in
+little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the
+hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot
+and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude
+to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and
+at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with
+water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They
+are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the
+long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of
+their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned
+and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the
+journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and
+look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we
+have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say
+that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good
+to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent
+and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the
+gladiator of the tropics.
+
+Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the
+extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our
+trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch
+of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless,
+was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence.
+
+Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how
+lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is
+always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in
+these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is
+too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R.
+James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself
+with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of
+the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on
+thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is
+lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the
+other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks
+from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from
+the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the
+country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades.
+"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and
+remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring
+streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every
+house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings.
+With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of
+Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and
+a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of
+the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your
+eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable
+room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking
+bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you
+will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender
+foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own
+feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of
+upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But
+if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every
+member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your
+forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your
+bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful
+mediation of a mattress.
+
+Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba
+will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any
+speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to
+recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor
+House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba.
+The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table
+almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were,
+methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions,
+sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was
+punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on
+a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry
+bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no
+doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at
+whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his
+guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent
+English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate
+him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There
+is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for
+you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery
+stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be
+your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three.
+
+The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the
+Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the
+Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the
+ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is
+altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the
+doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which
+you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the
+view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the
+early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and
+their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your
+left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a
+cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long,
+but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his
+sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town.
+Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are
+decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to
+a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with,
+"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A
+cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped
+out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea,
+unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with
+thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides
+you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the
+jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature
+is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that
+grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many
+slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with
+sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each
+negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand,
+well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were
+liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries
+and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently
+performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the
+steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with
+palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields,
+where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous
+ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of
+cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish
+or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him
+about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk,
+and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and
+confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming
+nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging
+the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we
+found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom;
+but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a
+wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like
+the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or
+social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to
+us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the
+dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should
+refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over
+his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and
+that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his
+surroundings.
+
+The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is
+to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This
+commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously
+employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female
+aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes,
+carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who
+bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully
+got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that
+they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All
+that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they
+walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed
+dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and
+mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking
+to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing
+is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_,"
+etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin,
+and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not
+imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a
+row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to
+the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince
+considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All
+being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their
+flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them.
+Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground,
+and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with
+the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this
+status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a
+martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles,
+the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of
+eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And
+now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the
+regiment, the _jeunesse dorée_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and
+has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which
+separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The
+ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other
+occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to
+speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes,
+while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_
+are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four
+years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots
+with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for
+notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes
+to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and
+the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most
+uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords
+are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an
+end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in,
+its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and
+lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the
+prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth,
+Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been,
+and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake
+yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the
+Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of
+resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster,
+you know.
+
+
+THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT.
+
+
+"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the
+city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife,
+with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in
+her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the
+Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards."
+
+So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and
+whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So
+he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into
+paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and,
+in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite
+drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but
+much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants
+kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages
+and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their
+saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The
+heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and
+gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the
+waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies
+of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the
+privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a
+degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the
+trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble
+a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of
+this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in
+amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before
+giving an available opinion of their good looks.
+
+If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the
+windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups
+of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous
+cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of
+promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who
+went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving
+the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and
+centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable
+kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are
+sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill
+of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with
+great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as
+negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible
+chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these
+channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a
+cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect
+stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top
+of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere,
+accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains
+of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the
+shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and
+whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical
+castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in
+Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the
+crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups
+parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a
+more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in
+curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and
+the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens.
+
+But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what
+availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive,
+"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by
+nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us
+for our constitution. A visit to the _café_ is suggested and adopted.
+It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid
+aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our
+Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened
+with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate,
+which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation.
+Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an
+underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for
+our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the
+Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and
+finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest
+and the bedless cots await us.
+
+But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer
+us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for
+us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban
+pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and
+smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to
+speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane
+chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard
+piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but
+will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with
+fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban
+winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward
+occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza,
+has got the President's Message. We find Don José in a bedroom darkened
+by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of
+excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious
+bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk
+handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great
+urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and
+their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we
+leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains
+_"á la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of
+the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath
+lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon
+awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the
+next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept.
+
+The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all
+living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant
+drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates
+as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled
+up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does
+not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay
+siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining
+we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the
+President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under
+consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging,
+his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with
+wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave
+with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but
+that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek
+and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner
+on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take
+our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had
+rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the
+soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than
+a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner
+be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore,
+if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely
+die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and
+walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on
+the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of
+fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is
+comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a
+young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of
+having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter
+of a dollar?
+
+But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of
+this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not
+splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It
+kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the
+taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends,
+not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and
+wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad
+to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the
+transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to
+improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that
+the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the
+advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope
+deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and
+_entrées_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of
+the _rôti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three
+supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to
+repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was
+fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup,
+of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and
+onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled
+chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with
+saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and
+vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think,
+from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a
+splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored
+sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have
+eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then
+came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New
+England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge
+tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made
+into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course
+of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own
+plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a
+thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance
+that we should have no more.
+
+A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the
+masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its
+smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat
+beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from
+the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring
+the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to
+direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in
+a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque!
+Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and
+exclaim,--"Yes, Señorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so
+prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and
+thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and
+the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House,
+which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things.
+
+
+GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE.
+
+
+As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the
+appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she
+had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see
+the Spaniards see it.
+
+Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and
+obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not
+husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with
+the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may
+succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural
+master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you
+should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking
+his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate
+convictions may be, the end is, that you do not.
+
+Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in
+these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to
+see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where
+one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting.
+These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely
+covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which
+resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are
+kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond
+fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all
+moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the
+training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles,
+and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_,
+"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth
+forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a
+splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but
+the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics.
+
+The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some
+twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel
+Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don
+Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good
+family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing
+unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his
+occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as
+we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au
+naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to
+their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight,
+which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips
+of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may
+not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the
+while delivering himself with great volubility to his black
+second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose
+there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the
+head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are
+allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and
+breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly
+at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a
+moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round.
+The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don
+Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his
+favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a
+cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave María santísima!_ did one ever see
+such spirit? _Santísima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all
+Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the
+saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One
+of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in
+his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the
+remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on
+his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs
+us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other,
+and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor
+father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and
+cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be
+full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porquería_, "dirt."
+
+We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as
+before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to
+say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses
+no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn
+subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great
+wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and
+is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can
+carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere.
+Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly.
+
+Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their
+persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to
+contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly
+made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of
+theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their
+travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as
+the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads.
+At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its
+appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the
+saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing
+everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don
+Antoñito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the
+_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze
+refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a
+bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with
+no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but
+without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery
+rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks
+his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of
+gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun
+seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy
+sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness.
+We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the
+inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to
+reconcile us to all future highways.
+
+Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore
+travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of
+stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road;
+yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to
+year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort.
+An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of
+smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine
+avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and
+partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane
+aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty
+niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement
+for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French
+and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to
+translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house
+is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all
+the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has
+a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room,
+with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another,
+opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs
+are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a
+draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a
+Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of
+clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a
+firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the
+roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of
+cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across
+one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good
+books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels,
+which his wife fully appreciates.
+
+A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros
+chiquitos,--Anglicè_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find
+their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely
+inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequeñuelos_ cannot
+tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend
+produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as
+usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one
+elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums,
+formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were
+produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive
+instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to
+a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which,
+for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing
+children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon
+for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the
+imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the
+afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went
+next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others,
+contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the
+negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square
+stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we
+found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in
+concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a
+chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just
+before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent
+condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good
+proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on
+estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all.
+We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket.
+Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The
+time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two
+after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night.
+This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little
+gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this
+estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of
+money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they
+had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone
+had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the
+circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer,
+whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements
+of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes
+all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday
+afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until
+four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes
+is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is
+the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South;
+it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to
+go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and
+were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed
+in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our
+friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor
+whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish
+their own funerals.
+
+Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one
+sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a
+paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent;
+but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I
+will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban
+country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes,
+sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a
+characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in
+Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the
+inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however,
+it was only one among many good things, which were made better by
+pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After
+dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found
+Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing
+water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party
+was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the
+head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his
+request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off
+his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton
+handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido
+was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the
+expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the
+phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of
+sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself
+brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he
+had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad
+one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our
+sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface
+from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last
+calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now
+wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which
+the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their
+out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking
+and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers.
+Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller
+children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy
+the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came
+the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to
+take us away.
+
+And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from
+town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the
+masked ball, the Paseo, and the Señorita's beaux? All that durst
+followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque!
+Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one,
+actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and
+galloped off, dragging us after him.
+
+As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet
+made us aware that Don Antoñito, the young friend who had planned and
+accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the
+lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don
+Antoñito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and
+stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a
+brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have
+played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he
+tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony
+made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and
+even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you
+on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is
+even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's
+musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely
+talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that
+rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted
+parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees
+and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call
+again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were
+no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence,
+warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the
+aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day.
+Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a
+sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to
+the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom.
+
+For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night,
+half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always
+expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling
+the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had
+thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The
+luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave
+with entire goodwill.
+
+I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic.
+Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten
+o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the
+steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little
+cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How
+different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk
+on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the
+flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of
+squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of
+that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were
+rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The
+arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was
+occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A
+tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the
+machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths
+being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean
+sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with
+disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began
+to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about
+their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why,
+then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly
+behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept
+arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antoñito, who
+was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see
+them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last
+came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we
+betook ourselves to rest.
+
+Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their
+berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the
+larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran,
+looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was
+tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always
+travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a
+real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went
+to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself
+upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the
+extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that
+murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and
+arousing its fair occupant with "Doña Teresita," or whatever the name
+may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is
+necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between
+the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex
+invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that,
+_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to
+call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The
+male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of
+a compendious and economic arrangement.
+
+And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and
+return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane
+spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong
+shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it
+with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE FIRST AND THE LAST.
+
+
+It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce
+northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen
+air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the
+rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through
+the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at
+them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and
+spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a
+premature shroud of cold white snow.
+
+But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun,
+peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at
+seeing how much had been done in his absence.
+
+Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's
+poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of
+the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two
+stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths
+upon his premises.
+
+Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on
+between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf
+of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching
+competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries
+of the two estates.
+
+To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire
+of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their
+shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded
+Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a
+thing, which he most assuredly never had.
+
+Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad
+evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of
+satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous
+rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous
+plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come
+within a foot of it.
+
+Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful
+champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator
+that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a
+thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly
+opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from
+peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with
+the ammunition so plentifully spread before them.
+
+Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced
+into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with
+an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to
+the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and
+remarkable ornament to that garment.
+
+"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric
+Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable
+missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as
+a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and
+easier to come at than the words which most men would have used.
+
+Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his
+master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that,
+half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next
+instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving,
+however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose.
+The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his
+face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp.
+
+His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and
+derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us"
+could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately
+disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift.
+
+"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken
+woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering
+and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet
+extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried
+heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns.
+They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys."
+
+The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful
+enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,--
+
+"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?"
+
+"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas,
+slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly
+added, with more vivacity,--
+
+"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know
+ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my
+woman,--won't ye?"
+
+"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning,
+nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp
+her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of
+old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes.
+
+"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin
+allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in."
+
+"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the
+compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come
+right in, this way."
+
+"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host
+through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded
+with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never
+seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time."
+
+Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow
+concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch,
+he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic
+nod,--
+
+"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like
+Miss Coffin."
+
+"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly,
+as the door was thrown open.
+
+"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you
+this morning."
+
+A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was
+fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her
+voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that
+"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too."
+
+"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by
+the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk."
+
+"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do
+suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated
+herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced
+her business by saying,--
+
+"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr.
+Widdrinton."
+
+"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas.
+
+"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and
+assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my
+thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had
+ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that
+I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me,
+an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits
+a chance.
+
+"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this.
+Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I
+used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to
+dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o'
+sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place
+to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I
+would take him so.
+
+"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to
+mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said
+he might come,--an' he did, that very day.
+
+"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to
+git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out
+tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin'
+seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor
+an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an'
+told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself.
+
+"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I
+shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there
+jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held
+his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!'
+an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work.
+
+"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books,
+his cloze begun to go.
+
+"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in
+a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed
+drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no
+more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't
+darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last
+night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I
+went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't
+make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good
+while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me
+comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to
+me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took
+aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all
+the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing
+to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin'
+ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it,
+an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him."
+
+"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked
+Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice.
+
+"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez
+I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I
+ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He
+wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt
+of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a
+thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o'
+life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a
+hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on
+him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two
+days an' nights."
+
+"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands
+deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they
+were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,--
+
+"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which
+he ever indulged.
+
+"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the
+consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an'
+see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an'
+be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone,
+an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which,
+if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to
+come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's."
+
+"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs.
+Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered
+the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter
+and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done."
+
+"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye,
+Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet
+to all on us."
+
+"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at
+once about this poor man, won't thee?"
+
+"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and
+I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along."
+
+Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after
+lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge,
+inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a
+piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring."
+
+Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then,
+opening a door, called gently,--
+
+"Faith!"
+
+"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her
+own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of
+age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,--
+
+"What is it, mother?"
+
+"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith."
+
+And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story
+narrated by Mrs. Janes.
+
+"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted
+to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no
+room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan
+sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"--
+
+"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly.
+
+"Thy room, child?"
+
+"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very
+much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the
+orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me."
+
+"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly.
+
+"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother,"
+replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing
+her fondly.
+
+The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which,
+pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the
+strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like
+compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's
+people."
+
+She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,--
+
+"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready
+thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth."
+
+An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door,
+from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in
+blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly
+murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,--
+
+"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in
+after us."
+
+"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted
+from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something,
+carefully enveloped in a cotton case.
+
+"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed
+the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little
+maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she
+thought needed it more than herself.
+
+Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see
+him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him.
+
+"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?"
+said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a
+little more evenly.
+
+"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his
+kind nurse into the room.
+
+"What does thee mean, friend?"
+
+"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and
+leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with
+him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem
+to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe."
+
+"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it.
+You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone.
+
+"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin,
+soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and
+what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep,
+I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some
+broth to strengthen thee."
+
+"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble
+voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face.
+
+"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee
+rather I should?"
+
+"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it."
+
+"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of
+the women, will take thy place."
+
+Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about
+seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned
+her to the bedside.
+
+Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her,
+while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame
+leaning against the wall.
+
+"Girl!"
+
+"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly.
+
+"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep."
+
+"I certainly will not."
+
+"Promise!"
+
+"I do promise."
+
+"Swear!"
+
+"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously
+adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment
+learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in
+the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted
+many of the tenets to which her mother held.
+
+"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I
+will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and
+you will be wrong to doubt my word."
+
+"I don't.--What is your name?"
+
+"Faith."
+
+"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod."
+
+"Ichabod Widdrinton?"
+
+"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you."
+
+"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep."
+
+"Sit there,--where I can see you."
+
+Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not
+prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his
+young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she
+had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in
+health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky
+hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never
+have expressed much of strength or resolution.
+
+The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it
+seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in
+the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow,
+throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a
+long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of
+devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent
+foes.
+
+"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of
+gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of
+the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan,
+sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison.
+
+From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would
+patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and
+silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a
+type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,)
+devoted herself to him.
+
+Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in
+the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose
+grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have
+guessed, would simply say,--
+
+"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared
+with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and
+quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy
+for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was
+forced to yield assent to this simple logic.
+
+A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The
+pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch
+beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their
+attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her
+kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he
+consented to allow the others to do so.
+
+At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin,
+as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,--
+
+"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible."
+
+"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that
+Faith should do so."
+
+"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas,
+readily.
+
+But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he
+caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him
+good-night, and gasped out,--
+
+"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and
+I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the
+last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more."
+
+"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to
+the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny
+him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can
+sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if
+"----
+
+"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee
+unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly
+have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should
+be worse,--won't thee?"
+
+Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was
+prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites
+which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such
+occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed
+uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the
+large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of
+her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for
+her night's perusal.
+
+The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted
+three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man
+suddenly awoke.
+
+As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he
+always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face.
+The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had
+disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile.
+
+"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and
+more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you
+have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to
+talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and
+raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter
+blaze, and then uncover--it."
+
+Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its
+ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber,
+and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having
+shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers,
+opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine
+with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed,
+the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a
+picture.
+
+Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the
+full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his
+powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the
+pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The
+expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between
+those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper
+Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet
+indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable
+by others.
+
+"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And
+they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English
+gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and
+honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new
+country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every
+man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion.
+
+"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in
+the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him
+governor and named a bay after him.
+
+"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture
+painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with
+him as a present to his wife.
+
+"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a
+very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as
+they say in storybooks.
+
+"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small
+portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried.
+
+"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family
+found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the
+traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches
+of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an
+end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the
+family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They
+met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short
+conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name,
+alive.
+
+"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by
+uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it
+more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the
+glory has departed.'
+
+"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered
+their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their
+first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and
+which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and
+despair.
+
+"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing
+weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till
+five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's
+portrait and the curse of the Withringtons.
+
+"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But
+no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed
+which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the
+picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me.
+I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither
+until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of
+life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse.
+
+"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just
+held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on
+the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last."
+
+"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed
+holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it."
+
+"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for
+myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with
+feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed.
+
+"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly.
+"Lie down again and watch me."
+
+Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light
+upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and
+laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked
+beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were
+resisting the fearful doom which threatened it.
+
+At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up
+before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull,
+leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they
+struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them.
+
+"Burn," he hoarsely murmured.
+
+With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently,
+reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace.
+
+The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick
+and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed
+to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it.
+
+She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the
+bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and,
+rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother.
+
+Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber,
+the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last
+sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips.
+
+They had perished together,--the First--and the Last.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.
+
+WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW.
+
+
+You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what
+has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot
+tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however,
+you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the
+household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as
+if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is
+low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical
+Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not
+already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with
+cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you
+slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor.
+
+I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to
+confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was
+sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what
+were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my
+little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly
+unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in
+these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So,
+when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door
+and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a
+nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not
+fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as
+when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will
+count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes
+doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried,
+and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the
+issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is
+counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or
+what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures.
+
+I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little
+conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's
+chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the
+Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking
+at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The
+simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most
+mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in
+disguise.
+
+I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever
+moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks
+and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have
+my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat,"
+composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful
+or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions
+expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing
+to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy
+with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From
+what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what
+ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone,
+and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as
+you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches
+on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the
+surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not
+worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many
+thousand years?
+
+Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it
+any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some
+little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened
+to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these
+specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass
+in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to
+stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming
+planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the
+firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless
+round to the source of life and light.
+
+A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their
+mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag,
+or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common
+enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think
+of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside
+puddles.
+
+But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain,
+when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that
+"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How
+many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have
+horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent!
+
+----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter
+with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to
+the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster.
+It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too
+heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting,
+bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms
+resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions
+specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease
+of the heart or other causes.
+
+Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty,
+Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and
+interrupted.
+
+Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded
+to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is
+at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I
+suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my
+temperament. Thus:--
+
+Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his
+left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding
+watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome
+hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three,
+four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one
+white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in
+the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget
+to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but
+what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if
+pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old
+fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such
+objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As
+I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a
+stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests
+with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I
+missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is
+your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to
+the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am
+ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as
+it is with other men.--God help him!
+
+It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire
+for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I
+must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For
+this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart;
+and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting
+malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity
+at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm
+attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run
+away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of
+Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered
+from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel
+with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes
+you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder
+instead of the haunch, where it should have started from.
+
+Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all
+parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as
+before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral
+valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is
+that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three
+big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which
+I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern
+_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks
+like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to
+embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a
+door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock?
+Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses.
+One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by
+just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of
+the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What
+do those mean?
+
+All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact.
+While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was
+also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to
+deal.
+
+There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain,
+blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out,
+followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all
+three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the
+fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon
+stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French
+physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which
+leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly
+what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as
+a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It
+is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I
+think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences,
+--which expression means you very well know what.
+
+And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come
+out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will
+be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything
+strange, my visits will clear it up.
+
+I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after
+giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an
+imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under
+their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber,
+the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in
+strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in
+broken sentences.
+
+----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And
+the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight.
+Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other
+folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a
+straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall
+slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look
+just as if there was a man underneath.
+
+A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_
+name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood
+and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest
+man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the
+handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch?
+
+----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the
+picture.
+
+He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not
+unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had
+lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait
+hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her!
+Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over?
+
+The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years
+old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New
+England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what
+artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from
+life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and
+the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early
+Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she
+was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old
+carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former
+owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was
+that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George
+Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the
+artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I
+suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of
+young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good
+evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I
+should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she
+had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some
+devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers,
+with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his
+pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight
+suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to
+leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly
+maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses?
+
+She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I
+are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted
+me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the
+board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was
+dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you?
+
+I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie
+still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you
+have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in
+the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from
+digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie
+quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I
+don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't
+doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's
+sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and
+looked through the bars of for so many years!
+
+I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and
+indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often
+a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in
+theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not
+commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of
+thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with
+red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the
+blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and
+crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of
+--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the
+plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both
+callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which
+implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some
+gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by
+my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a
+glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as
+he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest,
+so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself
+at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a
+mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You
+may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of
+pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly
+compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less
+nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for
+others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of
+science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in
+humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as
+I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional
+habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these.
+This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed
+rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his
+ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to
+be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak
+cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and
+I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will
+see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and
+buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by
+this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been
+saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a
+little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head
+with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a
+little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live.
+Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to
+think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I
+lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that
+stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me
+well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell
+you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh
+earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it.
+There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can
+keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill
+upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the
+daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe
+I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the
+morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the
+apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as
+portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes.
+The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object
+near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath
+of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see
+something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the
+figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of
+the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask
+who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was
+pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his
+bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards
+it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I
+first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw
+only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still,
+and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a
+field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I
+turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood
+full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to
+stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was
+momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright
+flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It
+was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether
+sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told
+her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the
+sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant
+that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes
+think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they
+cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the
+bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we
+should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last
+upon their faithful breasts!
+
+With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the
+starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save
+that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a
+stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and
+in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if
+she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no
+breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed
+scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested
+by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted
+sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen
+and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver
+goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her
+milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly
+out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the
+cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and
+with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her
+along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her
+name, but she did not heed my voice.
+
+The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl
+before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I
+should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose
+perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that
+immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see
+me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever
+after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that
+time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and
+the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made
+their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps,
+and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On
+the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I
+trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the
+violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The
+fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a
+pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew
+what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout
+heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his
+face and fill his heart both at once.
+
+Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the
+internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than
+juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be
+guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught
+in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of
+Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put
+it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or
+Eugénie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he
+was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the
+young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian
+beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of
+the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed
+to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a
+cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.
+
+There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind
+suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an
+enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance
+slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had
+made up my mind what I was going to do about it.
+
+When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all
+for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the
+impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did
+not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such
+guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and
+bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then
+at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up.
+
+I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by
+him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to
+care for.
+
+I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and
+persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm.
+Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning.
+There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young
+girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber.
+
+The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my
+cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually
+from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries
+of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive
+sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at
+strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out,
+or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is
+there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the
+house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once
+imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow
+bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we
+remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished
+townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that
+little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or
+persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from
+the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill
+burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling
+the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious
+fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner
+chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice,
+wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of
+the North-End cemetery.
+
+It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page
+in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine
+unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head.
+I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is
+reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think
+about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but
+one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of
+his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last
+strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and
+recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the
+most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him,
+his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind
+still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very
+nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have
+his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she
+could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted
+her. Old babies that we are!
+
+Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed
+for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between
+my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came
+down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until
+after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was
+ordered to tell me.
+
+It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris
+had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that
+chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a
+man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out
+of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These
+good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in
+her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief
+moral reflections.
+
+----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in
+her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human
+history.
+
+----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John,
+so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like
+that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle
+that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know
+how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I
+don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice
+last month.
+
+[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch
+absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the
+time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how
+he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the
+songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more
+considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man
+than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are
+a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks
+uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at
+last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their
+own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is
+hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first
+they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more
+for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of
+those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against
+themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.]
+
+----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting
+by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was
+darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept
+nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be
+indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such
+skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much
+to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I
+could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any
+very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life
+and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She
+followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit.
+
+How long?--she said.
+
+Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One
+of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or
+slow.
+
+The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But
+Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and
+kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd
+be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if
+she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week.
+
+At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back
+against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her
+nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great
+surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his
+own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way,
+but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous
+parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was
+no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat
+side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new
+neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little
+friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even
+girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with
+a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the
+construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from
+their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris,
+whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of
+things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must
+have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much
+patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the
+kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share
+in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of
+ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked
+even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet
+footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to
+the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep,
+or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with.
+
+Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she
+kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me,
+Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill
+herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get
+me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in
+this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you
+leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me.
+
+This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there
+are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the
+larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to
+them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said,
+another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head
+ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this
+one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his
+thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it
+were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the
+past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the
+handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single
+well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or
+other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children.
+Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant
+voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that
+have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that
+the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite
+forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where,
+free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden
+should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose
+"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as
+he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer
+glories.
+
+No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where
+the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one
+has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases
+himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and
+thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up
+his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him
+until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and
+his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little
+bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks
+and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to
+receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have
+died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the
+last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already
+deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great
+majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life
+through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the
+moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often
+called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is
+a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the
+smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which
+hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its
+place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is
+almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain,
+and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the
+legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully
+narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And
+some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next
+world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster
+over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file
+that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a
+foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think
+they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all
+ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future,
+that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert
+have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its
+murmurs as they lay dying.
+
+The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the
+future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is
+extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not
+insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness,
+on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by
+science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call
+_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness.
+There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate
+of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material
+frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less
+impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold
+out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while,
+though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay.
+
+The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his
+remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was
+a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various
+modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The
+landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had
+saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me
+to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to
+the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more
+than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to
+"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned
+before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and
+forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he
+said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate.
+Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the
+late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was
+something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was
+a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could
+not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little
+over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to
+lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of
+these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the
+Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way,
+bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend
+was going to leave behind.
+
+The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish
+snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the
+Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult
+him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r
+intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young
+man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his
+chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and
+they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out.
+
+The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one
+quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man
+down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such
+encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to
+knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do
+happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be
+angry, and get up and give you a thrashing.
+
+So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the
+yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm
+round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble
+art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having
+completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side
+of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens
+that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as
+much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter
+than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary
+was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against
+his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone,
+judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat
+backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little,
+the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered
+between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to
+grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with
+that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so
+frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and
+negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the
+spot by "knocking the man down."
+
+We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy
+blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most
+unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of
+seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor,
+half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar
+and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person
+not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this
+surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a
+little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and
+confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than
+himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish
+the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and
+incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the
+other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little
+science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with
+his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a
+prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in
+the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the
+young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known
+as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to
+another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got
+enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young
+fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the
+other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y'
+like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to
+that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a
+technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by
+running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The
+young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of
+trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves.
+The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two,
+being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish
+attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his
+person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed,
+that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned
+visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and
+rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had
+been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady
+naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah
+not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that
+decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I
+may hereafter allude to.
+
+I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to
+sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man
+begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the
+Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar
+Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking;
+and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you
+had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is
+on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the
+State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a
+fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that
+humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows.
+
+--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your
+curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles,
+doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine.
+Next month you shall hear all about it.
+
+--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at
+the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the
+wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice
+of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in
+her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them.
+
+
+
+
+HYMN OF TRUST.
+
+
+O Love Divine, that stooped to share
+  Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,
+On Thee we cast each earthborn care,
+  We smile at pain while Thou art near!
+
+Though long the weary way we tread,
+  And sorrow crown each lingering year,
+No path we shun, no darkness dread,
+  Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near!
+
+When drooping pleasure turns to grief,
+  And trembling faith is changed to fear,
+The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf
+  Shall softly tell us, Thou art near!
+
+On Thee we fling our burdening woe,
+  O Love Divine, forever dear,
+Content to suffer, while we know,
+  Living and dying, Thou art near!
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+ART.
+
+PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID.
+
+
+_Seville, January, 1859_.
+
+I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright
+a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the
+Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills
+of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone
+pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and
+Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till
+you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This
+is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral
+here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other
+cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo
+have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently
+consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very
+often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his
+fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of
+Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly
+arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool
+scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved
+against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving
+alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the
+picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the
+left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A
+few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint.
+A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and
+there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like
+much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture
+which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is
+represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and
+the whole effect is most silvery and delicate.
+
+But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great
+picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half
+kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which
+descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light
+falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and
+throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the
+angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying
+cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in
+Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture
+of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture.
+It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the
+expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the
+extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so
+that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and
+to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt.
+And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot,
+for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt
+what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he
+is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and
+a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as
+Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he
+knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a
+painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so
+different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and
+noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for
+those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that
+we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning.
+Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious
+old corners and over their dear old altars?
+
+
+_Madrid, March, 1859_.
+
+
+You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is
+like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the
+smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the
+coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and
+donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in
+Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it
+showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed
+stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures,
+and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here
+to use your own.
+
+Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his
+pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere
+so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him,
+but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in
+childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with
+large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character,
+one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is
+his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the
+foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her
+dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear,
+broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full
+of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with
+a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no
+substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all
+is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a
+master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page
+pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a
+sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of
+light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I
+suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a
+reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and
+in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated
+the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of
+the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back
+toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant
+has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear
+white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is
+astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of
+painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in
+the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by
+paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation;
+all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I
+think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely
+most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we
+might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like
+him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you
+may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of
+Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of
+--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall
+background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in
+Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So
+much for Velasquez.
+
+But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian,
+who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can
+equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like
+nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing
+and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an
+absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his
+master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep
+blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the
+soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second
+joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him
+stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn
+over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side;
+and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of
+Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog
+leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpática_ in his gray
+eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably
+rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is
+_elegantísimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet,
+and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining,
+against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and
+plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These
+portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his
+best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the
+great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of
+heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth
+to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the
+helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams
+like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the
+landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden
+sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the
+noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history,
+poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An
+entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep
+surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling;
+and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the
+foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her
+lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx
+on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass;
+two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and
+one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining
+on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or
+some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are
+one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit
+of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the
+middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying
+great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny
+hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam
+on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity.
+It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking
+on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and
+passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner.
+The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of
+fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of
+all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the
+work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an
+entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness.
+Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they
+thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the
+Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the
+casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other
+portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not
+already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very
+fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and
+Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable
+in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very
+full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His
+wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn
+horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no
+favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni
+Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely;
+and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a
+Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George.
+
+These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we
+could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are
+committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only
+covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take
+away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss.
+
+I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It
+is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action
+and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and
+exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the
+Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very
+lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is
+faint in color, and most charming in careful execution.
+
+Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those
+at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all
+glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful
+quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels,
+with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which
+these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist
+makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and
+artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred
+reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the
+same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were
+painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors.
+
+It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures
+in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of
+Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV.,
+which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures
+were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in
+Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of
+Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had
+come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that
+Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he
+thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a
+Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after
+Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given
+between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of
+Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you.
+
+"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente,
+E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero,
+Piasendome esser libero e sinciero)
+Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.'
+
+"'Tanto che,' replichè quela persona,
+'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor,
+In Italia nissun ve dà in l' umor,
+Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.'
+
+"Don Diego replichè con tal maniera:
+'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo;
+Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo;
+Tician xè quel che porta la bandiera.'"
+
+Here is a translation:--
+
+The master, with a ceremonious air,
+Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell,
+For to be free and honest suits me well,
+Pleases me not at all, I must declare."
+
+"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown
+On this great painter, in Italy is none
+By whom, indeed, your favor can be won;
+For upon him we all bestow the crown."
+
+Don Diego thereupon to him replies,
+"At Venice may be found the good and fair;
+I give the first place to the pencil there;
+Titian is he who carries off the prize."
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases
+usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL
+BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston:
+Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524.
+
+2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the
+Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Trübner & Company.
+1859. pp. iv., 104.
+
+3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of
+the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By
+GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in
+Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London:
+Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148.
+
+4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases,
+used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a
+Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS.
+Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch.
+1859. pp. 80.
+
+5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc.
+By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii.,
+160.
+
+6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX
+TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman &
+Mason. 1859. pp. 238.
+
+7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses
+different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New
+York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218.
+
+8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM
+SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302.
+
+
+The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in
+1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA."
+Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces,
+has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The
+more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no
+peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have
+modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante
+wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct
+dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred
+years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England,
+eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be
+known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called,
+the tendency is toward uniformity.
+
+In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States,
+the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European
+nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools,
+and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the
+common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably
+on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a
+dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we
+confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has
+been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is
+only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is
+taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a
+vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which
+our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster,
+who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of
+his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English
+composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly
+correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into
+_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the
+mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and
+lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page,
+but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are
+limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very
+throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a
+rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling,
+fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the
+vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living
+green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited
+by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also,
+and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy
+trees.
+
+We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his
+Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we
+are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_
+trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom
+we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_
+to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our
+_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_
+to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an
+_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in
+our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin
+origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives
+but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary
+_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the
+Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the
+_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German
+language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very
+general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_,
+have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them
+an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly
+unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv.
+We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut
+to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the
+Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English
+masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of
+the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and
+Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander
+Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr.
+Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a
+dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of
+Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly
+understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a
+deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the
+hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair,
+ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his
+inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr.
+Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh
+them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848.
+
+In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner.
+That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than
+provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all
+these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice,
+however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial,
+such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot
+in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it
+will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of
+_adversaria_ and comments.
+
+ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a
+supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called
+"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the
+name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly,
+to the mistress of an alehouse.
+
+BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and
+Fielding.
+
+BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a
+certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of
+bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_,
+which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something
+worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our
+"baggage" in the same sense.
+
+[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr.
+Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on
+English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx.,
+note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must
+allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among
+English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second
+edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.]
+
+CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a
+Western phrase exclusively.
+
+CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption
+of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels
+are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for
+what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the
+name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
+
+TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But,
+as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut
+down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction.
+
+TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative
+language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the
+prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit
+for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German
+_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish.
+
+HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_,
+except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has
+befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern
+sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr.
+Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard
+the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in
+England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon
+than _bonnet_ and _gown_.
+
+IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I
+left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among
+us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made
+better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled
+_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was
+published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result
+of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the
+title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find,
+"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were
+_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract
+has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should
+have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use
+long before with the same meaning.
+
+To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And
+Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good
+scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and
+_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:--
+
+  "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_
+  Donna piú su."
+
+LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an
+herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_.
+
+LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon,
+and used wherever English is spoken.
+
+LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German.
+_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once
+heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis
+du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in
+short, to _loaf_ about.
+
+TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes
+_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on
+among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an
+underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_,
+in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr.
+_mesler_, to mix.
+
+TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but
+_Turf_-Slang.
+
+SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English.
+
+TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the
+Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country.
+
+SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of
+Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a
+vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had
+what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and
+Hector Boece.
+
+SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and
+Western." Used also in New York.
+
+SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low).
+
+TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of
+his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is,
+perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary.
+
+TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self."
+It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital
+metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the
+Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces
+in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _étaler_.
+
+STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is
+surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently
+explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in
+the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their
+shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious.
+
+SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of
+the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in
+almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the
+name.
+
+A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett.
+
+A CARRY: portage. _Passim_.
+
+CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England.
+
+CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England.
+
+COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of
+certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the
+archaic form, _Quo' he_.
+
+TO COTTON TO.
+
+DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to
+acknowledging ignorance.
+
+GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England.
+
+LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts.
+
+LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair.
+
+LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means
+weak-willed. Massachusetts.
+
+MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water.
+Massachusetts.
+
+OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England.
+
+OLD DRIVER:     } euphemistic for the
+OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil.
+
+ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger.
+
+ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New
+England.
+
+SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be
+suited, for couldn't be suited.
+
+STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it
+from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of
+the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in
+Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be
+called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it.
+
+STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins.
+
+SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby.
+
+TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England.
+
+WELL-SWEEP.
+
+We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a
+work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the
+amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled
+with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the
+standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year
+to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially
+rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips;
+for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as
+possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is
+often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always
+interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with
+understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite
+conclusion.
+
+[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it
+was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a
+phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also
+Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy
+perversion.]
+
+The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in
+which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems
+to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people.
+Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope
+there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil
+actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and
+"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole
+of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite
+too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes
+off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr.
+Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more
+_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the
+West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my
+tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would
+have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons
+are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog
+under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in
+a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in
+language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole
+neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same
+coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the
+dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning
+comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite
+was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to
+us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy
+mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the
+thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax
+thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o'
+nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those
+bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard
+applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be
+placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold
+weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire
+don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n
+M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and
+left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant
+preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say
+once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will
+get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote
+merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with
+Taylor or South.
+
+The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of
+American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A]
+(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_
+is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that
+the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the
+North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled,
+and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at
+least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set
+down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and
+picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and
+strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B]
+By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and
+picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere
+long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find
+Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do
+when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a
+thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people
+use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write
+very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The
+late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on
+the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young
+hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience
+whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_"
+and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb;
+_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but
+thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little,
+_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan
+achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and
+vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is
+shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our
+having a swan at last.
+
+[Footnote A: _Gedrängtes Handbuch der Fremdwörter_, etc., etc.,
+Leipzig, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made
+a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone
+that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the
+painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter.
+(Thermometer,--12°.) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what
+happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin'
+him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the
+Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin'
+hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o'
+quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down
+through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact,
+of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of
+Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty
+than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness
+of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always
+to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil
+Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself?
+for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of
+what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance
+he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the
+_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A
+thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of
+indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is
+so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy
+thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a
+glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of
+inhabitants."]
+
+Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms
+will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he
+quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To
+SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or
+beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W----
+of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political
+opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)--
+
+"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a
+rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I
+_saved_.'"
+
+We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that
+it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given.
+No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be
+pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr.
+Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this
+neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty
+of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr.
+Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars
+a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed
+comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work
+which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students
+of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan
+of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give
+their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed.
+
+Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised
+edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words,
+which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has
+the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining
+an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the
+middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without
+great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he
+gives the results of much good reading.
+
+Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual.
+
+The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author
+of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the
+name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition
+and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such
+men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a
+bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks,
+though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he
+has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so
+ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the
+currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly
+for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of
+organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus:
+"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence,"
+etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel
+origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman
+who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French
+spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in
+spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On
+another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee
+kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside
+the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his
+Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the
+language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we
+could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we
+find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has
+crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever
+gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious.
+Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the
+memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in
+point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems.
+Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have
+transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin
+is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought
+some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the
+Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a
+better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch
+_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or
+body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_;
+corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties
+we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take
+possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in
+Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs.
+
+Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of
+language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say
+_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in
+the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the
+other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his
+betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the
+Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and
+Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received
+pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still
+sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in
+many parts of England.
+
+Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and
+gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It
+is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the
+exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr.
+Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is
+indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The
+general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the
+debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being
+the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is
+hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with
+what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could
+also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an
+unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says
+that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_,
+and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to
+settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him
+with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the
+pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies
+into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he
+will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas
+which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the
+reputation of it among the unscholarly.
+
+_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J.
+COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In
+Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin
+J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023.
+
+This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a
+condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the
+contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in
+American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity,
+and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_
+which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in
+events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful
+destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local
+historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but
+if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales,"
+for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be
+convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material.
+There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as
+is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country
+meeting-house.
+
+In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the
+"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of
+the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be
+wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and
+that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville,
+who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds
+so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their
+interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which
+we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had
+the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only
+manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us.
+
+One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the
+continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is
+something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the
+politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were
+surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so
+philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry
+about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise
+and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political
+views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question
+to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be
+shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what
+means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another
+question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history
+written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans
+doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_.
+
+The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils
+honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way
+of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the
+enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are
+to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak
+highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it
+is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply
+the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating
+cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the
+pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only
+been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no
+bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the
+same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the
+heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the
+coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told
+that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly,
+intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich
+and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should
+sift her tacts with a coarser sieve.
+
+In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will
+find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors
+will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a
+corresponding economy of fine writing.
+
+_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of
+Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp.
+125.
+
+The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such
+occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series
+of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have
+given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a
+performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments
+and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of
+their debate and their efforts to repel it.
+
+Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the
+knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources
+of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued
+from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration.
+
+The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and
+diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction,
+through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American
+question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the
+arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the
+fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate,
+for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the
+incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf,
+connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish
+minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out
+of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which
+France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself
+confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the
+Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the
+American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed
+neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in
+the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a
+narrative, clear, condensed, and original.
+
+From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily
+reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in
+democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of
+mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to
+which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of
+arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat."
+
+A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of
+art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and
+philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a
+reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown
+to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over
+the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated
+intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people
+for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the
+practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long
+prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that
+labor cannot be honorable where it is not free."
+
+Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of
+the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those
+unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to
+the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable.
+His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old
+republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride
+of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American,
+in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever
+sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration.
+And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political
+rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by
+Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep
+into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and
+ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated.
+Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of
+a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of
+America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of
+France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical
+mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to
+Republican France and to Continental liberty.
+
+The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral
+support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits
+of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities
+struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the
+sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in
+the embarrassments of the present hour.
+
+Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide
+cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr.
+Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves
+than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of
+government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the
+fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but
+rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the
+legislative and judicial functions."
+
+From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing
+of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define
+and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political
+system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of
+liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause"
+itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and
+received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of
+the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and
+has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a
+government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy."
+
+The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he
+discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump
+speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and
+statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing
+pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice
+Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are
+among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must
+have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a
+large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of
+an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of
+self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for
+his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience
+and many of his countrymen.
+
+It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery
+that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of
+republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the
+model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good
+government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station,
+quality, and character of the active offender.
+
+And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land,
+and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary
+between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce,
+and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is
+tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political
+_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America.
+
+Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the
+humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his
+associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in
+the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of
+that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in
+which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of
+the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the
+Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong.
+
+The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively
+disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main
+issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the
+defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an
+averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since
+its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the
+litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he
+was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights
+dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding,
+the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end.
+
+What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the
+Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the
+Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the
+effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause
+controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision
+already made and recorded?
+
+Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief
+justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President,
+and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He
+proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of
+constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of
+Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by
+practical application in the administration of the government of the
+Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the
+Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was
+the official chief.
+
+These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more
+nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been
+without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating
+Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing
+the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers
+which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of
+slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession
+of every power.
+
+We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with
+which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and
+defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of
+Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal.
+
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan &
+Co. 8vo. pp. 381.
+
+The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a
+trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may
+follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has
+been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its
+present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or
+the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of
+which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized
+society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means
+of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty
+in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in
+the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so
+revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's
+experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one
+productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class
+that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so
+indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this
+kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux
+Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in
+its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is
+quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is,
+beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for
+that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story
+of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that
+of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a
+woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is
+manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths"
+has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it,
+that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from
+the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the
+making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic
+study--lost.
+
+The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the
+daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much
+noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is
+handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above
+her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous
+temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault,
+however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman,
+destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life
+was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast,
+a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care
+Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds
+shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not
+ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she
+appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has
+not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and
+she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who
+takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness
+to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a
+third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage.
+Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at
+his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed
+over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an
+infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to
+the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is
+put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who
+allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who
+really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She
+scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds
+him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of
+bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the
+lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they
+part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it
+is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after
+being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the
+last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of
+a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face
+upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously
+uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him
+out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the
+mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find
+her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of
+marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his
+suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the
+small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the
+beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves
+the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought
+himself.
+
+This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen,
+that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough.
+It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character,
+except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and
+narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and
+little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages.
+And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the
+tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it
+reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves
+the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of
+what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might
+have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such
+a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book,
+too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout
+it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that
+is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat
+the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not
+the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains
+in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary
+Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even
+you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society,
+without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice
+Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of
+attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that
+she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of
+society!_
+
+But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is
+not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This
+impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very
+difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language
+seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which
+Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of
+language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she
+acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained
+propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of
+a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of
+cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited
+a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work
+of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of
+the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its
+heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This
+was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of
+her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth,
+that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father
+was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a
+young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her
+unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as
+regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life;
+and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of
+prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money,
+honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings
+her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,)
+she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was
+that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any
+man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she
+speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being
+raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and
+again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire
+to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with
+the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women
+to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and
+for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted
+mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not
+for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our
+whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment
+to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace
+and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about
+this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to
+find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part
+of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome.
+
+_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._
+By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van
+Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366.
+
+The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany
+Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It
+concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It
+concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take
+sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science,
+because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper
+notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It
+concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know
+whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even,
+the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but
+the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned
+lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right
+to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable
+manners.
+
+Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not
+only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness
+of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none
+the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the
+astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a
+less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor,
+too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould
+recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he
+condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen
+since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly
+more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a
+refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense
+of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of
+their body.
+
+
+
+
+RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.
+
+
+Black Diamonds, gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South. By Edward A.
+Pollard, of Virginia. New York. Pudney and Russell. 12mo. pp. 122. 50
+cts.
+
+Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders; or the Cogitations
+and Confessions of an Aged Physician. By William A. Alcott, M.D.
+Boston. John P. Jewett & Co. 12mo. pp. 384. $1.00.
+
+Modern Philology; its Discoveries, History, and Influence, Tabular
+Views, and an Index. By Benjamin W. Dwight. New York. A.S. Barnes &
+Burr. 8vo. pp. 354. $1.75.
+
+The Mississippi Bubble; a Memoir of John Law. By Adolphe Thiers, Author
+of "The Consulate and Empire." To which are added Authentic Accounts of
+the Darien Expedition and the South Sea Scheme. Translated and edited
+by Frank S. Fiske. New York. W.A. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 338. $1.00.
+
+The Use and Abuse of Tobacco. By John Lizar. From the Eighth Edinburgh
+Edition. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 16mo. pp. 136. 50 cts.
+
+Alcohol; its Place and Power. By James Miller. From the Nineteenth
+Glasgow Edition. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 16mo. pp. 178. 50
+cts.
+
+Life of Colonel David Crockett, written by Himself. Philadelphia. G. G.
+Evans. 12mo. pp. 405. $1.00.
+
+The Diseases of Cattle. By George H. Dadd. Boston. John P. Jewett & Co.
+12mo. pp. 395. $1.25.
+
+My Third Book. A Collection of Tales. By Louise Chandler Moulton. New
+York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 434. $1.00.
+
+Henry St. John, Gentleman, of "Flower of Hundreds," in the County of
+Prince George, Virginia. A Tale of 1774-75. By John Esten Cooke, Author
+of the "Virginia Comedians," etc. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo.
+pp. 503. $1.00.
+
+Rab and his Friends. By John Brown, M.D. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.
+18mo. pp. 81. 15 cts.
+
+Letters on Modern Agriculture. By Baron von Liebig. Edited by John
+Blyth, M.D., Professor of Chemistry, Queen's College, Oxford. New York.
+John Wiley. 12mo. pp. 233. 76 cts.
+
+Thirty Years in the Arctic Regions; or the Adventures of Sir John
+Franklin. New York. H. Dayton & Co. 12mo. pp. 473. $1.25.
+
+A Dictionary of Love; containing a Definition of all the Terms used in
+the History of the Tender Passion. By Theocritus, Junior. New York.
+Dick & Fitzgerald. 12mo. pp. 275. $1.00.
+
+Miss Slimmens's Window, and other Papers. By Mrs. Murk Peabody. With
+Humorous Illustrations. New York. Derby & Jackson. 12mo. pp. 312.
+$1.00.
+
+The Life, Travels, and Books of Alexander von Humboldt. With an
+Introduction by Bayard Taylor. New York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo. pp.
+482. $1.25.
+
+The Book of the First American Chess Congress; containing the
+Proceedings of that Celebrated Assemblage, held in New York in the Year
+1857; with the Papers read in its Sessions, the Games played in the
+Grand Tournament, and the Stratagems entered in the Problem Tournay;
+together with Sketches of the History of Chess in the Old and New
+World. By Daniel Willard Fiske, M. A. New York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo.
+pp. 363. $1.50.
+
+The Rectory of Moreland; or, My Duty. Boston. J. E. Tilton & Co. 12mo.
+pp. 339. $1.00.
+
+British Novelists and their Styles; being a Critical Sketch of the
+History of British Prose Fiction. By David Masson, M. A., Professor of
+English Literature, University College, London. Author of "The Life and
+Times of John Milton." Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 312. 75 cts.
+
+Fiji and the Fijians. By Thomas Williams and James Calvert, late
+Missionaries in Fiji. Edited by George Stringer Rowe. New York. D.
+Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 540. $2.50.
+
+Presidential Candidates; containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal,
+and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860. By
+D. W. Bartlett. New York. A. B. Burdick. 12mo. pp. 360. $1.00.
+
+Out of the Depths; the Story of a Woman's Life. New York. W. A,
+Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.00.
+
+A Commentary, Explanatory, Doctrinal, and Practical, on the Epistle to
+the Ephesdans. By R. E. Pattison, D. D., late President of Waterville
+College. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 244. 85 cts.
+
+Rhymes of Twenty Years. By Henry Morford. New York. II. Dexter & Co.
+12mo. pp. 214. $1.00.
+
+A Manual of Naval Tactics; together with a Brief Critical Analysis of
+the Principal Modern Naval Battles. By James H. Ward, Commander U. S.
+N. With an Appendix, being an Extract from Sir Howard Douglas's "Naval
+Warfare with Steam." New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 312. $2.50.
+
+Essays, Lectures, etc., upon Select Topics in Revealed Theology. By
+Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D., late Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology
+in Yale College. New York. Clark, Austin, & Smith. 8vo. pp. 425. $1.50.
+
+The Character and Portraits of Washington. By H. T. Tuckerman.
+Illustrated with all the Prominent Portraits, Proofs on India Paper,
+and a Fine Plate of the Washington Monument, by Crawford, at Richmond,
+Va., from a Photograph of a Drawing, by Ehninger. New York. G. P.
+Putnam. 4to. $6.00.
+
+The Works of William Shakespeare. Edited by Richard Grunt White. Vols.
+VI., VII., VIII. Histories. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co. 12mo. pp. 564,
+468, 453. per vol. $1.50.
+
+The Good News of God. Sermons by Charles Kingsley, Hector of Eversley.
+New York. Burt, Hutchinson, & Abbey. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.00.
+
+Beulah, By Augusta J. Evens. New York. Derby & Jackson 12mo. pp. 510.
+$1.25.
+
+History of the Life and Times of James Madison. By William C. Rives.
+Volume I. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co. 8vo. pp. 660. $2.25.
+
+Life of Hannibal. By Thomas Arnold, D. D. New York. Sheldon & Co. 18mo.
+pp. 320. 50 cts.
+
+Life of Thomas à Becket. By Henry Hart Milman, D. D., Dean of St.
+Paul's. New York. Sheldon & Co. 18mo. pp. 246. 50 cts.
+
+The Logic of Political Economy; and other Papers. By Thomas De Quincey.
+Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 387. 75 cts.
+
+Paul the Preacher; or a Popular and Practical Exposition of his
+Discourses and Speeches, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. By
+John Eadie, D. D., LL. D. New York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp.
+453. $1.25.
+
+The Teacher's Assistant, or Hints and Methods in School Discipline and
+Instruction; being a Series of Familiar Letters to one entering upon
+the Teacher's Work. By Charles Northend, A. M. Boston. Crosby, Nichols,
+& Co. 12mo. pp. 583. $1.00.
+
+Parties and their Principles; a Manual of Political Intelligence,
+exhibiting the Origin, Growth, and Character of the National Parties.
+With an Appendix, containing Valuable and General Statistical
+Information. By Arthur Holmes. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp.
+394. $1.00.
+
+Four Years Aboard the Whale-Ship. Embracing Cruises in the Pacific,
+Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans, in the Years 1855-59. By
+William B. Whitecar, Jr. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp.
+413. $1.00.
+
+The History of the Whig Party. By R. Mackintosh Ormsby. Boston. Crosby,
+Nichols, & Co, 12mo. pp. 377. $1.00.
+
+Rills from the Fountain of Life; or, Sermons to Children. By Rev.
+Richard Newton, D. D., Rector of St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia. New
+York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 220. 75 cts.
+
+Life in Jesus; a Memoir of Mrs. Mary Winslow, arranged from her
+Correspondence, Diary, and Thoughts. By her Son, Octavius Window, D. D.
+New York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 426. $1.00.
+
+Almost a Heroine. By the Author of "Charles Auchester," "Counterparts,"
+etc., etc. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 399. $1.00.
+
+Life in Tuscany. By Mabel Shaman Crawford. From the London Edition. New
+York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. 339. $1.00.
+
+Germaine. By Edmond About. Boston. J. E. Tilton & Co. 12mo. pp. 341.
+$1.00.
+
+The Puritans; or, the Church, Court, and Parliament of England, during
+the Reigns of Edward Sixth and Queen Elizabeth. By Samuel Hopkins. 3
+vols. Vol. I. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 549. $2.50.
+
+The New American Cyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General
+Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Volume VII.
+Edward--Fueros. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 786. $3.00.
+
+The Poetical Works of Winthrop Mackworth Praed. New and enlarged
+Edition. 2 vols. New York. Redfield. 12mo. pp. 310, 304. $2.00.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 4, NO. 25, NOVEMBER, 1859 ***
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+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/804a510.zip b/old/804a510.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2a6e9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/804a510.zip