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diff --git a/old/810a210.txt b/old/810a210.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b97ec3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/810a210.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8746 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 +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. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9876] +[This file was first posted on October 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 10, NO. 58, AUGUST, 1862 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Bob Blair, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. X, NO. LVIII--AUGUST, 1862 + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + + + + + + +THE NEW GYMNASTICS. + + +Physical culture is on the top of the wave. But the movement is as yet +in the talk stage. Millions praise the gymnasium; hundreds seek its +blessings. Similar incongruities make up the story of human life. But +in this case inconsistency is consistent. + +Evidences of physical deterioration crowd upon us. Fathers and mothers +regard their children with painful solicitude. Not even parental +partiality can close the eye to decaying teeth, distorted forms, +pallid faces, and the unseemly gait. The husband would gladly give his +fortune to purchase roses for the cheeks of the loved one, while +thousands dare not venture upon marriage, for they see in it only +protracted invalidism. Brothers look into the languishing eyes of +sisters with sad forebodings, and sisters tenderly watch for the +return of brothers, once the strength and hope of the fatherless +group, now waiting for death. The evil is immense. _What can be +done?_ Few questions have been repeated with such intense anxiety. + +My object is to submit, for the consideration of the readers of the +"Atlantic," a new system of physical training, adapted to both sexes, +and to persons of all ages and degrees of strength. I have an ardent +faith that in it many will find an answer to the important question. + +The common remark, that parents are too much absorbed in the +_accomplishments_ of their daughters to give any attention to +their health, is absurd. Mothers know that the happiness of their +girls, as well as the character of their settlement in life, turns +more upon health and exuberance of spirits than upon French and +music. To suppose, that, while thousands are freely given for +accomplishments, hundreds would be refused for bodily health and +bloom, is to doubt the parents' sanity. If the father were fully +satisfied that Miss Mary could exchange her stooping form, pale face, +and lassitude for erectness, freshness, and elasticity, does anybody +suppose he would hesitate? Fathers give their daughters Italian and +drawing, not because they regard these as the best of the good things +of life, but because they form a part of the established course of +education. Only let the means for a complete physical development be +organized, and announced as an integral part of our system of +education, and parents would be filled with grateful satisfaction. The +people are ready and waiting. No want is so universal, none so deeply +felt. But how shall symmetry and vigor be reached? What are the +means? Where is the school? During the heat of the summer our +city-girls go into the country, perhaps to the mountains: this is +good. When in town, they skate or walk or visit the riding-school: +all good. But still they are stooping and weak. The father, conscious +that their bodies, like their minds, are susceptible of indefinite +development, in his anxiety takes them to the gymnasium. They find a +large room furnished with bars, ladders, and swings. They witness the +wonderful performances of accomplished gymnasts and acrobates, admire +the brilliant feats; but the girls see no opportunity for themselves. +They are nearly right. The ordinary gymnasium offers little chance for +_girls_, none for _old_ people, but little for _fat_ people of any age, +and very little for small children of either sex. + +Are not these the classes which most require artificial training? It +is claimed that the common gymnasium is admirable for young men. I +think there are other modes of training far more fascinating and +profitable; but suppose it were true that for young men it is the best +of all possible modes. These young men we need in the gymnasium where +young women exercise. If young women are left by themselves, they will +soon lose interest. A gymnasium with either sex alone is like a +ball-room with one sex excluded. To earn a living, men and women will +labor when separated; but in the department of recreation, if there be +lack of social stimulus, they will soon fall off. No gymnasium, +however well managed, with either sex excluded, has ever achieved a +large and enduring success. I know some of them have long lists of +subscribers; but the daily attendance is very small. Indeed, the only +gymnasium which never lacks patronage is the ball-room. Dancing is +undeniably one of the most fascinating exercises; but the places where +even this is practised would soon be forsaken, were the sexes +separated. + +Some lady-reader suggests that ladies of delicate sensibilities would +scarcely be willing to join gentlemen in climbing about on ladders. I +presume not; but are such exercises the best, even for men? + +I do not doubt that walking with the hands, on a ladder, or upon the +floor, head down, is a good exercise; but I think the common prejudice +in favor of the feet as a means of locomotion is well founded. Man's +anatomy contemplates the use of the legs in supporting the weight of +the body. His physical powers are most naturally and advantageously +brought into play while using the feet as the point of support. It is +around and from this centre of support that the upper part of the body +achieves its free and vigorous performances. + +The deformities of gymnasts, to which Dr. Dixon and many others have +called attention, are produced in great part by substituting arms for +legs. I need scarcely say that ring, dumb-bell, club, and many other +similar exercises, with cane and sword practice, boxing, etc., are all +infinitely superior to the ladder and bar performances. In the new +system there is opportunity for all the strength, flexibility, and +skill which the most advanced gymnasts possess, with the priceless +advantage that the two sexes may mingle in the scene with equal +pleasure and profit. + +I can but regard the common gymnasium as an institution of organized +selfishness. In its very structure it practically ignores woman. As I +have intimated, it provides for young men alone, who of all classes +least need a gymnasium. They have most out-door life; the active +games and sports are theirs; the instinct for motion compels them to a +great variety of active exercises, which no other class enjoys. Is it +not a strange mistake to provide a gymnasium for these alone? + +But it is said, if you introduce women into the gymnasium, men will +have no opportunity for those difficult, daring feats which constitute +the charm of the place. If by this is meant that there can be no +competition between the sexes in lifting heavy weights, or turning +somersets, the objection holds good. But are not games of skill as +attractive as lifting kegs of nails? Women need not fall behind men in +those exercises which require grace, flexibility, and skill. In the +Normal Institute for Physical Education, where we are preparing +teachers of the new gymnastics, females succeed better than +males. Although not so strong, they are more flexible. There are in my +gymnasium at this time a good many ladies with whom the most ambitious +young man need not be ashamed to compete, unless the shame come from +his being defeated. Gentlemen will sacrifice nothing by joining their +lady-friends in the gymnasium. But suppose it costs them something; I +greatly mistake the meaning of their protestations of devotion, if +they are not quite willing to make the sacrifice. + +Before proceeding farther, I desire to answer a question which wise +educators have asked:--"Do children require special gymnastic +training?" An eminent writer has recently declared his conviction that +boys need no studied muscle-culture. "Give them," he says, "the +unrestrained use of the grove, the field, the yard, the street, with +the various sorts of apparatus for boys' games and sports, and they +can well dispense with the scientific gymnasium." + +With all our lectures, conversations, newspapers, and other similar +means of mental culture, we are not willing to trust the intellect +without scientific training. The poorest man in the State demands for +his children the culture of the organized school; and he is right. An +education left to chance and the street would be but a disjointed +product. To insure strength, patience, and consistency, there must be +methodical cultivation and symmetrical growth. But there is no need of +argument on this point. In regard to mental training, there is, +fortunately, among Americans, no difference of opinion. +Discriminating, systematic, scientific culture is our demand. No man +doubts that chess and the newspaper furnish exercise and growth; but +we hold that exercise and growth without qualification are not our +desire. We require that the growth shall be of a peculiar kind,--what +we call scientific and symmetrical. This is vital. The education of +chance would prove unbalanced, morbid, profitless. + +_Is not this equally true of the body?_ Is the body one single +organ, which, if exercised, is sure to grow in the right way? On the +contrary, is it not an exceedingly complicated machine, the +symmetrical development of which requires discriminating, studied +management? With the thoughtful mind, argument and illustration are +scarcely necessary; but I may perhaps be excused by the intelligent +reader for one simple illustration. A boy has round or stooping +shoulders: hereby the organs of the chest and abdomen are all +displaced. Give him the freedom of the yard and street,--give him +marbles, a ball, the skates! Does anybody suppose he will become +erect? Must he not, for this, and a hundred other defects, have +special training? + +Before our system of education can claim an approach to perfection, we +must have attached to each school a professor who thoroughly +comprehends the wants of the body, and knows practically the means by +which it may be made symmetrical, flexible, vigorous, and enduring. + +Since we have, unhappily, become a military people, the soldier's +special training has been much considered as a means of general +physical culture. Numberless schools, public and private, have already +introduced the drill, and make it a part of each day's exercises. + +But this mode of exercise can never furnish the muscle-culture which +we Americans so much need. Nearly all our exercise is of the lower +half of the body: we walk, we run up and down stairs, and thus +cultivate hips and legs, which, as compared with the upper half of the +body, are muscular. But our arms, shoulders, and chests are ill-formed +and weak. Whatever artificial muscular training is employed should be +specially adapted to the development of the upper half of the body. + +Need I say that the military drill fails to bring into varied and +vigorous play the chest and shoulders? Indeed, in almost the entire +drill, are not these parts held immovably in one constrained position? +In all but the cultivation of erectness, the military drill is +singularly deficient in the requisites of a system of muscle-training +adapted to a weak-chested people. + +Dancing, to say nothing of its almost inevitably mischievous +concomitants, brings into play chiefly that part of the body which is +already in comparative vigor, and which, besides, has little to do +directly with the size, position, and vigor of the vital organs. + +Horseback exercise is admirable, and has many peculiar advantages +which can be claimed for no other training; but may it not be much +indulged while the chest and shoulders are left drooping and weak? + +Skating is graceful and exhilarating; but, to say nothing of the +injury which not unfrequently attends the sudden change from the +stagnant heat of our furnaced dwellings to the bleak winds of the icy +lake, is it not true that the chest-muscles are so little moved that +the finest skating may be done with the arms folded? + +I should be sorry to have any of these exercises abandoned. While some +of them demand reform, they are all, on the whole, exceedingly useful. + +What I would urge is this: As bodily _symmetry_ is vital to the +highest physiological conditions, and as departure from symmetry is +the rule among all classes, but especially with Young America, we +must, to secure this symmetry, introduce into our system of physical +education a variety of special, studied means. + +The new gymnastics are all adapted to music. A party may dance without +music. I have seen it done. But the exercise is a little dull. + +Exercises with the upper extremities are as much improved by music as +those with the lower extremities. Indeed, with the former there is +much more need of music, as the arms make no noise, such as might +secure concert in exercises with the lower extremities. + +A small drum, costing perhaps five dollars, which may be used as a +bass-drum, with one beating-stick, with which any one may keep time, +is, I suppose, the sort of music most classes in gymnastics will use +at first. And it has advantages. While it is less pleasing than some +other instruments, it secures more perfect concert than any other. The +violin and piano are excellent, but on some accounts the hand-organ is +the best of all. + +Feeble and apathetic people, who have little courage to undertake +gymnastic training, accomplish wonders under the inspiration of +music. I believe three times as much muscle can be coaxed out, with +this delightful stimulus, as without it. + + +DUMB-BELL EXERCISES. + +I have selected the dumb-bell as perhaps the happiest means by which +to illustrate the mischievous consequences of "heavy weights." +Thoughtful physiologists deeply regret the _lifting_ mania. In +every possible case, _lifting_ is an inferior means of physical +training, and for women and children, in short for nine-tenths of the +people, it is positively mischievous. I introduce the dumb-bell +exercises to illustrate and enforce this doctrine. + +Heretofore dumb-bells have been made of metal. The weight in this +country has usually been considerable. The general policy at present +is to employ those as heavy as the health-seeker can "put up." In the +great German gymnastic institutes dumb-bells were formerly employed +weighing from fifty to one hundred pounds; but now Kloss and other +distinguished authors condemn such weights, and advocate those +weighing from two to five pounds. I think those weighing two pounds +are heavy enough for any man; and as it is important that they be of +considerable size, I introduced, some years ago, dumb-bells made of +wood. Every year my faith grows stronger in their superiority. + +Some years since, before I had seen the work of Professor Kloss on the +Dumb-Bell, I published a paper upon the use of this piece of +apparatus, in which I stated the best weight for men as from two to +five pounds, and gave at length the reasons for the employment of such +light weights, and the objections to heavy ones. I was filled, not +with pride, but with profound satisfaction, while engaged in +translating Kloss's work recently, to find, as fundamental with this +great author, identically the same weights and reasons. + +In my early experience as a teacher of gymnastics I advocated the use +of heavy dumb-bells, prescribing those weighing one hundred pounds for +persons who could put up that weight. As my success had always been +with heavy weights, pride led me to continue their use long after I +had begun to doubt the wisdom of such a course. + +I know it will be said that dumb-bells of two pounds' weight will do +for women and children, but cannot answer the requirements of strong +men. + +The weight of the dumb-bell is to be determined entirely by the manner +in which it is used. If only lifted over the head, one or two pounds +would be absurdly light; but if used as we employ them, then one +weighing ten pounds is beyond the strength of the strongest. No man +can enter one of my classes of little girls even, and go through the +exercises with dumb-bells weighing ten pounds each. + +We had a good opportunity to laugh at a class of young men, last year, +who, upon entering the gymnasium, organized an insurrection against +the wooden dumb-bells, and through a committee asked me to procure +iron ones; I ordered a quantity, weighing three pounds each; they used +them part of one evening, and when asked the following evening which +they would have, replied, "The wooden ones will do." + +A just statement of the issue is this: If you only lift the dumb-bell +from the floor, put it up, and then put it down again, of course it +should be heavy, or there is no exercise; but if you would use it in a +great variety of ways, assuming a hundred graceful attitudes, and +bringing the muscles into exercise in every direction, requiring skill +and followed by an harmonious development, the dumb-bell must be +light. + +There need be no controversy between the light-weight and the +heavy-weight party on this point. We of the light-weight party agree, +that, if the dumb-bell is to be used as the heavy-weight party uses +it, it must be heavy; but if as we use it, then it must be light. If +they of the heavy-weight party think not, we ask them to try it. + +The only remaining question is that which lies between all heavy and +light gymnastics, namely, whether strength or flexibility is to be +preferred. Without entering upon a discussion of the physiological +principles underlying this subject, I will simply say that I prefer +the latter. The Hanlon brothers and Heenan are, physiologically +considered, greatly superior to heavy-lifters. + +But here I ought to say that no man can be flexible without a good +degree of strength. It is not, however, the kind of strength involved +in heavy-lifting. Heenan is a very strong man, can strike a blow +twice as hard as Windship, but cannot lift seven hundred pounds nor +put up a ninety-pound dumb-bell. William Hanlon, who is probably the +finest gymnast, with the exception of Blondin, ever seen on this +continent, cannot lift six hundred pounds. Such men have a great fear +of lifting. They know, almost by instinct, that it spoils the muscles. + +One of the finest gymnasts in the country told me that in several +attempts to lift five hundred pounds he failed, and that he should +never try it again. This same gymnast owns a fine horse. Ask him to +lend that horse to draw before a cart and he will refuse, because such +labor would make the animal stiff, and unfit him for light, graceful +movements before the carriage. + +The same physiological law holds true of man: lifting great weights +affects him as drawing heavy loads affects the horse. So far from +man's body being an exception to this law, it bears with peculiar +force upon him. Moving great weights through small spaces produces a +slow, inelastic, inflexible man. No matter how flexible a young man +may be, let him join a circus-company, and lift the cannon twice a day +for two or three years, and he will become as inflexible as a +cart-horse. No matter how elastic the colt is when first harnessed to +the cart, he will soon become so inelastic as to be unfit to serve +before the carriage. + +If it be suspected that I have any personal feeling against +Dr. Windship or other heavy-lifters, I will say that I regard all +personal motives in a work of such magnitude and beneficence as simply +contemptible. On the contrary, I am exceedingly grateful to this class +of gymnasts for their noble illustration of the possibilities in one +department of physical development. + +Men, women, and children should be strong, but it should be the +strength of grace, flexibility, agility, and endurance; it should not +be the strength of a great lifter. I have alluded to the gymnastics of +the circus. Let all who are curious in regard to the point I am +discussing visit it. Permit me to call special attention to three +performers,--to the man who lifts the cannon, to the India-rubber man, +and to the general performer. The lifter and the India-rubber man +constitute the two mischievous extremes. It is impossible that in +either there should be the highest physiological conditions; but in +the persons of the Hanlon brothers, who are general performers, are +found the model gymnasts. They can neither lift great weights nor tie +themselves into knots, but they occupy a position between these two +extremes. They possess both strength and flexibility, and resemble +fine, active, agile, vigorous carriage-horses, which stand +intermediate between the slow cart-horse and the long-legged, +loose-jointed animal. + +"Strength is health" has become a favorite phrase. But, like many +common saws, it is an error. Visit the first half-dozen circuses that +may come to town, and ask the managers whether the cannon-lifter or +the general performer has the better health. You will find in every +case it is the latter. Ask the doctors whether the cartmen, who are +the strongest men in the city, have better health than other classes, +who, like them, work in the open air, but with light and varied +labor. You will not find that the measure of strength is the measure +of health. Flexibility has far more to do with it. + +Suppose we undertake the training of two persons, of average +condition. They have equal strength,--can lift four hundred +pounds. Each has the usual stiff shoulders, back, and limbs. One lifts +heavy weights until he can raise eight hundred pounds. Inevitably he +has become still more inflexible. The other engages in such exercises +as will remove all stiffness from every part of the body, attaining +not only the greatest flexibility, but the most complete +activity. Does any intelligent physiologist doubt that the latter will +have done most for the promotion of his health? that he will have +secured the most equable and complete circulation of the fluids, which +is essentially what we mean by health, and have added most to the +beauty and effectiveness of his physical action? + +With heavy dumb-bells the extent of motion is very limited, and of +course the range and freedom of action will be correspondingly +so. This is a point of great importance. The limbs, and indeed the +entire body, should have the widest and freest range of motion. It is +only thus that our performances in the business or pleasures of life +become most effective. + +A complete, equable circulation of the blood is thereby most perfectly +secured. And this, I may remark, is in one aspect the physiological +purpose of all exercise. The race-horse has a much more vigorous +circulation than the cart-horse. It is a fact not unfamiliar to +horsemen, that, when a horse is transferred from slow, heavy work to +the carriage, the surface-veins about the neck and legs begin at once +to enlarge; when the change is made from the carriage to the cart, the +reverse is the result. + +And when we consider that the principal object of all physical +training is an elastic, vigorous condition of the nervous system, the +superiority of light gymnastics becomes still more obvious. The +nervous system is the fundamental fact of our earthly life. All other +parts of the organism exist and work for it. It controls all, and is +the seat of pain and pleasure. The impressions upon the stomach, for +example, resulting in a better or worse digestion, must be made +through the nerves. This supreme control of the nervous system is +forcibly illustrated in the change made by joyful or sad tidings. The +overdue ship is believed to have gone down with her valuable, +uninsured cargo. Her owner paces the wharf, sallow and wan,--appetite +and digestion gone. She heaves in sight! She lies at the wharf! The +happy man goes aboard, hears all is safe, and, taking the officers to +a hotel, devours with them a dozen monstrous compounds, with the +keenest appetite, and without a subsequent pang. + +I am confident that the loyal people of this country have eaten and +digested, since Roanoke and Donelson, as they had not before since +Sumter. + +Could we have an unbroken succession of good news, we should all have +good digestion without a gymnasium. But in a world of vexation and +disappointment, we are driven to the necessity of studied and unusual +muscle-culture, and other hygienic expedients, to give the nervous +system that support and vitality which our fitful surroundings deny. + +If we would make our muscle-training contributive in the highest +degree to the healthful elasticity of our nerves, the exercises must +be such as will bring into varied combinations and play all our +muscles and nerves. Those exercises which require great accuracy, +skill, and dash are just those which secure this happy and complete +intermarriage of nerve and muscle. If any one doubts that boxing and +small-sword will do more to give elasticity and tone to the nervous +system than lifting kegs of nails, then I will give him over to the +heavy-lifters. + +Another point I take the liberty to urge. Without _accuracy_ in +the performance of the feats, the interest must be transient. This +principle is strikingly exemplified in military training. Those who +have studied our infantry drill have been struck with its simplicity, +and have wondered that men could go through with its details every day +for years without disgust. If the drill-master permit carelessness, +then, authority alone can force the men through the evolutions; but if +he insist on the greatest precision, they return to their task every +morning, for twenty years, with fresh and increasing interest. + +What precision, permit me to ask, is possible in "putting up" a heavy +dumb-bell? But in the new dumb-bell exercises there is opportunity +and necessity for all the accuracy and skill which are found in the +most elaborate military drills. + +I have had experience in boxing and fencing, and I say with +confidence, that in neither nor both is there such a field for fine +posturing, wide, graceful action, and studied accuracy, as is to be +found in the new series of dumb-bell exercises. + +But, it is said, if you use dumb-bells weighing only two pounds, you +must work an hour to obtain the exercise which the heavy ones would +furnish in five minutes. I need not inform those who have practised +the new series with the light dumb-bells that this objection is made +in ignorance. If you simply "put up" the light implement, it is true; +but if you use it as in the new system, it is not true. On the +contrary, in less than five minutes, legs, hips, back, arms, +shoulders, neck, lungs, and heart will each and all make the most +emphatic remonstrance against even a quarter of an hour's practice of +such feats. + +At this point it may be urged that those exercises which quicken the +action of the thoracic viscera, to any considerable degree, are simply +exhaustive. This is another blunder of the "big-muscle" men. They seem +to think you can determine every man's constitution and health by the +tape-line; and that all exercises whose results are not determinable +by measurement are worthless. + +I need scarcely say, there are certain conditions of brain, muscle, +and every other tissue, far more important than size; but what I +desire to urge more particularly in this connection is the importance, +the great physiological advantages, of just those exercises in which +the lungs and heart are brought into active play. These organs are no +exceptions to the law that exercise is the principal condition of +development. Their vigorous training adds more to the stock of +vitality than that of other organs. A man may stand still and lift +kegs of nails and heavy dumb-bells until his shoulders and arms are +Samsonian, it will contribute far less to his health and longevity +than a daily run of a mile or two. + +Speaking in a general way, those exercises in which the lungs and +heart are made to go at a vigorous pace are to be ranked among the +most useful. The "double-quick" of the soldier contributes more in +five minutes to his digestion and endurance than the ordinary drill in +two hours. + +I have said an elastic tone of the nervous system is the physiological +purpose of all physical training. If one may be allowed such an +analysis, I would add that we exercise our muscles to invigorate the +thoracic and abdominal viscera. These in their turn support and +invigorate the nervous system. All exercises which operate more +directly upon these internal organs--as, for example, laughing, deep +breathing, and running--contribute most effectively to the stamina of +the brain and nerves. It is only the popular mania for monstrous arms +and shoulders that could have misled the intelligent gymnast on this +point. + +But finally, it is said, you certainly cannot deny that rapid motions +with great sweep exhaust more than slow motions through limited +spaces. A great lifter said to me the other day,-- + +"Do you pretend to deny that a locomotive with a light train, flying +at the rate of forty miles an hour, consumes more fuel than one with a +heavy train, moving at the rate of five miles?" + +I did not attempt to deny it. + +"Well, then," he added, with an air of triumph, "what have you to say +now about these great sweeping feats with your light dumb-bells, as +compared with the slow putting up of heavy ones?" + +I replied by asking him another question. + +"Do you pretend to deny, that, when you drive your horse ten miles +within an hour, before a light carriage, he is more exhausted than by +drawing a load two miles an hour?" + +"That's my doctrine exactly," he said. + +Then I asked,-- + +"Why don't you always drive two miles an hour?" + +"But my patients would all die," replied my friend. + +I did not say aloud what was passing in my mind,--that the danger to +his patients might be less than he imagined; but I suggested, that +most men, as well as most horses, had duties in this life which +involved the necessity of rapid and vigorous motions,--and that, were +this slow movement generally adopted, every phase of human life would +be stripped of progress, success, and glory. + +As our artificial training is designed to fit us for the more +successful performance of the duties of life, I suggest that the +training should be, in character, somewhat assimilated to those +duties. If you would train a horse for the carriage, you would not +prepare him for this work by driving at a slow pace before a heavy +load. If you did, the first fast drive would go hard with him. Just so +with a man. If he is to lift hogsheads of sugar, or kegs of nails, as +a business, he may be trained by heavy-lifting; but if his business +requires the average activity and free motions of human occupations, +then, upon the basis of his heavy, slow training, he will find himself +in actual life in the condition of the dray-horse who is pushed before +the light carriage at a high speed. + +Perhaps it is not improper to add that all this talk about expenditure +of vitality is full of sophistry. Lecturers and writers speak of our +stock of vitality as if it were a vault of gold, upon which you cannot +draw without lessening the quantity. Whereas, it is rather like the +mind or heart, enlarging by action, gaining by expenditure. + +When Daniel Boone was living alone in Kentucky, his intellectual +exercises were doubtless of the quiet, slow, heavy character. Other +white men joined him. Under the social stimulus, his thinking became +more sprightly. Suppose that in time he had come to write vigorously, +and to speak in the most eloquent, brilliant manner, does any one +imagine that he would have lost in mental vigor by the process? Would +not the brain, which had only slow exercise in his isolated life, +become bold, brilliant, and dashing, by bold, brilliant, and dashing +efforts? + +A farm-boy has slow, heavy muscles. He has been accustomed to heavy +exercises. He is transferred to the circus, and performs, after a few +years' training, a hundred beautiful, splendid feats. He at length +reaches the matchless Zampillacrostation of William Hanlon. Does any +one think that his body has lost power in this brilliant education? + +Is it true, either in intellectual or physical training, that great +exertions, under proper conditions and limitations, exhaust the powers +of life? On the contrary, is it not true that we find in vigorous, +bold, dashing, brilliant efforts the only source of vigorous, bold, +dashing, and brilliant powers? + +In this discussion I have not considered the treatment of +invalids. The principles presented are applicable to the training of +children and adults of average vitality. + +I will rest upon the general statement, that all persons, of both +sexes, and of every age, who are possessed of average vitality, +should, in the department of physical education, employ light +apparatus, and execute a great variety of feats which require skill, +accuracy, courage, presence of mind, quickness of eye and hand,--in +brief, which demand a vigorous and complete exercise of all the powers +and faculties with which the Creator has endowed us; while deformed +and diseased persons should be treated in consonance with the +philosophy of the _Swedish Movement-Cure_, in which the movements +are slow and limited. + +It is but justice to the following series of exercises with dumb-bells +to state that not only are they, with two or three exceptions, the +writer's own invention, but the wisdom of the precise arrangement +given, as well as the balance of exercise in all the muscles of the +body and limbs, has been well proved by an extensive use during +several years. + +By way of illustrating the new system of dumb-bell exercises, I +subjoin a few cuts. The entire series contains more than fifty +exercises. + +The pupil, assuming these five positions, in the order presented, +twists the arms. In each twisting, the ends of the dumb-bells should, +if possible, be exactly reversed. Great precision will sustain the +interest through a thousand repetitions of this or any other +exercise. The object in these twisting exercises is to break up all +rigidity of the muscles and ligaments about the shoulder-joint. To +remove this should be the primary object in gymnastic training. No one +can have examined the muscles of the upper half of the body without +being struck with the fact that nearly all of them diverge from the +shoulder like a fan. Exercise of the muscles of the upper part of the +back and chest is dependent upon the shoulder. It is the centre from +which their motions are derived. As every one not in full training has +inflexibility of the parts about the shoulder-joint, this should be +the first object of attack. These twistings are well calculated to +effect the desired result. While practising them, the position should +be a good one,--head, shoulders, and hips drawn far back. + +In our attempts to correct stooping shoulders, one good series of +exercises is found in thrusting the dumb-bells directly upwards. While +performing this the positions must be varied. A few illustrations are +offered. + +As effective means by which to call into vigorous play neck, +shoulders, back, hips, arms, and legs, I submit the following +exercises. + + +THE GYMNASTIC CROWN. + +Bearing burdens on the head results in an erect spine and +well-balanced gait. Observing persons, who have visited Switzerland, +Italy, or the Gulf States, have noticed a thousand verifications of +this physiological law. + +Cognizant of the value of this feature of gymnastic training, I have +employed, within the last twelve years, various sorts of weights, but +have recently invented an iron crown, which I think completely +satisfactory. I have it made to weigh from five to thirty pounds. It +is so padded within that it rests pleasantly on the head, and yet so +arranged that it requires skill to balance it. + +The skull-cap, which is fitted to the top of the head, must have an +opening of two inches in diameter at the crown, so that that part of +the head shall receive no pressure. If this be neglected, many persons +will suffer headache. The skull-cap should be made of strong cotton, +and supported with a sliding cord about the centre. With such an +arrangement, a feeble girl can easily carry a crown, weighing ten or +fifteen pounds, sufficiently long, morning and evening, to secure an +erect spine in a few months. + +The crown which I employ is so constructed as to admit within itself +two others, whereby it may be made to weigh nine, eighteen, or +twenty-seven pounds, at the pleasure of the wearer. This is a +profitable arrangement, as in the first use nine pounds might be as +heavy as could be well borne, while twenty-seven pounds could be as +easily borne after a few weeks. + +The crown may be used at home. It has been introduced into schools +with excellent results. + +Instead of this iron crown, a simple board, with an oblong rim on one +side so padded with hair that the crown of the head entirely escapes +pressure, may prove a very good substitute. The upholsterer should so +fill the pad that the wearer will have difficulty in balancing it. It +may be loaded with bags of beans. + + +RULES FOR WEARING THE CROWN OR OTHER WEIGHT ON THE HEAD. + +Wear it five to fifteen minutes morning and evening. Hold the body +erect, hips and shoulders thrown far back, and the crown rather on the +front of the head. + +Walk up and down stairs, keeping the body very erect. While walking +through the hall or parlors, first turn the toes inward as far as +possible; second, outward; third, walk on the tips of the toes; +fourth, on the heels; fifth, on the right heel and left toe; sixth, on +the left heel and right toe; seventh, walk without bending the knees; +eighth, bend the knees, so that you are nearly sitting on the heels +while walking; ninth, walk with the right leg bent at the knee, rising +at each step on the straight left leg; tenth, walk with the left leg +bent, rising at each step on the straight right leg. + +With these ten different modes of walking, the various muscles of the +back will receive the most invigorating exercise. + +Wearing the crown is the most valuable of all exercises for young +people. If perseveringly practised, it would make them quite erect, +give them a noble carriage of the head, and save them from those +maladies of the chest which so frequently take their rise in drooping +shoulders. + + +EXERCISES WITH RINGS. + +After the exercises with the crown, those with the new gymnastic ring +are the best ever devised. Physiologists and gymnasts have everywhere +bestowed upon them the most unqualified commendation. Indeed, it is +difficult to conceive any other series so complete in a physiological +point of view, and so happily adapted to family, school, and general +use. + +If a man were as strong as Samson, he would find in the use of these +rings, with another man of equal muscle, the fullest opportunity to +exert his utmost strength; while the frailest child, engaged with one +of equal strength, would never be injured. + +There is not a muscle in the entire body which may not be brought into +direct play through the medium of the rings. And if one particular +muscle or set of muscles is especially deficient or weak, the exercise +may be concentrated upon that muscle or set of muscles. + +Wherever these rings are introduced, they will obtain favor and awaken +enthusiasm. + +The rings are made of three pieces of wood, glued together with the +grain running in opposite directions. They are round, six inches in +diameter with body one inch thick, and finished with a hard, smooth +polish. + +The first series with the rings consists of a number of twisting +exercises with the arms. Not only are these valuable in producing +freedom about the shoulder-joint, which, as has been explained, is a +great desideratum, but twisting motions of the limbs contribute more +to a rounded, symmetrical development than any other exercises. If the +flexors and extensors are exercised in simple, direct lines, the +muscular outlines will be too marked. + +In twisting with the rings, the arms may be drawn into twenty +positions, thus producing an almost infinite variety of action in the +arm and shoulder. + +Two of the positions assumed in this series are shown in the cuts. + +It is our policy in these exercises to pull with a force of from five +to fifty pounds, and thus add indefinitely to the effectiveness of the +movements. + +To illustrate a few of the many hundred exercises possible with rings, +the subjoined cuts are introduced. + +In this exercise, the rings are made to touch the floor, as shown, in +alternation with the highest point they can be made to reach, all +without bending the knees or elbows. + +The hands are thrust upward, outward, and downward with force. + +The hands are thrust forward and drawn backward in alternation as far +as the performers can reach. + +It will be understood that in none of these exercises are the +performers to maintain the illustrated positions for a single +moment. As in dancing, there is constant motion and change, while the +music secures concert. When, by marks on the floor, the performers are +kept in linear rank and file, the scene is most exhilarating to +participants and spectators. + +The above are specimens of the many _charges_ with the +rings. Shoulders, arms, back, and legs receive an incomparable +training. In constant alternation with the charges, the pupils rise to +the upright position; and when the company move simultaneously to the +music, few scenes are so brilliant. + +_In most exercises there must be some resistance. How much better +that this should be another human being, rather than a pole, ladder, +or bar! It is social, and constantly changing._ + + +EXERCISES WITH WANDS. + +A straight, smooth stick, four feet long, (three feet for children,) +is known in the gymnasium as a _wand_. It is employed to +cultivate flexibility, and is useful to persons of all ages and +degrees of strength. + +Of this series there are sixty-eight exercises in the new system, but +I have space only for a few illustrations. + + +EXERCISES WITH BEAN-BAGS. + +The use of small bags filled with beans, for gymnastic exercise, was +suggested to my mind some years since, while attempting to devise a +series of games with large rubber-balls. Throwing and catching objects +in certain ways, requiring skill and presence of mind, not only +affords good exercise of the muscles of the arms and upper half of the +body, but cultivates a quickness of eye and coolness of nerve very +desirable. Appreciating this, I employed large rubber-balls, but was +constantly annoyed at the irregularities resulting from the difficulty +of catching them. When the balls were but partially inflated, it was +observed that the hand could better seize them. This at length +suggested the bean-bags. Six years' use of these bags has resulted in +the adoption of those weighing from two to five pounds, as the best +for young people. The bags should be very strong, and filled +three-quarters full with clean beans. The beans must be frequently +removed and the bags washed, so that the hands and dress may not be +soiled, nor the lungs troubled with dust. + +Forty games have been devised. If managers of schools are unwilling to +_study_ these games, and organize their practice, it is hoped +they will reject them altogether. If well managed, a school of young +ladies will use the bags half an hour every day for years, and their +interest keep pace with their skill; but mismanaged, as they generally +have been, it is a marvel, if the interest continues through a single +quarter. + +The following cuts may serve to illustrate some of the +bag-exercises. It will be observed that the players appear to be +looking and throwing somewhat upward. Most of the exercises +illustrated are performed by couples,--the bags being thrown to and +fro. It has been found advantageous, where it is convenient, to +suspend a series of hoops between the players, and require them to +throw the bags through these hoops, which, being elevated several +feet, compel the players to assume the positions seen in the figures. + +With the bean-bags there are numberless possible games, requiring eye +and hand so quick, nerves so cool, skill and endurance so great, that +the most accomplished has ever before him difficulties to be +surmounted. + +In a country where pulmonary maladies figure so largely in the bills +of mortality, a complete system of physical training must embrace +special means for the development of the respiratory apparatus. The +new system is particularly full and satisfactory in this +department. Its spirometers and other kindred agencies leave nothing +to be desired. + +Physiologists and teachers believe that the new system of gymnastics +is destined to establish a new era in physical education. It is +ardently hoped that events may justify their confidence. + + + + +MR. AXTELL. + + +PART I. + +I cannot tell who built it. It is a queer piece of architecture, a +fragment, that has been thrown off in the revolutions of the wheel +mechanical, this tower of mine. It doesn't seem to belong to the +parsonage. It isn't a part of the church now, if ever it has been. No +one comes to service in it, and the only voiced worshipper who sends +up little winding eddies through its else currentless air is I. + +My sister said "I will" one day, (naughty words for little children,) +and so it came to pass that she paid the penalty by coming to live in +the parsonage with a very grave man. And he preaches every Sunday out +of the little square pulpit, overhung by a great, tremulous +sounding-board, to the congregation, sitting silently listening below, +within the church. + +I come every year to the parsonage, and in my visiting-time I occupy +this tower. It is quite deserted when I am away, for I carry the key, +and keep it with me wherever I go. I hang it at night where I can see +the great shadow wavering on the ceiling above my head, when the jet +of gas, trembling in the night-wind below, sends a shimmer of light +into my room. + +It is a skeleton-key. It wouldn't open ordinary homes. There's a +something about it that seems to say, as plainly as words _can_ +say, "There are prisoners within"; and as oft as my eyes see it +hanging there, I say, "I am your jailer." + +On the first day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and +sixty, I arrived at the parsonage. It was early morning when I saw the +little wooden church-"steeple," in the distance, and the sun was not +risen when she who said the "naughty words" and the grave minister +came out to welcome me. + +Ere the noontide came, I had learned who had gone from the village, +all unattended, on the mysterious journey, since last I had been +there. There were new souls within the town. And a few, that had been +two, were called one. These things I heard whilst the minister sat in +his study up-stairs, and held his head upon his hands, thinking over +the theology of the schools; his wife, meanwhile, in the room below, +working out a strange elective predestination, free-will gifts to be, +for some little ones that had strayed into the fold to be warmed and +clothed and fed. At length the village "news" having all been imparted +to me, I gave a thought to my tower. + +"How is the old place?" asked I, as my sister paused a moment in the +cutting out of a formula for a coat, destined for a growing boy. + +"Don't get excited about the tower yet, Sister Anna," she said; "let +it alone one day." + +"Oh, I can't, Sophie!" I said; "it's such a length of days since I sat +in the grated window!"--and I looked out as I spoke. + +Square and small and high stood the tower, as high as the church's +eaves. + +"What could it have been built for?" + +I knew not that I had spoken my thought, until Sophie answered,-- + +"We have found out recently that the tower was here when the first +church was built. It may have been here, for aught we know, before +white men came." + +"Perhaps the church was built near to it for safety," I suggested. + +"It has been very useful," said Sophie. "Not long ago, the first +night in January, I think, Mr. Bronson came to see my husband. He +lived here when he was a boy, and remembers stories told by his father +of escapes, from the church to the tower, of women and children, at +the approach of Indians. One stroke of the bell during service, and +all obeyed the signal. Deserted was the church, and peopled the +tower, when the foes came up to meet the defenders outside." + +"I knew my darling old structure had a history," said I. "Is there +time for me to take one little look before dinner?" + +"No," somewhat hastily said Sophie; "and I don't wish you to go up +there alone." + +"Don't wish me to go alone, Sophie? Why, I have spent hours there, +and never a word said you." + +"I--believe--the--place--is--haunted," slowly replied she, "by living, +human beings." + +"Never! Why, Sophie, think how absurd! Here's the key,--a great, +strong, honest key; where could another be found to open the heavy +door? Such broad, true wards it has,--look, and believe!" + +As if unhearing, Sophie went on,-- + +"I certainly heard a voice in there one day. Old Mother Hudson died, +and was buried in the corner, close beside the church. My husband went +away as soon as the burial was over, and I came across the graveyard +alone. It was a bright winter's day, with the ground all asnow, and no +footstep had broken the fleecy white that lay on my way. As I passed +under the tower I heard a voice, and the words, too, Anna, as plainly +as ever spoken words were heard." + +"What were they, Sophie?" + +"'But hope will not die; it has a root of life that goes down into the +granite formation; human hand cannot reach it.'" + +"Who said it?" I asked. + +"That is the mystery, Anna. The words were plainly spoken; the voice +was that of one who has sailed out into the region of great storms, +and found that heavy calms are more oppressive." + +"Was it voice of man?" + +"Yes, deep and earnest." + +"Where did it come from?" + +"From the high window up there, I thought." + +"And there were no footsteps near?" + +"I told you, none; my own were the first that had crossed the +church-yard that day." + +"You know, Sophie, we voice our own thoughts sometimes all +unknowingly; and knowing the thought only, we might dissever the +voice, and call it another's." + +Sophie looked up from the table upon which she had been so +industriously cutting, and holding in one hand an oddly shapen sleeve, +she gave a demonstrative wave at me, and said,-- + +"Anna, your distinctions are too absurd for reason to examine +even. Have I a voice that _could command an army_, or shout out +orders in a storm at sea? Have I the voice of a man?" + +Sophie had a depth of azure in her eyes that looked ocean-deep into an +interior soul; she had softly purplish windings of hair around a low, +cool brow, that said, "There are no torrid thoughts in me." And yet I +always felt that there was an equator in Sophie's soul, only no mortal +could find it. Looking at her, as thus she stood, I forgot that she +Lad questioned me. + +"Why do you look at me so?" she asked. "Answer me! Have I the voice of +a man? Listen now! Hear Aaron up-stairs: he's preaching to himself, to +convince himself that some thorn in theology grows naturally: could I +do that?" + +"Your voice, I fancy, can do wonders: but about the theology, I don't +believe you like thorns in it; I think you would break one off at +once, and cast it out";--and I looked again at the rough tower, and +ran my fingers over the strong protective key in my hands. + +"Don't look that way, Anna,--please don't!--for your footsteps have an +ugly way of following some will-o'-the-wisp that goes out of your +eyes. I know it,--I've seen it all your life," Sophie urged, as I +shook my head in negation. + +"Will you lend me this hood?" I asked, as I took up one lying near. + +"If you are determined to go; but do wait. Aaron shall go with you +after dinner; he will have settled the thorn by that time." + +"What for should I take Aaron up the winding stairs? There is no +parishioner in want or dying up there." + +And I tied the hood about my head, and in a wrapping-shawl, closely +drawn,--for cold and cannon-like came the bursts of wind down through +the mountain valleys,--I went out. Through the path, hedged with +leafless lilac-shrubs, just athrob with the mist of life sent up from +the roots below, I went, and crossed the church-yard fence. Winding in +and out among the graves,--for upon a heart, living and joyous, or +still and dead, I cannot step,--I took my way. "Dear old tower, I have +thee at last!" I said; for I talk to unanswering things all over the +world. In crowded streets I speak, and murmur softly to highest +heights. + +But I quite forgot to tell what my tower was built like, and of what +it was made. A few miles away, a mountain, neither very large nor very +high, has met with some sad disaster that cleaved its stony shell, and +so, time out of memory, the years have stolen into its being, and +winter frosts have sadly cut it up, and all along its rocky ridges, +and thickly at its base, lie beds of shaly fragments, as various in +form and size as the autumn-leaves that November brings. + +I've traced these bits of broken stone all the way from yonder +mountain hither; and that once my tower stood firm and fast in the +hill's heart, I know. + +There are sides and curves, concaves and convexities, and angles of +every degree, in the stones that make up my tower. The vexing question +is, What conglomerated the mass? + +No known form of cement is here, and so the simple village-people say, +"It was not built by the present race of men." + +On the northern side of the tower leaves of ungathered snow still lay. + +In the key-hole all winter must have been dead, crispy, last-year +leaves, mingled with needles of the pine-tree that stands in the +church-yard corner; for I drew out fragment after fragment, before I +could find room for my key. At last the opening was free, and my +precious bit of old iron had given intimation of doing duty and +letting me in, when a touch upon my shoulder startled me. + +'T was true the wind was as rude as possible, but I knew it never +could grasp me in that way. It was Aaron. + +"What is the matter?" I asked; for he had come without his hat. + +My brother-in-law, rejoicing in the authoritative name of Aaron, +looked decidedly foolish, as I turned my clear brown eyes upon him, +standing flushed and anxious, with only March wind enveloping his hair +all astir with breezes of Theology and Nature. + +"Sophie sent me," he said, with all the meekness belonging to a former +family that had an Aaron in it. + +"What does Sophie wish?" I asked. + +"She says it's dinner-time." + +"And did she send you out in such a hurry to tell me that?" + +"No, Anna,"--and the importance of his mission grew upon him, for he +spoke quite firmly,--"Sophie is troubled and anxious about your visit +to this tower; please turn the key and come away." + +"I will, if you give me good reason," I said. + +"Why do you wish to go up, just now?" + +"Simply because I like it." + +"To gratify a passing fancy?" + +"Nothing more, I do assure you; but why shouldn't I?"--and I grasped +the key with a small attempt at firmness of purpose. + +"Because Sophie dislikes it. She called to me to come and keep you +from going in; there was distress in her manner. Won't you come away, +for now?" + +He had given me a reason. I rejoice in being reasonable. I lent him a +bit of knitting-work that I happened to have brought with me, with +which he kept down his locks, else astray, and walked back with him. + +"You are not offended?" he asked, as we drew near to the door. + +"Oh, no!" + +Sophie hid something that had been very close to her eyes, as we went +in. + +My brother-in-law gave me back my strip of knitting-work, and went +upstairs. + +"You think I'm selfish, Anna," spoke Sophie, when he was gone. + +"I don't." + +"You can't help it, I think." + +"But I can. I recognize a law of equilibrium that forbids me to think +so." + +"How? What is the law like?" + +"Did you ever go upon the top of a great height, whether of building +or earth?" + +"Oh, yes,--and I'm not afraid at all. I can go out to the farthest +edge, where other heads would feel the motion of the earth, perhaps, +and I stand firm as though the north-pole were my support." + +"That is just it," replied I. "Now it puts all my fear in action, and +imagination works indescribable horrors in my mind, to stand even upon +a moderate elevation, or to see a little child take the first steps at +the head of a staircase; and I think it would be the height of cruelty +for you to go and stand where it gave me such pain." + +"I wouldn't do it knowingly,"--and the blue in Sophie's eyes was misty +as she spoke. + +"How did you feel about my going into the tower a few moments ago?" + +"As you would, if you saw me on a jutting rock over the age-chiselled +chasm at Niagara." + +"Thus I felt that it would be wrong to go in, though I had no +fear. But you will go with me, perhaps, this afternoon; I can't quite +give up my devotion." + +"If Aaron can't, I will," she said; but a bit of pallor whitened her +face as she promised. + +I thoroughly hate ghosts. There is an antagonism between mystery and +me. My organs of hearing have been defended by the willingest of +fingers, from my childhood, against the slightest approach of the +appearance or the actions of one, as pictured in description. I think +I'm afraid. But in the mid-day flood of sunlight, and the great sweep +of air that enveloped my tower, standing very near to the church, +where good words only were spoken, and where prayers were prayed by +true-hearted people, _why_ should my cool-browed sister Sophie +deter me from a pleasure simple and true, one that I had grown to +like, weaving fancies where I best pleased? I asked myself this +question, with a current of impatience flowing beneath it, as I waited +for Sophie to finish the "sewing-society work," which must go to +Deacon Downs's before two of the clock. + +I know she did not hasten. I know she wished for an interruption; but +none came. The work-basket was duly sent off, whither Sophie soon must +follow; for her hands, and her good, true heart, were both in the work +she had taken up to do. Sophie won't lay it down discouraged; she +sees plains of verdure away on,--a sort of _mirage_ of the +mind. I cannot. It is not given unto me. + +I had prepared the way to open the door of the tower when Aaron +interrupted me in the morning. I didn't keep Sophie standing long in +the wind, but she was trembling when I said,-- + +"Help me a little; my door has grown heavy this winter." + +It creaked on its hinges, rusted with the not-far-away sea-air; and a +good strong pull, from four not very strong hands, was necessary to +admittance. Darkness was inside, except the light that we let in. We +stood a little, to accustom our eyes to the glimmer of rays that came +down from the high-up window, and those that went up from the open +door. At length they met, and mingled in a half-way gloom. There were +broad winding stairs, with every inch of standing-room well used; for +wherever within a mortal might be, there was fixed a foundation. + +"What's the use of going up, Anna? It's only a few minutes that we +can stay." + +Sophie looked pale and weary. + +"You shall not," I said; "stay here; let me reconnoitre: I'll come +down directly." + +I left her standing outside,--or rather, I felt her going out, as I +ran lightly on, up the rude stairway. Past a few of the landings, (how +short the way seemed this day!) and I was beside the window. I looked +across into the belfry of the church, lying scarce a hundred feet +away. I thought it was bird-time; but no,--deserted were the beamy +rafters and the spaces between. + +What is this upon the window-bar? A scrap, a shred of colored +fabric. "It has been of woman's wear," thought I, as I took the little +bit from off its fastening-hook; "but how came it here? It isn't +anything that I have worn, nor Sophie. A grave, brown, plaid morsel of +a woman's dress, up here in my tower, locked all the winter, and the +key never away from me!" + +Ah! what is that? A paper, on the floor. I got down from the high +window-ledge, where I had climbed to get the piece of cloth, and +picked up an envelope, or as much of one as the mysterious visitor had +left. The name, once upon it, was so severed that I could not link the +fragments. + +I heard a voice away down the winding stair. It was Sophie, calling, +because I stayed so long. I hid the trophies of my victory, for I +considered my coming to be a style of conquering, and relieved her +waiting by my presence. + +"Perhaps you were afraid to come up?" I asked, as I joined her. + +"I was, and I was not," she said; "but please hurry, Anna, and lock +the door, for we shall be late at 'Society.'" + +"No one knows that I am here as yet," I pleaded, "and I feel a little +weary with having been last night on the steamboat. Suppose you let +me stay quietly at home. I don't feel like talking, and you know I'm +not of much assistance in deeds of finger-charity." + +"And will you not get lonely?" + +"Not a bit of it,--or if I do, there's Aaron up-stairs; he doesn't +mind my pulling his sermons in pieces, for want of better amusement." + +Thus good sister Sophie let me escape scrutiny and observation on the +first day of March, 1860. How recent it is, scarcely a week old, the +time! + +Sophie went her way to Deacon Downs's farm-house up the hill, to tire +her fingers out with stitches put in, to hear the village grievances +told over, and to speak her words of womanly kindness. I walked a +little of the way with her; then, in turning back, I remembered that +Aaron would think me gone with Sophie; so I had the time, four full +hours, to dream my dreams and weave my fancies in. + +I took out my envelope, and tried to find a name to fit it among the +good people whose names were known to me. The wind was blowing in my +face. A person came up and passed me by, as I, with head bent over the +paper, walked slowly. I only noticed that he turned to see what I was +doing. At the paper bit he cast only the slightest glance. + +The church-door was open. This was the day for sweeping out the Sunday +dust. "Is there any record here, any old, forgotten list of deeds +done by the early church?" I questioning thought. "There's a new +sexton, I heard Aaron say,--a man who used, years ago, to fulfil the +duties; perhaps he'll know something of the tower. I'll ask him this +very afternoon." + +In the vestibule lay the brooms and brushes used in renovating the +place, the windows were open, but no soul was inside. I walked up the +central aisle, and read the mortuary tablets on either pulpit-side. We +sometimes like to read that which we best know, and the words on these +were written in the air wherever I went, still I chose the +marble-reading that day. + +A little church-mouse ran along the rail, and stopped a moment at the +baptismal basin, but, finding no water left by careless sexton there, +it continued its journey up the pulpit-stairs, and I saw the hungry +little thing go gnawing at the corner of the Book wherein is the Bread +of Life. I threw a pine-tree cone that I had gathered in my walk up at +the little Vandal, and went out. + +"I'll wait for the sexton in my tower," thought I; "he'll not be long +away, and I can see him as he comes." + +I looked cautiously up at the study-windows ere I went into the +tower. I took out the key, for it fastened only on the outside, and +closed myself tightly in. A moment of utter darkness, then the thread +of light was let down to me from above. I caught at it, and, groping +up the stairs, gained my high window-seat. Without the tower, I saw +the deep-sea line, crested with short white waves, the far-away +mountain, and all the valley that lay between, while just below me, +surging close to the tower's base, were the graves of those who had +gone down into the deeper, farther-away Sea of Death, the terrible +sea! What _must_ its storms be to evolve such marble foam as that +which the shore of our earth receives? + +"O Death, Death! what art thou?" my spirit cried out in words, and +only the dream of Life answered me. In the midst of it, I saw the +person who had passed me as I examined the envelope coming up the +street churchward. Not a sound of life or of motion came from the +building, and I must have heard the slightest movement, for my window +was only of iron bars. Losing sight of this face new to me, I lost the +memory of it in my dream. Still, this figure coming up the silent +village-street on that afternoon I found had unwoven the heavier part +of my vision; and to restore it, I took from my pocket, for the second +time, my two treasures. + +Oh, how I did glory in those two wisps of material! The fragment of +envelope had come from a foreign land. What contained it once? joy or +sorrow? Was the recipient worthy, or the gift true? And I went on +with the imaginary story woven out of the shreds of fabric before me +until it filled all my vision, when suddenly fancy was hushed to +repose,--for, as sure as I sat there, living souls had come into the +tower below. + +How? + +All was darkness down there; not one ray of light since I shut the +door. Why did I do it? + +It was the fear that Aaron in his study would see me. + +Voices, confused and indistinct, I heard, sending bubbling words up +through the sea of darkness down below. At first I did not try to +hear; I listened only to the great throbbings of my own heart, until +there came the sound of a woman's voice. It was eager, anxious, and +pained. It asked,-- + +"Did he see you?" + +A man's voice, deep and earnest, answered,-- + +"No, no; hush, child!" + +"This is dreadful!" + +"But I know I was not seen. And here you are sure no one ever comes?" +--and I heard a hand going over the great door down there, to find the +latch. + +"Yes, no one ever comes but the minister's wife's sister. She takes a +fancy to the dreariness, and always carries the key with her. She's +away, and no one can get in." + +"Shall we go up higher, nearer to the window?" + +"No. I must wait but a moment; I have something yet to do." + +I heard the deep voice say,-- + +"Oh, woman's moments, how much there is in one of them! Will you sit +on this step? But you won't heed what I have to say, I know." + +"I always heed you, Herbert. What have you to say? Speak quickly." + +"Sit here, upon this step." + +A moment's rustling pause in the darkness down below, and then the +far-out-at-sea voice spoke again. + +"Do you send me away?" + +"Indeed you must go; it is terrible to have you here. Think, what if +you had been seen!" + +"I know, I know; but you won't go with me?" + +"Why are you cruel, uselessly?" said the pleading voice of woman. + +"Cruel? Who? I cruel?" + +"What is it that keeps me? Answer me that!" + +"Your will is all." + +Silence one moment,--two,--and an answer came. + +"Herbert! Herbert! is it _you_ speaking to _me_? My will +keeping me? Who hath sinned?" + +The sound of a soul in torture came eddying up in confused words; all +that came to the mortal ear, listening unseen, were, "Forgive--I--I +only"---- + +A few murmurous sounds, and then the voice that had uttered its +confession in that deep confessional of a gloomy soul said, and there +was almost woman's pleadingness in it,-- + +"When can I come again?" + +"I will write to you." + +"When will you write?" + +"When one more soul is gone." + +"Oh, it's wicked to shorten life by wishes even! but when one has done +one terrible wrong, little wickednesses gather fast." + +Woman has a pathos, when she pleads for God, deeper than when she +pleads for anything on earth. That pleading,--I can't make you hear +it,--the words were,-- + +"Herbert! Herbert! don't you see, _won't you see_, that, if you +leave the one great sin all uncovered, open to the continual attrition +of a life of goodness, God _will_ let it wear away? It will +lessen and lessen, until at the last, when the Ocean of Eternity beats +against it, it shall go down, down into the deeps of love that no +mortal line can fathom. Oh, Herbert, come out with me!--come out into +this Infinity of Love!" + +"With you? yes, anywhere!" + +"Oh, oh! this is it!--_this is man!_ It isn't _my_ love that +you want; it isn't the little one-grained thing that the Angel of Life +takes from out of Heaven's granary and scatters into the human soul; +it is the great Everlasting, a sempiternity of love, that _you_ +want, Herbert!" + +"And you can't give it to me?" + +"No, I will ask it for you; and you will ask it for yourself?" + +"Only tell me how." + +"You know how to ask for human love." + +"Yours, yes; but then I haven't sinned against you." + +"Have you not, Herbert?" + +"Well,--but not in the same way. I haven't gone beyond the measure of +your affection, I feel that it is larger than my sin, or I could not +be here." + +"Tell me how you know this. What is the feeling like?" + +"What is it like? Why, when I come to you, I don't forever feel it +rising up with a thousand speary heads that shut you out; it drowns in +your presence; the surface is cool and clear, and I can look down, +down, into the very heart of my sin, like that strange lake we looked +into one day,--do you remember it?--the huge branches and leafless +trunks of gigantic pines coming up stirless and distinct almost to the +surface; and do you remember the little island there, and the old +tradition that it was the feasting-place of a tribe of red men, who +displeased the Great Spirit by their crimes, and in direful +punishment, one day, when they were assembled on their mountain, it +suddenly gave way beneath them, and all were drowned in the flood of +waters that rushed up, except one good old squaw who occupied one of +the peaks that is now the island?" + +"And so I am the good old squaw?" said the lady. + +"For all that I can see in the darkness." + +"But that makes me better than the many who lie below;--the squaw was +good, you remember. But how did she get off of the island? Pity +tradition didn't tell us. Loon's Island, in Lake Mashapaug in +Killingly, wasn't it?" + +A little silence came, broken by the words,-- + +"It's so long since I have been with you!" + +"Yes, and it's time that I was gone." + +"Not a few moments more?--not even to go back to the old subject?" + +"No,--it's wrong,--it perils you. You put away your sin when you come +to the little drop of my love; go and hide it forever in the sea that +every hour washes at your feet." + +"You'll write?" + +"I will." + +I heard a sound below, like the drawing of a match across a stone; +then a faint bit of glimmer flickered a moment. I couldn't see where +they were. I bent forward a little, in vain. + +"My last match," said the lady. "What shall we do? We can't go +through in the darkness." + +"We must. I will go first. Give me your hand. Now, three steps down, +then on; come,--fear nothing." + +A heavy sound, as of some ponderous weight let fall, and I knew that +the only living soul in there was hers who sat with hands fast hold of +frosty bars, high up in the window of the tower. + +I left fragments of the skin of my fingers upon the cold iron, in pay +for the woollen bit I had taken thence. + +I ventured down a step or two. Beyond was inky darkness. If only a +speck of light were down below! Why did I shut the door? Go on I could +not. I turned my face upward, where the friendly light, packing up +its robes of every hue for the journey of a night, looked kindly +in. And so I went back, and sat in my usual seat, and watched the +going day, as, one by one, she took down from forest-pegs and +mountain-hooks breadths of silver, skirts of gold, folding silently +the sheeny vestments, pressing down each shining fold, gathering from +the bureau of the sea, with scarcely time enough for me to note, waves +of whitely flowing things, snowy caps, crimpled crests, and crispy +laces, made by hands that never tire, in the humid ocean-cellar. A +wardrobe fit for fair Pre-Evites to wear lay rolled away, and still I, +poor prisoner in my tower, watched in vain the dying day. It sent no +kind jailer to let me free. No footstep crossed the church-yard. The +sexton had put the windows down before my visitors went away. He must +have gone home an unusual way, for I waited in vain to hear him go. + +I saw, when just enough of light was left to see, my sister Sophie +coming down the hill. Strange fancy,--she went as far from the tower +as if it were a ghostly quarantine. She did not hear me call in a very +human voice, but went right on; and I heard the parsonage door-latch +sharply close her in. + +Would they look for me, now I was not there? I waited, and a strange, +unearthly tremor shook both blood and nerves, until tears were wrought +out, and came dropping down, and in the stillness I heard one fall +upon a stone below. + +A forsaken, forgotten, uncared-for feeling crept up to me, half from +the words of woful meaning that I that afternoon had heard, and half +the prisoned state, with fear, weak and absurd, jailing me in. + +The reverberations from my fallen tear scarce were dead in my ears +when I heard footsteps coming. I called,-- + +"Aaron!" + +Aaron's own true voice answered me,-- + +"Where are you, Anna?" + +"In the tower. Open the door, please." + +"Give me the lantern," Sophie said, "whilst you open the door." + +I, thoughtlessly taking the key, had left nothing by which to draw it +out. Aaron worked away at it, right vigorously, but it would not +yield. + +"Can't you come down and push?" timidly asked Sophie, creeping round +the corner, in view of tombstones. + +"It's very dark inside; I can't," I said; and so Aaron went on, +pulling and prying, but not one inch did the determined door yield. + +Out of the darkness came an idea. I came in with the key,--why not +they? and, calling loudly, I bade them watch whilst I threw it from +the window. In the lantern's circle of light it went rushing down; and +I'm sorry to tell that in its fall it grazed an angel's wing of +marble, striking off one feather from its protecting mission above a +sleeping child. + +The door was opened at last; at last a circle of light came into this +inverted well, and arose to me. Can you imagine, any one, I ask, who +is of mortal hue and mould,--can you imagine yourself deep down in a +well, such a one as those living on high lands draw their water from, +holding on with weary fingers to the slimy mosses, fearing each new +energy of grasping muscle is the last that Nature holds in its store +for you; and then, weary almost unto death, you look up and see two +human faces peering above the curbstone, see the rope curling down to +you, swinging right before your grasp, and a doubt comes,--have you +life enough to touch it? + +So, could I get down to them, to the two friendly, anxious faces that +peered up at me? You who have no imaginary fears, who never press the +weight of all your will to weigh down eyelids that something tells +you, if uplifted, would let in on the sight a something nameless, come +from where you know not, made visible in midnight darkness, can never +know with what a throbbing of heart I went weakly down. If I did not +know that the great public opinion becomes adamant after a slight +stratum of weakness, I would say what befell me when Sophie's fingers, +tired with stitching, clasped mine. + +Aaron and Sophie were not of the questioning order of humanity, and I +was left a few moments to my own way of expressing relief, and then +Aaron locked the tower as usual, and we went away. He, I noticed, put +the key in his pocket, instead of delivering it to me, self-constituted +its rightful owner. + +"Will you give me my key?" I said, with a timid tenacity in the +direction of my right. + +"Not enough of the dreary, ghoul-like place yet, Anna? And to give us +such an alarm upon your arrival-day!" + +The key came to me, for Aaron would not keep it without good reason. + +It was around the bright, cheerful tea-table that Sophie asked,-- + +"Why did you not come down, Anna? Did you choose staying up so late?" + +"No, Sophie,"--and I looked with my clear brown eyes as fearlessly at +them both as when I had listened to reason in the morning,--"I shut +the door when I went up, and afterwards, when I would have come down, +I felt afraid invisible hands were weaving in the blackness to seize +me. I believe it would have killed me to come out, after I had been an +hour up there." + +"And you don't mind confessing to such cowardice?" asked Sophie, +evidently slightly ashamed of me. + +"I never did mind telling the truth, when it was needful to speak at +all. I don't cultivate this fear,--I urge reason to conquer it; but +when I have most rejoiced in going on, despite the ache of nerve and +brain, after it I feel as if I had lost a part of my life, my nature +doesn't unfold to sunny joys for a long time." + +"'Tis a sorry victory, then!" said Aaron. + +"You won't mind my telling you what it is like?" + +"Certainly not." + +"It's like that ugly point in theology that hurt you so, last autumn; +and when you had said a cruel _Credo_, you found sweet flowers +lost out of your religion. I know you missed them." + +"Oh, Anna!" + +"Don't interrupt me; let me finish. It's like making maple-sugar: one +eats the sugar, calling it monstrous sweet, and all through the +burning sun of summer sits under thin-leaved trees, to pay for the +condensation. The point is, it doesn't pay,--the truest bit of +sentiment the last winter has brought to me." + +"Is this Anna?" asked the minister. + +"Yes, Aaron, it is I, Anna." + +"You're not what you were when last here." + +"Quite a different person, Sir. But what is your new sexton's name?" + +"That is more sensible. His name is Abraham Axtell." + +"What sort of person is he?" + +"The strangest man in all my parish. I cannot make him out. Have you +seen him?" + +"No. Is there any harm in my making his acquaintance?" + +"What an absurd question!" said Sophie. + +"You are quite at liberty to get as many words out of him as he will +give, which I warn you will be very few," said the sexton's friendly +pastor. + +"Is he in need of the small salary your church must give its sexton?" +I asked. + +"The strangest part of the whole is that he won't take anything for +his services; and the motive that induces him to fight the spiders +away is past my comprehension. He avoids Sophie and me." + +So much for my thread of discovery: a very small fibre, it is true,--a +church-sexton performing the office without any reward of gold,--but I +twisted it and twirled it round in all the ideal contortions plausible +in idealic regions, and fell asleep, with the tower-key under my +pillow, and the rising moon shining into my room. + +I awoke with my secret safely mine,--quite an achievement for one in +no wise heroic; but I _do delight_ in sole possessions. + +There is the sun, a great round bulb of liquid electricity, open to +all the eyes that look into the sky; but do you fancy any one owns +that sun but I? Not a bit of it! There is no record of deed that +matches mine, no words that can describe what conferences sun and I do +hold. The cloudy tent-door was closed, the sun was not "at home" to +me, as I went down to life on the second day of March, 1860. + +Sophie seemed stupid and commonplace that morning. Aaron had a +headache, (that theologic thorn, I know,) and Sophie must go and sit +beside him, and hold the thread of his Sunday's discourse to paper, +whilst with wrapped brow and vision-seeing eyes he told her what his +people ought to do. + +Good Sophie! I forgave her, when she put sermons away, and came down +to talk a little to me. It is easy to forgive people for goodness to +others, when they are good to one's self _just afterwards_. + +"Do you know any Herbert in Redleaf?" I ventured to ask, with as +careless a tone as I knew. + +"No, Anna;--let me think;--I thought I knew,--but no, it is not +here. Why?" + +"It doesn't matter. I thought there might be a person with that +name.--Don't you get very tired of this hum-drum life?" + +"But it isn't hum-drum in the least, except in bee-time, and on +General-Training days." + +"Oh, Sophie! you know what I mean." + +"Well, I confess to liking a higher development of intellectual nature +than I find in Redleaf, but I feel that I belong to it, I ought to be +here; and feeling atones for much lack of mind,--it gets up higher, +nearer into the soul. You know, Anna, we ought to love Redleaf. Look +across that maple-grove." + +"What is there?" + +"Chimneys." + +"Well, what of them?" + +"There was smoke in them once,--smoke rising from our father's fires, +you know, Anna." + +"But so long ago, one scarcely feels it." + +"Only sixteen years; we remember, you and I, the day the fires were +put out." + +"Yes, I remember." + +"Don't you think we ought to love the place where our lives began, +because our father lived here too?" + +"It's a sorry sort of obligation, to ought to love anything." + +"Even the graves, out there, in the church-yard?" + +"Yes, even them. I would rather love them through knowing something +that some one tenant of them loved and suffered and achieved than to +love them merely because they hold the mortal temples that once were +columns in 'our family.' The world says we ought to love so much, and +our hearts tell us we ought to love foolishly sometimes, and I say one +oughtn't to love at all." + +"Anna! Anna!" + +"I haven't got any Aaron, Sophie, to teach me the 'ought-tos.'" + +There was a morsel of pity outgleaming from Sophie's eyes, as she went +to obey a somewhat peremptory call. She needn't have bestowed it on +me; I learned not to need it, yesterday. + +Satisfied that the tower wouldn't give me any more information, and +that the visit of "the two" was the last for some time to come, I +closed down my horizon of curiosity over the church-steeple, a little +round, shingly spire with a vane,--too vain to tell which way the wind +might chance to go. + +Ere Sophie came back to me, there was a bell-stroke from the +belfry. She hurried down at the sound of it. + +"Will you come with me, Anna? Aaron wants to know who is dead." + +"Who rings the bell?" + +"The sexton, of course." + +We were within the vestibule before he had begun to toll the years. + +A little timidly, Sophie spoke,-- + +"Mr. Wilton wishes to know who has died." + +The uncivil fellow never turned an inch; he only started, when Sophie +began to speak. I couldn't see his face. + +"Tell Mr. Wilton that my mother is dead, if he wishes to know." + +Sophie pulled my sleeve, and whispered, "Come away!"--and the man, +standing there, began to toll the years of his mother's life. + +"Don't go," I said, outside; "_don't_ leave him without saying, +'I am sorry': you didn't even ask a question." + +"You wouldn't, if you knew the man." + +"Which I mean to do. You go on. I'll wait upon the step till he is +done, and then I'll talk to him." + +"I wouldn't, Anna. But I must hurry. Aaron will go up at once." + +Dutiful little wife! She went to send her headaching husband half a +mile away, to offer consolation, unto whom? + +I sat upon the step until he had done. The years were not many,--half +a score less than the appointed lot. + +Would he come out? He did. I heard him coming; but I would not move. +I knew that I was in his way, and wanted him to have to speak to me. I +sat just where he must stand to lock the door. + +"Are you waiting to see me?" he asked. "Is there anything for the +sexton to do?" + +I arose, and turned my face toward him. + +"I am waiting to see if I can do anything for you. I am your +minister's wife's sister." + +What could have made him shake so? And such a queer, incongruous +answer he gave! + +"Isn't it enough to have a voice, without a face's coming to torment +me too?" + +It was _not_ the voice that spoke in the tower yesterday. It was +of the kind that has a lining of sentiment that it never was meant by +the Good Spirit should be turned out for the world to breathe against, +making life with mortals a mental pleurisy. + +"I hope I don't torment you." + +"You do." + +"When did your mother die?" + +"There! I knew! _Will_ you take away your sympathy? I haven't +anything to do with it." + +"You'll tell me, please, if I can do anything for you, or up at your +house. Do you live near here?" + +"It's a long way. You can't go." + +"Oh, yes, I can. I like walking." + +He locked the door, and dropped the key when he was done. I picked it +up, before he could get it. + +A melodious "Thank you," coming as from another being, rewarded me. + +"Let me stop and tell my sister, and I'll go with you," I said, +believing that he had consented. + +The old voice again was used as he said,-- + +"No, you had better not"; and he quickly walked on his way. + +Completely baffled in my expectation of touching this strange being by +proffers of kindness, I turned toward the parsonage. Aaron was +already gone on his ministerial mission. + +"What strange people one does find in this world!" said Sophie, as I +gave her the history of my defeat. "Now this Axtell family are past my +comprehension." + +"Ah! a family. I didn't think him a married man." + +"Neither is he." + +"Then what is the family?" + +"The mother, a sister, and himself." + +"Do you know the sister?" + +"Just a little. She is the finest person in mind we have here, but +wills to live alone, except she can do deeds of charity. I met her +once in a poor farmer's house. The man had lost his wife. Such a +soft, sweet glamour of comfort as she was winding in and out over his +sorrow, until she actually had the poor fellow looking up with an +expression that said he was grateful for the good gift Heaven had +gained! She stopped as soon as I went in. I wish she would come out in +Redleaf." + +"And the mother?" + +"A proud old lady, sick these many years, and, ever since we've been +here, confined to her room. I've only seen her twice." + +"And now she's dead?" + +Sophie was silent. + +"Who'll dig her grave?" + +One of my bits of mental foam that strike the shore of sound. + +"Anna, how queer you are growing! What made you think of such a +thing?" + +"I don't think my thoughts, Sophie." + +But I did watch the church-yard that +day. No one came near it, and my knitting-work +grew, and my mystery in the +tower was as dark as ever, when at set +of sun Aaron came home. + +"There is a sorry time up there," he said. "The old lady died in the +night, and Miss Lettie is quite beside herself. Doctor Eaton was +there when I came away, and says she will have brain-fever." + +"Oh, I hope not!" said Sophie. + +"Who is there?" I asked. + +"No one but Abraham. I offered to let Sophie come, but he said no." + +"That will never do, Aaron: one dead, and one sick in the house, and +only one other." + +"Of course it will not, Sophie,--I will go and stay to-night," said I. + +"You, Anna? What do you know of taking care of sick people?" + +"I? Why, here, let me take this,"--and I picked up Miss Nightingale's +new thoughts thereon. "Thus armed and fortified, do you think they'll +ask other reference of their nurse?" + +"It's better for her than going up to stay in the tower; and they +_are_ in need, though they won't say it. Let it be, Sophie." + +And so my second night in March came on. A neighbor's boy walked the +way with me, and left me at the door. + +"I guess you'll repent your job," he said, as I bade him good-night. + +"Mr. Axtell will not send me back alone," I thought; and I waited just +a little, that my escort might get beyond call before I knocked. + +It was a solemn, great house under whose entrance-porch I +stood. Generation after generation might have come, stayed, and gone, +like the last soul: here last night,--to-night, oh! where? + +I looked up at the sombre roof, dropping a little way earthward from +the sides. Mosses hung from the eaves. Not one sound of life came to +me as I stood until the neighbor's boy was out of sight. I knocked +then, a timid, tremulous knock,--for last night's fear was creeping +over me. The noise startled a dog; he came bounding around the corner +with a sharp, quick bark. + +I am afraid of dogs, as well as of several other things. Before he +reached me the door opened. + +A little maid stood within it. Fear of the dog, scarce a yard away, +impelled me in. + +"Away, Kino! Away, I say! Leave the lady alone!" + +Kino went back to his own abode, and I was closed into the hall of +this large, melancholy house. The little maid waited for some words +from me. Before I found any to bestow, the second door along the hall +opened, and the voice that had been so uncivil to me in the morning +said,-- + +"What aroused Kino, Kate?" + +"This lady, Sir." + +The little Kate held a candle in her hand, but Mr. Axtell had not seen +me. Strange that I should take a wicked pleasure in making this man +ache!--but I know that I did, and that I would have owned it then, as +now, if I had been accused of it. + +"What does the lady want?" + +"It is I, who have come to stay with your sister. Mr. Wilton says +she's sick." + +"She's sick, that's true; but I can take care of her." + +"And you won't let me stay?" + +"_Won't let you_? Pray tell me if young ladies like you like +taking care of sick people." + +"Young ladies just like me do, if brothers don't send them away." + +Did he say, "Brothers ar'n't Gibraltars"? I thought so; but +immediately thereafter, in that other voice, out of that other self +that revolved only in a long, long period, came,-- + +"Will you come in?" + +He had not moved one inch from the door of the room out of which he +had come; but I had walked a little nearer, that my voice might not +disturb the sick. The one lying dead, never more to be disturbed, +where was she? Kate, the little maid, said,-- + +"It is in there he wants you to go." + +Abraham Axtell stood aside to let me enter. There was no woman there, +no one to say to me, in sweet country wise,--"I'm glad you're +come,--it's very kind of you; let me take your things." + +I did not wait, but threw aside my hood, the very one Sophie had lent +me to go into the tower, and, taking off my shawl and furs, I laid +them as quietly away in the depths of a huge sofa's corner as though +they had hidden there a hundred times before. + +"I think I scarcely needed this," I said, putting upon the +centre-table, under the light of the lamp, Miss Nightingale's good +book,--and I looked around at a library, tempting to me even, as it +spread over two sides of the room. + +He turned at my speaking; for the ungrateful man had, I do believe, +forgotten that I was there. + +He took up the book, looked at its title, smiled a little--scornfully, +was it?--at me, and said of her who wrote the book,-- + +"She is sensible; she bears the result of her own theories before +imposing their practice upon others; but," and he went back to the +thorn-apple voice, "do you expect to take care of my sister by the aid +of this to-night?" + +"It may give me assistance." + +"It will not. What does Miss Nightingale know of Lettie?" + +Well, what does she? I don't know, and so I had to answer,-- + +"Nothing." + +"That doctor is here," said Kate, at the door. + +"Are you coming up, too?" he asked, as he turned suddenly upon me, +half-way out of the room. + +"Certainly!"--and I went out with him. + +Up the wide staircase walked the little maid, lighting the way, +followed by the doctor, Mr. Axtell, and Anna Percival. + +Kate opened the door of a room just over the library, where we had +been. + +The doctor went in, quietly moving on toward the fireplace, in which +burned a cheery wood-fire. In front of it, in one of those large +comfort-giving, chintz-covered, cushioned chairs, sat Miss Axtell; but +the comfort of the chair was nothing to her, for she sat leaning +forward, with her chin resting upon the palm of her right hand, and +her eyes were gone away, were burning into the heart of the amber +flame that fled into darkness up the chimney. Hers was the style of +face which one might expect to find under Dead-Sea waves, if diver +_could_ go down,--a face anxious to escape from Sodom, and held +fast there, under heavy, heavy waters, yet still with its eyes turned +toward Zoar. + +Now a feverous heat flushed her face, white a moment before, when we +came in; but she did not turn away her eyes,--they seemed fixed, out +of her control. The doctor laid his hand upon her forehead. It broke +the spell that bound her gaze. She spoke quite calmly. I almost smiled +to think any one could imagine danger of brain-fever from that calm +creature who said,-- + +"Please don't give me anything, Doctor Eaton; believe me, I shall do +better without." + +"And then we shall have you sick on our hands, Abraham and I. What +should we do with you?" + +"I'll try not to trouble you," she said,--"but I would rather you left +me to myself to-night"; but even as she spoke, a quick convulsion of +muscles about her face told of pain. + +Doctor Eaton had not seen me, for I stood in the shadow of the bed +behind him. + +"Who will stay with your sister tonight?" he asked Mr. Axtell. + +Mr. Axtell looked around at me, as if expecting that I would answer; +and I presented myself for the office. + +"You look scarcely fit," was the village-physician's somewhat +ungracious comment; and his eyes said, what his lips dared not,--"Who +are you?" + +"I think you'll find me so, if you try me." + +Miss Axtell had gone away again, and neither saw nor heeded me. + +"Will you come below?"--and the doctor looked at me as he went out. + +I followed him. In the library he shut the door, sat down near the +table, took from his pocket a small phial containing a light brown +powder, and, dividing a piece of paper into the minute scraps needful, +made a deposit in each from the phial, and then, folding over the bits +of paper, handed them to me. + +"Are you accustomed to take care of sick persons?" he asked. + +"Not much; but I am a physician's daughter. I have a little +experience." + +"Are you a visitor here?" + +"No,--at the parsonage." + +A pair of quick gray eyes danced out at me from under browy cliffs +clothed with a ledge of lashes, in an actually startling manner. I +didn't think the man had so much of life in him. + +"You're Mrs. Wilton's sister, perhaps." + +"I am." + +"Give her one of these every half-hour, till she falls asleep." + +"Yes, Sir." + +"Don't let her talk; but she won't, though. If she gets +incoherent,--says wild things,--talks of what you can't +understand,--send for me; I live next door." + +"Is this all for her?" + +"Enough. Do you know her?" + +"I never saw her until to-night." + +"The brother? Monstrous fellow." + +"Until to-day." + +"Look up there." + +"Where?" + +"On the wall." + +"At what?" + +There were several paintings hanging there. + +"The face, of course." + +"I can't see it very well." + +Shadows were upon it, and the lampshade was on. + +"Then I'll take this off"; and Doctor Eaton removed the shade, letting +the light up to the wall. + +"A young girl's face," I said. + +The doctor was looking at me, and not at the painting there. A little +bit of confusion came,--I don't know why. + +"Do you like it?" I ventured. + +"I like it? I'm not the one to like it." + +"Somebody does, then?" + +"Of course. What did he paint it for, if he didn't like it?" + +"I do not know of whom you are talking, at all," I said, a little +vexed at this information-no-information style. + +"You don't?" in a voice of the utmost astonishment. + +"No. Is this all, for the sick lady? I think I ought to go to her." + +"Of course you ought. It's a sad thing, this death in the house"; and +Doctor Eaton picked up his hat, and opened the door. + +Kate was waiting in the hall. + +"Mr. Abraham thinks you'd better look in and see if it's well to have +any watchers in there, before you go," she said. + +"Well, light me in, then, Katie. You wait in there, if you please, +Miss," to me; and I saw the two go to the front-room on the right. + +A waft of something, it may have been the air that came out of that +room, sent me back from the hall, and I shut the door behind me. It +was several minutes before they came back. In the interim I had taken +a long look at the face on the wall. It seemed too young to be very +beautiful, and I couldn't help wishing that the artist had waited a +year or two, until a little more of the outline of life had come to +it; yet it was a sweet, loving face, with a brow as low and cool as +Sophie's own, only it hadn't any shadow of an Aaron on it. I didn't +hear the door open, I hadn't heard the sound of living thing, when +some one said, close to me, as I was standing looking up at the face +I've spoken of,-- + +"What are you doing?" + +It was Mr. Axtell, and the voice was a prickly one. + +"Is there any harm?" I said. "I'm only looking here,"--pointing to +where my eyes had been before. "Who painted it?" + +"An unknown, poor painter." + +"Was he poor in spirit?" + +"He is now, I trust." + +A man that has variant voices is a cruel thing in this world, because +one cannot help their coming in at some one of the gates of the heart, +which cannot all be guarded at the same moment. "Poor in spirit?" "He +is now, I trust." I felt decidedly vexed at this man before me for +having such tones in his voice. + +"Can I go up to Miss Axtell now?" I asked. + +"In a moment, when Kate has shown Doctor Eaton out." + +I picked up my powders and my illustrious book, and waited. + +Kate came. + +"The doctor says there's no need," she said, in her laconic way. + +Kate, I afterwards learned, was the daughter of the farmer that Sophie +heard Miss Axtell consoling for the loss of his wife, one day. + + + + + +MY DAPHNE. + + + My budding Daphne wanted scope + To bourgeon all her flowers of hope. + + She felt a cramp around her root + That crippled every outmost shoot. + + I set me to the kindly task; + I found a trim and tidy cask, + + Shapely and painted; straightway seized + The timely waif; and, quick released + + From earthen bound and sordid thrall, + My Daphne sat there, proud and tall. + + Stately and tall, like any queen, + She spread her farthingale of green; + + Nor stinted aught with larger fate, + For that she was innately great. + + I learned, in accidental way, + A secret, on an after-day,-- + + A chance that marked the simple change + As something ominous and strange. + + And so, therefrom, with anxious care, + Almost with underthought of prayer, + + As, day by day, my listening soul + Waited to catch the coming roll + + Of pealing victory, that should bear + My country's triumph on the air,-- + + I tended gently all the more + The plant whose life a portent bore. + + The weary winter wore away, + And still we waited, day by day; + + And still, in full and leafy pride, + My Daphne strengthened at my side, + + Till her fair buds outburst their bars, + And whitened gloriously to stars! + + Above each stalwart, loyal stem + Rested their heavenly diadem, + + And flooded forth their incense rare, + A breathing Joy, upon the air! + + Well might my backward thought recall + The cramp, the hindrance, and the thrall, + + The strange release to larger space, + The issue into growth and grace, + + And joyous hail the homely sign + That so had spelled a hope divine! + + For all this life, and light, and bloom, + This breath of Peace that blessed the room, + + Was born from out the banded rim, + Once crowded close, and black, and grim, + + With grains that feed the Cannon's breath, + And boom his sentences of death! + + + + +CONCERNING DISAGREEABLE PEOPLE. + + +"On the whole, it was very disagreeable," wrote a certain great +traveller and hunter, summing up an account of his position, as he +composed himself to rest upon a certain evening after a hard day's +work. And no doubt it must have been very disagreeable. The night was +cold and dark; and the intrepid traveller had to lie down to sleep in +the open air, without even a tree to shelter him. A heavy shower of +hail was falling,--each hailstone about the size of an egg. The dark +air was occasionally illuminated by forked lightning, of the most +appalling aspect; and the thunder was deafening. By various sounds, +heard in the intervals of the peals, it seemed evident that the +vicinity was pervaded by wolves, tigers, elephants, wild-boars, and +serpents. A peculiar motion, perceptible under horse-cloth which was +wrapped up to serve as a pillow, appeared to indicate that a snake was +wriggling about underneath it. The hunter had some ground for thinking +that it was a very venomous one, as indeed in the morning it proved to +be; but he was too tired to look. And speaking of the general +condition of matters upon that evening, the hunter stated, with great +mildness of language, that "it was very disagreeable." + +Most readers would be disposed to say that _disagreeable_ was +hardly the right word. No doubt, all things that are perilous, +horrible, awful, ghastly, deadly, and the like, are disagreeable +too. But when we use the word disagreeable by itself, our meaning is +understood to be, that in calling the thing disagreeable we have said +the worst of it. A long and tiresome sermon is disagreeable; but a +venomous snake under your pillow passes beyond being disagreeable. To +have a tooth stopped is disagreeable; to be broken on the wheel +(though nobody could like it) transcends _that_. If a thing be +horrible and awful, you would not say it was disagreeable. The +greater includes the less: as when a human being becomes entitled to +write D.D. after his name, he drops all mention of the M.A. borne in +preceding years. + +Let this truth be remembered, by such as shall read the following +pages. We are to think about disagreeable people. Let it be +understood that (speaking generally) we are to think of people who are +no worse than disagreeable. It cannot be denied, even by the most +prejudiced, that murderers, pirates, slave-drivers, and burglars, are +disagreeable. The cut-throat, the poisoner, the sneaking black-guard +who shoots his landlord from behind a hedge, are no doubt disagreeable +people,--so very disagreeable that in this country the common consent +of mankind removes them from human society by the instrumentality of a +halter. But disagreeable is too mild a word. Such people are all that, +and a great deal more. And accordingly they stand beyond the range of +this dissertation. We are to treat of folk who are disagreeable, and +not worse than disagreeable. We may sometimes, indeed, overstep the +boundary-line. But it is to be remembered that there are people who +in the main are good people, who yet are extremely disagreeable. And +a further complication is introduced into the subject by the fact, +that some people who are far from good are yet unquestionably +agreeable. You disapprove them; but you cannot help liking +them. Others, again, are substantially good; yet you are angry with +yourself to find that you cannot like them. + +I take for granted that all observant human beings will admit that in +this world there are disagreeable people. Probably the distinction +which presses itself most strongly upon our attention, as we mingle in +the society of our fellow-men, is the distinction between agreeable +people and disagreeable. There are various tests, more or less +important, which put all mankind to right and left. A familiar +division is into rich and poor. Thomas Paine, with great vehemence, +denied the propriety of that classification, and declared that the +only true and essential classification of mankind is into male and +female. I have read a story whose author maintained, that, to his +mind, by far the most interesting and thorough division of our race is +into such as have been hanged and such as have not been hanged: he +himself belonging to the former class. But we all, more or less, +recognize and act upon the great classification of all human beings +into the agreeable and the disagreeable. And we begin very early to +recognize and act upon it. Very early in life, the little child +understands and feels the vast difference between people who are nice +and people who are not nice. In school-boy days, the first thing +settled as to any new acquaintance, man or boy, is on which side he +stands of the great boundary-line. It is not genius, not scholarship, +not wisdom, not strength nor speed, that fixes the man's place. None +of these things is chiefly looked to: the question is, Is he agreeable +or disagreeable? And according as that question is decided, the man is +described, in the forcible language of youth, as "a brick," or as "a +beast." + +Yet it is to be remembered that the division between the agreeable and +disagreeable of mankind is one which may be transcended. It is a +scratch on the earth,--not a ten-foot wall. And you will find men who +pass from one side of it to the other, and back again,--probably +several times in a week, or even in a day. There are people whom you +never know where to have. They are constantly skipping from side to +side of that line of demarcation; or they even walk along with a foot +on each side of it. There are people who are always disagreeable, and +disagreeable to all men. There are people who are agreeable at some +times, and disagreeable at others. There are people who are agreeable +to some men, and disagreeable to other men. I do not intend by the +last-named class people who intentionally make themselves agreeable to +a certain portion of the race, to which they think it worth while to +make themselves agreeable, and who do not take that trouble in the +case of the remainder of humankind. What I mean is this: that there +are people who have such an affinity and sympathy with certain other +people, who so _suit_ certain other people, that they are +agreeable to these other people, though perhaps not particularly so to +the race at large. And exceptional tastes and likings are often the +strongest. The thing you like enthusiastically another man absolutely +loathes. The thing which all men like is for the most part liked with +a mild and subdued liking. Everybody likes good and well-made bread; +but nobody goes into raptures over it. Few persons like caviare; but +those who do like it are very fond of it. I never knew but one being +who liked mustard with apple-pie; but that solitary man ate it with +avidity, and praised the flavor with enthusiasm. + +But it is impossible to legislate for every individual case. Every +rule must have exceptions from it; but it would be foolish to resolve +to lay down no more rules. There may be, somewhere, the man who likes +Mr. Snarling; and to that man Mr. Snarling would doubtless be +agreeable. But for practical purposes Mr. Snarling may justly be +described as a disagreeable man, if he be disagreeable to nine hundred +and ninety-nine mortals out of every thousand. And with precision +sufficient for the ordinary business of life we may say that there are +people who are essentially disagreeable. + +There are people who go through life, leaving an unpleasant influence +on all whom they come near. You are not at your ease in their +society. You feel awkward and constrained while with them. _That_ +is probably the mildest degree in the scale of unpleasantness. There +are people who disseminate a much worse influence. As the upas-tree +was said to blight all the country round it, so do these disagreeable +folk prejudicially affect the whole surrounding moral atmosphere. +They chill all warmth of heart in those near them; they put down +anything generous or magnanimous; they suggest unpleasant thoughts and +associations; they excite a diverse and numerous array of bad +tempers. The great evil of disagreeable people lies in this: that they +tend powerfully to make other people disagreeable too. And these +people are not necessarily bad people, though they produce a bad +effect. It is not certain that they design to be disagreeable. There +are those who do entertain that design; and they always succeed in +carrying it out. Nobody ever tried diligently to be disagreeable, and +failed. Such persons may, indeed, inflict much less annoyance than +they wished; they may even fail of inflicting any pain whatever on +others; but they make themselves as disgusting as they could desire. +And in many cases they succeed in inflicting a good deal of pain. A +very low, vulgar, petty, and uncultivated nature may cause much +suffering to a lofty, noble, and refined one,--particularly if the +latter be in a position of dependence or subjection. A wretched hornet +may madden a noble horse; a contemptible mosquito may destroy the +night's rest which would have recruited a noble brain. But without any +evil intention, sometimes with the very kindest intention, there are +those who worry and torment you. It is through want of perception, +--want of tact,--coarseness of nature,--utter lack of power +to understand you. Were you ever sitting in a considerable company, a +good deal saddened by something you did not choose to tell to any one, +and probably looking dull and dispirited enough,--and did a fussy host +or hostess draw the attention of the entire party upon you, by +earnestly and repeatedly asking if you were ill, if you had a +headache, because you seemed so dull and so unlike yourself? And did +that person time after time return to the charge, till you would have +liked to poison him? There is nothing more disagreeable, and few +things more mischievous, than a well-meaning, meddling fool. And +where there was no special intention, good or bad, towards yourself, +you have known people make you uncomfortable through the simple +exhibition to you, and pressure upon you, of their own inherent +disagreeableness. You have known people after talking to whom for a +while you felt disgusted with everything, and above all, with those +people themselves. Talking to them, you felt your moral nature being +rubbed against the grain, being stung all over with nettles. You +showed your new house and furniture to such a man, and with eagle eye +he traced out and pointed out every scratch on your fine fresh paint, +and every flaw in your oak and walnut; he showed you that there were +corners of your big mirrors that distorted your face,--that there were +bits of your grand marble mantel-pieces that might be expected soon to +scale away. Or you have known a man who, with no evil intention, made +it his practice to talk of you before your face as your other friends +are accustomed to talk of you behind your back. It need not be said +that the result is anything but pleasant. "What a fool you were, +Smith, in saying _that_ at Snooks's last night!" your friend +exclaims, when you meet him next morning. You were quite aware, by +this time, that what you said was foolish; but there is something +grating in hearing your name connected with the unpleasant epithet. I +would strongly advise any man, who does not wish to be set down as +disagreeable, entirely to break off the habit (if he has such a habit) +of addressing to even his best friends any sentence beginning with +"What a fool you were." Let me offer the like advice as to sentences +which set out as follows:--"I say, Smith, I think your brother is the +greatest fool on the face of the earth." Stop that kind of thing, my +friend; or you may come to be classed with Mr. Snarling. You are +probably a manly fellow, and a sincere friend; and for the sake of +your substantial good qualities, one would stand a great deal. But +over-frankness is disagreeable; and if you make over-frankness your +leading characteristic, of course your entire character will come to +be disagreeable, and you will be a disagreeable person. + +Besides the people who are disagreeable through malignant intention, +and through deficiency of sensitiveness, there are other people who +are disagreeable through pure ill-luck. It is quite certain that there +are people whom evil fortune dogs through all their life, who are +thoroughly and hopelessly unlucky. And in no respect have we beheld a +man's ill-luck so persecute him as in the matter of making him +(without the slightest evil purpose, and even when he is most anxious +to render himself agreeable) render himself extremely disagreeable. Of +course there must be some measure of thoughtlessness and +forgetfulness,--some lack of that social caution, so indispensable in +the complication of modern society, which teaches a man (so to speak) +to try if the ice will bear him before venturing his entire weight +upon it,--about people who are unlucky in the way of which I am +speaking. But doubtless you have known persons who were always saying +disagreeable things, or putting disagreeable questions,--either +through forgetfulness of things which they ought to have remembered, +or through unhappily chancing on forbidden ground. You will find a +man, a thoughtless, but quite good-natured man, begin at a +dinner-table to relate a succession of stories very much to the +prejudice of somebody, while somebody's daughter is sitting opposite +him. And you will find the man quite obtuse to all the hints by which +the host or hostess tries to stop him, and going on to particulars +worse and worse, till, in terror of what all this might grow to, the +hostess has to exclaim, "Mr. Smith, you won't take a hint: _that_ +is Mr. Somebody's daughter sitting opposite you." It is quite +essential that any man, whose conversation consists mainly of +observations not at all to the advantage of some absent acquaintance, +should carefully feel his way before giving full scope to his malice +and his invention, in the presence of any general company. And before +making any playful reference to halters, you should be clear that you +are not talking to a man whose grandfather was hanged. Nor should you +venture any depreciatory remarks upon men who have risen from the +ranks, unless you are tolerably versed in the family-history of those +to whom you are talking. You may have heard a man very jocular upon +lunatic-asylums, to another who had several brothers and sisters in +one. And though in some cases human beings may render themselves +disagreeable through a combination of circumstances which really +absolves them from all blame, yet, as a general rule, the man who is +disagreeable through ill-luck is at least guilty of culpable +carelessness. + + * * * * * + +You have probably, my reader, known people who had the faculty of +making themselves extremely agreeable. You have known one or two men +who, whenever you met them, conveyed to you, by a remarkably frank and +genial manner, an impression that they esteemed you as one of their +best and dearest friends. A vague idea took possession of your mind +that they had been longing to see you ever since they saw you +last,--which in all probability was six or twelve months +previously. And during all that period it may be regarded as quite +certain that the thought of you had never once entered their +mind. Such a manner has a vast effect upon young and inexperienced +folk. The inexperienced man fancies that this manner, so wonderfully +frank and friendly, is reserved specially for himself, and is a +recognition of his own special excellences. But the man of greater +experience has come to suspect this manner, and to see through it. He +has discovered that it is the same to everybody,--at least, to +everybody to whom it is thought worth while to put it on. And he no +more thinks of arguing the existence of any particular liking for +himself, or of any particular merit in himself, from that friendly +manner, than he thinks of believing, on a warm summer day, that the +sun has a special liking for himself, and is looking so beautiful and +bright all for himself. It is perhaps unjust to accuse the man, always +overflowing in geniality upon everybody he meets, of being an impostor +or humbug. Perhaps he does feel an irrepressible gush of love to all +his race: but why convey to each individual of the race that he loves +_him_ more than all the others? + +Yet it is to be admitted that it is always well that a man should be +agreeable. Pleasantness is always a pleasing thing. And a sensible +man, seeking by honest means to make himself agreeable, will generally +succeed in making himself agreeable to sensible men. But although +there is an implied compliment, to your power, if not to your +personality, in the fact of a man's taking pains to make himself +agreeable to you, it is certain that he may try to make himself so by +means of which the upshot will be to make him intensely +disagreeable. You know the fawning, sneaking manner which an +occasional shopkeeper adopts. It is most disagreeable to +right-thinking people. Let him remember that he is also a man; and +let his manner be manly as well as civil. It is an awful and +humiliating sight, a man who is always squeezing himself together like +a whipped dog, whenever you speak to him,--grinning and bowing, and +(in a moral sense) wriggling about before you on the earth, and +begging you to wipe your feet on his head. You cannot help thinking +that the sneak would be a tyrant, if he had the opportunity. It is +pleasant to find people, in the humblest position, blending a manly +independence of demeanor with the regard justly due to those placed by +Providence farther up the social scale. Yet doubtless there are +persons to whom the sneakiest manner is agreeable,--who enjoy the +flattery and the humiliation of the wretched toady who is always ready +to tell them that they are the most beautiful, graceful, witty, +well-informed, aristocratic-looking, and generally-beloved of the +human race. You must remember that it depends very much upon the +nature of a man himself whether any particular demeanor shall be +agreeable to him or not. And you know well that a cringing, toadying +manner, which would be thoroughly disgusting to a person of sense, may +be extremely agreeable and delightful to a self-conceited idiot. Was +there not an idiotic monarch who was greatly pleased, when his +courtiers, in speaking to him, affected to veil their eyes with their +hands, as unable to bear the insufferable effulgence of his +countenance? And would not a monarch of sense have been ready to kick +the people who thus treated him like a fool? And every one has +observed that there are silly women who are much gratified by coarse +and fulsome compliments upon their personal appearance, which would be +regarded as grossly insulting by a woman of sense. You may have heard +of country-gentlemen, of Radical politics, who had seldom wandered +beyond their paternal acres, (by their paternal acres I mean the acres +they had recently bought,) and who had there grown into a fixed belief +that they were among the noblest and mightiest of the earth, who +thought their parish-clergyman an agreeable man, if he voted at the +county-election for the candidate they supported, though that +candidate's politics were directly opposed to those of the +parson. These individuals, of course, would hold their clergyman as a +disagreeable man, if he held by his own principles, and quite declined +to take their wishes into account in exercising the trust of the +franchise. Now, of course, a nobleman or gentleman of right feeling +would regard the parson as a turncoat and sneak, who should thus deny +his convictions. Yes, there is no doubt that you may make yourself +agreeable to unworthy folk by unworthy means. A late marquis declared +on his dying bed, that a two-legged animal, of human pretensions, who +had acted as his valet, and had aided that hoary reprobate in the +gratification of his peculiar tastes, was "an excellent man." And you +may remember how Burke said, that, as we learn that a certain +Mr. Russell made himself very agreeable to Henry VIII., we may +reasonably suppose that Mr. Russell was himself (in a humble degree) +something like his master. Probably, to most right-minded men, the +fact that a man was agreeable to Henry VIII., or to the marquis in +question, or to Belial, Beelzebub, or Apollyon, would tend to make +that man remarkably disagreeable. And let the reader remember the +guarded way in which the writer laid down his general principle as to +pleasantness of character and demeanor. I said that a sensible man, +seeking by honest means to make himself agreeable, will generally +succeed in making himself agreeable to sensible men. I exclude from +the class of men to be esteemed agreeable those who would disgust all +but fools or blackguards. I exclude parsons who express heretical +views in theology in the presence of a patron known to be a +freethinker. I exclude men who do great folk's dirty work. I exclude +all toad-eaters, sneaks, flatterers, and fawning impostors,--from the +school-boy who thinks to gain his master's favor by voluntarily +bearing tales of his companions, up to the bishop who declared that he +regarded it not merely as a constitutional principle, but as an +ethical fact, that the king could do no wrong, and the other bishop +who declared that the reason why George II. died was that this world +was not good enough for him, and it was necessary to transfer him to +heaven that he might be the right man in the right place. Such persons +may succeed in making themselves agreeable to the man with whom they +desire to ingratiate themselves, provided that man be a fool or a +knave; but they assuredly render themselves disagreeable, not to say +revolting, to all human beings whose good opinion is worth the +possessing. And though any one who is not a fool will generally make +himself agreeable to people of ordinary temper and nervous system, if +he wishes to do so, it is to be remembered that too intrusive attempts +to be agreeable often make a man very disagreeable; and likewise, that +a man is the reverse of agreeable, if you see that he is trying, by +managing and humoring you, to make himself agreeable to you,--I mean, +if you can see that he is smoothing you down, and agreeing with you, +and trying to get you on your blind side, as if he thought you a baby +or a lunatic. And there is all the difference in the world between the +frank, hearty wish in man or woman to be agreeable, and this +diplomatic and indirect way. No man likes to think that he is being +managed as Mr. Rarey might manage an unbroken colt. And though many +human beings must in fact be thus managed,--though a person of wrong +head, or of outrageous vanity, or of invincible prejudices, must be +managed very much as you would manage a lunatic, (being, in fact, +removed from perfect sanity upon these points,) still, they must never +be allowed to discern that they are being managed, or the charm will +fail at once. I confess, for myself, that I am no believer in the +efficacy of diplomacy and indirect ways in dealing with one's +fellow-creatures. I believe that a manly, candid, straight-forward +course is always the best. Treat people in a perfectly frank +manner,--you will be agreeable to most of those to whom you will +desire to be so. + +My reader, I am now about to tell you of certain sorts of human beings +who appear to me as worthy of being ranked among disagreeable +people. I do not pretend to give you an exhaustive catalogue of +such. Doubtless you have your own black beasts, your own special +aversions, which have for you a disagreeableness beyond the +understanding or sympathy of others. Nor do I make quite sure that you +will agree with me in all the views which I am going to set forth. It +is not impossible that you may regard as very nice people or even as +quite fascinating and inthralling people, certain people whom I regard +as intensely disagreeable. Let me begin with an order of human beings, +as to which I do not expect every one who reads this page to go along +with me, though I do not know any opinion which I hold more resolutely +than that which I am about to express. + +We all understand the kind of thing which is meant by people who talk +of _Muscular Christianity_. It is certainly a noble and excellent +thing to make people discern that a good Christian need not be a muff +(pardon the slang term: there is no other that would bring out my +meaning). It is a fine thing to make it plain that manliness and dash +may co-exist with pure morality and sincere piety. It is a fine thing +to make young fellows comprehend that there is nothing fine and manly +in being bad and nothing unmanly in being good. And in this view it is +impossible to value too highly such characters and such biographies as +those of Hodson of Hodson's Horse and Captain Hedley Vicars. It is a +splendid combination, pluck and daring in their highest degree, with +an unaffected and earnest regard to religion and religious duties,--in +short, muscularity with Christianity. A man consists of body and soul; +and both would be in their ideal perfection, if the soul were +decidedly Christian, and the body decidedly muscular. + +But there are folk whose admiration of the muscularity is very great, +but whose regard for the Christianity is very small. They are +captivated by the dash and glitter of physical pluck; they are quite +content to accept it without any Christianity, and even without the +most ordinary morality and decency. They appear, indeed, to think that +the grandeur of the character is increased by the combination of +thorough blackguardism with high physical qualifications: their +gospel, in short, may be said to be that of _Unchristian +Muscularity_. And you will find various books in which the hero is +such a man: and while the writer of the book frankly admits that he is +in strict morality an extremely bad man, the writer still recalls his +doings with such manifest gusto and sympathy, and takes such pains to +make him agreeable on the whole, and relates with such approval the +admiration which empty-headed idiots express for him when he has +jumped his horse over some very perilous fence or thrashed some +insolent farmer, that it is painfully apparent what is the writer's +ideal of a grand and imposing character. You know the kind of man who +is the hero of some novels,--the muscular blackguard,--and you +remember what are his unfailing characteristics. He has a deep +chest. He has huge arms and limbs,--the muscles being knotted. He has +an immense moustache. He has (God knows why) a serene contempt for +ordinary mortals. He is always growing black with fury, and bullying +weak men. On such occasions, his lips may be observed to be twisted +into an evil sneer. He is a seducer and liar: he has ruined various +women, and had special facilities for becoming acquainted with the +rottenness of society: and occasionally he expresses, in language of +the most profane, not to say blasphemous character, a momentary regret +for having done so much harm,--such as the Devil might sentimentally +have expressed, when he had succeeded in misleading our first +parents. Of course, he never pays tradesmen for the things with which +they supply him. He can drink an enormous quantity of wine without his +head becoming affected. He looks down with entire disregard on the +laws of God and man, as made for inferior beings. As for any worthy +moral quality,--as for anything beyond a certain picturesque brutality +and bull-dog disregard of danger, not a trace of such a thing can be +found about him. + +We all know, of course, that such a person, though not uncommon in +novels, very rarely occurs in real life; and if he occur at all, it is +with his ideal perfections very much toned down. In actual life, such +a hero would become known in the Insolvent Court, and would frequently +appear before the police magistrates. He would eventually become a +billiard-marker; and might ultimately be hanged, with general +approval. If the man, in his unclipped proportions, did actually +exist, it would be right that a combination should be formed to wipe +him out of creation. He should be put down,--as you would put down a +tiger or a rattlesnake, if found at liberty somewhere in the Midland +Counties. A more hateful character, to all who possess a grain of +moral discernment, could not even be imagined. And it need not be +shown that the conception of such a character is worthy only of a +baby. However many years the man who deliberately and admiringly +delineates such a person may have lived in this world, intellectually +he cannot be more than about seven years old. And none but calves the +most immature can possibly sympathize with him. Yet, if there were +not many silly persons to whom such a character is agreeable, such a +character would not be portrayed. And it seems certain that a single +exhibition of strength or daring will to some minds be the compendium +of all good qualities, or (more accurately speaking) the equivalent +for them. A muscular blackguard clears a high fence: he does precisely +that,--neither more nor less. And upon the strength of that single +achievement, the servants at the house where he is visiting declare +that they would follow him over the world. And you may find various +young women, and various women who wish to pass for young, who would +profess, and perhaps actually feel, a like enthusiasm for the muscular +blackguard. I confess that I cannot find words strong enough to +express my contempt and abhorrence for the theory of life and +character which is assumed by the writers who describe such +blackguards, and by the fools who admire them. And though very far +from saying or thinking that the kind of human being who has been +described is no worse than disagreeable, I assert with entire +confidence that to all right-thinking men he is more disagreeable than +almost any other kind of human being. And I do not know any single +lesson you could instil into a youthful mind which would be so +mischievous as the lesson that the muscular blackguard should be +regarded with any other feeling than that of pure loathing and +disgust. But let us have done with him. I cannot think of the books +which delineate him and ask you to admire him without indignation more +bitter than I wish to feel in writing such a page. + +And passing to the consideration of human beings who, though +disagreeable, are good in the main, it may be laid down as a general +principle, that any person, however good, is disagreeable from whom +you feel it a relief to get away. We have all known people, thoroughly +estimable, and whom you could not but respect, in whose presence it +was impossible to feel at ease, and whose absence was felt as the +withdrawal of a sense of constraint of the most oppressive kind. And +this vague, uncomfortable influence, which breathes from some men, is +produced in various ways. Sometimes it is the result of mere stiffness +and awkwardness of manner: and there are men whose stiffness and +awkwardness of manner are such as would freeze the most genial and +silence the frankest. Sometimes it arises from ignorance of social +rules and proprieties; sometimes from incapacity to take, or even to +comprehend, a joke. Sometimes it proceeds from a pettedness of nature, +which keeps you ever in fear that offence may be taken at the most +innocent word or act. Sometimes it comes of a preposterous sense of +his own standing and importance, existing in a man whose standing and +importance are very small. It is quite wonderful what very great folk +very little folk will sometimes fancy themselves to be. The present +writer has had little opportunity of conversing with men of great rank +and power; yet he has conversed with certain men of the very greatest: +and he can say sincerely that he has found head-stewards to be much +more dignified men than dukes; and parsons of no earthly reputation, +and of very limited means, to be infinitely more stuck-up than +archbishops. And though at first the airs of stuck-up small men are +amazingly ridiculous, and so rather amusing, they speedily become so +irritating that the men who exhibit them cannot be classed otherwise +than with the disagreeable of the earth. + +Few people are more disagreeable than the man who, while you are +conversing with him, is (you know) taking a mental estimate of you, +more particularly of the soundness of your doctrinal views,--with the +intention of showing you up, if you be wrong, and of inventing or +misrepresenting something to your prejudice, if you be right. Whenever +you find any man trying (in a moral sense) to trot you out, and +examine your paces, and pronounce upon your general soundness, there +are two courses you may follow. The one is, severely to shut him up, +and sternly make him understand that you don't choose to be inspected +by him. Show him that you will not exhibit for his approval your +particular views about the Papacy, or about Moral Inability, or about +Pelagianism or the Patripassian heresy. Indicate that you will not be +pumped: and you may convey, in a kindly and polite way, that you +really don't care a rush what he thinks of you. The other course is, +with deep solemnity and an unchanged countenance, to horrify your +inspector by avowing the most fearful views. Tell him, that, on long +reflection, you are prepared to advocate the revival of Cannibalism. +Say that probably something may be said for Polygamy. Defend the +Thugs, and say something for Mumbo Jumbo. End by saying that no doubt +black is white, and twice ten are fifty. Or a third way of meeting +such a man is suddenly to turn upon him, and ask him to give you a +brief and lucid account of the views he is condemning. Ask him to tell +you what are the theological peculiarities of Bunsen; and what is the +exact teaching of Mr. Maurice. He does not know, you may be tolerably +sure. In the case of the latter eminent man, I never met anybody who +did know: and I have the firmest belief that he does not know himself. +I was told, lately, of an eminent foreigner who came to Britain to +promote a certain public end. For its promotion, the eminent man +wished to conciliate the sympathies of a certain small class of +religionists. He procured an introduction to a leading man among +them,--a good, but very stupid and self-conceited man. This man +entered into talk with the eminent foreigner, and ranged over a +multitude of topics, political and religious. And at an hour's end +the foreigner was astonished by the good, but stupid man suddenly +exclaiming,--"Now, Sir, I have been reckoning you up: you won't do: +you are a"--no matter what. It was something that had nothing earthly +to do with the end to be promoted. The religious demagogue had been +trotting out the foreigner; and he had found him unsound. The +religious demagogue belonged to a petty dissenting sect, no doubt; and +he was trying for his wretched little Shibboleth. But you may have +seen the like, even with leading men in National Churches. And I have +seen a pert little whipper-snapper ask a venerable clergyman what he +thought of a certain outrageous lay-preacher, and receive the +clergyman's reply, that he thought most unfavorably of many of the +lay-preacher's doings, with a self-conceited smirk that seemed to say +to the venerable clergyman, "I have been reckoning _you_ up: you +won't do." + +People whom you cannot get to attend to you when you talk to them are +disagreeable. There are men whom you feel it is vain to speak +to,--whether you are mentioning facts or stating arguments. All the +while you are speaking, they are thinking of what they are themselves +to say next. There is a strong current, as it were, setting outward +from their minds; and it prevents what you say from getting in. You +know, if a pipe be full of water, running strongly one way, it is vain +to think to push in a stream running the other way. You cannot get at +their attention. You cannot get at the quick of their mental +sensorium. It is not the dull of hearing whom it is hardest to get to +hear; it is rather the man who is roaring out himself, and so who +cannot attend to anything else. Now this is provoking. It is a +mortifying indication of the little importance that is attached to +what we are saying; and there is something of the irritation that is +produced in the living being by contending with the passive resistance +of inert matter. And there is something provoking even in the outward +signs that the mind is in a non-receptive state. You remember the eye +that is looking beyond you,--the grin that is not at anything funny in +what you say,--the occasional inarticulate sounds that are put in at +the close of your sentences, as if to delude you with a show of +attention. The non-receptive mind is occasionally found in clever +men; but the men who exhibit it are invariably very conceited: they +can think of nothing but themselves. And you may find the last-named +characteristic strongly developed even in men with gray hair, who +ought to have learned better through the experience of a pretty long +life. There are other minds which are very receptive. They seem to +have a strong power of suction. They take in, very decidedly, all +that is said to them. The best mind, of course, is that which combines +both characteristics,--which is strongly receptive when it ought to be +receiving, and which gives out strongly when it ought to be giving +out. The power of receptivity is greatly increased by habit. I +remember feeling awe-stricken by the intense attention with which a +very great judge was wont, in ordinary conversation, to listen to all +that was said to him. It was the habit of the judgment-seat, acquired +through many years of listening, with every faculty awake, to the +arguments addressed to him. But when you began to make some statement +to him, it was positively alarming to see him look you full in the +face, and listen with inconceivable fixedness of attention to all you +said. You could not help feeling that really the small remark you had +to make was not worth that great mind's grasping it so intently, as he +might have grasped an argument by Follett. The mind was intensely +receptive, when it was receiving at all. But I remember, too, that, +when the great judge began to speak, then his mind was (so to speak) +streaming out; and he was particularly impatient of inattention or +interruption, and particularly non-receptive of anything that might be +suggested to him. + +It is extremely disagreeable, when a vulgar fellow, whom you hardly +know, addresses you by your surname with great familiarity of +manner. And such a person will take no hint that he is disagreeable, +--however stiff, and however formally polite, you may take +pains to be to him. It is disagreeable, when persons, with whom +you have no desire to be on terms of intimacy, persist in putting many +questions to you as to your private concerns,--such as your annual +income and expenditure, and the like. No doubt, it is both pleasant +and profitable for people who are not rich to compare notes on these +matters with some frank and hearty friend whose means and outgoings +are much the same as their own. I do not think of such a case,--but of +the prying curiosity of persons who have no right to pry, and who, +very generally, while diligently prying into your affairs, take +special care not to take you into their confidence. Such people, too, +while making a pretence of revealing to you all their secrets, will +often tell a very small portion of them, and make various statements +which you at the time are quite aware are not true. There are not many +things more disagreeable than a very stupid and ill-set old woman, +who, quite unaware what her opinion is worth, expresses it with entire +confidence upon many subjects of which she knows nothing whatever, and +as to which she is wholly incapable of judging. And the self-satisfied +and confident air with which she settles the most difficult questions, +and pronounces unfavorable judgment upon people ten thousand times +wiser and better than herself, is an insufferably irritating +phenomenon. It is a singular fact, that the people I have in view +invariably combine extreme ugliness with spitefulness and +self-conceit. Such a person will make particular inquiries of you as +to some near relative of your own,--and will add, with a malicious and +horribly ugly expression of face, that she is glad to hear how _very +much improved_ your relative now is. She will repeat the sentence +several times, laying great emphasis and significance upon the _very +much improved_. Of course, the notion conveyed to any stranger who +may be present is that your relative must in former days have been an +extremely bad fellow. The fact probably is, that he has always, man +and boy, been particularly well-behaved, and that really you were not +aware that he needed any special improvement,--save, indeed, in the +sense that every human being might be and ought to be a great deal +better than he is. + +People who are always vaporing about their own importance, and the +value of their own possessions, are disagreeable. We all know such +people: and they are made more irritating by the fact, that their +boasting is almost invariably absurd and false. I do not mean +ethically false, but logically false. For doubtless, in many cases, +human beings honestly think themselves and their possessions as much +better than other men and their possessions as they say they do. If +thirty families compose the best society of a little country-town, you +may be sure that each of the thirty families in its secret soul looks +down upon the other twenty-nine, and fancies that it stands on a +totally different level. And it is a kind arrangement of Providence, +that a man's own children, horses, house, and other possessions, are +so much more interesting to himself than are the children, horses, and +houses of other men, that he can readily persuade himself that they +are as much better in fact as they are more interesting to his +personal feeling. But it is provoking, when a man is always obtruding +on you how highly he estimates his own belongings, and how much better +than yours he thinks them, even when this is done in all honesty and +simplicity; and it is infuriating, when a man keeps constantly telling +you things which he knows are not true, as to the preciousness and +excellence of the gifts with which fortune has endowed him. You feel +angry, when a man who has lately bought a house, one in a square +containing fifty, all as nearly as possible alike, tells you with an +air of confidence that he has got the finest house in Scotland, or in +England, as the case may be. You are irritated by the man who on all +occasions tells you that he drives in his mail-phaeton "five hundred +pounds' worth of horse-flesh." You are well aware that he did not pay +a quarter of that sum for the animals in question: and you assume as +certain that the dealer did not give him that pair of horses for less +than they were worth. It is somewhat irritating, when a man, not +remarkable in any way, begins to tell you that he can hardly go to any +part of the world without being recognized by some one who remembers +his striking aspect or is familiar with his famous name. "It costs me +three hundred a year, having that picture to look at," said +Mr. Windbag, pointing to a picture hanging on a wall in his +library. He goes on to explain that he refused six thousand pounds for +that picture; which at five per cent. would yield the annual income +named. You repeat Windbag's statement to an eminent artist. The +artist knows the picture. He looks at you fixedly, and for all +comment on Windbag's story says, (he is a Scotchman,) "HOOT TOOT!" But +the disposition to vapor is deep-set in human nature. There are not +very many men or women whom I would trust to give an accurate account +of their family, dwelling, influence, and general position, to people +a thousand miles from home, who were not likely ever to be able to +verify the picture drawn. + +It is hardly necessary to mention among disagreeable people those +individuals who take pleasure in telling you that you are looking +ill,--that you are falling off physically or mentally. "Surely you +have lost some of your teeth since I saw you last," said a good man to +a man of seventy-five years: "I cannot make out a word you say, you +speak so indistinctly." And so obtuse, and so thoroughly devoid of +gentlemanly feeling, was that good man, that, when admonished that he +ought not to speak in that fashion to a man in advanced years, he +could not for his life see that he had done anything unkind or +unmannerly. "I dare say you are wearied wi' preachin' to-day: you see +you're gettin' frail noo," said a Scotch elder, in my hearing, to a +worthy clergyman. Seldom has it cost me a greater effort than it did +to refrain from turning to the elder, and saying with candor, "What a +boor and what a fool you _must_ be, to say _that!_" It was +as well I did not: the boor would not have known what I meant. He +would not have known the provocation which led me to give him my true +opinion of him. "How very bald you are getting!" said a really +good-natured man to a friend he was meeting for the first time in +several years. Such remarks are for the most part made by men who, in +good faith, have not the least idea that they are making themselves +disagreeable. There is no malicious intention. It is a matter of pure +obtuseness, stupidity, selfishness, and vulgarity. But an obtuse, +stupid, selfish, and vulgar person is disagreeable. And your right +course will be to carefully avoid all intercourse with such a person. + +But besides people who blunder into saying unpleasant things, there +are a few who do so of set intention. And such people ought to be +cracked. They can do a great deal of harm,--inflict a great deal of +suffering. I believe that human beings in general are more miserable +than you think. They are very anxious,--very careworn,--stung by a +host of worries,--a good deal disappointed, in many ways. And in the +case of many people, worthy and able, there is a very low estimate of +themselves and their abilities, and a sad tendency to depressed +spirits and gloomy views. And while a kind word said to such is a real +benefit, and a great lightener of the heart, an ingenious malignant +may suggest to such things which are as a stunning blow, and as an +added load on the weary frame and mind. I have seen, with burning +indignation, a malignant beast (I mean man) playing upon that tendency +to a terrible apprehensiveness which is born with many men. I have +seen the beast vaguely suggest evil to the nervous and apprehensive +man. "This cannot end here": "I shall take my own measures now": "A +higher authority shall decide between us": I have heard the beast say, +and then go away. Of course I knew well that the beast could and +would do nothing, and I hastened to say so to the apprehensive +man. But I knew that the poor fellow would go away home, and brood +over the beast's ominous threats, and imagine a hundred terrible +contingencies, and work himself into a fever of anxiety and alarm. And +it is because I know that the vague threatener counted on all that, +and wished it, and enjoyed the thought of the slow torment he was +causing, that I choose to call him a beast rather than a man. Indeed, +there is an order of beings, worse than beasts, to which that being +should rather be referred. You have said or done something which has +given offence to certain of your neighbors. Mr. Snarling comes and +gives you a full and particular account of the indignation they feel, +and of their plans for vengeance. Mr. Snarling is happy to see you +look somewhat annoyed, and he kindly says, "Oh, never mind: this will +blow over, as _other things you have said and done have blown +over."_ Thus he vaguely suggests that you have given great offence +on many occasions, and made many bitter enemies. He adds, in a musing +voice, "Yes, as MANY other things have blown over." Turn the +individual out, and cut his acquaintance. It would be better to have +a upas-tree in your neighborhood. Of all disagreeable men, a man with +his tendencies is the most disagreeable. The bitterest and +longest-lasting east-wind acts less perniciously on body and soul than +does the society of Mr. Snarling. + +Suspicious people are disagreeable; also people who are always taking +the pet. Indeed, suspiciousness and pettedness generally go +together. There are many men and women who are always imagining that +some insult is designed by the most innocent words and doings of those +around them, and always suspecting that some evil intention against +their peace is cherished by some one or other. It is most irritating +to have anything to do with such impracticable and silly mortals. But +it is a delightful thing to work along with a man who never takes +offence,--a frank, manly man, who gives credit to others for the same +generosity of nature which he feels within himself, and who, if he +thinks he has reason to complain, speaks out his mind and has things +cleared up at once. A disagreeable person is he who frequently sends +letters to you without paying the postage,--leaving you to pay +twopence for each penny which he has thus saved. The loss of twopence +is no great matter; but there is something irritating in the feeling +that your correspondent has deliberately resolved that he would save +his penny at the cost of your twopence. There is a man, describing +himself as a clergyman of the Church of England, (I cannot think he is +one,) who occasionally sends me an abusive anonymous letter, and who +invariably sends his letters unpaid. I do not mind about the man's +abuse; but I confess I grudge my twopence. I have observed, too, that +the people who send letters unpaid do so habitually. I have known the +same individual send six successive letters unpaid. And it is +probably within the experience of most of my readers, that, out of +(say) a hundred correspondents, ninety-nine invariably pay their +letters properly, while time after time the hundredth sends his with +the abominable big 2 stamped upon it, and your servant walks in and +worries you by the old statement that the postman is waiting. Let me +advise every reader to do what I intend doing for the future: to wit, +to refuse to receive any unpaid letter. You may be quite sure that by +so doing you will not lose any letter that is worth having. A class of +people, very closely analogous to that of the people who do not pay +their letters, is that of such as are constantly borrowing small sums +from their friends, which they never restore. If you should ever be +thrown into the society of such, your right course will be to take +care to have no money in your pocket. People are disagreeable who are +given to talking of the badness of their servants, the undutifulness +of their children, the smokiness of their chimneys, and the deficiency +of their digestive organs. And though, with a true and close friend, +it is a great relief, and a special tie, to have spoken out your heart +about your burdens and sorrows, it is expedient, in conversation with +ordinary acquaintances, to keep these to yourself. + +It must be admitted, with great regret, that people who make a +considerable profession of religion have succeeded in making +themselves more thoroughly disagreeable than almost any other human +beings have ever made themselves. You will find people, who claim not +merely to be pious and Christian people, but to be very much more +pious and Christian than others, who are extremely uncharitable, +unamiable, repulsive, stupid, and narrow-minded, and intensely +opinionated and self-satisfied. We know, from a very high authority, +that a Christian ought to be an epistle in commendation of the blessed +faith he holds. But it is beyond question that many people who profess +to be Christians are like grim Gorgons' heads, warning people off from +having anything to do with Christianity. Why should a middle-aged +clergyman walk about the streets with a sullen and malignant scowl +always on his face, which at the best would be a very ugly one? Why +should another walk with his nose in the air, and his eyes rolled up +till they seem likely to roll out? And why should a third be always +dabbled over with a clammy perspiration, and prolong all his vowels to +twice the usual length? It is, indeed, a most woful thing, that people +who evince a spirit in every respect the direct contrary of that of +our Blessed Redeemer should fancy that they are Christians of singular +attainments; and it is more woful still, that many young people should +be scared away into irreligion or unbelief by the wretched delusion, +that these creatures, wickedly caricaturing Christianity, are fairly +representing it. I have beheld more deliberate malice, more lying and +cheating, more backbiting and slandering, denser stupidity, and +greater self-sufficiency, among bad-hearted and wrong-headed +religionists, than among any other order of human beings. I have known +more malignity and slander conveyed in the form of a prayer than +should have consigned any ordinary libeller to the pillory. I have +known a person who made evening prayer a means of infuriating and +stabbing the servants, under the pretext of confessing their +sins. "Thou knowest, Lord, how my servants have been occupied this +day": with these words did the blasphemous mockery of prayer begin one +Sunday evening in a house I could easily indicate: and then the man, +under the pretext of addressing the Almighty, raked up all the +misdoings of the servants (they being present, of course) in a +fashion, which, if he had ventured on it at any other time, would +probably have led some of them to assault him. "I went to Edinburgh," +said a Highland elder, "and was there a Sabbath. It was an awfu' +sight! There, on the Sabbath-day, you would see people walking along +the street, smiling AS IF THEY WERE PERFECTLY HAPPY!" There was the +_gravamen_ of the poor Highlander's charge. To think of people +being or looking happy on the Lord's day! And, indeed, to think of a +Christian man ever venturing to be happy at all! "Yes, this parish was +highly favored in the days of Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown," said a +spiteful and venomous old woman,--with a glance of deadly malice at a +young lad who was present. That young lad was the son of the clergyman +of the parish,--one of the most diligent and exemplary clergymen in +Britain. Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown were the clergymen who preceded +him. And the spiteful old woman adopted this means of sticking a pin +into the young lad,--conveying the idea that there was a sad falling +off now. I saw and heard her, my reader. Now, when an ordinary +spiteful person says a malicious thing, being quite aware that she is +saying a malicious thing, and that her motive is pure malice, you are +disgusted. But when a spiteful person says a malicious thing, all the +while fancying herself a very pious person, and fancying that in +gratifying her spite she is acting from Christian principle,--I say +the sight is to me one of the most disgusting, perplexing, and +miserable, that ever human eye beheld. I have no fear of the attacks +of enemies on the blessed faith in which I live, and hope to die; but +it is dismal to see how our holy religion is misrepresented before the +world by the vile impostors who pretend to be its friends. + +Among the disagreeable people who make a profession of religion, +probably many are purely hypocrites. But we willingly believe that +there are people, in whom Christianity appears in a wretchedly stunted +and distorted form, who yet are right at the root. It does not follow +that a man is a Christian, because he turns up his eyes and drawls out +his words, and, when asked to say grace, offers a prayer of twenty +minutes' duration. But, again, it does not follow that he is +_not_ a Christian, though he may do all these things. The bitter +sectary, who distinctly says that a humble, pious man, just dead, has +"gone to hell," because he died in the bosom of the National Church, +however abhorrent that sectary may be in some respects, may be, in the +main, within the Good Shepherd's fold, wherein he fancies there are +very few but himself. The dissenting teacher, who declared from his +pulpit that the parish clergyman (newly come, and an entire stranger +to him) was "a servant of Satan," may possibly have been a good man, +after all. Grievous defects and errors may exist in a Christian +character, which is a Christian character still. And the Christian, +horribly disagreeable and repulsive now, will some day, we trust, have +all _that_ purged away. But I do not hesitate to say, that any +Christian, by so far as he is disagreeable and repulsive, deviates +from the right thing. Oh, my reader, when my heart is sometimes sore +through what I see of disagreeable traits in Christian character, what +a blessed relief there is in turning to the simple pages, and seeing +for the thousandth time The True Christian Character,--so different! +Yes, thank God, we know where to look, to find what every pious man +should be humbly aiming to be: and when we see That Face, and hear +That Voice, there is something that soothes and cheers among the +wretched imperfections (in one's self as in others) of the +present,--something that warms the heart, and that brings a man to his +knees! + +The present writer has a relative who is Professor of Theology in a +certain famous University. With that theologian I recently had a +conversation on the matter of which we have just been thinking. The +Professor lamented bitterly the unchristian features of character +which may be found in many people making a great parade of their +Christianity. He mentioned various facts, which had recently come to +his own knowledge, which would sustain stronger expressions of opinion +than any which I have given. But he went on to say, that it would be a +sad thing, if no fools could get to heaven,--nor any unamiable, +narrow-minded, sour, and stupid people. Now, said he, with great +force of reason, religion does not alter idiosyncrasy. When a fool +becomes a Christian, he will be a foolish Christian; a narrow-minded +man will be a narrow-minded Christian; a stupid man, a stupid +Christian. And though a malignant man will have his malignity much +diminished, it by no means follows that it will be completely rooted +out. "When I would do good, evil is present with me." "I find a law in +my members, warring against the law of my mind, and enslaving me to +the law of sin." But you are not to blame Christianity for the +stupidity and unamiability of Christians. If they be disagreeable, it +is not the measure of true religion they have got that makes them +so. In so far as they are disagreeable, they depart from the +standard. You know, you may make water sweet or sour,--you may make it +red, blue, black; and it will be water still, though its purity and +pleasantness are much interfered with. In like manner, Christianity +may coexist with a good deal of acid,--with a great many features of +character very inconsistent with itself. The cup of fair water may +have a bottle of ink emptied into it, or a little verjuice, or even a +little strychnine. And yet, though sadly deteriorated, though +hopelessly disguised, the fair water is there, and not entirely +neutralized. + +And it is worth remarking, that you will find many persons who are +very charitable to blackguards, but who have no charity for the +weaknesses of really good people. They will hunt out the act of +thoughtless liberality done by the scapegrace who broke his mother's +heart and squandered his poor sisters' little portions; they will make +much of that liberal act,--such an act as tossing to some poor +Magdalen a purse filled with money which was probably not his own; and +they will insist that there is hope for the blackguard yet. But these +persons will tightly shut their eyes against a great many +substantially good deeds done by a man who thinks Prelacy the +abomination of desolation, or who thinks that stained glass and an +organ are sinful. I grant you that there is a certain fairness in +trying the blackguard and the religionist by different standards. +Where the pretension is higher, the test may justly be more +severe. But I say it is unfair to puzzle out with diligence the one or +two good things in the character of a reckless scamp, and to refuse +moderate attention to the many good points about a weak, +narrow-minded, and uncharitable good person. I ask for charity in the +estimating of all human characters,--even in estimating the character +of the man who would show no charity to another. I confess freely +that in the last-named case the exercise of charity is extremely +difficult. + + + + +THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS IN THE TOWN OF BOSTON. + + +THE QUESTION OF REMOVAL. + +"God be praised! the troops are landed, and critically too," Commodore +Hood said, after he had received from Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple an +account of his entrance into Boston. The Commodore reflected, with +infinite satisfaction, he wrote, that, in anticipation of a great +emergency, he collected the squadron; that he was enabled to act the +moment he received the first application for aid; and that he was +prepared to throw forward additional force until informed that no more +was wanted: and now, with an officer's pride, he advised George +Grenville, that on the twenty-seventh day from the date at New York of +the order of General Gage for troops, the detachment was landed at +Boston. The two commanders were well satisfied with each other. Hood +characterized Dalrymple as a very excellent officer, quite the +gentleman, knowing the world, having a good address, and with all the +fire, judgment, coolness, integrity, and firmness that a man could +possess. Dalrymple wrote to Hood,--"My good Sir, you may rest +satisfied that the arrival of the squadron was the most seasonable +thing ever known, and that I am in possession of the town; and +therefore nothing can be apprehended. Had we not arrived so +critically, the worst that could be apprehended must have happened." +Both were good officers and honorable men, who believed and acted on +the fabulous relations of the Boston crown officials. + +"Our town is now a perfect garrison," the Patriots said, after the +troops were posted, and the rough experiment on their well-ordered +municipal life had fairly begun. It galled them to see a powerful +fleet and a standing army watching all the inlets to the town,--to see +a guard at the only land-avenue leading into the country, companies +patrolling at the ferry-ways, the Common alive with troops and dotted +with tents, marchings and countermarchings through the streets to +relieve the guards, and armed men occupying the halls of justice and +freedom, with sentinels at their doors. Quiet observers of this +strange spectacle, like Andrew Eliot, wondered at the infatuation of +the Ministry, and what the troops were sent to do; while the popular +leaders and the body of the Patriots regarded their presence as +insulting. The crown officials and Loyalist leaders, however, exulted +in this show of force, and ascribed to it a conservative influence and +a benumbing effect. "Our harbor is full of ships, and our town full of +troops," Hutchinson said. "The red-coats make a formidable +appearance, and there is a profound silence among the Sons of +Liberty." The Sons chose to labor and to wait; and the troops could +not attack the liberty of silence. + +The House of Representatives, on reviewing the period of the stay of +the troops in Boston, declared that there resulted from their +introduction "a scene of confusion and distress, for the space of +seventeen months, which ended in the blood and slaughter of His +Majesty's good subjects." The popular leaders, who repelled, as +calumny, the Loyalist charge that they were engaged in a scheme of +rebellion, said that to quarter among them in time of peace a standing +army, without the consent of the General Court, was as harrowing to +the feelings of the people, and as contrary to the constitution of +Massachusetts, as it would be harrowing to the people of England, and +contrary to the Bill of Eights and of every principle of civil +government, if soldiers were posted in London without the consent of +Parliament; in a word, that it was as violative of their local +self-government as the Stamp Act or the Revenue Act, and was also an +impeachment of their loyalty. They, therefore, as a matter of right, +were opposed to a continuance of the troops in the town. + +The question of removal now became an issue of the gravest political +character, and of the deepest personal interest; and a steady pursuit +of this object, from October, 1768, to March, 1770, gave unity, +directness, and an ever-painful foreboding to the local politics, +until the flow of blood created a delicate and dangerous crisis. + +The crown officials and over-zealous Loyalists, during this period, +resisted this demand for a removal of the troops. The officers urged +that a military force was needed to support the King's authority; the +Loyalists said that it was necessary to protect their lives and +property; and the Ministry viewed it as vital to the success of their +measures. Lord Hillsborough,--who was an exponent of the school that +placed little account on public opinion as the basis of law, but +relied on physical force,--in an elaborate confidential letter +addressed to Governor Bernard, urged as a justification of this +policy, that the authority of the civil power was too weak to enforce +obedience to the laws, and preserve that peace and good order which +are essential to the happiness of every State; and he directed the +Governor punctually to observe former instructions, especially those +of the preceding July, and gave now the additional instruction, to +institute inquiries into such unconstitutional acts as had been +committed since, in order that the perpetrators of them might, if +possible, be brought to justice. It is worthy of remark, that there is +nothing more definite in this letter as to what the Ministry +considered to be unconstitutional acts. + +As American affairs were pondered, at this period, (October, 1768,) by +Under-Secretary Pownall, a brother of Ex-Governor Pownall, Lord +Barrington, and Lord Hillsborough, in the deep shading of the +misrepresentations of the local officials of Boston, they appeared to +be in a very critical condition. These officials had, however, the +utmost confidence in the exhibition of British power, and in the +wisdom of Francis Bernard. The letters which the Governor now +received, both private and official, from these friends, were, as to +his personal affairs, of the most gratifying character; and their +congratulations on the landing of the troops were as though a crisis +had been fortunately passed. Lord Hillsborough congratulated him, +officially, "on the happy and quiet landing of the troops, and the +unusual approbation which his steady and able conduct had obtained." +Lord Barrington, in a private letter, said,--"There is only one +comfortable circumstance, which is, that the troops are quietly lodged +in Boston. This will for a time preserve the public peace, and secure +the persons of the few who are well affected to the mother-country." +Both these leading politicians--there were none at this time more +powerful in England--expressed similar sentiments in Parliament from +the Ministerial benches: Lord Hillsborough sounding fully the praise +of the Governor, and Lord Barrington, in an imperial strain, terming +the Americans "worse than traitors against the Crown, traitors against +the legislature of Great Britain," and saying that "the use of troops +was to bring rioters to justice." + +The sentiment expressed as to the future was equally gratifying to the +Governor. Lord Hillsborough, (November 15, 1768,) in an official +letter, said,--"It will, I apprehend, be a great support and +consolation for you to know that the King places much confidence in +your prudence and caution on the one hand, and entertains no +diffidence in your spirit and resolution on the other, and that His +Majesty will not suffer these sentiments to receive any alterations +from private misrepresentations, if any should come"; and in a private +letter, by the same mail, the Secretary said,--"If I am listened to, +the measure you think the most necessary will be adopted." It is not +easy to see how a Government could express greater confidence in an +agent than the Secretary expressed in Francis Bernard; and the talk in +Ministerial circles now was, as it was confidentially reported to the +Governor, that, as he had nothing to arrange with the faction, and +nothing to fear from the people, he could fully restore the King's +authority. + +The tone of the Governor's letters and the object of his official +action, by a thorough repudiation of the democratic principle, and a +jealous regard for British dominion, were well calculated to inspire +this confidence; for they came up to the ideal, not merely of the +leaders of the Tory party, or of the Whig party, but of the England of +that day. There was then great confusion in the British factions. +Ex-Governor Pownall, after comparing this confusion to Des Cartes's +chaos of vortices, remarked, (1768,) in a letter addressed to +Dr. Cooper,--"We have but one word,--I will not call it an +idea,--that is, our sovereignty; and it is like some word to a madman, +which, whenever mentioned, throws him into his ravings, and brings on +a paroxysm." The Massachusetts crown officials were continually +pronouncing this word to the Ministry. They constantly set forth the +principle of local self-government, which was tenaciously and +religiously clung to by the Patriots as being the foundation of all +true liberty, as a principle of independence; and they represented the +jealous adherence to the local usages and laws, which faithfully +embodied the popular instincts and doctrine, to be proofs of a decay +of the national authority, and the cloak of long-cherished schemes of +rebellion. And this view was accepted by the leading political men of +England. They held, all of them but a little band of republican- +grounded sympathizers with the Patriots, that the principles +announced by the Patriots went too far, and that, in clinging +to them the Americans were endangering the British empire; and +the only question among the public men of England was, whether the +Crown or the Parliament was the proper instrumentality, as the phrase +was, for reducing the Colonies to obedience. Lord Barrington, in his +speech above cited, laid most stress on the denial of the authority of +Parliament: all who questioned any part of this authority were +regarded as disloyal; and hence Lord Hillsborough's instructions to +Governor Bernard ran,--"If any man or set of men have been daring +enough to declare openly that they will not submit to the authority of +Parliament, it is of great consequence that His Majesty's servants +should know who and what they are." + +Another class of British observers, already referred to, of the school +of Sidney and Milton, lovers of civil and religious liberty, saw in +Boston and Massachusetts a state of things far removed from rebellion +and anarchy. They looked upon the spectacle of a people in general +raised by mental and moral culture into fitness for self-government +and an appreciation of the higher aims of life, as a result at which +good men the world over ought to rejoice, a result honorable to the +common humanity. They pronounced the late Parliamentary acts affecting +such a people to be grievances, the course of the Ministry towards +them to be oppressive, and the claims set forth in their proceedings +to be reasonable; they even went so far as to say that the equity was +wholly on the side of the North-Americans. Thus this class, as they +rose above a selfish jealousy of political power, fairly anticipated +the verdict of posterity. Thomas Hollis, the worthy benefactor of +Harvard College, was a type of this republican school. "The people of +Boston and of Massachusetts Bay," he wrote in 1768, "are, I suppose, +take them as a body, the soberest, most knowing, virtuous people, at +this time, upon earth. All of them hold Revolution principles, and +were to a man, till disgusted by the Stamp Act, the stanchest friends +to the House of Hanover and subjects of King George III." + +The representations made to the Ministry, at this time, (October, +1768,) by Bernard, Hutchinson, and Gage, were similar in tone. There +was very little government in Boston, according to Gage; there was +nothing able to resist a mob, according to Hutchinson; so much +wickedness and folly were never before combined as in the men who +lately ruled here, according to Bernard. The Commander-in-Chief and +the Governor sent despatches to Lord Hillsborough on the same day +(October 31, 1768). Gage informed the Secretary that the constitution +of the Province leaned so much to the side of democracy that the +Governor had not the power to remedy the disorders that happened in +it; Bernard informed him that indulgence towards the Province, whence +all the mischief had arisen, would ever have the same effect that it +had had hitherto, led on from claim to claim till the King had left +only the name of the government and the Parliament but the shadow of +authority. There was nothing whatever to justify this strain of +remark, but the idea which the people had grasped, that they had a +right to an equal measure of freedom with Englishmen; but such a claim +was counted rebellious. "I told Cushing, the Speaker, some months +ago," the Governor says in this letter, "that they were got to the +edge of rebellion, and advised them not to step over the line." The +reply of the Speaker is not given, but he was constantly disclaiming, +in his letters, any purpose of rebellion. Now that Bernard saw, what +he had desired to see for years, troops in Boston, he was as ill at +ease as before; and at the close of the letter just cited he says,--"I +am now at sea again in the old weather-beaten boat, with the wind +blowing as hard as ever." + +The political winds, however, do not seem to have been damaging any +body or thing but the Governor and his cause. During the month of +October the crown officials urged the local authorities to billet the +troops in the town; but this demand was quietly and admirably met by +setting against it the law of the land as interpreted by just men. The +press was now of signal service; and all through this period of +seventeen months, though it severely arraigned the advocates of +arbitrary power, yet it ever urged submission to the law. "It is +always safe to adhere to the law," are the grand words of the "Boston +Gazette," October 17, 1768, "and to keep every man of every +denomination and character within its bounds. Not to do this would be +in the highest degree imprudent. What will it be but to depart from +the straight line, to give up the law and the Constitution, which is +fixed and stable, and is the collected and long-digested sentiment of +the whole, and to substitute in its place the opinion of individuals, +than which nothing can be more uncertain?" These words were penned by +Samuel Adams, and freedom never had a more unselfish advocate; they +fell upon a community that was discussing in every home the gravest of +political questions; and they were responded to with a prudence and +order that were warmly eulogized both in America and England. This +respect for Law, when Liberty was as a live coal from a divine altar, +adhered to so faithfully for years, in spite, too, of goadings by +those who wielded British power, but forgot American right, must be +regarded as remarkable. Until the close of Bernard's administration, +the town, to use contemporary words, was surprisingly quiet; but +during the remainder of the period of the seventeen months, when +selfish importers broke their agreement and set themselves against +what was considered to be the public safety, they provoked +disturbances and even mobs. Still, in an age when, to use Hutchinson's +words, "mobs of a certain sort were constitutional," the wonder is, +not that there were any, but that there were not more of them in +Boston. Besides, the concern of the popular leaders to preserve order +was so deep and their action so prompt, that disturbances were checked +and suppressed without the use of the military on a single occasion; +and hence the injury done both to persons and property was so small, +when compared with the bloodshed and destruction by contemporary +British mobs, that what Colonel Barré said of the June riots in Boston +was true of the outbreaks at the close of this period, namely, that +they but mimicked the mobs of the mother-country. + +The patience of the people was severely tried on the evening of the +landing of the troops, as they filed into Faneuil Hall; and it was +still more severely tried, as, on the next day, Sunday, they filed +into the Town-House. The latter building was thus occupied under an +order from Governor Bernard, who, it was said in the journals, had no +authority to give such an order. The legislature and the courts of law +held their sessions here, and, what was not known then elsewhere in +the world, the General Court was public,--that is, the people were +admitted to hear the debates, while in England the public was +excluded; it was an offence to report the debates in Parliament, and a +breach of privilege for a member to print even his own speech. In +consequence of the political advance that had been made here, the +galleries of the Hall of the House of Representatives, in December, +1767, for eighteen days in succession, were thronged with people, who +listened to the discussion when the most remarkable state-paper of the +time was under consideration, namely, the letter which the House +addressed to their agent, Mr. De Berdt. It now provoked the people to +see these halls, all except the chamber in which the Council held its +sessions, occupied by armed men, and the field-pieces of the train +placed in the street, pointing towards the building. The lower floor +was used as an Exchange by the merchants, who were annoyed by being +obliged daily to brush by the red-coats. All this was excessively +irritating, and needed no exaggeration from abroad. Still it is but +just to the men of that day to present all the circumstances under +which they maintained their dignity. "Asiatic despotism," so says a +contemporary London eulogy on their conduct, which was printed in the +Boston journals, "does not present a picture more odious to the eye of +humanity than the sanctuary of justice and law turned into a main +guard." And on comparing the moderation in this town under such an +infliction with a late effusion of blood in St. George's Fields, the +writer says,--"By this wise and excellent conduct you have +disappointed your enemies, and convinced your friends that an entire +reliance is to be placed on the supporters of freedom at Boston, in +every occurrence, however delicate or dangerous." + +While the indignation of the Sons of Liberty, under such provocations, +was as deep as Hutchinson says their silence was profound, there was, +in the local press, the severest denunciation of this use of their +forum. The building is called in print this year, (1768,) the +Town-House, the State-House, the Court-House, and the Parliament- +House. It may be properly termed the political focus of the Province, +and it then bore to Massachusetts a similar relation to that +which Faneuil Hall now bears to Boston. The goodly and venerable +structure that still looks down on State Street and the Merchants' +Exchange has little in it to attract the common eye, much less a +classic taste; but there is not on the face of the earth, it has been +said, a temple, however magnificent, about which circles a more +glorious halo. There is much to relieve the remark of Mayor Otis from +exaggeration. Its humble halls, for over a generation, had echoed to +the appeals for the Good Old Cause made by men of whom it was said +Milton was their great forerunner. Here popular leaders with such root +in them had struggled long and well against the encroachments of +Prerogative. Here the state-papers were matured that first +intelligently reconciled the claims of local self-government with what +is due to a protective nationality. Here intrepid representatives of +the people, on the gravest occasion that had arisen in an American +assembly, justly refused to comply with an arbitrary royal +command. Here first in modern times was recognized the vital principle +of publicity in legislation. Here James Otis, as a pioneer patriot, +poured forth his soul when his tongue was as a flame of fire,--John +Adams, on the side of freedom, first showed himself to be a Colossus +in debate,--Joseph Hawley first publicly denied that Parliament had +the right to rule in all cases whatsoever,--and the unequalled +leadership of Samuel Adams culminated, when he felt obliged to strive +for the independence of his country; and, in the fulness of time, the +imperishable scroll of the Declaration, from this balcony, and in a +scene of unsurpassed moral sublimity, was first officially unrolled +before the people of the State of Massachusetts. Thus this relic of a +hero age is fragrant with the renown of + + "The men that glorious law who taught, + Unshrinking liberty of thought, + And roused the nations with the truth sublime." + +On the 15th of October, General Gage, with a distinguished staff, came +to Boston to provide quarters for the troops, and was received at a +review on the Common with a salute of seventeen guns by the train of +artillery, when, preceded by a brilliant corps of officers, he passed +in a chariot before the column. The same journals (October 20) which +contained a notice of this review had extracts from London papers, by +a fresh arrival, in which it was said,--"The town of Boston meant to +render themselves as independent of the English nation as the crown of +England is of that of Spain"; and that "the nation was treated by them +in terms of stronger menace and insult than sovereign princes ever use +to each other." + +The journals now announced that two regiments, augmented to seven +hundred and fifty men each, were to embark at Cork for Boston; and +General Gage informed the local authorities that he expected their +arrival, and asked quarters for them, when the subject was considered +in the Council. This body now complied so far as, in the words printed +at the time, to "advise the Governor to give immediate orders to have +the Manufactory House in Boston, which is the property of the +Province, cleared of those persons who are in the present possession +of it, so that it might be ready to receive those of said regiments +who could not be conveniently accommodated at Castle William." This +building, as already remarked, stood in what is now Hamilton Place, +near the Common, and for twelve years had been hired by Mr. John +Brown, a weaver, who not only carried on his business here, but lived +here with his family; and hence it was his legal habitation, his +castle, "which the wind and the rain might enter, but which the King +could not enter." + +Mr. Brown, having before declined to let the troops already in town +occupy the building, now, acting under legal advice, declined to +comply with the present request to leave it; whereupon it was +determined to take forcible possession. Accordingly, on the 17th of +October, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Sheriff Greenleaf, +accompanied by Chief-Justice Hutchinson, went to the Manufactory House +for this purpose, but was denied entrance by Mr. Brown, who had +fastened all the doors. He appeared, however, at a window, when the +Sheriff presented the Governor's order; but Mr. Brown replied, that he +never had had any lawful warning to leave the house, and did not look +upon the power of the Governor and Council as sufficient to dispossess +him; and finally told the Sheriff that he would not surrender his +possession to any till required by the General Court, under whom he +held, or till he was obliged to do it by the law of the Province, or +compelled by force: whereupon the Sheriff and the Chief-Justice +retired. + +On the nest morning, at ten o'clock, Sheriff Greenleaf, attended by +his deputies, again appeared before the house, and again found the +doors shut. They, however, entered the cellar by a window, that was +partly opened, it is said to let out an inmate,--when, after a +scuffle, Mr. Brown declared that the Sheriff was his prisoner; upon +which the Sheriff informed the commanding officer of the regiment on +the Common of his situation, who sent a guard for his protection. +Sentinels were now placed at the doors, two at the gate of +the yard, and a guard of ten in the cellar; and as the people gathered +fast about the gate, an additional company was ordered from the +Common. Any one was allowed to come out of the house, but no one was +allowed to go in. The press now harped upon the cries of Mr. Brown's +children for bread. + +This strange proceeding caused great excitement, and at this stage +there was (October 22) a meeting of the Council to consider the +subject, when seven of the members waited on the Governor to assure +him that nothing could be farther from their intention, when they gave +their advice, than to sanction this use of force; and about seven +o'clock that evening most of the troops were taken away, leaving only +one or two soldiers at a window and a small guard in the cellar. In a +few days afterwards all the guards were removed, and finally Mr. Brown +was left in quiet possession. The whole affair lasted seventeen +days. Shortly after, Mr. Brown prosecuted the Sheriff for trespass, +when the Council declined to be accountable for these official +doings. He soon announced to the public in a card a resumption of his +business. His tombstone bears a eulogy on the bravery which thus long +and successfully resisted an attempt to force a citizen from his legal +habitation. "Happy citizen," the stone reads, "when called singly to +be a barrier to the liberties of a continent!" + +Soon after this affair, fifteen members of the Council, and among them +several decided Loyalists, signed an address which was adopted at a +meeting held without a summons from the Governor, and which was +presented (October 27, 1768) directly to General Gage, as "from +members of His Majesty's Council." This address is a candid, truthful, +and strong exposition of the whole series of proceedings connected +with the introduction of the troops. "Your own observation," it says, +"will give you the fullest evidence that the town and the Province are +in a peaceful state; your own inquiry will satisfy you, that, though +there have been disorders in the town of Boston, some of them did not +merit notice, and that such as did have been magnified beyond the +truth." The events of the eighteenth of March and of the tenth of +June were reviewed: the former were pronounced trivial, and such as +could not have been noticed to the disadvantage of the town but by +persons inimical to it; the latter were conceded to be criminal, and +the actors in them guilty of a riot; but, in justice to the town, it +was urged that this riot had its origin in the threats and the armed +force used in the seizure of the sloop Liberty. The General was +informed that the people thought themselves injured, and by men to +whom they had done no injury, and thus was "most unjustly brought into +question the loyalty of as loyal a people as any in His Majesty's +dominions"; and he was assured that it would be a great ease and +satisfaction to the inhabitants, if be would please to order the +troops to Castle William. + +In a brief reply to this elaborate address, the next day, General Gage +said that the riots and the resolves of the town had induced His +Majesty to order four regiments to protect his loyal subjects in their +persons and properties, and to assist the civil magistrates in the +execution of the laws; that he trusted the discipline and order of the +troops would render their stay in no shape distressful to His +Majesty's dutiful subjects; and that he hoped the future behavior of +the people would justify the best construction of past actions, and +afford him a sufficient foundation to represent to His Majesty the +propriety of withdrawing the most part of the troops. This was very +paternal, haughty, and very English. However, the activity of the +commander, in bargaining for stores, houses, and other places to be +used as barracks for the soldiers, indicated better behavior in the +future on the part of crown officials than the browbeating of the +local authorities, from the Council down to the Justices, in the vain +attempt to make them do what the law did not require them to do, and +what their feelings, as well as their sense of right, forbade their +doing. In a short time the good people had the satisfaction of seeing +the redcoats move out of Fanueil Hall and the Town-House into quarters +provided by those who sent them into the town, and of reflecting on +the moral victory which their idolized leaders had won in standing +firmly by the law. + +It was now in the mouths, not only of the Patriots, but of Loyalists +of the candid type of those who signed the recent address to General +Gage, that, as it was evident things had been grossly misrepresented +to the Ministers, when truth and time should set matters fairly right +before the Government there would be a change of policy; and so Hope, +in her usual bright way, lifted a little the burden from heavy hearts +in the cheering words through the press (October, 1768),--"The pacific +and prudent measures of the town of Boston must evince to the world +that Americans, though represented by their enemies to be in a state +of insurrection, mean nothing more than to support those +constitutional rights to which the laws of God and Nature entitle +them; and when the measure of oppression and mi..st...al iniquity is +full, and the dutiful supplications of an injured people shall have +reached the gracious ear of their sovereign, may at length terminate +in a glorious display of liberty." + +The journals, a few days after these events, announced that "the +worshipful the Commissioners of the Customs, having of their own free +will retreated in June to the Castle, designed to make their +re-entrance to the metropolis, so that the town would be again blessed +with the fruits of the benevolence of the Board, as well as an example +of true politeness and breeding"; and soon afterwards this Board again +held its sessions in Boston. It was further announced, that the troops +that had been quartered in the Town-House had moved into a house +lately possessed by James Murray, which was near the church in Brattle +Street, (hence the origin of "Murray's Barracks," which became +historic from their connection with the Boston Massacre,)--that James +Otis, at the session of the Superior Court, in the Town-House, moved +that the Court adjourn to Faneuil Hall, because of the cannon that +remained pointed at the building, as it was derogatory to the honor of +the Court to administer justice at the mouth of the cannon and the +point of the bayonet,--that the Sixty-Fourth and Sixty-Fifth Regiments +had arrived from Cork, and were quartered in the large and commodious +stores on Wheelwright's Wharf,--and that Commodore Hood, the commander +of His Majesty's ships in America, had arrived (November 13) in +town. It is stated that there were now about four thousand troops +here, under the command of General Pomeroy, who was an excellent +officer and became very popular with the citizens. + +The town, meanwhile, continued remarkably quiet. There was no call for +popular demonstrations during the winter; and the Patriots confined +their labors to severe animadversions on public measures, and efforts +to tone the people up to a rigid observance of the non-importation +scheme. The crown officials endeavored to enliven the season with +balls and concerts, and at first were mortified that few of the ladles +would attend them; but they persevered, and were more successful. +"Now," Richard Carey writes, (February 7, 1769,) "it is mortifying +to many of the inhabitants that they have obtained their wishes, +and that such numbers of ladies attend. It is a bad thing for +Boston to have so many gay, idle people in it." There is much comment, +in the letters and journals, upon these balls and concerts, and some +of it not very flattering to the ladies who countenanced them. + +Meantime there appeared (January 10, 1769) an extra "Boston Post-Boy +and Advertiser," a broadside or half-sheet, printed in pica type, but +only on one side, which, under the heading of "Important Advices," +spread before the community the King's speech to Parliament. This +state-paper, which was read the world over, represented the people of +Boston as being "in a state of disobedience to all law and government, +and to have proceeded to measures subversive of the Constitution, and +attended with circumstances that might manifest a disposition to throw +off their dependence upon Great Britain"; and it contained a pledge +"to defeat the mischievous designs of those turbulent and seditious +persons who, under false pretences, had but too successfully deluded +numbers," and whose designs, if not defeated, could not fail to +produce the most serious consequences, not only to the Colonies +immediately, but, in the end, to all the dominions of the Crown. + +The Patriots remarked, (January 14, 1769,) that the countenances of a +few, who seemed to enjoy a triumph, were now very jocund; but that His +Majesty's loyal subjects were distressed that he had conceived such an +unfavorable sentiment of the temper of the people, who, far from the +remotest disposition to faction or rebellion, were struggling, as they +apprehended, for a constitution which supported the Crown, and for the +rights devised to them by their Charter and confirmed to them by the +declaration of His Majesty's glorious ancestors, William and Mary, at +that important era, the Revolution. These words are from an article +entitled "Journal of the Times," of which notice will be taken +presently; and they came out of what Bernard used to term the cabinet +of the faction. Other words, from Thomas Cushing, who was not an ultra +Whig, run, as to His Majesty,--"He must have been egregiously +misinformed. Nothing could have been farther from the truth than such +advices. I hope time, which scatters and dispels the mists of error +and falsehood, will place us in our true light, and convince the +Administration how much they have been abused by false and malicious +misrepresentations." Official falsehood and malice did their +appointed work, doubtless, in inflaming the British mind; but the root +of the difficulty was the feeling, so general at that time in England, +that every man there had a right to govern every man in America. The +King represented this imperialism. + +The King's speech, threatening resolves adopted in Parliament, +startling avowals in the direction of arbitrary power uttered in the +debates, gave fresh significance to the quartering of troops in +Boston, and forced upon the Patriots the conviction that these troops +were not here merely to aid in maintaining a public peace that was not +disturbed, or in collecting revenue that was regularly paid, but were +indicative of a purpose in the Ministry to change their local +government, and subjugate them, as to their domestic affairs, to +foreign-imposed law. "My daily reflections for two years," says John +Adams, who lived near Murray's Barracks, "at the sight of those +soldiers before my door, were serious enough. Their very appearance in +Boston was a strong proof to me that the determination in Great +Britain to subjugate us was too deep and inveterate ever to be altered +by us; for everything we could do was misrepresented, and nothing we +could say was credited." This statement is abundantly confirmed by +contemporary facts. Nothing that the Patriots could say availed to +diminish the alarm which was felt by the British aristocracy at the +obvious tendency of the democratic principle. The progress of events +but revealed new grandeur in the ideas of freedom and equality that +had been here so intelligently grasped, and new capacities in the +republican forms in which they had found expression. This was +growth. The mode prescribed to check this growth was a change in the +local Constitution, and this would be "the introduction of absolute +rule" in Massachusetts. + +The voluminous correspondence, at this period, between the members of +the British Cabinet and Governor Bernard shows that this purpose of +changing the Constitution was entertained by the Ministers and was +warmly urged by the local crown officials. Thus, John Pownall, the +Under-Secretary, avowed in a letter addressed to the Governor, that +such a measure was necessary, and that such "had been long his firm +and unalterable opinion upon the fullest consideration of what had +passed in America"; and in the same letter be says that the Government +had under consideration "the forfeiture of the Charter and measures of +local regulation and reform." + +The Governor, for years, had urged this in general, and of late had +named the specific measure of so altering the constitution of the +Council, that, instead of being chosen by the Representatives, it +should be appointed by the Crown; and he was vexed because his +superiors did not consider the Charter as at their mercy. "I have +just now heard," he wrote, October 22, 1768, to Lord Barrington, "that +the Charter of this government is still considered as sacred. For, +most assuredly, if the Charter is not so far altered as to put the +appointment of the Council in the King, this government will never +recover itself. When order is restored, it will be at best but a +republic, of which the Governor will be no more than President." A +month later (November 22, 1768) he wrote to John Pownall,--"If the +Convention and the proceedings of the Council about the same time +shall give the Crown a legal right or induce the Parliament to +exercise a legislative power over the Charter, it will be most +indulgently exercised, if it is extended no farther than to make an +alteration in the form of the government, which has always been found +wanting, is now become quite necessary, and will really, by making it +more constitutional, render it more permanent. With this alteration, +I do believe that all the disorders of this government will be +remedied, and the authority of it fully restored. Without it, there +will be a perpetual occasion to resort to expedients, the continual +inefficiency of which will speak in the words of Scripture,--'You are +careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful.'" + +As week after week passed and no orders came from the Secretary of +State to make arrests of certain individuals who had been conspicuous +in the late town-meetings, and no legislation was entered upon as to +the Charter, the crown officials were greatly agitated; and Bernard +says (December, 1768) that they were "under the apprehension that the +Government of Great Britain might not take the full advantage of what +the late mad and wicked proceedings of The Sons of Liberty [faction] +had put in their hands. They say that the late wild attempt to create +a revolt and take the government of the Province out of the King's +into their own hands affords so fair an opportunity for the supreme +power to reform the constitution of this subordinate government, to +dispel the faction which has harassed this Province for three years +past, and to inflict a proper and not a severe censure upon some of +the heads of it, that, if it is now neglected, they say, it is not +like soon, perhaps ever, to happen again." And the Governor said that +he heard much of this from all the sensible men with whom he +conversed. What a testimonial is this record in favor of republican +Boston and Massachusetts! So complete was the quiet of the town, so +forbearing were the people under the severest provocations, that this +set of politicians were out of all patience, and feared they never +would see another riot out of which to make a case for abolishing the +cherished local government. The Patriots, Bernard says in this letter, +did not experience this agitation. "Those persons," he writes, "who +have reason to expect a severe censure from Great Britain do not +appear to be so anxious for the event as the friends and well-wishers +to the authority of the Government." The Patriots intended no +rebellion, and they experienced no apprehension. They put forth no +absurd claims to meddle with things that were common and national, and +they asked simply to be let alone as to things peculiar and local. + +Meantime Governor Bernard was fairly importuned by Government +officials for advice; and again and again he was assured that his +judgment was regarded as valuable. "Mr. Pownall and I," Lord +Hillsborough says, in a private letter, (November 15, 1768,) "have +spent some days in considering with the utmost attention your +correspondence." John Pownall, the Under-Secretary here referred to, +wrote (December 24, 1768,) to Bernard,--"I want to know very much your +real sentiments on the present very critical situation of American +affairs, and the more fully the greater will be the obligations +conferred." There are curious coincidences in history, and one +occurred on the day on which this letter was dated; for Governor +Bernard, with a letter of this same date addressed to Pownall, sent +him a remarkable communication developing the measures which the +Boston crown officials considered to be necessary to maintain the +King's authority. + +At this time (December, 1768) there appears to have been but little +difference of opinion among the prominent Loyalists as to the +necessity of an extraordinary exercise of authority in some way, both +as a point of honor and as a measure of precaution for the future. On +this point Hutchinson was as decided as Bernard, though he was +reticent as to the precise shape it ought to take. It would not do, he +said, to leave the Colonies to the loose principle, espoused by so +many, that they were subject to laws that appeared to them equitable, +and no other; nor would it do to drive the Colonies to despair; but if +nothing were done but to pass declaratory acts and resolves, it would +soon be all over with the friends of Government; and so he wrote, +"This is most certainly a crisis." + +The remarkable paper just referred to is recorded in Governor +Bernard's Letter-Books, without either address or signature, but in +the form of a letter, dated December 23, 1768, and marked, +"Confidential." It is elaborate and able, but too long for citation +here in full. In it the Governor professes to speak for others as well +as for himself, and to present the reasonings used in Boston on an +important and critical occasion. + +The second paragraph embodies the propositions which were recommended +by the Loyalists, and is as follows:--"It is said that the +Town-Meeting, the Convention, and the refusal of the Justices to +billet the soldiers, severally, point out and justify the means +whereby, First, the disturbers of the peace of the government may be +properly censured, Second, the magistracy of the town reformed, and, +Third, the constitution of the government amended: all of them most +desirable ends, and some of them quite necessary to the restoration of +the King's authority. I will consider these separately." + +The Governor represented the town-meeting which called the September +Convention as undoubtedly intending to bring about a rebellion,--and +the precise way designed is said to have been, to seize the two +highest officials and the treasury, and then to set up a standard; and +after remarking on the circumstances that defeated this scheme, he +inquires why so notorious an attempt should go unpunished because it +was unsuccessful. He recommends the passage of an Act of Parliament +disqualifying the principal persons engaged in this from holding any +office or sitting in the Assembly; and this was urged as being much +talked of, and as likely in its tendency to have a good influence in +other governments. He presented, as proper to be censured, the +Moderator of the town-meeting, Otis,--the Selectmen, Jackson, Ruddock, +Hancock, Rowe, and Pemberton,--the Town-Clerk, Cooper,--the Speaker of +the Convention, Gushing,--and its Clerk, Adams. "The giving these men +a check," he said, "would make them less capable of doing more +mischief,--would really be salutary to themselves, as well as +advantageous to the Government." + +The Governor represented that to reform the magistracy of the town +would be of great service, for there were among the Justices several +of the supporters of the Sons of Liberty; and their refusal, under +their own hands, to quarter the soldiers in town would justify a +removal. He recommended that this reform should be by Act of +Parliament, and that by beginning in the County of Suffolk a precedent +might be established for a like exercise of authority as to other +places. Such an act, with a royal instruction to the Governor as to +appointments, was looked upon as of such value for the restoration of +authority, that "some were for carrying this remedial measure to all +the commissions of all kinds in the Government" + +The Governor represented the fundamental change proposed as to the +Council to be a most desirable object,--"If one was to say," his words +were, "quite necessary to the restoration and firm establishment of +the authority of the Crown, it would not be saying too much." The +justification for this was alleged to be, the sitting of the +Convention and certain proceedings of the Council, which, it was +argued at some length, broke the condition on which the Charter was +granted, and thereby made it liable to forfeiture. It was alleged +that the Council had met separately as a Council without being +assembled by the Governor, that the people had chosen Representatives +also without being summoned by the Governor, and that these +Representatives had met and transacted business, as in an Assembly, +even after they had been required in the King's name to break up their +meeting. Thus both the Council and the people had committed +usurpations on the King's rights; and it would surely be great grace +and favor in the King, if he took no other advantage than to correct +the errors in the original formation of the government and make it +more congenial to the Constitution of the mother-country. + +The concluding portion of the paper urges general considerations why +the local government ought to be changed. "It requires no arguments to +show," are its words, "that the inferior governments of a free State +should be as similar to that of the supreme State as can well be. And +it is self-evident that the excellency of the British Constitution +consists in the equal balance of the regal and popular powers. If so, +where the royal scale kicks the beam and the people know their own +superior strength, the authority of Government can never be steady and +durable: it must either be perpetually distracted by disputes with the +Crown, or be quieted by giving up all real power to the demagogues of +the people." And, after other considerations, the paper closes as +follows:--"It is therefore not to be wondered at that the most +sensible men of this Province see how necessary it is for the peace +and good order of this government that the royal scale should have its +own constitutional weights restored to it, and thereby be made much +more equilibrial with the popular one. How this is to be done, whether +by the Parliament or the King's Bench, or by both, is a question for +the Administration to determine; the expedience of the measure is out +of doubt; and if the late proceedings of the Convention, etc., amount +to a forfeiture, a reformation of the constitution of the government, +if it is insisted upon, must and will be assented to." + +The Governor, in a letter addressed to John Pownall, which is marked +"Private and Confidential," explains the origin and intention of this +paper,--a paper which has not been referred to by historians:-- + + +FRANCIS BERNARD TO JOHN POWNALL. + + "_Boston, Dec. 24, 1768._ + +"Dear Sir,--The enclosed letter is the result of divers conferences I +have had with some of the chief members of the Government and the +principal gentlemen of the town, in the course of which I have scarce +ever met with a difference to the opinions there laid down. I have +been frequently importuned to write to the Minister upon these +subjects, that the fair opportunity which offers to crush the faction, +reform the government, and restore peace and order may not be lost, I +have, however, declined it, not thinking it decent in me to appear to +dictate to the Minister so far as to prescribe a set of +measures. Besides, I have thought the subject and manner of dictating +it too delicate for a public letter. However, as it appears to me that +the welfare of this Province, the honor of the British Government, and +the future connection between them both depend upon the right +improvement of the time present, I have put the thoughts to writing in +a letter, in which I have avoided all personalities which may discover +the writer, and even the signing and addressing it. If these hints are +like to be of use, communicate them in such a manner that the writer +may not be known, unless it is in confidence. If they come too late, +or disagree with the present system, destroy the paper. All I can say +for them is that they are fully considered and are well intended. + + "I am," etc. + + +This relation shows that the popular leaders were right in their +judgment, that they had broader work before them than to deal with the +special matter of taxation, and that the presence of the troops meant +the beginning of arbitrary government. The duty of the hour was not +shirked. The Patriots could not know the extent of the Governor's +misrepresentations; but they knew from the tone of the Parliamentary +debates, that they were regarded as children, with a valid claim, +perhaps, to be well governed, but not as Englishmen, with coequal +rights to govern themselves, and that the British aristocracy meant to +cover them with its cold shade. And when the Loyalists arraigned the +Charter and town-meetings and juries as difficulties in the way of +good order, Shippen, in the "Gazette," (January 25, 1769,) said,--"The +Province has been, and may be again, quietly and happily governed, +while these terrible difficulties have subsisted in their full +force. They are, indeed, wise checks upon power in favor of the +people. But power vested in some rulers can brook no check. To assert +the most undoubted rights of human nature, and of the British +Constitution, they term faction; and having embarrassed a free +government by their own impolitic measures, they fly to military +power." + +It may be asked, What came of the recommendations of Bernard? "I +know," Hutchinson wrote, (May 6, 1769,) "the Ministry, when I wrote +you last, had determined to push it [the alteration of the +Constitution] in Parliament. They laid aside the thought a little +while. The latter end of February they took it up again. I have reason +to think it is laid aside a second time." There was a third time also. +The Patriots for six years endured a steady aggression on their +constitutional rights, which had the single object in view of checking +the republican idea, when the scheme was taken up and pressed to a +consummation. The Parliamentary acts of 1774, as to town-meetings, +trial by jury, and the Council of Massachusetts, aimed a deadly blow +at the local self-government. It was the subjugation that John Adams +judged was symbolized by the military rule of 1768. Not until they saw +this, did the generation of that day feel justified in invoking the +terrible arbiter of war. Nor did they draw the awful sword until the +Thirteen Colonies, in Congress assembled, (1774,) solemnly pledged +each other to stand as one people in defence of the old local +government. This was in the majesty of revolution. It is profanation +to compare with this patience and glory the insurrection begun by +South Carolina. She--the first time such an organization ever did +it--assumed to be a nation; and then madly led off in a suicidal war +on the National Government, although the three branches of it, +Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary, recognized every constitutional +obligation, and had not attempted an invasion of any local right. + +A month after the Governor transmitted his plan for an alteration of +the Constitution, he renewed, in an elaborate letter to Lord +Hillsborough, (January 24, 1769,) his old allegation, that the popular +leaders designed by their September town-meeting to inaugurate +insurrection, and by the Convention to make their proposed +insurrection general,--and that the plan was, to remove the King's +Governor and resume the old Charter. "A chief of the faction" +--this was a sample of the evidence--"said that he was always +for gentle measures; for he was only for driving the Governor and +Lieutenant-Governor out of the Province, and taking the government +into their own hands. Judge, my Lord, what must be the measures +proposed by others, when this is called a gentle measure." And he +advised the Minister, that, to aid him in the execution of the orders +he had received, he had formed a Cabinet Council of three principal +officers of the Crown, whose zeal, ability, and fidelity could not be +suspected. On the next day (January 25) the Governor devoted a +despatch to Lord Hillsborough to remarks upon the press, and +especially the "Boston Gazette" and Edes and Gill--"They may be said +to be no more than mercenary printers," are the Governor's +words,--"but they have been and still are the trumpeters of sedition, +and have been made the apparent instruments of raising that flame in +America which has given so much trouble and is still likely to give +more to Great Britain and her Colonies"; and it seemed to the Governor +that "the first step for calling the chiefs of the faction to account +would be by seizing their printers, together with their papers, if it +could be." He would not pronounce any particular piece absolutely +treason, but he sent to his Lordship a complete file of this journal +from the 14th of August, 1767, "when the present troubles began." + +The next official action on the Patriot side was taken by the +Selectmen, who, in a touching as well as searching address to the +Governor, (February 18, 1769,) requested him to communicate to them +such representations of facts only as he had judged proper to make to +the Ministry during the past year relative to the town, in order that, +by knowing precisely what had been alleged against its proceedings or +character, the town might have an opportunity to vindicate itself. +After characterizing as truly alarming to a free people the array of +ships of war around it and the troops within it, the address +proceeds,--"Your Excellency can witness for the town that no such aid +is necessary; loyalty to the sovereign, and an inflexible zeal for the +support of His Majesty's authority and the happy Constitution, is its +just character; and we may appeal to an impartial world, that peace +and order were better maintained in the town before it was even +rumored that His Majesty's troops were to be quartered among us than +they have been since"; and the judgment is expressed, that the opinion +entertained abroad as to the condition of things in Boston could have +arisen only from a great misapprehension, by His Majesty's Ministers, +as to the behavior of individuals or the public transactions of the +town. + +To this rather troublesome request the Governor returned a very brief +and curt answer,--that he had no reason to think that the public +transactions had been misapprehended by the Government, "or that their +opinions thereon were founded upon any other accounts than those +published by the town itself"; and he coolly added,--"If, therefore, +you can vindicate yourselves from such charges as may arise from your +own publications, you will, in my opinion, have nothing further to +apprehend." + +A week later, the Selectmen waited on the Governor with another +address, which assumed that his reply to the former address had +substantially vindicated the town as a corporation, as it had +published nothing but its own transactions in town-meeting legally +assembled. And now the Selectmen averred, that, if the town had +suffered from the disorders of the eighteenth of March and the tenth +of June, "the only disorders that had taken place in the town within +the year past," the Governor's words were full testimony to the point, +that it must be in consequence of some partial or false +representations of those disorders to His Majesty's Ministers; and the +address entreated the Governor to condescend to point out wherein the +town, in its public transactions, had militated with any law or the +British constitution of government, so that either the town might be +made sensible of the illegality of its proceedings, or its innocence +might appear in a still clearer light. + +The following sentence constituted the whole of the reply of the royal +representative: for what else could such a double-dealer say? + + +"Gentlemen,--As in my answer to your former address I confined myself +to you as Selectmen and the town as a Body, I did not mean to refer to +the disorders on the eighteenth of March or of the tenth of June, but +to the transactions in the town-meetings and the proceedings of the +Selectmen in consequence thereof. + + "FRA: BERNARD. + +"Feb. 24, 1769." + + +The town next, at the annual March meeting, petitioned the King to +remove the troops. This petition is certainly a striking paper, and +places in a strong light the earnest desire of the popular leaders to +steer clear of everything that might tend to wound British pride or in +any way to inflame the public mind of the mother-country, and to +impress on the Government their deep concern at the twin charges +brought against the town of disorder and disloyalty. While lamenting +the June riot, they averred that it was discountenanced by the body of +the inhabitants and immediately repressed; but with a confidence, they +said, which will ever accompany innocence and truth, they declared +that the courts had never been interrupted, not even that of a single +magistrate,--that not an instance could be produced of so much as an +attempt to rescue any criminal out of the hands of justice,--that +duties required by Acts of Parliament held to be grievous had been +regularly paid,--and that all His Majesty's subjects were disposed +orderly and dutifully to wait for that relief which they hoped from +His Majesty's wisdom and clemency and the justice of Parliament. After +reviewing elaborately the representations that had been made of the +condition of the town, with "the warmest declarations of their +attachment to their constitutional rights," they pronounced those +accounts to be ill-grounded which represented them as held to their +"allegiance and duty to the best of sovereigns only by the bond of +terror and the force of arms." The petition then most earnestly +supplicates His Majesty to remove from the town a military power which +the strictest truth warranted them in declaring unnecessary for the +support of the civil authority among them, and which they could not +but consider as unfavorable to commerce, destructive to morals, +dangerous to law, and tending to overthrow the civil constitution. +"Your Majesty," was the utterance of Boston, and in one of +those town-meetings that were heralded even from the Throne and +Parliament as instrumentalities of rebellion, "possesses a glory +superior to that of any monarch on earth,--the glory of being at the +head of the happiest civil constitution in the world, and under which +human nature appears with the greatest advantage and dignity,--the +glory of reigning over a free people, and of being enthroned in the +hearts of your subjects. Your Majesty, therefore, we are sure, will +frown, not upon those who have the warmest attachment to this +constitution and to their sovereign, but upon such as shall be found +to have attempted by their misrepresentations to diminish the +blessings of your Majesty's reign, in the remotest parts of your +dominions." + +This is not the language of party-adroitness or of a low cunning, but +the calm utterance of truth by American manhood. There is no +indication of the authorship of the petition, but a strong committee +was chosen at the meeting which adopted it, consisting of James Otis, +Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushing, Richard Dana, Joseph Warren, John Adams, +and Samuel Quincy, to consider the subject of vindicating the town +from the misrepresentations to which it had been subjected. This +petition, accompanied by a letter penned by Samuel Adams, was +transmitted (April 8, 1769) to Colonel Barré, with the request that he +would present it, by his own hand, to His Majesty. Both the letter +and the petition requested the transmission to Boston of all Bernard's +letters, a specimen only of which had now been received. "Conscious," +the letter said, "of their own innocence, it is the earnest desire of +the town that you would employ your great influence to remove from the +mind of our Sovereign, his Ministers, and Parliament, the unfavorable +sentiments that have been formed of their conduct, or at least obtain +from them the knowledge of their accusers and the matters alleged +against them, and an opportunity offered of vindicating themselves." + +The letters just referred to as having been received from England +were six in number, five written by Governor Bernard and one by +General Gage, which contained specimens of the characteristic +misrepresentations of political affairs by the crown officials; and, +having been transmitted to the Council, this body felt called upon to +act in the matter, which they did (April 15, 1769) in a spirited +letter addressed to Lord Hillsborough. This letter is occupied mainly +with the various questions touching the introduction and the +quartering of the troops. Again were the disorders of the eighteenth +of March and the tenth of June reviewed and explained; the charge made +by the Governor, that the Council refused to provide quarters for the +troops out of servility to the populace, was pronounced to be without +foundation or coloring of truth; and the Council boldly charged upon +Bernard, that his great aim was the destruction of the constitution to +which, as Englishmen and by the Charter, they were entitled,--"a +constitution," they remark, "dearly purchased by our ancestors and +dear to us, and which we persuade ourselves will be continued to us." +Then, also, they charged that no Council had borne what the present +Council had borne from Bernard; that his whole conduct with regard to +the troops was arbitrary and unbecoming the dignity of his station; +and that his common practice, in case the Council did not come into +his measures, of threatening to lay their conduct before His Majesty, +was absurd and insulting. + +The troops, during the progress of the events which have been related, +did not redeem the promise, as to discipline and order, which General +Gage made for them to the Council. After the arrival of the +Sixty-Fourth and Sixty-Fifth Regiments, General Pomeroy continued the +commander through the winter, and down to the month of May; and he +made himself popular with the inhabitants. Still, the four regiments +consisted, to a great degree, of such rough material, that they could +not, in the idleness in which they were kept, be controlled. "The +soldiers," Andrew Eliot writes, January 29, 1769, "were in raptures at +the cheapness of spirituous liquors among us, and in some of their +drunken hours have been insolent to some of the inhabitants"; and he +further remarks that "the officers are the most troublesome, who, many +of them, are as intemperate as the men." Thus, while the temptation +to excess was strong, the restraint of individual position was weak, +and both privates and officers became subjects of legal proceedings as +disturbers of the public peace. + +The routine of military discipline grated rudely on old customs. +Citizens who, like their ancestors for a century and a half, had +walked the streets with perfect freedom, were annoyed at being obliged +to answer the challenge of sentinels who were posted at the +Custom-House and other public places, and at the doors of the +officers' lodgings. Then the usual quiet of Sunday was disturbed by +the changes of the guards, with the sounds of fife and drum, and the +tunes of "Nancy Dawson" and "Yankee Doodle"; church-goers were annoyed +by parties of soldiers in the streets, and the whole community +outraged by horse-racing on the Common. Applications for redress had +been ineffectual; and General Pomeroy was excused for not checking +some of these things, on the ground that he was controlled by a +superior officer. His successor, General Mackay, gave great +satisfaction by prohibiting, in general orders, (June 15, 1769,) +horse-racing on the Common on the Lord's day by any under his command, +and also by forbidding soldiers to be in the streets during divine +service, a practice that had been long disagreeable to the people. + +In one way and another the troops became sources of irritation. The +Patriots, mainly William Cooper, the town clerk, prepared a chronicle +of this perpetual fret, which contains much curious matter obtained +through access to authentic sources of information, private and +official. This diary was first printed in New York, and reprinted in +the newspapers of Boston and London, under the title of "Journal of +Occurrences." The numbers, continued until after the close of +Bernard's administration, usually occupied three columns of the +"Boston Evening Post," and constituted a piquant record of the matters +connected with the troops and general politics. It attracted much +attention, and the authors of it formed the subject of a standing +toast at the Liberty celebrations. Hutchinson averred that it was +composed with great art and little truth. After this weekly "Journal +of the Times," as it was now called, had been published four months, +Governor Bernard devoted to it an entire official letter addressed to +Lord Hillsborough. He said that this publication was intended "to +raise a general clamor against His Majesty's government in England and +throughout America, as well as in Massachusetts"; and that in this way +the Patriots "flattered themselves that they should get the navy and +army removed, and again have the government and Custom-House in their +own hands." The idea of such disloyal purposes excited the Governor to +the most acrimonious criticism. "It is composed," he informed Lord +Hillsborough, "by Adams and his associates, among which there must be +some one at least of the Council; as everything that is said or done +in Council, which can be made use of, is constantly perverted, +misrepresented, and falsified in this paper. But if the Devil himself +was of the party, as he virtually is, there could not have been got +together a greater collection of impudent, virulent, and seditious +lies, perversions of truth, and misrepresentations, than are to be +found in this publication. Some are entirely invented, and first heard +of from the printed papers; others are founded in fact, but so +perverted as to be the direct contrary of the truth; other part of the +whole consists of reflections of the writer, which pretend to no other +authority but his own word. To set about answering these falsities +would be a work like that of cleansing Augeas's stable, which is to be +done only by bringing in a stream strong enough to sweep away the dirt +and collectors of it all together." Doubtless there were exaggerations +in this journal. It would be strange, if there were not. If +the perversions of truth were greater than the Governor's +misrepresentations of the proceedings of the inhabitants on the +eighteenth of March, or on the tenth of June, or of what was termed +"the September Rebellion," they deserved more than this severe +criticism. But, in the main, the general allegations, as to grievances +suffered by the people from the troops, are borne out by private +letters and official documents; and a plain statement of the course of +Francis Bernard shows that they did not exceed the truth as to him. + +The troops continued under the command of General Pomeroy until the +arrival (April 30, 1769) of Hon. Alexander Mackay, Colonel of the +Sixty-Fifth Regiment, a Major-General on the American establishment, +and a member of the British Parliament, when the command of the +troops, so it was announced, in the Eastern District of America, +devolved on him. When General Pomeroy left the town, the press, of +all parties, and even the "Journal of the Times," highly complimented +his conduct both as an officer and a gentleman. + +The crown officials found themselves, at this period, in an awkward +situation as to arrests of the popular leaders. They had recommended +to the Government what they termed the slight punishment of +disqualification, by Act of Parliament, from engaging in civil +service; but the Ministry and their supporters determined on the +summary proceeding of prosecutions under existing law for treason, +thinking that few cases would be necessary,--and all agreed that these +should be selected from Boston. On this point of singling out Boston +for punishment, whatever other measures might be proposed, there was +entire unanimity of sentiment. Thus, Lord Camden, on being applied to +by the Prime-Minister for advice, suggested a repeal of the Revenue +Act in favor of other Provinces, but the execution of it with rigor in +Massachusetts, saying,--"There is no pretence for violence anywhere +but at Boston; that is the ringleading Province; and if any country is +to be chastised, the punishment ought to be levelled there." As to the +policy of arrests, in Lord Barrington's judgment, five or six examples +would be sufficient for all the Colonies, and he thought that it was +right they should be made in Boston, the only place where there had +been actual crime; for "they," his words are, "would be enough to +carry terror to the wicked and factious spirits all over the +continent, and would show that the subjects of Great Britain must not +rebel with impunity anywhere." The King and Parliament stood pledged +to make arrests; Lord Hillsborough, in his instructions, had urged +them again and again; the private letters of the officials addressed +to Bernard were refreshingly full and positive as to the advantage +which such exercise of the national authority would be to the King's +cause; the British press continually announced that they were to be +made; and all England was looking to see representative men of +America, who had dared to deny any portion of the authority of +Parliament, occupy lodgings in London Tower. And yet, though it had +been announced in Parliament that the object in sending troops was to +bring rioters to justice, not a man had been put under arrest; and the +only requisition that had been made for eight months upon a military +power which was considered to be invincible was that which produced +the inglorious demonstration at the Manufactory House occupied by John +Brown the weaver. So ridiculous was the figure which the British Lion +cut on the public stage of Boston! + +Governor Bernard not unlikely felt more keenly the awkwardness of all +this from having received, as a reward for service, the honor of a +Baronetcy of Great Britain. The "Gazette," in announcing this, (May 1, +1769,) has an ironical article addressing the new Baronet thus:--"Your +promotion, Sir, reflects an honor on the Province itself,--an honor +which has never been conferred upon it since the thrice happy +administration of Sir Edmund Andres, of precious memory, who was also +a Baronet"; and in a candid British judgment to-day, (that of Lord +Mahon,) the honor was "a most ill-timed favor surely, when he had so +grievously failed in gaining the affections or confidence of any order +or rank of men within his Province." The subject occupies a large +space in the private correspondence, and the title was the more +flattering and acceptable to the Governor from being exempted from the +usual concomitant of heavy expense as fees. But whatever other service +he had rendered, he had not rendered what was looked upon as most +vital, the service of making arrests. + +At this period the Governor held a consultation with distinguished +political leaders, consisting of the Secretary, Andrew Oliver, who had +been Stamp-Officer, the Judge of Admiralty, Robert Auchmuty, who was +an eminent lawyer, and the Chief Justice, Hutchinson, who was counted +the ablest man of the party, all ultra Loyalists, to consider the +future policy as to arrests,--all doubtless feeling that the +non-action course needed explanation. The details of this consultation +are given at such length, and with such minuteness, by Bernard, in a +letter addressed to Lord Hillsborough, that these learned political +doctors can almost be seen making a diagnosis of the prevalent +treason-disease and discussing proposed prescriptions. They carefully +considered what had been done at the great public meetings, and what +had been printed in the "Boston Gazette," which had been all collected +and duly certified, and had been faithfully transmitted to +Westminster, where distinctions of law were better known than they +were in Boston. But, after legal scrutiny there, no specifications of +acts amounting to treason had been made out as proper bases for +proceedings, and it could not be expected that the local authorities +would be wiser than their superiors; and thus this class of offences +was set aside. To deal with other matters of treason, and especially +with "the Rebellion of September," was found to be involved in +difficulties. The members of the faction were now behaving "very +cautiously and inoffensively," and so nothing could be made out of the +present; and as they would not bear witness against each other as to +the past, it was not easy from old affairs to make out cases of +treason. Former private consultations of a treasonable character, it +was said, lacked connection with overt acts, and the overt acts of a +treasonable character lacked connection with the prior consultations: +as, for instance, they said, the consultation to seize the Castle was +treasonable, but it was not followed by an overt act,--and the overt +act of the tar-barrel signal on the beacon-pole was treasonable, but +it could not be traced to a prior consultation so as to evidence the +intent. So these acute crown officials went on in their deliberations, +and came to the conclusion, which Bernard officially communicated (May +25, 1769) to Lord Hillsborough, in the long letter above referred to, +that they could not fix upon any acts "that amounted to actual +treason, though many of them approached very near to it." + +The Governor, meantime, had issued precepts to the towns to return +members of the General Court; this made each locality (May, 1769) +alive with politics; and he stated to Lord Hillsborough, as a further +reason for not polling inquiry into treasonable practices, that he was +anxious not to irritate the people more than he felt obliged to. The +question of the removal of the troops was now discussed in the little +country forums, and the resolves and instructions to the +Representatives, printed in the journals, reëcho, in a spirited manner +and with great ability, the political sentiment which had been +embodied in official papers. They contain earnest protestations of a +determination to maintain His Most Sacred Majesty George the Third, +their rightful sovereign, his crown, dignity, and family; to maintain +their Charter immunities, with all their rights derived from God and +Nature, and to transmit them inviolable to their latest posterity; and +they charge the Representatives not to allow, by vote or resolution, a +right in any power on earth to tax the people to raise a revenue +except in the General Assembly of the Province. All urged action +relative to the troops, and several put this as the earliest duty of +the Assembly, as the presence of the troops tended to awe or control +freedom of debate. These utterances of the towns, which the journals +of May contain, make a glowing record of the spirit of the time. + +The Selectmen of Boston, on issuing the usual warrants for an election +of Representatives, requested General Mackay to order the troops out +of town on the day (May 8, 1769) of the town-meeting; but though he +felt obliged to decline to do this, yet, in the spirit in which he +acted during his entire residence here, he kept the troops, on this +day, confined to their barracks. The town, after choosing Otis, +Cushing, Adams, and Hancock as Representatives, adopted a noble letter +of instructions, not only rehearsing the grievances, but asserting +ideas of freedom and equality, as to political rights, that had been +firmly grasped. They arraigned the Act of Parliament of 4th Geo. III., +extending admiralty jurisdiction and depriving the colonists of native +juries, as a distinction staring them in the face which was made +between the subject in Great Britain and the subject in America,--the +Parliament in one section guarding the people of the realm, and +securing to them trial by jury and the law of the land, and in the +next section depriving Americans of those important rights; and this +distinction was pronounced a brand of disgrace upon every American, a +degradation below the rank of an Englishman. While the instructions +claimed for each subject in America equality of political right with +each subject in England, they claimed also for the General Court the +dignity of a free assembly, and declared the first object of their +labors to be a removal of "those cannon and guards and that clamorous +parade that had been daily about the Court-House since the arrival of +His Majesty's troops." + +The country towns, which now responded so nobly to the demand of the +hour, were controlled by freemen. Among these it was rare to find any +who could not read and write; they were mostly independent +freeholders, with person and property guarded, as it used to be said +in the Boston journals of the time, not by one law for the peasant and +another law for the prince, but by equal law for all; they exercised +liberty of thought and political action, and their proceedings, as +they appeared in the public prints, gave great alarm to the Governor. +He now informed Lord Hillsborough that the Sons of Liberty had got as +high as ever; and that out of a party which used to keep the +opposition to Government under, there were reckoned to be not above +ten members returned in a House of above one hundred and twenty. +After giving an account of a meeting of "the factious chiefs" in +Boston, held a few days before the General Court assembled, he +says,--"To see that faction which has occasioned all the troubles in +this Province, and I may add in America too, has quite overturned this +government, now triumphant and driving over every one who has loyalty +and resolution to stand up in defence of the rights of the King and +Parliament, gives me great concern." + +This result of the elections, which the crown officials ascribed to a +talent for mischief in the popular leaders, naturally flowed from the +exhibition of arbitrary power. The introduction of the troops was a +suicidal measure to the Loyalists, and in urging their continuance in +the Province the crown officials had been carrying an exhaustive +burden; while, even in every failure to effect their removal, the +Whigs had won a fresh moral victory. There was, in consequence, a more +perfect union of the people than ever. The members returned to the +General Court constituted a line representation of the character, +ability, and patriotism of the Province; many of the names were then +obscure which subsequent large service to country was to make famous +as the names of heroes and sages; and such a body of men was now to +act on the question of a removal of the troops. + +It would be travelling a beaten path to relate the proceedings of this +session of the General Court; and only a glance will be necessary to +show its connection with the issue that had so long stirred the public +mind. Immediately on taking the oath of office, at nine o'clock, the +House, through a committee, presented an elaborate and strong protest +to the Governor against the presence of the troops. They averred that +they meant to be loyal; that no law, however grievous, had in the +execution of it been opposed in the Province; but, they said, as they +came as of right to their old Parliament-House, to exercise, as of +right, perfect freedom of debate, they found a standing army in their +metropolis, and a military guard with cannon pointed at their very +doors; and, in the strong way of the old Commonwealth men, they +protested against this presence as "a breach of privilege, and +inconsistent with that dignity and freedom with which they had a right +to deliberate, consult, and determine." The Governor's laconic reply +was,--"I have no authority over His Majesty's ships in this port or +his troops within this town; nor can I give any orders for their +removal." The House, resolving that they proceeded to take part in +the elections of the day from necessity and to conform the Charter, +chose their Clerk, Speaker, and twenty-eight Councillors. + +The Governor at ten o'clock received at the Province House a brilliant +array of officials, when an elegant collation was served; at twelve, +escorted by Captain Paddock's company, he repaired to the +Council-Chamber, whence, after approving the choice of Speaker, the +whole Government went in procession to the Old Brick Meeting-House, +where the election sermon was preached; then succeeded an elegant +dinner at Faneuil Hall, which was attended by the field-officers of +the four regiments, and the official dignitaries, including Commodore +Hood and General Mackay, which, as to the Governor, closed the +proceedings of the day. + +The House in its choice of Councillors elected several decided +Loyalists, though it did not reelect four of this party who were of +that body the last year, namely, Messrs. Flucker, Ropes, Paine, and +Worthington. The Governor refused his consent to eleven on the +list. On the next day he thus wrote of these events:-- + + +FRANCIS BERNARD TO JOHN POWNALL. + + "_Boston, June 1,1769._ + +"Dear Sir,--There being a snow ready to sail for Glasgow, I take the +opportunity of sending you the printed account of the election and +other proceedings on yesterday and to-day; from which you will +perceive that everything goes as bad as could be expected. The Boston +faction has taken possession of the two Houses in such a manner that +there are not ten men in both who dare contradict them. They have +turned out of the Council four gentlemen of the very first reputation +in the country, and the only men remaining of disposition and ability +to serve the King's cause. I have negatived eleven, among which are +two old Councillors, Brattle and Bowdoin, the managers of all the late +opposition in the Council to the King's government. There is not now +one man in the Council who has either power or spirit to oppose the +faction; and the friends of Government are so thin in the House, that +they won't attempt to make any opposition; so that Otis, Adams, etc., +are now in full possession of this government, and will treat it +accordingly. This is no more than was expected. I will write more +particularly in a few days. + + "I am," etc. + + +The Governor could write thus of his political friends of the Council, +several of whom, six years later, when the attempt was made to change +the Constitution, were thought to have spirit enough to receive +appointments from the Crown,--such, for instance, as Danforth, +Russell, Royal, and Gray,--and hence were called _Mandamus_ +Councillors. + +A few days after (May 5, 1769) there was a holiday in Boston, the +celebration of the birth-day of the King, which the House, "out of +duty, loyalty, and affection to His Majesty," noticed formally, as +provided by a committee consisting of Otis, Hancock, and Adams. The +Governor received a brilliant party--at the Province House; the three +regiments in town, the Fourteenth, Twenty-Ninth, and Sixty-Fourth, +paraded on the Common; the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company--it +happened to be their anniversary--went through the customary routine, +including the sermon, the dinner at Faneuil Hall, and the exchange of +commissions on the Common; and in the evening there was a ball at +Concert Hall, where, it is said in the Tory paper, there was as +numerous and brilliant an appearance of gentlemen and ladies as was +ever known in town on any former occasion. The Patriot journals give +more space to the celebration, towards evening, in the Representatives' +Hall, where, besides the members, were a great number of merchants +and gentlemen of the first distinction, who, besides toasting, first +the King, Queen, and Royal Family, and second, North America, +drank to "The restoration of harmony between Great Britain +and the Colonies," "Prosperity and perpetuity to the British Empire in +all parts of the world," and "Liberty without licentiousness to all +parts of the world." The House thus testified their loyalty to +country; but, as the Governor refused to remove the troops, they--the +"Boston Gazette" of June 12th said--"had for thirteen days past made a +solemn and expressive pause in public business." + +Meantime the Governor received in one day (June 10) communications +which surprised him half out of his wits and wholly out of his office, +and which must have made rather a blue day in his calendar. + +The Ministry now vacillated in their high-handed policy, and gave to +General Gage discretionary power as to a continuance of the troops in +Boston; and this officer had come to the sensible conclusion that +troops were worse than needless, for they were an unnecessary +irritation and detrimental to a restoration of the harmony which the +representative men of both parties professed to desire. Accordingly +the Governor received advices that the Commander-in-Chief had ordered +the Sixty-Fourth and Sixty-Fifth Regiments, with the train of +artillery, to Halifax, and that he had directed General Mackay to +confer with his Excellency as to the disposition of the remainder of +the troops, whether His Majesty's service required that any should be +posted longer in Boston, and if so, what the number should be. The +Governor was further requested to give his opinion on this point in +writing. + +As the Governor had received no intimation of such a change of policy +from his friends in England, he could hardly find words in which to +express his astonishment. He wrote, two days after, that nothing +could be more _mal-à-propos_ to the business of Government or +hard upon him; that it was cruel to have this forced upon him at such +a time and in such a manner; and as the question was put, it was +hardly less than whether he should abdicate government. "If the troops +are removed," he wrote, "the principal officers of the Crown, the +friends of Government, and the importers of goods from England in +defiance of the combination, who are considerable and numerous, must +remove also," which would have been quite an extensive removal. He +wrote to Lord Hillsborough,--"It is impossible to express my surprise +at this proposition, or my embarrassment on account of the requisition +of an answer." + +The other communication was a right royal greeting. Up to this time +the letters to the Governor from the members of the Government, +private as well as official, had been to him of the most gratifying +character, to say nothing of the gift of the baronetcy. "I can give +you the pleasure of knowing," Lord Barrington wrote to him, (April 5, +1769,) "that last Sunday the King spoke with the highest approbation +of your conduct and services in his closet to me"; but in a postscript +to this letter were the ominous words,--"I understand you are directed +to come hither; but Lord Hillsborough authorizes me to say, you need +not be in any inconvenient haste to obey that instruction." This +order, in the manuscript, is indorsed, "Received June 10, 1769"; and +being unique, it is here copied from the original, which has +Hillsborough's autograph:-- + + +"GEORGE R. + +"Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we have thought +fit by our royal license under our signet and sign-manual bearing date +the twenty-second day of June, 1768, in the eighth year of our reign, +to permit you to return into this our kingdom of Great Britain: Our +will and pleasure therefore is, that as soon as conveniently may be, +after the receipt hereof, you do repair to this our kingdom in order +to lay before us a state of our province of Massachusetts Bay. And so +we bid you farewell. Given at our court at St. James the twenty-third +day of March, 1769, in the ninth year of our reign. + + "By His Majesty's command, + + "HILLSBOROUGH." + + +It was now an active time with the Patriots. Before the Governor had a +chance to talk with General Mackay or to write to General Gage, the +news spread all over the town that the two regiments were ordered off; +and with this there was circulated the story, that Commissioner Temple +had received a letter from George Grenville containing the assurance +that the Governor would be immediately recalled with disgrace, that +three of the Commissioners of the Customs would be turned off +directly, and that next winter the Board would be dissolved; and +Bernard, who tells these incidents, says that the reports exalted the +Sons of Liberty as though the bells had rung for a triumph, while +there was consternation among the crown officials, the importers, and +the friends of Government. Here was thrust upon Bernard, over again, +the question of the introduction of the troops. + +The Governor was as much embarrassed by the requisition for an answer +in writing as to the two regiments that were not ordered off as he was +astonished at the order that had been given; and on getting a note +from General Mackay, he gave the verbal answer, that he would write to +General Gage. Meantime, while Bernard was hesitating, the Patriots +were acting, and immediately applied themselves to counteract the +influence which they knew was making to retain the two regiments. One +hundred and forty-two of the citizens petitioned the Selectmen for a +town-meeting, at which it was declared, that the law of the land made +ample provision for the security of life and property, and that the +presence of the troops was an insult. After a week's hesitation, the +Governor wrote to General Gage, who had promised inviolable secrecy, +that to remove a portion of the two regiments would be detrimental to +His Majesty's service; to remove all of these troops would be quite +ruinous to the cause of the Crown; but that one regiment in the town +and one at the Castle might be sufficient. Of course, General Gage, if +he paid any respect to the Governor's advice, could do no less than +order both regiments to remain. Thus was it that the two Sam Adams +Regiments continued in town, designed for evil, but working for the +good of the common cause. + +Governor Bernard, during the month of June, and down to the middle of +July, was greatly disturbed by the manly stand of the General Court; +and, because of its refusal to enter upon the public business under +the mouths of British cannon, adjourned it to Cambridge. On the night +after this adjournment, the cannon were removed. These irritating +proceedings made this body still more high-toned. While in this mood, +it received from the Governor two messages, (July 6 and 12,) asking an +appropriation of money to meet the expenses which had been incurred by +the crown officers in quartering troops in Boston. The members nobly +met this demand by returning to the Governor (July 15, 1769) a grandly +worded state-paper, in which, claiming the rights of freeborn +Englishmen, as confirmed by Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, and +as settled by the Revolution and the British Charter, they expressly +declared that they never would make provision for the purposes +mentioned in the two messages. On the same day, it was represented in +the House that armed soldiers had rescued a prisoner from the hands of +justice, when two constables were ordered to attend on the floor who +were heard on the matter, and a committee was then appointed to +consider it. But Secretary Oliver now appeared with a message from +the Governor to the effect that he was at the Court-House and directed +the immediate attendance of the members. They accordingly, with +Speaker Cushing at their head, repaired to the Governor, who, after a +haughty speech charging them with proclaiming ideas lacking in dignity +to the Crown and inconsistent with the Province continuing a part of +the British Empire, prorogued the Court until the 10th of January. + +The press arraigned the arbitrary proceedings of the Governor with +great boldness and a just severity; while it declared that the action +taken by the intrepid House of Representatives, with rare unanimity, +was supported by the almost universal sentiments of the people. The +last act of the Governor, the prorogation of the General Court for six +months, was especially criticized; and after averring that such long +prorogations, in such critical times, could never promote the true +service of His Majesty or the tranquility of his good subjects, it +predicted that impartial history would hang up Governor Bernard as a +warning to his successors who had any sense of character, and perhaps +his future fortune might be such as to teach even the most selfish of +them not to tread in his steps. + +On the day this prediction was written, (August 1, 1769,) Sir Francis +Bernard, in the Rippon, was on his way to England. Congratulations +among the people, exultation on the part of the press, the Union Flag +on Liberty Tree, salutes from Hancock's Wharf, and bonfires, in the +evening, on the hills, expressed the general joy. And yet Francis +Bernard was hardly a faithful representative of the proud imperial +power for which he acted. He was a bad Governor, but he was not so bad +as the cause he was obliged to uphold. He was arbitrary, but he was +not so arbitrary as his instructions. He was vacillating, but he was +not so vacillating as the Ministers. When he gave the conciliatory +reply to the June town-meeting, it was judged that he lowered the +national standard, and it seriously damaged him at Court; when he +spoke in the imperial tone that characterized the British rule of that +day, he was rewarded with a baronetcy. The Governor after months of +reflection, in England, on reviewing in an elaborate letter the +political path he had travelled, indicated both his deep chagrin and +his increase of wisdom in the significant words,--"I was obliged to +give up, a victim to the bad policy and irresolution of the supreme +Government." + +The execution of a bad policy as directed by an irresolute Ministry +was now the lot of Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson. It was embodied in +the question of the removal of the troops; and this question was not +decided, until, after months of confusion and distress, the blood and +slaughter of His Majesty's good subjects compelled an indignant +American public opinion to command their departure from the town of +Boston. + + + + + +LIFE IN THE OPEN AIR. + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "CECIL DREEME" AND "JOHN BRENT." + +KATAHDIN AND THE PENOBSCOT. + + +CHAPTER I. + +OFF. + +At five, P. M., we found ourselves--Iglesias, a party of friends, and +myself--on board the Isaac Newton, a great, ugly, three-tiered box +that walks the North River, like a laboratory of greasy odors. + +In this stately cinder-mill were American citizens. Not to +discuss spitting, which is for spittoons, not literature, our +fellow-travellers on the deck of the "floating palace" were +passably endurable people, in looks, style, and language. I dodge +discrimination, and characterize them _en masse_ by negations. +The passengers of the Isaac Newton, on a certain evening of +July, 18--, were not so intrusively green and so gasping as Britons, +not so ill-dressed and pretentious as Gauls, not so ardently futile +and so lubberly as Germans. Such were the negative virtues of our +fellow-citizen travellers; and base would it be to exhibit their +positive vices. + +And so no more of passengers or passage. I will not describe our +evening on the river. Alas for the duty of straight-forwardness and +dramatic unity! Episodes seem so often sweeter than plots! The +way-side joys are better than the final successes. The flowers along +the vista, brighter than the victor-wreaths at its close. I may not +dally on my way, turning to the right and the left for beauty and +caricature. I will balance on the strict edge of my narrative, as a +seventh-heavenward Mahometan with wine-forbidden steadiness of poise +treads Al Seràt, his bridge of a sword-blade. + +Next morning, at Albany, divergent trains cleft our party into a +better and a worser half. The beautiful girls, our better half, fled +westward to ripen their pallid roses with richer summer-hues in +mosquitoless inland dells. Iglesias and I were still northward bound. + +At the Saratoga station we sipped a dreary, faded reminiscence of +former joys and sparkling brilliancy long dead, in cups of +Congress-water, brought by unattractive Ganymedes and sold in the +train,--draughts flat, flabby, and utterly bubbleless, lukewarm +heel-taps with a flavor of savorless salt. + +Still northward journeying, and feeling the sea-side moisture +evaporate from our blood under inland suns and sultry inland breezes, +we came to Lake Champlain. + +As before banquets, to excite appetite, one takes the gentle oyster, +so we, before the serious pleasure of our journey, tasted the +Adirondack region, paradise of Cockney sportsmen. There through the +forest, the stag of ten trots, coquetting with greenhorns. He likes +the excitement of being shot at and missed. He enjoys the smell of +powder in a battle where he is always safe. He hears Greenhorn +blundering through the woods, stopping to growl at briers, stopping to +revive his courage with the Dutch supplement. The stag of ten awaits +his foe in a glade. The foe arrives, sees the antlered monarch, and +is panic-struck. He watches him prance and strike the ground with his +hoofs. He slowly recovers heart, takes a pull at his flask, rests his +gun upon a log, and begins to study his mark. The stag will not stand +still. Greenhorn is baffled. At last his target turns and carefully +exposes that region of his body where Greenhorn has read lies the +heart. Just about to fire, he catches the eye of the stag winking +futility into his elaborate aim. His blunderbuss jerks upward. A +shower of cut leaves floats through the smoke, from a tree thirty feet +overhead. Then, with a mild-eyed melancholy look of reproachful +contempt, the stag turns away, and wanders off to sleep in quiet +coverts far within the wood. He has fled, while for Greenhorn no +trophy remains. Antlers have nodded to the sportsman; a short tail +has disappeared before his eyes;--he has seen something, but has +nothing to show. Whereupon he buys a couple of pairs of ancient +weather-bleached horns from some colonist, and, nailing them +up at impossible angles on the wall of his city-den, humbugs +brother-Cockneys with tales of _vénerie_, and has for life his +special legend, "How I shot my first deer in the Adirondacks." + +The Adirondacks provide a compact, convenient, accessible little +wilderness,--an excellent field for the experiments of tyros. When the +tyro, whether shot, fisherman, or forester, has proved himself fully +there, let him dislodge into some vaster wilderness, away from guides +by the day and superintending hunters, away from the incursions of the +Cockney tribe, and let out the caged savage within him for a tough +struggle with Nature. It needs a struggle tough and resolute to force +that Protean lady to observe at all her challenger. + +It is well to go to the Adirondacks. They are shaggy, and shagginess +is a valuable trait. The lakes are very well,--very well indeed. The +objection to the region is not the mountains, which are reasonably +shaggy,--not the lakes and rivers, which are water, a capital element. +The real difficulty is the society: not the autochthonous +society,--they are worthy people, and it is hardly to be mentioned as +a fault that they are not a discriminating race, and will asseverate +that all fish are trout, and the most arrant mutton is venison,--but +the immigrant, colonizing society. Cockneys are to be found at every +turn, flaunting their banners of the awkward squad, proclaiming to the +world with protuberant pride that they are the veritable +backwoodsmen,--rather doing it, rather astonishing the natives, they +think. And so they are. One squad of such neophytes might be +entertaining; but when every square mile echoes with their hails, +lost, poor babes, within a furlong of their camps, and when the woods +become dim and the air civic with their cooking-smokes, and the subtle +odor of fried pork overpowers methylic fragrance among the trees, then +he who loves forests for their solitude leaves these brethren to their +clumsy joys, and wanders elsewhere deeper into sylvan scenes. + +Our visit to the Adirondacks was episodic; and as I have forsworn +episodes, I turn away from them with this mild slander, and strike +again our Maine track. With lips impurpled by the earliest +huckleberries, we came out again upon Champlain. We crossed that +water-logged valley in a steamboat, and hastened on, through a +pleasant interlude of our rough journey, across Vermont and New +Hampshire, two States not without interest to their residents, but of +none to this narrative. + +By coach and wagon, by highway and by-way, by horse-power and +steam-power, we proceeded, until it chanced, one August afternoon, +that we left railways and their regions at a way-side station, and let +our lingering feet march us along the Valley of the Upper +Connecticut. This lovely river, baptizer of Iglesias's childhood, was +here shallow and musical, half river, half brook; it had passed the +tinkling period, and plashed and rumbled voicefully over rock and +shallow. + +It was a fair and verdant valley where we walked, overlooked by hills +of pleasant pastoral slope. All the land was gay and ripe with yellow +harvest. Strolling along, as if the business of travel were forgotten, +we placidly identified ourselves with the placid scenery. We became +Arcadians both. Such is Arcadia, if I have read aright: a realm where +sunshine never scorches, and yet shade is sweet; where simple +pleasures please; where the blue sky and the bright water and the +green fields satisfy forever. + +We were in lightest marching-trim. Iglesias bore an umbrella, our +armor against what heaven could do with assault of sun or shower. I +was weaponed with a staff, should brute or biped uncourteous dispute +our way. We had no impediments of "great trunk, little trunk, bandbox, +and bundle." A thoughtful man hardly feels honest in his life except +as a pedestrian traveller. _"La propriété c'est le vol"_--which +the West more briefly expresses by calling baggage "plunder." What +little plunder our indifferent honesty had packed for this journey we +had left with a certain stage-coachman, perhaps to follow us, perhaps +to become his plunder. We were thus disconnected from any depressing +influence; we had no character to sustain; we were heroes in disguise, +and could make our observations on life and manners, without being +invited to a public hand-shaking, or to exhibit feats in jugglery, for +either of which a traveller with plenteous portmanteaus, hair or +leather, must be prepared in villages thereabouts. Totally +unembarrassed, we lounged along or leaped along, light-hearted. When +the river neared us, or winsome brooklet from the hill-side thwarted +our path, we stooped and lapped from their pools of coolness, or +tasted that most ethereal tipple, the mingled air and water of +electric bubbles, as they slid brightly toward our lips. + +The angle of the sun's rays grew less and less, the wheat-fields were +tinged more golden by the clinging beams, our shadows lengthened, as +if exercise of an afternoon were stimulating to such unreal +essences. Finally the blue dells and gorges of a wooded mountain, for +two hours our landmark, rose between us and the sun. But the sun's +Parthian arrows gave him a splendid triumph, more signal for its +evanescence. A storm was inevitable, and sunset prepared a reconciling +pageant. + +Now, as may be supposed, Iglesias has an eye for a sunset. That +summer's crop had been very short, and he had been some time on +starvation-allowance of cloudy magnificence. We therefore halted by +the road-side, and while I committed the glory to memory, Iglesias +entrusted his distincter memorial to a sketch-book. + +We were both busy, he repeating forms, noting shades and tints, and I +studying without pictorial intent, when we heard a hail in the road +below our bank. It was New Hampshire, near the Maine line, and near +the spot where nasal organs are fabricated that twang the roughest. + +"Say!" shrieked up to us a freckled native, holding fast to the tail +of a calf, the last of a gambolling family he was driving,--"Say! +whodger doon up thurr? Layn aoot taoonshup lains naoou, aancher? +Cauds ur suvvares raoond. Spekkleayshn goan on, ur guess." + +We allowed this unmelodious vocalist to respect us by permitting him +to believe us surveyors in another sense than as we were. One would +not be despised as an unpractical citizen, a mere looker at Nature +with no immediate view to profit, even by a freckled calf-driver of +the Upper Connecticut. While we parleyed, the sketch was done, and the +pageant had faded quick before the storm. + +Splendor had departed; the world in our neighborhood had fallen into +the unillumined dumps. An ominous mournfulness, far sadder than the +pensiveness of twilight, drew over the sky. Clouds, that donned +brilliancy for the fond parting of mountain-tops and the sun, now grew +cheerless and gray; their gay robes were taken from them, and with +bended heads they fled away from the sorrowful wind. In western glooms +beyond the world a dreary gale had been born, and now came wailing +like one that for all his weariness may not rest, but must go on +harmful journeys and bear evil tidings. With the vanguard gusts came +volleys of rain, malicious assaults, giving themselves the trouble to +tell us in an offensive way what we could discover for ourselves, that +a wetting impended and umbrellas would soon be nought. + +While the storm was thus nibbling before it bit, we lengthened our +strides to escape. Water, concentrated in flow of stream or pause of +lake, is charming; not so to the shelterless is water diffused in dash +of deluge. Water, when we choose our method of contact, is a friend; +when it masters us, it is a foe; when it drowns us or ducks us, a very +exasperating foe. Proud pedestrians become very humble personages, +when thoroughly vanquished by a ducking deluge. A wetting takes out +the starch not only from garments, but the wearers of them. Iglesias +and I did not wish to stand all the evening steaming before a +kitchen-fire, inspecting meanwhile culinary details: Phillis in the +kitchen is not always as fresh as Phillis in the field. We therefore +shook ourselves into full speed and bolted into our inn at Colebrook; +and the rain, like a portcullis, dropped solid behind us. + +In town, the landlord is utterly merged in his hotel. He is a +sovereign rarely apparent. In the country, the landlord is a +personality. He is greater than the house he keeps. Men arriving +inspect the master of the inn narrowly. If his first glance is at the +pocket, cheer will be bad; if at the eyes or the lips, you need not +take a cigar before supper to keep down your appetite. + +Our landlord was of the latter type. He surged out of the little box +where he was dispensing not too fragrant rummers to a circle of +village-politicians, and congratulated us on our arrival before the +storm. He was a discriminating person. He detected us at once, saw we +were not tramps or footpads, and led us to the parlor, a room +attractively furnished with a map of the United States and an oblong +music-book open at "Old Hundred." Our host further felicitated us +that we had not stopped at a certain tavern below, where, as he +said,-- + +"They cut a chunk er beef and drop 't into a pot to bile, and bile her +three days, and then don't have noth'n' else for three weeks." + +He put his head out of the door and called,-- + +"George, go aoot and split up that 'ere wood as fine as chaowder: +these men 'll want their supper right off." + +Drawing in his head, he continued to us confidentially,-- + +"That 'ere George is jes' like a bird: he goes off at one snappin'." + +Our host then rolled out toward the bar-room, to discuss with his +cronies who we might be. From the window we perceived the birdlike +George fly and alight near the specified wood, which he proceeded to +bechowder. He brought in the result of his handiwork, as smiling as a +basket of chips. Neat-handed Phillis at the door received the chowder, +and by its aid excited a sound and a smell, both prophetic of +supper. And we, willing to repose after a sixteen-mile afternoon-walk, +lounged upon sofa or tilted in rocking-chair, taking the available +mental food, namely, "Godey's Lady's Book" and the Almanac. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +GORMING AND GETTING ON. + + +Next morning it poured. The cinders before the blacksmith's shop +opposite had yielded their black dye to the dismal puddles. The +village cocks were sadly draggled and discouraged, and cowered under +any shelter, shivering within their drowned plumage. Who on such a +morn would stir? Who but the Patriot? Hardly had we breakfasted, when +he, the Patriot, waited upon us. It was a Presidential campaign. They +were starving in his village for stump-speeches. Would the talking man +of our _duo_ go over and feed their ears with a fiery harangue? +Patriot was determined to be first with us; others were coming with +similar invitations; he was the early bird. Ah, those portmanteaus! +they had arrived, and betrayed us. + +We would not be snapped up. We would wriggle away. We were very sorry, +but we must start at once to pursue our journey. + +"But it pours," said Patriot. + +"Patriot," replied our talking member, "man is flesh; and flesh, +however sweet or savory it may be, does not melt in water." + +Thus fairly committed to start, we immediately opened negotiations for +a carriage. "No go," was the first response of the coachman. Our +willy was met by his nilly. But we pointed out to him that we could +not stay there all a dismal day,--that we must, would, could, should +go. At last we got within coachee's outworks. His nilly broke down +into shilly-shally. He began to state his objections; then we knew he +was ready to yield. We combated him, clinking the supposed gold of +coppers in our pockets, or carelessly chucking a tempting half-dollar +at some fly on the ceiling. So presently we prevailed, and he retired +to make ready. + +By-and-by a degraded family-carriage came to the door. It came by some +feeble inertia left latent in it by some former motive-power, rather +than was dragged up by its more degraded nags. A very unwholesome +coach. No doubt a successful quack-doctor had used it in his +prosperous days for his wife and progeny; no doubt it had subsequently +become the property of a second-class undertaker, and had conveyed +many a quartette of cheap clergymen to the funerals of poor relations +whose leaking sands of life left no gold-dust behind. Such was our +carriage for a rainy day. + +The nags were of the huckleberry or flea-bitten variety,--a freckled +white. Perhaps the quack had fed them with his refuse pills. These +knobby-legged unfortunates we of course named Xanthus and Balius, not +of podargous or swift-footed, but podagrous or gouty race. Xanthus, +like his Achillean namesake, (_vide_ Pope's Homer,) + + "Seemed sensible of woe and dropped his head,-- + Trembling he stood before the (seedy) wain." + +Balius was in equally deplorable mood. Both seemed more sensible to +"Whoa" than to "Hadaap." Podagrous beasts, yet not stiffened to +immobility. Gayer steeds would have sundered the shackling drag. +These would never, by any gamesome caracoling, endanger the +coherency of pole with body, of axle with wheel. From end to end the +equipage was congruous. Every part of the machine was its weakest +part, and that fact gave promise of strength: an invalid never dies. +Moreover, the coach suited the day: the rusty was in harmony with +the dismal. It suited the damp unpainted houses and the tumble-down +blacksmith's-shop. We contented ourselves with this artistic +propriety. We entered, treading cautiously. The machine, with gentle +spasms, got itself in motion, and steered due east for Lake Umbagog. +The smiling landlord, the disappointed Patriot, and the birdlike +George waved us farewell. + +Coachee was in the sulks. The rain, beat upon him, and we by +purse-power had compelled him to encounter discomfort. His +self-respect must be restored by superiority over somebody. He had +been beaten and must beat. He did so. His horses took the lash until +he felt at peace with himself. Then half-turning toward us, he made +his first remark. + +"Them two hosses is gorming." + +"Yes," we replied, "they do seem rather so." + +This was of course profound hypocrisy; but "gorming" meant some bad +quality, and any might be safely predicated of our huckleberry +pair. Who will admit that he does not know all that is to be known in +horse-matters? We therefore asked no questions, but waited patiently +for information. + +Delay pays demurrage to the wisely patient. Coachee relapsed into the +sulks. The driving rain resolved itself into a dim chaos of +mist. Xanthus and Balius plodded on, but often paused and gasped, or, +turning their heads as if they missed something, strayed from the +track and drew us against the dripping bushes. After one such +excursion, which had nearly been the ruin of us, and which by calling +out coachee's scourging powers had put him thoroughly in good-humor, +he turned to us and said, superlatively,-- + +"Them's the gormingest hosses I ever see. When I drew 'em in the +four-hoss coach for wheelers, they could keep a straight tail. Now +they act like they was drunk. They's gorming,--_they won't do +nothin' without a leader_." + +To gorm, then, is to err when there is no leader. Alas, how mankind +gorms! + +By sunless noon we were well among the mountains. We came to the last +New-Hampshire house, miles from its neighbors. But it was a +self-sufficing house, an epitome of humanity. Grandmamma, bald under +her cap, was seated by the stove dandling grandchild, bald under its +cap. Each was highly entertained with the other. Grandpapa was sandy +with grandboy's gingerbread-crumbs. The intervening ages were well +represented by wiry men and shrill women. The house, also, without +being tavern or shop, was an amateur bazaar of _vivers_ and +goods. Anything one was likely to want could be had there,--even a +melodeon and those inevitable Patent-Office Reports. Here we +descended, lunched, and providently bought a general assortment, +namely, a large plain cake, five pounds of cheese, a ball of twine, +and two pairs of brown ribbed woollen socks, native manufacture. My +pair of these indestructibles will outlast my last legs and go as an +heirloom after me. + +The weather now, as we drove on, seemed to think that Iglesias +deserved better of it. Rain-globes strung upon branches, each globe +the possible home of a sparkle, had waited long enough unillumined. +Sunlight suddenly discovered this desponding patience and rewarded +it. Every drop selected its own ray from the liberal bundle, and, +crowding itself full of radiance, became a mirror of sky and cloud and +forest. Also, by the searching sunbeams' store of regal purple, ripe +raspberries were betrayed. On these, magnified by their convex lenses +of water, we pounced. Showers shook playfully upon us from the vines, +while we revelled in fruitiness. We ran before our gormers, they +gormed by us while we plucked, we ran by, plucked again, and again +were gormingly overtaken and overtook. Thus we ate our way luxuriously +through the Dixville Notch, a capital cleft in a northern spur of the +White Mountains. + +Picturesque is a curiously convenient, undiscriminating epithet. I use +it here. The Dixville Notch is, briefly, picturesque,--a fine gorge +between a crumbling conical crag and a scarped precipice,--a pass +easily defensible, except at the season when raspberries would +distract sentinels. + +Now we came upon our proper field of action. We entered the State of +Maine at Township Letter B. A sharper harshness of articulation in +stray passengers told us that we were approaching the vocal influence +of the name Androscoggin. People talked as if, instead of ivory ring +or coral rattle to develop their infantile teeth, they had bitten upon +pine knots. Voices were resinous and astringent. An opera, with a +chorus drummed up in those regions, could dispense with violins. + +Toward evening we struck the river, and found it rasping and crackling +over rocks as an Androscoggin should. We passed the last hamlet, then +the last house but one, and finally drew up at the last and +northernmost house, near the lumbermen's dam below Lake Umbagog. The +damster, a stalwart brown chieftain of the backwoodsman race, received +us with hearty hospitality. Xanthus and Balius stumbled away on their +homeward journey. And after them the crazy coach went moaning: it was +not strong enough to creak or rattle. + +Next day was rainy. It had, however, misty intervals. In these we +threw a fly for trout and caught a chub in Androscoggin. Or, crouched +on the bank of a frog-pond, we tickled frogs with straws. Yes, and +fun of the freshest we found it. Certain animals, and especially +frogs, were created, shaped, and educated to do the grotesque, that +men might study them, laugh, and grow fat. It was a droll moment with +Nature, when she entertained herself and prepared entertainment for us +by devising the frog, that burlesque of bird, beast, and man, and +taught him how to move and how to speak and sing. Iglesias and I did +not disdain batrachian studies, and set no limit to our merriment at +their quaint, solemn, half-human pranks. One question still is +unresolved,--Why do frogs stay and be tickled? They snap snappishly +at the titillating straw; they snatch at it with their weird little +hands; they parry it skilfully. They hardly can enjoy being tickled, +and yet they endure, paying a dear price for the society of their +betters. Frogs the frisky, frogs the spotted, were our comedy that +day. Whenever the rain ceased, we rushed forth and tickled them, and +thus vicariously tickled ourselves into more than patience, into +jollity. So the day passed quickly. + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE PINE-TREE. + +While we were not tickling frogs, we were talking lumber with the +Umbagog damster. I had already coasted Maine, piloted by Iglesias, and +knew the fisherman-life; now, under the same experienced guidance, I +was to study inland scenes, and take lumbermen for my heroes. + +Maine has two classes of warriors among its sons,--fighters of forest +and fighters of sea. Braves must join one or the other army. The two +are close allies. Only by the aid of the woodmen can the watermen +build their engines of victory. The seamen in return purvey the +needful luxuries for lumber-camps. Foresters float down timber that +seamen may build snips and go to the saccharine islands of the South +for molasses: for without molasses no lumberman could be happy in the +unsweetened wilderness. Pork lubricates his joints; molasses gives +tenacity to his muscles. + +Lumbering develops such men as Pindar saw when he pictured Jason, his +forest hero. Life is a hearty and vigorous movement to them, not a +drooping slouch. Summer is their season of preparation; winter, of +the campaign; spring, of victory. All over the north of the State, +whatever is not lake or river is forest. In summer, the Viewer, like +a military engineer, marks out the region, and the spots of future +attack. He views the woods; and wherever a monarch tree crowns the +leafy level, he finds his way, and blazes a path. Not all trees are +worthy of the axe. Miles of lesser timber remain untouched. A Maine +forest after a lumber-campaign is like France after a _coup +d'état:_ the _bourgeoisie_ are prosperous as ever, but the +great men are all gone. + +While the viewer views, his followers are on commissariat and +quartermaster's service. They are bringing up their provisions and +fortifying their camp. They build their log-station, pile up barrels +of pork, beans, and molasses, like mortars and Paixhans in an arsenal, +and are ready for a winter of stout toil and solid jollity. + +Stout is the toil, and the life seemingly dreary, to those who cower +by ingle-nooks or stand over registers. But there is stirring +excitement in this bloodless war, and around plenteous camp-fires +vigor of merriment and hearty comradry. Men who wield axes and breathe +hard have lungs. Blood aërated by the air that sings through the +pine-woods tingles in every fibre. Tingling blood makes life +joyous. Joy can hardly look without a smile or speak without a +laugh. And merry is the evergreen-wood in electric winter. + +Snows fall level in the sheltered, still forest. Road-making is +practicable. The region is already channelled with watery ways. An +imperial pine, with its myriads of feet of future lumber, is worth +another path cut through the bush to the frozen riverside. Down goes +his Majesty Pinus I., three half-centuries old, having reigned fifty +years high above all his race. A little fellow with a little weapon +has dethroned the quiet old king. Pinus I was very strong at bottom, +but the little revolutionist was stronger at top. Brains without much +trouble had their will of stolid matter. The tree fallen, its branches +are lopped, its purple trunk is shortened into lengths. The teamster +arrives with oxen in full steam, and rimy with frozen breath about +their indignant nostrils. As he comes and goes, he talks to his team +for company; his conversation is monotonous as the talk of lovers, but +it has a cheerful ring through the solitude. The logs are chained and +dragged creaking along over the snow to the river-side. There the +subdivisions of Pinus the Great become a basis for a mighty +snow-mound. But the mild March winds blow from seaward. Spring +bourgeons. One day the ice has gone. The river flows visible; and now +that its days of higher beauty and grace have come, it climbs high up +its banks to show that it is ready for new usefulness. It would be +dreary for the great logs to see new verdure springing all around +them, while they lay idly rotting or sprouting with uncouth funguses, +not unsuspect of poison. But they will not be wasted. Lumbermen, foes +to idleness and inutility, swarm again about their winter's +trophies. They imprint certain cabalistic tokens of ownership on the +logs,--crosses, xs, stars, crescents, alphabetical letters,--marks +respected all along the rivers and lakes down to the boom where the +sticks are garnered for market. The marked logs are tumbled into the +brimming stream, and so ends their forest-life. + +Now comes "the great spring drive." Maine waters in spring flow under +an illimitable raft. Every camp contributes its myriads of brown +cylinders to the millions that go bobbing down rivers with +jaw-breaking names. And when the river broadens to a lake, where these +impetuous voyagers might be stranded or miss their way and linger, +they are herded into vast rafts, and towed down by boats, or by +steam-tugs, if the lake is large as Moosehead. At the lake-foot the +rafts break up and the logs travel again dispersedly down stream, or +through the "thoro'fare" connecting the members of a chain of +lakes. The hero of this epoch is the Head-Driver. The head-driver of a +timber-drive leads a disorderly army, that will not obey the word of +command. Every log acts as an individual, according to certain +imperious laws of matter, and every log is therefore at loggerheads +with every other log. The marshal must be in the thick of the fight, +keeping his forces well in hand, hurrying stragglers, thrusting off +the stranded, leading his phalanxes wisely round curves and angles, +lest they be jammed and fill the river with a solid mass. As the great +sticks come dashing along, turning porpoise-like somersets or leaping +up twice their length in the air, he must be everywhere, livelier than +a monkey in a mimosa, a wonder of acrobatic agility in biggest +boots. _He_ made the proverb, "As easy as falling off a log." + +Hardly less important is the Damster. To him it falls to conserve the +waters at a proper level. At his dam, generally below a lake, the logs +collect and lie crowded. The river, with its obstacles of rock and +rapid, would anticipate wreck for these timbers of future +ships. Therefore, when the spring drive is ready, and the head-driver +is armed with his jackboots and his iron-pointed sceptre, the damster +opens his sluices and lets another river flow through atop of the +rock-shattered river below. The logs of each proprietor, detected by +their marks, pay toll as they pass the gates and rush bumptiously down +the flood. + +Far down, at some water-power nearest the reach of tide, a boom checks +the march of this formidable body. The owners step forward and claim +their slicks. Dowse takes all marked with three crosses and a +dash. Sowse selects whatever bears two crescents and a star. Rowse +pokes about for his stock, inscribed clip, dash, star, dash, clip. +Nobody has counterfeited these hieroglyphs. The tale is complete. The +logs go to the saw-mill. Sawdust floats seaward. The lumbermen +junket. So ends the log-book. + +"Maine," said our host, the Damster of Umbagog, "was made for +lumbering-work. We never could have got the trees out, without these +lakes and dams." + +[To be continued.] + + + + + +TO WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM, + +AFTER SEEING TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF HIM. + + + The trumpet, now on every gale, + For triumph or in funeral-wail, + One lesson bloweth loud and clear + Above war's clangor to my ear. + + The blood that flows in bounding veins, + The blood that ebbs with lingering pains, + Springs living from the self-same heart: + Courage and patience act one part. + + Doers and sufferers of God's will + Tread in each other's footprints still; + Soldier or saint hath equal mind, + When vows of truth the spirit bind. + + Two portraits light my chamber-wall, + Hero and martyr to recall; + Lines of a single face they keep, + To make beholders glow or weep. + + With gleaming hilt, girt for the fray + Freedom demands, he cannot stay: + Forward his motion, keen his glance: + 'Tis victory painted in a trance. + + But, lo! he turns, he folds his hands; + With farther, softening gaze he stands; + His sword is hidden from his eyes; + His head is bent for sacrifice. + + Through looks that match each varied thought + Of holy work or offering brought, + Upon the sunbeam's shifting scroll + Shines out alike the steady soul. + + Young leader! quick to win a name + Coeval with thy country's fame, + For either fortune thou wast born,-- + The crown of laurel or of thorn. + + + + +THE HORRORS OF SAN DOMINGO. + + +CHAPTER III. + +CARIB SLAVES--INTRODUCTION OF NEGROES--LAS CASAS--DECAY OF SAN +DOMINGO. + +Among the natives captured by the Spaniards in the neighboring islands +and upon the Terra Firma, as the South-American coast was +called,--were numerous representatives of Carib tribes, who had been +released by Papal dispensation from the difficulties and anxieties of +freedom in consequence of their reputation for cannibalism. This +vicious taste was held to absolve the Spaniards from all the +considerations of policy and mercy which the Dominicans pressed upon +them in the case of the more graceful and amiable Haitians. But we do +not find that Las Casas himself made any exception of them in his +pleadings for the Indians;[1] for, though he does not mention +cannibalism in the list of imputed crimes which the Spaniards held as +justification in making war upon the natives to enslave them, he +vindicates them from other charges, such as that of sacrificing +infants to their idols. The Spaniards were touched with compassion at +seeing so many innocent beings perish before arriving at years of +discretion, and without having received baptism. They argued that such +a practice, which was worse than a crime, because it was a theological +blunder, could not be carried on in a state of slavery. "This style +of reasoning," says Las Casas, "proves absolutely nothing; for God +knows better than men what ought to be the future destiny of children +who die in the immense countries where the Christian religion is +unknown. His mercy is infinitely greater than the collective charity +of mankind; and in the interim He permits things to follow their +ordinary course, without charging anybody to interfere and prevent +their consequences by means of war."[2] + +The first possessors of Hayti were startled at the multitude of human +bones which were found in some of the caverns of the island, for they +were considered as confirming the reports of cannibalism which had +reached them. These ossuaries were accidental; perhaps natives seeking +shelter from the hurricane or earthquake were overwhelmed in these +retreats, or blocked up and left to perish. We have no reason to +believe that the caves had been used for centuries. And even the +Caribs did not keep the bones which they picked, to rise up in +judgment against them at last, clattering indictments of the number of +their feasts. Nor do they seem to have shared the taste of the old +Scandinavian and the modern Georgian or Alabamian, who have been known +to turn drinking-cups and carve ornaments out of the skeletons of +their enemies. + +But they liked the taste of human flesh. The difference between them +and the Spaniard was merely that the latter devoured men's flesh in +the shape of cotton, sugar, gold. And the native discrimination was +not altogether unpraiseworthy, if the later French missionaries can be +exonerated from national prejudice, when they declare that the Caribs +said Spaniards were meagre and indigestible, while a Frenchman made a +succulent and peptic meal. But if he was a person of a religious +habit, priest or monk, woe to the incautious Carib who might dine upon +him! a mistake in the article of mushrooms were not more fatal. Du +Tertre relates that a French priest was killed and smoke-dried by the +Caribs, and then devoured with satisfaction. But many who dined upon +the unfortunate man, whom the Church had ordained to feed her sheep +less literally, died suddenly: others were afflicted with +extraordinary diseases. Afterwards they avoided Christians as an +article of food, being content with slaying them as often as possible, +but leaving them untouched. + +The Caribs were very impracticable in a state of slavery. Their +stubborn and rigid nature could not become accommodated to a routine +of labor. They fled to the mountains, and began marooning;[3] but they +carried with them the scar of the hot iron upon the thigh, which +labelled them as natives in a state of war, and therefore reclaimable +as slaves. The Dominicans made a vain attempt to limit this branding +to the few genuine Caribs who were reduced to slavery; but the custom +was universal of marking Indians to compel them to pass for Caribs, +after which they were sold and transferred with avidity, the +authorities having no power to enforce the legal discrimination. The +very existence of this custom offered a premium to cruelty, by +furnishing the colonists with a technical permission to enslave. + +But the supply could not keep up with the insatiable demand. The great +expeditions which were organized to sweep the Terra Firma and the +adjacent islands of their population found the warlike Caribs +difficult to procure.[4] The supply of laborers was failing just at +the period when the colonists began to see that the gold of Hayti was +scattered broadcast through her fertile soil, which became transmuted +into crops at the touch of the spade and hoe. Plantations of cacao, +ginger, cotton, indigo, and tobacco were established; and in 1506 the +sugar-cane, which was not indigenous, as some have affirmed, was +introduced from the Canaries. Vellosa, a physician in the town of San +Domingo, was the first to cultivate it on a large scale, and to +express the juice by means of the cylinder-mill, which he invented.[5] +The Government, seeing the advantages to be derived from this single +article, offered to lend five hundred gold piastres to every colonist +who would fit up a sugar-plantation. Thus stimulated, the cultivation +of the cane throve so, that as early as 1518 the island possessed +forty sugar-works with mills worked by horse-power or water. But the +plantations were less merciful to the Indians than the mines, and in +1503 there began to be a scarcity of human labor. + +At this date we first hear that negroes had been introduced into the +colony. But their introduction into Spain and Europe took place early +in the fifteenth century. "Ortiz de Zuñigo, as Humboldt reports, with +his usual exactness, says distinctly that 'blacks had been already +brought to Seville in the reign of Henry III of Castile,' consequently +before 1406. 'The Catalans and the Normans frequented the western +coast of Africa as far as the Tropic of Cancer at least forty-five +years before the epoch at which Don Henry the Navigator commenced his +series of discoveries beyond Cape Nun.'"[6] + +But the practice of buying and selling slaves in Europe can be traced +as far back as the tenth century, when fairs were established in all +the great cities. Prisoners of war, representing different nations at +different times, according to the direction which the love of piracy +and conquest took, were exposed at those great periodical sales of +merchandise to the buyers who flocked from every land. The Northern +cities around the Baltic have the distinction of displaying these +human goods quite as early as Venice or any commercial centre of the +South: the municipal privileges and freedom of those famous cities +were thus nourished partly by a traffic in mankind, for whose sake +privilege and right are alone worth having. Seven thousand Danish +slaves were exposed at one fair held in the city of Mecklenburg at the +end of the twelfth century. They had the liberty of being ransomed, +but only distinguished captives could be saved in that way from being +sold. The price ranged from one to three marks. It is difficult to +tell from this how valuable a man was considered, for the relation of +the mark to other merchandise, or, in other words, the value of the +currency, cannot be represented by modern sums, which are only +technically equivalent,--as a mark, for instance, was then held equal +to eight ounces of silver.[7] That was not exorbitant, however, for +those times, and shows that men were frequently exposed for sale. The +merchants of Bristol used to sell a great many captives into Ireland; +but it is recorded that the Irish were the first Christian people who +agreed at length to put a stop to this traffic by refusing to have any +more captives brought into their country. The Church had long before +forbidden it; and there are no grounds for supposing that any other +motive than humanity induced the Irish people to show this superiority +to the conventions of the age.[8] + +From the essay by Schoelcher, entitled "The Slave-Trade and its +Origin," which has been prepared with considerable research, we gather +that the first negroes seen in Portugal were carried there in +1441. Antonio Gonzales was the name of the man who first excited his +countrymen by offering for sale this human booty which he had +seized. All classes of people felt a mania like that which turns the +tides of emigration to Australia and California. Nothing was desired +but the means of equipping vessels for the coast of Guinea. Previously +to this a few Guanches from the Canaries had been exposed for sale in +the markets of Lisbon and Seville, and there were many Moorish slaves +in Spain, taken in the wars which preceded the expulsion of that +nation. But now there was a rapid accumulation of this species of +property, fed by the inexhaustible soil of Africa, whence so many +millions of men have been reaped and ploughed into the soils of other +lands. + +In 1443, an expedition of six caravels, commanded by a gentleman of +the Portuguese court, went down the coast on one of these ventures, +ostensibly geographical, but really mercenary, which then excited the +popular enterprise. It managed to attack some island and to make a +great number of prisoners. The same year a citizen of Lisbon fitted +out a vessel at his own expense, went beyond the Senegal, where he +seized a great many natives, discovered Cape Verde, and was driven +back to Lisbon by a storm. + +Prince Henry built the fort of Mina upon the Gold Coast, and made it a +depot for articles of Spanish use, which he bartered for slaves. He +introduced there, and upon the island of Arguin, near Cape Blanco, the +cultivation of corn and sugar; the whole coast was formally occupied +by the Portuguese, whose king took the title of Lord of Guinea. Sugar +went successively to Spain, Madeira, the Azores, and the West Indies, +in the company of negro slaves. It was carried to Hayti just as the +colonists discovered that negroes were unfit for mining. Charlevoix +says that the magnificent palaces of Madrid and Toledo, the work of +Charles V., were entirely built by the revenue from the entry-tax on +sugar from Hayti. + +At first, all prisoners taken in war, or in attacks deliberately made +to bring on fighting, were sold, whatever their nation or color. This +was due to the Catholic theory that all unbaptized people were +infidels. But gradually the same religious influence, moved by some +scruples of humanity, made a distinction between negroes and all other +people, allowing only the former to become objects of traffic, because +they were black as well as heathen. Thus early did physiology come to +the aid of religion, notifying the Church of certain physical +peculiarities which seemed to be the trade-marks of the Creator, and +perpetual guaranties, like the color of woods, the odor of gums, the +breadth and bone of draught-cattle, of their availability for the +market. What renown has graced the names of Portuguese adventurers, +and how illustrious does this epoch of the little country's life +appear in history! Rivers, bays, and stormy headlands, long reaches of +gold coast and ivory coast, and countries of palm-oil, and strange +interiors stocked with new forms of existence, and the great route to +India itself, became the charter to a brilliant fame of this mercenary +heroism. Man went as far as he was impelled to go. While the stimulus +continued, and the outlay was more than equalled by the income and the +glory, unexplored regions yielded up their secrets, and the Continent +of Africa was established by this insignificant nation to be for +centuries the vast slave-nursery of the world. + +When the habit of selling men began to be restricted to the selling of +negroes, companies were formed to organize this business and to have +it carried on with economy. The Portuguese had a monopoly of the trade +for a long time. They went up and down the African coast, picking +quarrels with the natives when the latter did not quarrel enough among +themselves to create a suitable supply of captives. Slaves were in +great demand in Spain, and quite numerous at Seville. The percentage +which the Portuguese exacted induced the Spaniards at length to enter +into the traffic, which they did, according to Zuñigo, in 1474. + +At that time negroes were confined, like Jews, to a particular quarter +of a Spanish city. They had their places of worship, their own +regulations and police. "A _Cédula_ [order] of November 8, 1474, +appoints a negro named Juan de Valladolid mayoral of the blacks and +mulattoes, free and slaves, in Seville. He had authority to decide in +quarrels and regular processes of law, and also to legalize marriages, +because, says the _Cédula_, 'it is within our knowledge that you +are acquainted with the laws and ordinances.' He became so famous that +people called him _El Conde Negro_, The Black Count, and his name +was bestowed upon one of the streets of the negro quarter." + +Thus men were born in Europe into a condition of slavery before +1500. In that year the introduction of negroes into Hayti was +authorized, provided they were born in Spain in the houses of +Christian masters. Negroes who had been bred in Morisco[9] families +were not allowed to be carried thither, from a well-grounded fear that +the Moorish hatred had sunk too deeply into a kindred blood. + +A great many slaves were immediately transported to Hayti; for in +1503, "Ovando, the Governor-General of the Indies, who had received +the instructions of 1500, asked the court 'not to send any more +negroes to Española, because they often escaped to the Indians, taught +them bad habits, and could never be retaken.'" + +Schoelcher seems to think that these first slaves were so difficult to +manage because they had been reared in a civilized country; and he +notices that Cardinal Ximenes, who was well acquainted with the +Spanish negro, constantly refused to authorize a direct slave-trade +with Hayti, because it would introduce into the colony so many +enterprising and prolific people, who would revolt when they became +too numerous, and bring the Spaniards themselves under the yoke. This +was an early presentiment of the fortune of Hayti, but it was not +justly derived from an acquaintance with the Spanish-bred negro alone; +for the negroes who were afterwards transported to the colony directly +from Africa had the same unaccommodating temper, which frequently +disconcerted the Cardinal's theory that an African should be born and +bred in a Christian city to render him unfit for slavery. This +unclerical native prejudice against working for white men is so +universal, and has been so consistently maintained for three hundred +years, as to present a queer contradiction to those divine marks which +set him apart for that condition. The Cardinal attributed, in fact, to +intercourse with the spirit of his countrymen that disposition of the +negro which seems to be derived from intercourse with the spirit of +his Creator. + +No sooner did the negro enter the climate of Hayti, and feel that more +truculent and desolating one of the Spanish temper, than he began to +revolt, to take to the mountains, to defend his life, to organize +leagues with Caribs and other natives. The colonists were often slain +in conflicts with them. The first negro insurrection in Hayti occurred +in November, 1522. It began with twenty Jolof negroes belonging to +Diego Columbus; others joined them; they slew and burned as they went, +took negroes and Indians along with them, robbed the houses, and were +falling back upon the mountains with the intent to hold them +permanently against the colony. Oviedo is enthusiastic over the action +of two Spanish cavaliers, who charged the blacks lance in rest, went +through them several times with a handful of followers, and broke up +their menacing attitude. They were then easily hunted down, and in six +or seven days most of them were hanging to the trees as warnings. The +rest delivered themselves up. In 1551, Charles V. forbade negroes, +both free and slave, from carrying any kind of weapon. It was +necessary subsequently to renew this ordinance, because the slaves +continued to be as dexterous with the _machete_ or the sabre as +with the hoe. + +Humboldt and others have alluded to a striking prediction made by +Girolamo Benzoni, an Italian traveller who visited the islands and +Terra Firma early in the sixteenth century, and witnessed the +condition and temper of the blacks. It is of the clearest kind. He +says,[10] after speaking of marooning in Hayti,--_"Vi sono molti +Spagnuoli che tengono per cosa certa che quest' Isola in breve tempo +sarà posseduta da questi Mori. Et per tanto gli governatori tengono +grandissima vigilanza"_ etc.: "There are many Spaniards who hold it +for certain that in a brief time this island will fall into the hands +of the Africans. On this account the governors use the greatest +vigilance." He goes on to remark the fewness of the Spaniards, and +afterwards gives his own opinion to confirm the Spanish anticipation. +Nothing postponed the fulfilment of this natural expectation till the +close of the eighteenth century, but the sudden decay into which the +island fell under Spanish rule, when it became no longer an object to +import the blacks. Many Spaniards left the island before 1550, from +an apprehension that the negroes would destroy the colony. Some +authorities even place the number of Spaniards remaining at that time +as low as eleven hundred. + +The common opinion that Las Casas asked permission for the colonists +to draw negroes from Africa, in order to assuage the sufferings of the +Indians, does not appear to be well-founded. For negroes were drawn +from Guinea as early as 1511, and his proposition was made in 1517. +The Spaniards were already introducing these substitutes for the +native labor, regardless of the ordinance which restricted the +possession of negroes in Hayti to those born in Spain. It is not +improbable that Las Casas desired to regulate a traffic which had +already commenced, by inducing the Government to countenance it. His +object was undoubtedly to make it easier for the colonists to procure +the blacks; but it must have occurred to him that his plan would +diminish, as far as possible, the miseries of an irregular transfer of +the unfortunate men from Africa. (See Bridge's _Jamaica, Appendix, +Historical Notes on Slavery._ The Spaniards had even less scruple +about their treatment of the negroes than of the Indians, alleging in +justification that their own countrymen sold them to the traders on +the Guinea coast!) + +The horrors of a middle passage in those days of small vessels and +tedious voyages would have been great, if the number of slaves to be +transported had not been limited by law. There is no direct evidence, +however, that Las Casas made his proposition out of any regard for the +negro. Charles V. resolved to allow a thousand negroes to each of the +four islands, Hayti, Ferdinanda, Cuba, and Jamaica. The privilege of +importing them was bestowed upon one of his Flemish favorites; but he +soon sold it to some Genoese merchants, who held each negro at such a +high price that only the wealthiest colonists could procure +them. Herrera regrets that in this way the prudent calculation of Las +Casas was defeated. + +This was the first license to trade in slaves. It limited the number +to four thousand, but it was a fatal precedent, which was followed by +French, Spanish, and Dutch, long after the decay of the Spanish part +of Hayti, till all the islands, and many parts of Central America, +were filled with negroes. + +It is pleasanter to dwell upon those points in which the brave and +humane Las Casas surpassed his age, and prophesied against it, than +upon those which he held in common with it, as he acquiesced in its +instinctive life. At first it seems unaccountable that the argument +which he framed with such jealous care to protect his Indians and +recommend them to the mercy of Government was not felt by him to apply +to the negroes with equal force. Slavery uses the same pretexts in +every age and against whatsoever race it wishes to oppress. The +Indians were represented by the colonists as predestined by their +natural dispositions, and by their virtues as well as by their vices, +to be held in tutelage by a superior race: their vices were excuses +for colonial cruelty, their virtues made it worth while to keep the +cruelty in vigorous exercise. In refuting this interested party, Las +Casa anticipates the spirit and reasoning of later time. He was the +first to utter anti-slavery principles in the Western hemisphere. We +have improved upon his knowledge, but have not advanced beyond his +essential spirit, for equity and iniquity always have the same leading +points to make through their advocates. When we see that such a man +as Las Casas was unconscious of the breadth of his own philanthropy, +we wonder less at the liability of noble men to admit some average +folly of their age. This is the ridiculous and astonishing feature of +their costume, the exceptional bad taste which their spiritual +posterity learn to disavow. + +The memory of Las Casas ought to be cherished by every true democrat +of these later times, for he announced, in his quality of Protector of +the Indian, the principles which protect the rights of all men against +oppressive authority. He was eager to convince a despotic court that +it had no legal or spiritual right to enslave Indians, or to deprive +them of their goods and territory. In framing his argument, he applied +doctrines of the universal liberty of men, which are fatal to courts +themselves; for they transfer authority to the people, who have the +best of reasons for desiring to be governed well. It is astonishing +that the republicanism of Las Casas has not been more carefully noted +and admired; for his writings show plainly, without forced +construction or after-thought of the enlightened reader, that he was +in advance of Spain and Europe as far as the American theory itself +is. Our Declaration of the Rights of Man shows nothing which the first +Western Abolitionist had not proclaimed in the councils and +conferences of Seville. + +It is worth while to show this as fully as the purpose of this article +will admit. One would expect to find that he counselled kings to +administer their government with equal regard to the little and the +great, the poor and the rich, the powerful and the miserable; for this +the Catholic Church has always done, and has held a lofty theory +before earthly thrones, not-withstanding its own ambitious +derelictions. But Las Casas tells the Supreme Council of the Indies +that no charge, no servitude, no labor can be imposed upon a people +without its previous and voluntary consent; for man shares, by his +origin, in the common liberty of all beings, so that every +subordination of men to princes, and every burden imposed upon +material things, should be inaugurated by a voluntary pact between the +governing and the governed; the election of kings, princes, and +magistrates, and the authority with which they are invested to rule +and to tax, anciently owed their origin to a free determination of +people who desired to establish thereby their own happiness; the free +will of the nation is the only efficient cause, the only immediate +principle and veritable source of the power of kings, and therefore +the transmission of such power is only a representative act of a +nation giving free expression to its own opinion. For a nation would +not have recourse to such a form of government, except in accordance +with its human instinct, to secure the advantage of all; nor does it, +in thus delegating power, renounce its liberty, or have the intention +of submitting to the domination of another, or of conceding his right +to impose burdens and contributions without the consent of those who +have to bear them, or to command anything that is contrary to the +general interest. When a nation thus delegates a portion of its power +to the sovereign, it is not done by subscribing any written contract +or transaction, because primitive right presides, and there are +natural reserves not expressed by men, such as that of preserving +intact their individual independence, that of their property, and the +right of never submitting to a privation of good or an establishment +of taxes without a previous consent. People existed before kings and +magistrates. Then they were free, and governed themselves according to +their untrammelled intent. In process of time people make kings, but +the good of the people is the final cause of their existence. Men do +not make kings to be rendered miserable by their rule, but to derive +from them all the good possible. Liberty is the greatest good which a +people can enjoy: its rights are violated every time that a king, +without consulting his people, decrees that which wounds the general +interest; for, as the intention of subjects was not to grant a prince +the ability to injure, all such acts ought to be considered unjust and +altogether null. "Liberty is inalienable, and its price is above that +of all the goods of this world."[11] + +Las Casas follows the fashion of his time in resting all his glorious +axioms upon the authority of men and councils. He quotes Aristotle, +Seneca, Thomas Aquinas, the different Popes, the Canons, and the +Scriptures; but it is astonishing to find how democratic they all are +to the enthusiastic Bishop, or rather, how the best minds of all ages +have admitted the immutable principles of human nature into their +theology and metaphysics. When will the Catholic Church, which has +nourished and protected so many noble spirits, express in her average +sentiment and policy their generous interpretations of her religion, +and their imputations to her of being an embodiment of the universal +religion of mankind? + +Men complained of Las Casas for being severe and unsparing in his +speech. In this respect, of calling the vices and enormities of +Slavery by their simple names, and of fastening the guilt of special +transactions not vaguely upon human nature, but directly upon the +perpetrators who disgraced the nature which they shared, he also +anticipated the privilege and ill-repute of American Abolitionists. He +told what he saw, or what was guarantied to him by competent +witnesses. His cheek grew red when it was smitten by some fierce +outrage upon humanity, and men could plainly read the marks which it +left there. Nor did they easily fade away; he held his branded cheek +in the full view of men, that they might be compelled to interpret the +disgrace to which they were so indifferent. Men dislike to hear the +outcries of a sensitive spirit, and dread to have their heathenism +called by Christian names. How much better it would be, they think, if +philanthropy never made an attack upon the representatives of cruelty! +they would soon become converted, if they were politely let alone. No +doubt, all that the supporters of any tyranny desire is to be let +alone. They delight in abstract delineations of the vices of their +system, which flourishes and develops while moral indignation is +struggling to avoid attacking it where only it is dangerous, in the +persons of its advocates. If there were nothing but metaphysical +wickedness in the world, how effective it would be never to allude to +a wicked man! If Slavery itself were the pale, thin ghost of an +abstraction, how bloodless this war would be! Fine words, genteel +deprecation, and magnanimous generality are the tricks of +villany. Indignant Mercy works with other tools; she leaps with the +directness of lightning, and the same unsparing sincerity, to the spot +to which she is attracted. What rogue ever felt the clutch of a stern +phrase at his throat, with a good opinion of it? Shall we throttle the +rascal in broad day, or grope in the dark after the impersonal weasand +of his crime? + +And those amiable people who think to regenerate the world by +radiating amenity are the choice accomplices of the villains. They +keep everything quiet, hush up incipient disturbances, and mislead the +police. No Pharisee shall be called a Devil's child, if they can help +it: they say "Fie!" to the scourge of knotted cord in the temple, or +eagerly explain that it was used only upon the cattle, who cannot, of +course, rebel. "These people who give the fine name of prudence to +their timidity, and whose discretion is always favorable to +injustice!"[12] + +"I have decided to write this history," says Las Casas, in his "Memoir +upon the Cruelty of the Spaniards," "by the advice of many pious and +God-fearing persons, who think that its publication will cause a +desire to spring up in many Christian hearts to bring a prompt remedy +to these evils, as enormous as they are multiplied." He designates +the guilty governors, captains, courtiers, and connects them directly +with their crimes. He does not say that they were gentlemen or +Christians: "these brigands," "executioners," "barbarians," are his +more appropriate phrases. If he had addressed them as gentlemen, the +terrible scenes would have instantly ceased, and the system of +_Repartimientos_ would have been abandoned by men who were only +waiting to be converted by politeness! He calls that plan of +allotting the natives, and reducing them to Spanish overseership, +"atrocious." Yet for some time it was technically legal: it was +equivalent to what we call constitutional. So that it was by no means +so bad as the anarchical attack which Las Casas made upon it! He tells +where an infamous overseer was still living in Spain,--or at least, he +says, "his family was living in Seville when I last heard about him." +What a disgraceful attack upon an individual! how it must have hurt +the feelings of a respectable family!--"How malignant!" cried the +_hidalgos_; "How coarse!" the women; and "How ill-judged!" the +clergy. He speaks of Cortés with contempt: why should he not? for he +was only the burglar of a kingdom. But we read these sincere pages of +Las Casas with satisfaction. The polished contemporaries of +Abolitionists turn over the pages of antique denunciation, and their +lymph really quickens in their veins as they read the prophetic +vehemence of an Isaiah, the personality of a Nathan, the unmeasured +vernacular of Luther, the satire and invective of all good upbraiders +of past generations, until they reach their own, which yet waits for a +future generation to make scripture and history of its speech and +deeds. Time is the genial critic that effaces the contemporary glosses +of interested men. It rots away the ugly scaffolding up which the bold +words climbed, and men see the beautiful and tenacious arch which only +genius is daring enough and capable to build. It is delightful to +walk across the solid structure, with gratitude and taste in a +glow. We love to read indictments of an exploded crime which we have +learned to despise, or which we are committing in a novel form. + +Charlevoix takes up this complaint of the imprudence of Las Casas, +and, to illustrate it, thinks that he could not have anticipated the +bad effects of the publication of his "Memoir upon the Cruelty of the +Spaniards," for it appeared during the war with the revolted +Netherlands, and was translated into Dutch by a Frenchman. "Nothing," +he says, "so animated those people to persist in their rebellion, as +the fear, that, if they entered into any accommodation with Spain, +they would be served as the natives had been in the American +Provinces, who were never so badly oppressed as when they felt most +secure upon the faith of a treaty or convention." If the book of Las +Casas really lent courage and motive to that noble resistance, as it +undoubtedly did by confirming the mistrust of Spanish rule in the Low +Countries, the honorable distinction should be preserved by history. + +While a bad institution is still vigorous and aggressive, the divine +rage of conscientious men is not so exhilarating. A different style of +thought, like that which prevailed among the French missionaries to +the Indies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is more +acceptable to colonial susceptibility. A South-side religion is a +favorable exposure for delicate and precarious products like indigo, +sugar, coffee, and cotton. Las Casas had not learned to wield his +enthusiastic pen in defence of the negro; but when the islands became +well stocked with slaves, later Catholics eagerly reproduced the +arguments of the Spanish _encomiendas_, and vindicated afresh the +providential character of Slavery. "I acknowledge," says one, "and +adore with all humility the profound and inconceivable secrets of God; +for I do not know what the unfortunate nation has committed to deserve +that this particular and hereditary curse of servitude should be +attached to them, as well as ugliness and blackness." "It is truly +with these unfortunates that the poet's saying is verified,-- + + "'Dimidium mentis Jupiter illis aufert,'-- + +"as I have remarked a thousand times that God deprives slaves of half +their judgment, lest, recognizing their miserable condition, they +should be thrown into despair. For though they are very adroit in many +things which they do, they are so stupid that they have no more sense +of being enslaved than if they had never enjoyed liberty. Every land +becomes their country, provided they find enough to eat and drink, +which is very different from the state of mind of the daughters of +Zion, who cried, on finding themselves in a foreign country,-- +'_Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena?_'"[13] + +Another missionary, in describing his method of administering baptism, +says: "After the customary words, I add, 'And thee, accursed spirit, I +forbid in the name of Jesus Christ ever to dare to violate this sacred +sign which I have just made upon the forehead of this creature, whom +He has bought with His blood.' The negro, who comprehends nothing of +what I say or do, makes great eyes at me, and appears confounded; but +to reassure him, I address to him through an interpreter these words +of the Saviour to St. Peter: 'What I do thou knowest not now; but thou +shalt know hereafter.'" + +He complains that they do not appear to value the mystery of the +Trinity as a necessary means of salvation: the negro does not +understand what he is made to repeat, any more than a parrot. And here +the knowledge of the most able theologian will go a very little +ways. "Still, a missionary ought to think twice before leaving a man, +of whatever kind, to perish without baptism; and if he has scruples +upon this point, these words of the Psalmist will reassure his mind: +'_Homines et jumenta salvabis, Domine_': 'Thou, Lord, shall save both +man and cattle!'"[14] + +Father Labat is scandalized because the English planters refused to +have their slaves baptized. Their clergymen told him, in excuse, that +it was unworthy of a Christian to hold in slavery his brother in +Christ. "But may we not say that it is still more unworthy of a +Christian not to procure for souls bought by the blood of Jesus Christ +the knowledge of a God to whom they are responsible for all that they +do?" This idea, that the negroes had been first bought by Christ, must +have been consoling and authoritative to a planter. The missionary has +not advanced upon the Spanish theory, that baptism introduced the +natives into a higher life.[15] "However," says Labat, "this notion of +the English does not affect them, whenever they can get hold of our +negroes. They know very well that they are Christians, they cannot +doubt that they have been made by baptism their brothers in Christ, +yet that does not prevent them from holding them in slavery, and +treating them like those whom they do not regard as their +brothers."[16] This English antipathy to baptizing slaves, for fear of +recognizing them as men by virtue of that rite, appears to have +existed in the early days of the North-American Colonies. Bishop +Berkeley, in his "Proposal for the Better Supplying of Churches in our +Foreign Plantations," etc., alludes to the little interest which was +shown in the conversion of negroes, "who, to the infamy of England and +scandal of the world, continue heathen under Christian masters and in +Christian countries; which could never be, if our planters were +rightly instructed and made sensible that they disappointed their own +baptism by denying it to those who belong to them." This receives an +explanation in a sermon preached by the Bishop in London, where he +speaks of the irrational contempt felt for the blacks in the +Plantation of Rhode Island, "as creatures of another species, who had +no right to be instructed or admitted to the sacraments. To this may +be added an erroneous notion that the being baptized is inconsistent +with a state of slavery. To undeceive them in this particular, which +had too much weight, it seemed a proper step, if the opinion of his +Majesty's attorney and solicitor-general could be procured. This +opinion they charitably sent over, signed with their own hands; which +was accordingly printed in Rhode Island, and dispersed throughout the +Plantation. I heartily wish it may produce the intended effect."[17] + +In a speech upon West-Indian affairs, which Lord Brougham delivered in +the House of Commons in 1823, there is some account of the religious +instruction of the slaves as conducted by the curates. He alludes in +particular to the testimony of a worthy curate, who stated that he had +been twenty or thirty years among the negroes, "and that no single +instance of conversion to Christianity had taken place during that +time,--all his efforts to gain new proselytes among the negroes had +been in vain; all of a sudden, however, light had broken in upon their +darkness so suddenly that between five and six thousand negroes had +been baptized in a few days. I confess I was at first much surprised +at this statement. I knew not how to comprehend it; but all of a +sudden light broke in upon my darkness also. I found that there was a +clue to this most surprising story, and that these wonderful +conversions were brought about, not by a miracle, as the good man +seems himself to have really imagined, and would almost make us +believe, but by a premium of a dollar a head paid to this worthy +curate for each slave that he baptized!" + +We return to Las Casas once more, to state precisely his complicity in +the introduction of the race whose sorrows have been so fearfully +avenged by Nature in every part of the New World. Many of the writers +who have treated of these transactions, as Robertson, for instance, +have accused Las Casas, on the strength of a passage in Herrera, of +having originated the idea that the blacks could be profitably +substituted for the Indians. It is supposed, that, in his eagerness to +save the Indians from destruction, he sought also to save colonial +interests, by procuring still a supply of labor from a hardier and +less interesting race. Thus his indignation at the rapid extinction of +the Indians appears sentimental; to indulge his fancy for an amiable +race, he was willing to subject another, with which he had no graceful +associations, to the same liabilities. We have seen, however, that +the practice of carrying negroes to Hayti was already established, +seven years before Las Casas suggests his policy. The passage from +Herrera has been misunderstood, as Llorente, Schoelcher, the Abbé +Grégoire, and others, conclusively show. That historian says that Las +Casa, disheartened by the difficulties which he met from the colonists +and their political and ecclesiastical friends at home, had recourse +to a new expedient, to solicit leave for the Spaniards to trade in +negroes, "in order that their labor on the plantations and in the +mines might render that of the natives less severe." This proposition, +made in 1517, has been wrongly supposed to signalize the first +introduction of blacks into America. Nor was Las Casas the first to +make this proposition; for another passage of Herrera discloses that +three priests of St. Jerome, who had been despatched to the colony by +Cardinal Ximenes, for the experiment of managing it by a Board instead +of by a Governor, recommended in 1516 that negroes should be sent out +to stock the plantations, in order to diminish the forced labor of the +natives. This was a concession by the Jeromites to the public opinion +which Las Casas had created.[18] Negroes already existed there; the +priests perceived their value, and that the introduction of a greater +number would both improve the colony and diminish the anti-slavery +agitation of the Dominicans. The next year this project was taken up +by Las Casas, borrowed from the Jeromites as the only alternative to +preserve a colony, to relieve the natives, and to keep the people +interested in the wholesome reforms which he was continually urging +upon the colonial administration. + +He had no opportunity to become acquainted with the evils of negro +slavery, but it is strange that he did not anticipate them. It was +taken for granted by him that the blacks were enslaved in Africa, and +he accepted too readily the popular idea that their lot was improved +by transferring them from barbarous to Christian masters. Their number +was so small in Hayti, and the island fell so suddenly into decay, +that no formidable oppression of them occurred during his lifetime to +replace his recollections of the horrors of Indian servitude. His plan +did not take root, but it was remembered. Thus the single error of a +noble man, committed in the fulness of his Christian aspirations, and +at the very moment when he was representing to a generation of hard +and avaricious men the divine charity, betrayed their victims to all +the nations that sought wealth and luxury in the West, and pointed out +how they were to be obtained. His compromise has the fatal history of +all compromises which secure to the present a brief advantage, whose +fearful accumulation of interest the future must disgrace, exhaust, +and cripple itself to pay. + +In 1519 the colony had already begun to decay, though all the external +marks of luxury and splendor were still maintained. That was the date +of a famous insurrection of the remnant of Indians, who occupied the +mountains, and defended themselves for thirteen years against all the +efforts of the Spaniards to reduce them. It was hardly worth while to +undertake their subjection. Adventurers and emigrants were already +leaving San Domingo to its fate, attracted to different spots of the +Terra Firma, to Mexico and Peru, by the reported treasures. That +portion of the colony which had engaged in agriculture found Indians +scarce and negroes expensive. There was no longer any object in +fitting out expeditions to reinforce the colony, and repair the waste +which it was beginning to suffer from desertion and disease. The war +with the natives was ignominiously ended by Charles V. in 1533, who +found that the colony was growing too poor to pay for it. He +despatched a letter to the cacique who had organized this desperate +and prolonged resistance, flattered him by the designation of Dom +Henri[19] and profuse expressions of admiration, sent a Spanish +general to treat with him, and to assign him a district to inhabit +with his followers. Dom Henri thankfully accepted this pacification, +and soon after received Las Casas himself, who had been commissioned +to assure the sole surviving cacique and representative of two million +natives that Spain was their friend! At last the Protector of the +Indians has the satisfaction of meeting them with authoritative +messages of peace. And this was the first salutation of Dom Henri, +after his forty years' experience of Spanish probity, and thirteen +years of struggle for existence: "During all this war, I have not +failed a day to offer up my prayers, I have fasted strictly every +Friday, I have watched with care over the morals and the conduct of my +subjects, I have taken measures everywhere to prevent all profligate +intercourse between the sexes";[20] thus nobly trying to recommend +himself to the good Bishop, who had always believed in their capacity +for temporal and spiritual elevation. He retired to a place named +Boya, a dozen leagues from the capital. All the Indians who could +prove their descent from the original inhabitants of the island were +allowed to follow him. A few of them still remained in 1750; their +number was only four thousand when Dom Henri led them away from +Spanish rule to die out undisturbed.[21] + +After its passionate and blood-thirsty life, the colony was sinking to +sleep, not from satiety nor exhaustion, for the same race was holding +its orgies in other countries, but from inability to gather fuel for +its excesses. A long list of insignificant governors is the history of +the island for another century. They did nothing to improve the +condition of the inhabitants, whose distress was sometimes severe; but +they continued to embellish the capital, which Oviedo described to +Charles V. as rivalling in solidity and beauty any city in Spain. He +wrote in 1538, and possessed a beautiful residence in the plain of +St. John. The private houses were built substantially, in several +stories, of stone, embowered in charming gardens; the public edifices, +including the cathedral, displayed all the strength and rich +ornamentation which had been common for a hundred years in the Spanish +cities. There were several well-endowed convents, and a fine +hospital. When Sir Francis Drake took possession of San Domingo in +1586, he attempted to induce the inhabitants, who had fled into the +country, to pay an enormous ransom for their city, by threatening to +destroy a number of fine houses every day till it was paid. He +undertook the task, but found that his soldiers were scarcely able to +demolish more than one a day, and he eventually left the city not +materially damaged. + +Antonio Herrera, in his "Description of the West Indies," gives the +number of inhabitants of the city in 1530 as six hundred, and says +that there were fourteen thousand Castilians, many of them nobles, who +carried on the different interests of the colony. He has a list of +seventeen towns, with brief descriptions of them. + +It appears by this that the island had speedily recovered from the ill +reports of the early emigrants, many of whom returned to Spain broken +in purse and person, with excesses of passion and climate chronicled +in their livid faces[22]. There was a period when everybody who could +get away from the colony left it in disgust, and with the expectation +that it would soon become extinct. It was to prevent such a +catastrophe, which would have effectually terminated the explorations +of Columbus, that he proposed to the Government, in 1496, to commute +the punishments of all criminals and large debtors who were at the +time in prison to a perpetual banishment to the island, persons +convicted of treason or heresy being alone excepted. The advice was +instantly adopted, without a thought of the consequences of +reinforcing the malignant ambition of the colony with such +elements. Persons capitally convicted were to serve two years without +wages; all others were to serve on the same terms for one year; and +they went about with the ingenious clog of a threat of arrest for the +old crimes in case they returned to Europe. + +The Government improved upon the hint of Columbus by decreeing that +all the courts in Spain should condemn to the mines a portion of the +criminals who would in the course of nature have gone to the +galleys.[23] Thus a new country, which invited the benign organization +of law and religion, and held out to pure spirits an opportunity +richer than all its crops and mines, was poisoned in its cradle. What +wonder that its vigor became the aimless gestures of madness, that a +bloated habit simulated health, and that decrepitude suddenly fell +upon the uneasy life? + +At the same time it was expressly forbidden to all commanders of +caravels to receive on board any person who was not a born subject of +the crown of Castile. This was conceived in the exclusive colonial +policy of the time. It was a grotesque idea to preserve nationality by +insisting that even criminals must respect the Spanish birthright. +History counts the fitful pulses of this bluest blood of Europe, +and hesitates to declare that such emigrants misrepresented +the mother-country. + +But after the middle of the sixteenth century, the inhabitants were +pillaged by the public enemies of the mother-country, and by private +adventurers of all lands. And yet, in 1587, the year after Drake's +expedition, their fleet carried home 48 quintals of cassia, 50 of +sarsaparilla, 134 of logwood, 893 chests of sugar, each weighing 200 +pounds, and 350,444 hides of every kind. There is no account of +indigo, and the cultivation of cotton had not commenced. Coffee was +first introduced at Martinique during the reign of Louis XIV., who +died in 1715. Its cultivation was not commenced in Jamaica till +1725.[24] + +The negroes whom Hawkins procured on his first voyage to Africa were +carried by him to San Domingo. This was in 1563, the date of England's +first venture in the slave-trade. The English had sent vessels to the +African coast as early as 1551, on private account, for gold and +ivory; but as they had no West-Indian colony, and the trade in slaves +was a monopoly, they had no object to increase the risks of a voyage +which infringed upon the Portuguese right to Africa by carrying +negroes away. Vessels were fitted out in 1552 and 1553 to trade for +ivory and pepper; in the two following years the English interest in +Africa increased, and a negro was occasionally carried away and +brought to England.[25] This appears to have been the first +circumstance which attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth, and +drew remonstrances from her before it became clear that a good deal of +money could be made out of such transactions. She blamed Captain +Hawkins, who had succeeded by treachery and violence in getting hold +of three hundred negroes whom he carried to San Domingo, and disposed +of in the ports of Isabella, Puerto-de-Plata, and Monte Christi. Her +virtue was proof against this first speculation, although it was an +exceedingly good one, for Hawkins filled his three vessels with hides, +ginger, and a quantity of pearls, and freighted two more with hides +and other articles which he sent to Spain. It was after his third +voyage, in 1567, when he sold his negroes in Havana at a profit +greater than he could derive from the decaying San Domingo, that the +Queen forgot her scruples, and gave Hawkins a crest symbolical of his +wicked success: "a demi-Moor, in his proper color, bound with a cord," +made plain John a knight.[26] + +But the Portuguese jealously watched their privilege to export men +from Africa, so that only about forty thousand negroes were brought +yearly by lawful and contraband channels to the different +islands. Cuba obtained most of these. The greater part of the +Portuguese trade took the direction of Brazil, for the sugar-cane had +been carried from Madeira to Rio Janeiro in 1531. Formidable rivalry +in selfishness was thus sown in every direction by the early splendor +of San Domingo. When the Genoese merchants bought the original +privilege to transport four thousand, they held the price of negroes +at two hundred ducats. Their monopoly ceased in 1539, when a great +market for slaves was opened at Lisbon; Spain could buy them there at +a price varying from ten to fifty ducats a head, but their price +delivered in good condition at San Domingo, including the inevitable +percentage of loss, made them almost as expensive as before. + +The capital was shattered by an earthquake in 1684. The people melted +away, and fine houses, which were deserted by their owners, remained +tenantless, and went to ruin. Valverde,[27] a Creole of the island, is +the chronicler of its condition in the middle of the eighteenth +century. He observes that the Spanish Creoles were living in such +poverty that mass was said before daylight, so that mutual scandal at +dilapidated toilets might not interfere with the enjoyment of +religion. The leprosy was common, and two lazarettos were filled with +its victims. The negro blood had found its way into almost every +family; a female slave received her freedom as a legacy of piety or of +lust. She could also purchase it for two hundred and fifty dollars; +and if she was with child, an additional twelve dollars and fifty +cents would purchase for the new-comer all the glories and immunities +of Creole society. These were to doze and smoke in hammocks, and to +cultivate listlessly about twenty-two dilapidated sugar-plantations +and a little coffee. The trade in cattle with the French part of the +island absorbed all the business and enterprise that remained. Still +Valverde will not admit that the Spanish Creole was indolent: it is in +consequence of a deficiency of negroes, he explains, that they cannot +labor more! + +A great injury was inflicted upon the colony by the exclusive +commercial spirit of the mother-country. Spain was the first European +government which undertook to interfere with the natural courses of +trade, on the pretence of protecting isolated interests. In the +eleventh century a great commercial competition existed between some +Italian, French, and Spanish cities. To favor the last, when they were +already enjoying their just share of trade, the King of Aragon +prohibited, in 1227, "all foreign vessels from loading for Ceuta, +Alexandria, or other important ports, if a Catalan ship was able and +willing to take the cargo"; the commerce of Barcelona was in +consequence of this navigation act seriously damaged.[28] Spain +treated her colonies afterward in the same spirit; and other +countries, France in particular, pursued this narrow and destructive +policy, wherever colonial success excited commercial jealousy and +avarice. + +"The commerce of the colony was all confined to the unwise arrangement +of a Government counting-house, called the _Casa de la Contratacion_, +(House of Trade,) through which all exports were sent out to the +colonies and all remittances made in return. By this order of things, +the want of free competition blasted all enterprise, and the +exorbitant rates of an exclusive traffic paralyzed industry. +The cultivation of the vine, the olive, and other staple productions +of Spain, was prohibited. All commerce between the colonies was +forbidden; and not only could no foreigner traffic with them, but +death and confiscation of property were decreed to the colonist who +should traffic with a foreigner,--slave-vessels alone being +excepted."[29] + +Thus the policy which ought to have favored the island first settled +by Spaniards, against the attractions of Peru, Mexico, and Cuba, +towards which the mother-colony was rapidly emptying her streams of +life, was not forthcoming. These Spaniards, who were enslaved by the +tenacious fancy that El Dorado still glittered for them in some +distant place, needed to be attached to the soil by generous +advantages, such as premiums for introducing and sustaining the +cultivation of new productions, immunity from imposts either by +Government or by the middle-men of a company, and liberty to exchange +hides, tallow, and crops of every kind with the French, Dutch, and +English, in every port of the island, to convert a precarious illicit +trade with those nations into a natural intercourse, so that different +articles of food, which were often scarce, and sometimes failed +entirely, might be regularly supplied, until by such fostering care +the colony should grow strong enough to protect itself against its own +and foreign adventurers. But if all these measures had been accordant +with the ideas of that age, they would have been defeated by its +passions. + +Other people now appear upon the scene, to put the finishing touch to +this decay, while they freshen the old crimes and assume the tradition +of excess and horror which is the island's history. + +[To be continued.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +1. Herrera says, however, that Las Casas declared them to be +legitimately enslaved, the natives of Trinity Island in +particular. Schoelcher (_Colonies Étrangèrés et Haiti_, +Tom. II. p. 59) notices that all the royal edicts in favor of the +people of America, miserably obeyed as they were, related only to +Indians who were supposed to be in a state of peace with Spain; the +Caribs were distinctly excepted. It was convenient to call a great +many Indians Caribs; numerous tribes who were peaceful enough when let +alone, and victims rather than perpetrators of cannibalism, became +slaves by scientific adjudication. "These races," said Cardinal +Ximenes, "are fit for nothing but labor." + +2. _Fifth Memoir: Upon the Liberty of the Indians._ +Llorente, Tom. II. p. 11. + +3. _Cimarron_ was Spanish, meaning _wild:_ applied +to animals, and subsequently to escaped slaves, who lived by hunting +and stealing. + +4. "Gimlamo Benzoni, of Milan, who, at the age of +twenty-two, visited Terra Firma, took part in some expeditions in 1542 +to the coasts of Bordones, Cariaco, and Paria, to carry off the +unfortunate natives. He relates with simplicity, and often with a +sensibility not common in the historians of that time, the examples of +cruelty of which he was a witness. He saw the slaves dragged to New +Cadiz, to be marked on the forehead and on the arms, and for the +payment of the _quint_ to the officers of the crown. From this +port the Indians were sent to the island of Hayti, after having often +changed masters, not by way of sale, but because the soldiers played +for them at dice."--Humboldt, _Personal Narrative_, Vol. I. p. +176. + +5. Schoelcher, _Hayti_, Vol. II. p. 78. The Arabs introduced the +cane, which had been cultivated in the East from the remotest +times, into Sicily in the ninth century, whence it found its +way into Spain, and was taken to the Canaries: Madeira sent sugar to +Antwerp in 1500. See Bridge, _Annals of Jamaica_, Vol.I. p.594, +who, however, makes the mistake of saying that a variety of the +sugar-cane was indigenous to the Antilles. See Humboldt, _Personal +Narrative_, Vol. II. p. 28, who says that negroes were employed in +the cultivation of the sugar-cane in the Canaries from its +introduction. + +6. Schoelcher, _La Traile et son Origine_, in +_Colonies Etrengères_, Tom. I. p. 364. + +7. Upon the subject of changes in the value of money, and +some comparisons between the past and present, see Hallam's _Europe, +during the Middle Ages_, Vol. II. pp. 427--432, and _Supplement_, +p. 406. Dealing in money, banking, bills of exchange, have a very +early date in Europe. The Bank of Venice was founded in 1401. +Florentines dealt in money as early as 1251, and their system +of exchange was in use throughout the North early in the +fifteenth century.--McCullagh's _Industrial History of Free +Nations_ Vol. II. p. 94. + +8. See in Hallam's _Supplement to Europe during the Middle +Ages_, p. l33, and in Motley's _Dutch Republic_, Vol. I. pp. +32, 33, various causes mentioned for voluntary and compulsory +servitude in the early European times. See also Summer's _White +Slavery_, p. 11. + +9. Moors, living In Spain as subjects, and nominally +Christianized. + +10. _La Historia sel Mondo Nuovo_, Venetia, 1565, Book +II. p.65, a duodecimo filled with curious plates representing the +habits of the natives and the Spanish dealings with them. Benozi +elsewhere has a good deal to say about the cruelty exercised towards +the negroes. For a failure to perform a daily stint in the mines, a +negro was usually buried up to his chin, and left to be tormented by +the insects. Wire whips were used in flogging, and hot pitch was +applied to the wounds. + +11. _Fifth Memoir: Upon the Liberty of the Indians who +have been reduced to the Condition of Slavery_; Morente, +Tom. II. pp. 34, 35. _Sixth Memoir: Upon the Question whether Kings +have the Power to alienate their Subjects, their Towns and +Jurisdiction_, pp. 64 et seq. _Letter of Las Casas to Miranda, +resident in England with Philip, in 1555_.--The Sixth Memoir is a +remarkable production. Its closing words are these: "The dignity of a +king does not consist in usurping rights of which he is only the +administrator. Invested with all the necessary power to govern well +and to make his kingdom happy, let him fulfil that fine destiny, and +the respect of the people will be his reward." + +12. "Ces hommes qui donnent le beau nom de prudence à leur +timidité, et dont la discrétion est toujours favorable à +l'injustice."--Hilliard d'Aubertueil, _Considérations sur l'Ètat +Présent de la Colonie Françoise de St. Domingue_, 1776. + +13. _Histoire Générale des Isles de St. Christophe_, etc., 1654, +par Du Tertre. + +14. From a letter by the Jesuit father Le Pers, quoted by +Charlevoix, _Histoire de St. Domingue_, Tom. IV. p. 369. Amsterdam, +1733. + +15. Upon the reputed effects of baptism, and some anecdotes +connected with the administration of this rite, see Humboldt's +_Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain_, London, 1811, +Vol. I. p. 165, note. + +16. _Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de l'Amerique_, A la +Haye, 1724, Tom. V. p. 42. Father Labat is delighted because the Dutch +asked him to confess their slaves; and he records that many masters +take great pains to have their Catholic slaves say their prayers +morning and evening, and approach the sacrament; nor do they undertake +to indoctrinate them with Calvinism. + +17. _A Sermon preached before the Incorporated Society for +the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, at their Anniversary +Meeting in the Parish Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, on Friday, +February 18, 1731_. + +18. Oviedo says nothing about this Jeromite proposition, but +records the arrival of this priestly commission, (_Hist. Ind._, +Book IV. ch. 3,) and that one object of it was to provide for the +Indians,--"_buen tractamiento é conserveçion de los indios_." He +says that all the remedial measures which it undertook increased the +misery and loss of the natives. He was not humane. It seemed absurd +to him that the Indians should kill themselves on the slightest +pretext, or run to the mountains; and he can find no reason for it, +except that their chief purpose in life (and one which they had always +cherished, before the Christians came among them) was to eat, drink, +"_folgar, é luxuriar, é idolatrar, é exercer otras muchas suçiedades +bestiales_." + +19. The priests gave him the name of Henri, when they +baptized him, long previous to his revolt. He was called Henriquillo +by way of Catholic endearment. But the consecrating water could not +wash out of his remembrance that his father and grandfather had been +burnt alive by order of a Spanish governor. What, indeed, can quench +such fires? Yet this dusky Hannibal loved the exercises and pure +restraints of the religion which had laid waste his family. + +20. Oviedo, _Hist. Ind._, Book V. ch. 11, who gives the +cacique little credit for some of his prohibitions, but on the whole +praises him, and, after mentioning that he lived little more than a +year from the time of this pacification, and died like a Christian, +commends his soul to God. Oviedo hated the Indians, and wrote about +colonial affairs coldly and in the Spanish interests. + +21. _Histoire Politique et Statistique._ Par Placide Justin. + +22. "The Indies are not for every one! How many heedless +persons quit Spain, expecting that in the Indies a dinner costs +nothing, and that there is nobody there in want of one; that as they +do not drink wine in every house, why, they give it away! Many, +Father, have been seen to go to the Indies, and to have returned from +them as miserable as when they left their country, having gained from +the journey nought but perpetual pains in the arms and legs, which +refuse in their treatment to yield to sarsaparilla and _palo +santo_, [_lignum vitae_,] and which neither quicksilver nor +sweats will eject from their constitution." From a Spanish novel by +Yanez y Rivera, "_Alonzo, el Donado Hablador_": "Alonzo, the +Talkative Lay-Brother," written in 1624. New York, 1844. + +23. Charlevoix, _Histoire de St. Domingue_, 1733, +Tom.I. p.185, who notices the admission of Herrera that the Admiral +made a great mistake, since malefactors should not be selected for the +founders of republics. No, neither in Virginia nor in any virgin +world. + +24. Some slips of Mocha fell into the hands of Europeans +first by being carried to Batavia. It was then transplanted to +Amsterdam in the end of the sixteenth century; and a present of some +shrubs was made to Louis XIV., at the Peace of Utrecht. They +flourished in his garden, and three shrubs were taken thence and +shipped to Martinique in the care of a Captain de Cheu. The voyage was +so prolonged that two of them died for want of moisture, and the +captain saved the third by devoting to it his own ration of water. + +25. Hüne, _Geschichte des Sclavenhandels_, I. 300. + +26. When John's son, Richard, was fitting out a vessel for a +voyage into the South Sea, ostensibly to explore, his mother-in-law +had the naming of it at his request; and she called it "The +Repentance." Sir Richard was puzzled at this; but his mother would +give him no other satisfaction "then that repentance was the safest +ship we could sayle in to purchase the haven of Heaven." The Queen +changed the name to "Daintie."--_Observations of Sir Richard +Hawkins, Knight, in his Voyage into the South Sea,_ A. D. 1593. + +27. _Idea del Valor,_ etc., Madrid, 1785: _An Idea of +the Value of the Spanish Island,_ etc. By A.S. Valverde. + +28. McCullagh's _Industrial History of Free Nations; the +Dutch_, Vol. II. p. 51. + +29. _The History and Present Condition of St. +Domingo_, by J. Brown, M. D., 1837, p. 40. Even this exception in +favor of slave-traders appears afterwards to have been withdrawn; for +Charlevoix relates (_Histoire de St. Domingue_, Tom. III. p. 36) +that the Governor of San Domingo got Tortuga away from the French, in +1654, by means of two negroes whom he had purchased cheap from some +Dutchmen, and who showed him a path by which he drew up two cannon to +command the fort. He was recalled, and beheaded at Seville, because he +had bought negroes of foreigners. + + + + +MY LOST ART. + + +I was born in a small town of Virginia. My father was a physician, +more respected than employed; for it was generally supposed, and +justly, that he was more devoted to chemical experiment and +philosophical speculation than to the ordinary routine of his +profession. It was quite natural, that, in course of time, another +physician should come to dash by, with fine turnout, my father's +humble gig; and such, indeed, was the result. It was equally natural, +that, as the dear old man looked his own fate straight in the eyes, +and saw his patients falling away one by one, he should adjourn +practical success to his only son,--myself. Quiet, but unremitting, +were his efforts to make me avoid the rock on which his worldly +fortunes had been wrecked. In vain: to me there was a light in his eye +which lured me on to those visionary shores from which he warned me; +and whilst he was holding out the labors and duties of a regular and +steadfast practitioner as merciful and honorable among the highest, +there was an undertone in his voice, of which he was unconscious, +which told me plainly that the knowledge he most valued in himself was +that apparently most unproductive. My mother had died several years +before; my father's affection, pride, and hope rested utterly upon +me. I knew not then how sad it was to disappoint him. Often, when he +returned to his office, hoping to find me studying the "Materia +Medica," I was discovered poring over some old volumes on the "Human +Humors, or the Planetary Sympathies of the Viscera." A sincere grief +filled his eyes at such times, but I could not help feeling that it +was mingled with respect. The heaviest cross I had to bear was that +the curious old volumes which attracted me were gradually abstracted +from the library. + +One day, walking with my father on the outskirts of the town, we found +a merry throng gathered about the car of a travelling daguerrotypist. +Having nothing more entertaining on hand, we entered the car +and sat, whilst the village belles, and the newly affianced, +and the young brides came for their miniatures. This was interesting; +but when they were gone, my father and the artist entered upon a +conversation which was far more absorbing to me, and indeed colored +the whole of my subsequent life. My father made inquiries concerning +the materials used in daguerrotyping, and the progress of the art; and +the artist, finding him an intelligent man, entered with spirit upon +his relation. + +"It is, indeed, wonderful," he said, "that more has not been +accomplished through this discovery; and I can attribute this to +nothing but the lack amongst our poor fraternity of the capital +necessary for carrying on and out the many experiments suggested to us +daily in the course of our operations." + +"About what point," asked my father, "do these suggestions usually +gather?" + +"That which chiefly excites our speculation is the unfathomed mystery +of the nitrate of silver. The story of this wonderful agent is not +half unfolded; and every artist knows that its power is limited only +by the imperfection of the materials with which it has to act. Its +sensitiveness approaches that of thought itself. I have a very small +quantity of highest quality which I use on rare occasions and +generally for experiments. A few days ago I caught with it this first +flash of sunrise,--see, is it not perfect?" + +The picture which he showed us was, indeed, beautiful. A wave of light +bursting upon the plate to a foamy whiteness, almost beyond the power +of the eye to bear. But that which excited me most was the photograph +of a star, which he had fixed after highly magnifying it. What a +fascination there was about that little point of fire! + +It turned out to be the star under which I was born: its fatal +influences were already upon me: I returned home to pass a night +sleepless, indeed, but not without dreams. + +Why is it that a new idea, taking possession of the young, raising +some new object for their pursuit, does, in the proportion of its +power, foreclose even the most accustomed confidences? My father was +precisely the one man living who would have sympathized in the purpose +which from the time of this visit sucked into its whirl all my desires +and powers; but that purpose seemed at once to turn my heart to +stone. For a week I was acting a part before the kindest and simplest +of men; and I deliberately went forward to reach my object over his +happiness and even life. + +When the daguerrotypist left town, I easily found the direction he had +taken; and, after waiting several days to prevent any suspicious +coincidence in the time of our departure, I one night, soon after +midnight, crept from my bed and followed him. I overtook him at a +village some twenty miles distant, where he was remaining a day or +two, and easily procured an engagement with him, since I desired +nothing but to serve him and be taught the mechanical details of his +art. My father had no clue whatever to my direction, for he had not +dreamed of anything unusual in my thoughts or plans. He was now +entirely alone. But I knew that I was helpless against the phantom +which was leading me forth; it also contained a stimulant which was +able to bear me safely through seasons of self-reproach and +depression. + +For about six months I got along with the artist very well. My desire +to learn made me attentive, prompt, and respectful. But at the end of +that time I had learned all that he could teach me, and, as I had +engaged with him for an ulterior object, the business began to lose +its interest for me, and the inconveniences of wandering about in a +car, hitherto unthought of, were now felt. The relations between my +master and myself had been so agreeable that for a long time this +change in my feelings was not alluded to in words. He was a thrifty +Yankee, and with a Yankee's sense of justice; so he offered me a fair +proportion of the profits. But at the end of the year he told me that +he thought I was "too much of a Virginian" ever to follow this +occupation, and that, having seen my father and known his position, he +was surprised that he had ever favored such a pursuit for me. This +was, indeed, the falsehood I had told him. + +It was in a Canadian village that I parted with this gentlemanly and +generous New-Englander. When I left him, I was not penniless, but a +bitter sense of my loneliness was upon me, and a consciousness of the +uncandid and cruel turn I had done my father brought me almost to the +verge of suicide. On Sunday morning I entered a church in Toronto, and +tears flowed down my face as I heard the minister read the parable of +the Prodigal Son. It seemed to me as a voice from home, and I +determined to go to my father. Without hesitating, or stopping an +hour, I took all the money I had to pay my way, and in about six days +afterward, sitting beside the driver on the stage-coach, looked from a +hill upon the house in which I was born. A pang shot through my heart +at that instant. Until that moment I had dreamed of my father's +seeing me whilst I was yet a great way off, of resting my weary head +upon his warm, infolding heart. But now the dream faded, and a pain +as of an undying worm gnawed already on my soul. I paused at the gate, +nearly paralyzed by fear. Was he dead? No; I felt this was not the +case; but I felt that something worse than this was about to befall +me. I gained strength to enter the hall, and sat down there. I heard +several voices. I went on to the well-known chamber. A physician and a +nurse were there. Standing in the door a moment, I heard my father say +in a whisper, "If he ever comes back, let him have all; tell him his +father loved him to the last; but do not tell him more, do not make +_him_ suffer,--mark you!" A moment more, and I was kneeling by +his dying bed. "My father, my father, I have murdered you!" After some +moments it was impressed upon the old man that his penitent son was by +his side. I almost looked for the curse that I deserved; but a +peaceful light was on his face as he said,--"I'm sorry I hid the books +from you, child. I meant well,--I meant well,--I erred. If I can help +you from up there, I will." Life departed with these words. + +It will not be wondered that I became a recluse. The recluse is +usually one cast up from such bleak experiences of sin and grief that +he fears to launch upon life again, and only seeks to hide him in any +cavern that may be found along the shore that has received him. Thus +it was with me, at least. I dreaded to look one of my townsmen in the +face,--they knew all: and many years after, when the harsh judgments +which would have received me were softened by my lonely penance and +sadness, and proffers came from society, my solitude had become sacred +to me; and that old star which the daguerrotypist had shown me still +reigned. + +My father had left me enough property to enable me to carry forward +the investigations and experiments to which all voices seemed to call +me. I had an upper room prepared with a skylight and all other +appliances. I purchased an excellent instrument, and some very strong +diameters for magnifying photographs. The trials I had made convinced +me that the minuteness and extent of objects photographed were limited +only by the comparative coarseness of the materials _through_ and +_on_ which the object passed. So I was very particular in +selecting lenses. Further trials, however, led me to believe that the +plate was still more important. Obtaining a steel of perfect grain, I +spent days in giving it the highest polish it would bear, and kept it +ready for any important office. By means of a long and bright tin +reflector, (the best,) my artificial light was ready, in case I should +desire to photograph at night; and, indeed, it was the hope of making +some astronomic discovery that was leading me on. + +Calm and clear was the night on which I brought these my treasures +forth. Jupiter was blazing in the heavens, and challenged Art to seize +his majestic lineaments. It turned out a point of fire much like that +which my master had exhibited to me. I mixed a finer nitrate, +repolished my plate, and was this time rewarded by seeing, under all +the diameters which I had, the satellites also. Very much thrilled +even with this degree of success, and taking the picture on paper, I +put my plate away, and set myself to study what I should do next. It +had not yet occurred to me to inquire of myself what definite thing I +really was after. My deepest hope was in the undefinableness of its +object: I knew only that a clear idea (and Plato says all clear ideas +are true) of the subtile susceptibilities of nitrate of silver, +_limited only by materials_, had engendered within me, through +much pondering, an embryo idea, to the development of which my life +was intuitively consecrated. I would not define it to myself, because +I felt (intuitively, also) that it was something illimitable, +therefore indefinable. + +I began to experiment now with lenses, placing various kinds and +powers one above another. It occurred to me that I had hitherto +brought their power to bear only upon _whole_, objects. But what +would be the result of magnifying an object daguerrotyped until it +covered the disc of the reflector, then photographing it, and +afterward magnifying a central segment of the picture to its utmost, +and again renewing the experiment on this? An infinite series of +analyses might be carried into the heart of an image; and might not +something therein, invisible not only to the naked eye, but to the +strongest magnifier, be revealed? Following this reflection, I took a +common stereoscopic view and subjected it to my lenses. It was an +ordinary view of a Swiss hamlet, the chief object of which was an inn +with a sign over the door surmounted by a bush. The only objects upon +the sign discernible with a common convex eye-glass were a mug of beer +on one side and a wine-bottle on the other. Their position indicated +that something else was on the sign: the stronger diameters presently +brought out "CARL ELZNERS"; the strongest I had were exhausted in +bringing out "GARTEN UND GASTHAUS." When this, the utmost dimension, +was reached, I photographed it. Then, taking ordinary magnifiers, I +began upon that part of the sign where, if anything remained unevoked, +it would be found. The reader will observe, that, each time that the +result of one enlargement was made the subject for another, the loss +was in the field or range which must be paid for intensity and +minuteness. Thus, in the end, there might appear but one letter of a +long sentence, or a part of a letter. In this case, however, the +result was better than I had expected: I read distinctly, "--EIN, +WEI--"; and Luther's popular lines, "_Wer liebt nicht wein, +weib_," etc., were brought to my mind at once. Thus I had the sign +in full: the powerful agent of the sun on earth had fixed Carl Elzner +and his Protestant beer-garden on the stereoscopic view forever, +whether the dull eyes of men could read them or not. + +Thrilled and animated by this success, I hastened to apply the same +plan of magnifying segment by segment to my photograph of +Jupiter. But, alas, although something suggestive did appear, or so I +fancied, the image grew dimmer with each analysis, until, under the +higher powers, it disappeared, and the grainings of the card +superseded the planet. Had I not proved that my principle was good in +the case of the Swiss sign-board, I should now have given it up as the +whim of an over-excited brain. But now I thought only of the assertion +of the daguerrotypist, that "the nitrate was limited in sensitiveness +only by the imperfection of the materials," (i. e. plates, glass, +reflectors, etc.,) and I had heard the same repeated by the paper +which had finally replaced the picture it held. I now determined to +risk on the experiment the elegant steel plate on whose polish I had +spent so much pains and time. I took the portrait of Jupiter thereon, +and fixed it forever. This time I could not be mistaken in supposing +that as the field of vision shrank some strange forms appeared; but I +could be certain of none which were essentially different from those +revealed by the largest telescopes. My narrowing and intensifying +process then began to warn me of another failure: when I had reached +the last point at which the image could be held at all, the grain of +the steel plate was like great ropes, and it was only after resting my +eyes for some time, then suddenly turning them upon it, that I could +see any picture at all. For an instant it would look like an +exceedingly delicate lichen,--then nothing was visible but huge bars +of steel. + +Ah, with what despair did I see the grand secret which had so long +hovered before me and led my whole life now threatening to elude and +abandon me forever! "But," I cried, "it shall not go so easily, by +Heaven! If there be a genius in the casket, unsealed it shall be!" + +I resolved to give up steel for some metal or substance of finer +grain. I almost impoverished myself in purchasing plates of the finer +metals, before it occurred to me to try glass, and had to laugh at my +own stupidity when I discovered that in the last analysis glass showed +much smoother than any of the rest. I immediately obtained a great +many specimens of glass, and spent much time in subjecting them to my +lenses only to see how much fibrous appearance, or unevenness, could +be brought before the eye from a smooth surface. I found one excellent +specimen, and gave myself up to grinding it to the utmost extent +consistent with its strength. + +I felt now that I was about to make a final test. It would be not only +a test of my new plate, but of my own sanity, which I had at various +times doubted. I felt, that, unless my idea should be proved true, I +could no longer trust my reason, which had at every step beckoned me +on to the next. I had studied medicine enough in my father's office +long ago to know that either sanity or insanity may come as a reality +from a mind's determined verdict on itself. When, therefore, I again +sat down to analyze my daguerrotype of the planet, it was with the awe +and fear which might beset one standing on a ledge between a frightful +chasm and a transcendent height, and not knowing which was to receive +him. + +From the first burst of the sunlight over the world, I sat at my +task. Each instrument, each lens I used, I spent an hour or hours +over, giving it the finest polish or nicety of adjustment to which it +could be brought. Into that day I had distilled my past; into it I was +willing to distil the eternity that was before me. With each now +application, the field of the planet shrank a thousand leagues, but +each time the light deepened. According to my principle, there was no +doubt that some object would be revealed before the space became too +limited, provided nothing interfered with the distinctness of the +picture. At length I calculated that I was selecting about twenty +square miles from about seven hundred. Forms were distinct, but they +were rigid, and painfully reminded me of the astronomic maps. About +five removes from this, I judged that the space I was looking at must +be about ten feet square. I was sure that the objects really occupying +those ten feet must be in my picture, if I could evoke them. + +On this I placed a mild power, and was startled at finding something +new. The picture which had been so full of rigid and sharp outlines +now became a confusion of ever-changing forms. Now it was light,--now +shadow; angles faded into curves; but out of the swarming mass of +shapes I could not, after hours of watching, obtain one that seemed +like any form of life or art that I had ever seen. + +Had I, then, come to the end of my line? My eyes so pained me, and had +been so tried, that I strove to persuade myself that the evanescent +forms resulting from my unsatisfactory experiment must be optical +illusions. I determined to let matters rest as they were until the +next day, when my brain would be less heated and my eye calmer and +steadier. + +They will never let a man alone,--they, the herd, who cry "Madman!" +when any worker and his work which they cannot comprehend rise before +them. In the great moment when, after years of climbing, I stood +victorious on the summit, they claimed that I had fallen to the +chasm's depths, and confined me here at Staunton as a hopeless +lunatic. This heart of mine, burning with the grandest discovery ever +made, must throb itself away in a cell, because it could not contain +its high knowledge, but went forth among men once more to mingle ideal +rays with their sunshine, and make every wind, as it passed over the +earth, waft a higher secret than was ever before attained. A lunatic! +I! But next me in array are the prisons of the only sane ones of +history, the cells dug by Inquisitorial Ignorance in every age for its +wisest men. Now I understand them; walls cannot impede the hands we +stretch out to each other across oceans and centuries. One day the +purblind world will invoke in its prayers the holy army of the martyrs +of Thought. + +Yes, I was mad,--mad to think that the world's horny eyes could not +receive the severe light of knowledge,--mad as was he who ran through +the streets and cried, "_Eureka!_" The head and front of my +madness have this extent,--no more. And for this I must write the +rest of my story here amid iron gratings, through which, however, +thank God, my familiars, the stars, and the red, blue, and golden +planets, glance kindly, saying, "Courage, brother! soon thou shaft +rise to us, to whom thou belongest!" Yet I will write it: one day men +will read, and say, "Come, let us garnish the sepulchre of one immured +because his stupid age could not understand!" and then, doubtless, +they will go forth to stone the seer on whose tongue lies the noblest +secret of the Universe for that day. + +When I left the last experiment mentioned in these pages, in order to +recover steadiness of brain and nerve, and to relieve my overtaxed +eyes, I had no hope of reaching success in any other way than that +pointed out in the principle which I was pressing,--a principle whose +importance is proved in the familiar experiments on stereoscopic +views, whereby things entirely invisible to the naked eye are +disclosed by lenses. But that night I dreamed out the success which +had eluded my waking hours. I have nothing to say here about the +phenomenon of dreaming: I state only the fact. In my dream there +appeared to me my father, bearing in his left hand a plate of glass, +and in his right a phial of bright blue liquid which he seemed to be +pouring on the polished surface. The phial was of singular shape, +having a long slender neck rising from a round globe. When I awoke, I +found myself standing in the middle of the floor with hands stretched +out appealingly to the vacant air. + +Acknowledging, as I did, nothing but purely scientific +methods,--convinced that nothing could be reached but through all the +intervening steps fixed by Nature between Reason and Truth,--I should, +at any other than such a weary time, have forgotten the vision in an +hour. But now it took a deeper hold on my imagination. That my father +should be associated in my dream with these experiments was natural; +the glass plate which he had held was the same I was using; as for the +phial, might it not be some old compound that I had known him or the +daguerrotypist use, now casually spun out of the past and woven in +with my present pursuits? Nevertheless, I was glad to shove aside this +rationalistic interpretation: on the verge of drowning, I magnified +the straw to a lifeboat, and caught at it. I pardoned myself for going +to the shelves which still held my father's medicines, and examining +each of the phials there. But when I turned away without finding one +which at all answered to my dream, I felt mean and miserable; deeply +disappointed at not having found the phial, I was ashamed at my +retrogression to ages which dealt with incantations, and luck, and +other impostures. I was shamed to the conclusion that the phial with +its blue liquid was something I had read of in the curious old books +which my father had hidden away from me, and which, strange to say, I +had never been able to find since his death. + +Whilst I was meditating thus, there was a knock at my door, and a +drayman entered with a chest, which he said had belonged to my father, +and had been by him deposited several years before with a friend who +lived a few miles from our village. I could scarcely close and bolt +the door after the man had departed; _as he brought in the chest, I +had seen through the lid the phial with the blue liquid_. So +certain was I of this, that before I opened it I went and withdrew my +glass plate, repolished it, and made all ready for a final +experiment. Opening the chest, I found the old books which had been +abstracted, and a small medicine-box, in which was the phial seen in +my dream. + +But now the question arose, How was the blue fluid to be applied? I +had not looked closely at the plate which my father held to see +whether it was already prepared for an impression; and so I was at a +loss to know whether this new fluid was to prepare the glass with a +more perfect polish, or to mingle with the subtile nitrate +itself. Unfortunately I tried the last first, and there was no result +at all,--except the destruction of a third of the precious +fluid. Cleaning the plate perfectly, I burnt into it, drop by drop, +the whole of the contents of the phial. As I drained the last drop +from it, it reddened on the glass as if it were the last drop of my +heart's blood poured out. + +At the first glance on the star-picture thus taken, I knew that I was +successful. Jupiter shone like the nucleus of a comet, even before a +second power was upon it. As picture after picture was formed, belts +of the most exquisite hues surrounded the luminous planet, which +seemed rolling up to me, hurled from lens to lens, as if wrested from +its orbit by a commanding force. Plainer and plainer grew its surface; +mountain-ranges, without crags or chasms, smooth and undulating, +emerged; it was zoned with a central sunlit sea. On each scene of the +panorama I lingered, and each was retained as well as the poor +materials would allow. I was cautious enough to take two pictures of +each distinct phase,--one to keep, if this happy voyage should be my +last, and the other of course as the subject from which a centre +should be selected for a new expansion. + +At last there stood plainly before my eye a tower!--a tower, slender +and high, with curved dome, the work of Art! A cry burst from my +lips,--I fainted with joy. Afraid to touch the instrument with my +trembling hand, I walked the floor, imploring back my nervous +self-possession. Fixing the tower by photograph, I took the centre of +its dome as the next point for expansion. Slowly, slowly, as if the +fate of a solar system depended on each turn of the screw, I drew on +the final view. An instant of gray confusion,--another of tremulous +crystallization,--and, scarcely in contact with the tower's dome, as +if about to float from it, hovered an aerial ship, with two round +balls suspended above it. Again one little point was taken, for I felt +that this was not the culmination of my vision; and now two figures +appeared, manifestly human, but their features and dress as yet +undistinguishable. + +Another turn, and I looked upon the face of a glorious man! + +Another, and the illusion, Space, shrank away beneath my feet, my eye +soared over her abysses, and gazed into the eye of an immortal. + +But now,--oh, horror!--turning back to earth, I remembered that I had +not analyzed the precious liquid which could so link world with +world. Seized with a sudden agony, I tried to strain one least drop +more; but, alas! the power had perished from the earth! + +For this loss I deserve all that has happened to me. My haste to +fulfil my life's object proved me the victim of a mental lust, and I +saw why the highest truth is not revealed: simply, it awaits those who +can receive and not be intoxicated by it. And now the planet which I +had disobeyed for another avenges itself,--seeing, naturally, in +strange results, whose methods are untraceable, nothing but +monomania. The photographs, in which the pollens of two planet-flowers +mingle, lie in my attic, dust-eaten:--"Above all, the patient must not +see anything of _that_ kind," has been the order ever since I +published a card announcing my discovery to my fellow-citizens. + +But they were gentle; they did not take away all. The old books are +with me, each a benison from a brother. The best works of ancient +times are, I think, best understood when read by prison-light. + +Hist! some visitor comes! Many come from curiosity to see one who +thinks he descried a man in a planet "Distinguished man of science +from Boston to see me,"--ah, indeed! Celebrated paper on tadpoles, I +suppose! But now that I look closer, I like my Boston man-of-science's +eye, and his voice is good. I have not yet exhausted the fingers of +one hand in counting up all the sane people who have visited me since +I have been immured. + +How do I test them? + +As now I test you. + +Here my treasure of treasures I open. It is the old suppressed volume +of John de Sacro Bosco, inscribed to that Castilian Alphonso who dared +to have the tables of Ptolemy corrected. (Had he not been a king, he +had been mad: such men as Bosco were mad after Alphonso died.) And +thus to my curious scientific visitor I read what I ask may go into +his report along with the description of my case. + +"John de Sacro Bosco sendeth this book to Alphonso de Castile. A. D. +1237." + +"They alone are kings who know." + +"Ken and Can are twins." + +"God will not be hurried." + +"Sacred are the fools: God understandeth them." + +"Impatient, I cried, 'I will clear the stair that leadeth to God!' +Now sit I at His feet, lame and weak, and men scoff at knowledge, +--'Aha, this cometh of ascending stairways!'" + +"The silk-worm span its way up to wings. I am ashamed and dumb, who +would soar ere I had toiled. + +"When riseth an Ideal in the concave of some vaulting heart or brain, +it is a new heaven and signeth a new earth." + +"Each clear Idea that ascendeth the vault of Pure Reason is a +Bethlehem star; be sure a Messias is born for it on the Earth; the new +sign lit up in the heaven of Vision is a new power set in motion among +men; and, do what the Herods will, Earth's incense, myrrh, yea, even +its gold, must gather to the feet of the Omnipotent Child,--the IDEA." + + + + +IN WAR-TIME. + +INSCRIBED TO W.B. + + + As they who watch by sick-beds find relief + Unwittingly from the great stress of grief + And anxious care in fantasies outwrought + From the hearth's embers flickering low, or caught + From whispering wind, or tread of passing feet, + Or vagrant memory calling up some sweet + Snatch of old song or romance, whence or why + They scarcely know or ask,--so, thou and I, + Nursed in the faith that Truth alone is strong + In the endurance which outwearies Wrong, + With meek persistence baffling brutal force, + And trusting God against the universe,-- + We, doomed to watch a strife we may not share + With other weapons than the patriot's prayer, + Yet owning, with full hearts and moistened eyes, + The awful beauty of self-sacrifice, + And wrung by keenest sympathy for all + Who give their loved ones for the living wall + 'Twixt law and treason,--in this evil day + May haply find, through automatic play + Of pen and pencil, solace to our pain, + And hearten others with the strength we gain. + I know it has been said our times require + No play of art, nor dalliance with the lyre, + No weak essay with Fancy's chloroform + To calm the hot, mad pulses of the storm, + But the stern war-blast rather, such as sets + The battle's teeth of serried bayonets, + And pictures grim as Vernet's. Yet with these + Some softer tints may blend, and milder keys + Believe the storm-stunned ear. Let us keep sweet, + If so we may, our hearts, even while we eat + The bitter harvest of our own device + And half a century's moral cowardice. + As Nürnberg sang while Wittenberg defied, + And Kranach painted by his Luther's side, + And through the war-march of the Puritan + The silver stream of Marvell's music ran, + So let the household melodies be sung, + The pleasant pictures on the wall be hung,-- + So let us hold against the hosts of Night + And Slavery all our vantage-ground of Light. + Let Treason boast its savagery, and shake + From its flag-folds its symbol rattlesnake, + Nurse its fine arts, lay human skins in tan, + And carve its pipe-bowls from the bones of man, + And make the tale of Fijian banquets dull + By drinking whiskey from a loyal skull,-- + But let us guard, till this sad war shall cease, + (God grant it soon!) the graceful arts of peace: + No foes are conquered who the victors teach + Their vandal manners and barbaric speech. + + And while, with hearts of thankfulness, we bear + Of the great common burden our full share, + Let none upbraid us that the waves entice + Thy sea-dipped pencil, or some quaint device, + Rhythmic and sweet, beguiles my pen away + From the sharp strifes and sorrows of to-day. + Thus, while the east-wind keen from Labrador + Sings in the leafless elms, and from the shore + Of the great sea comes the monotonous roar + Of the long-breaking surf, and all the sky + Is gray with cloud, home-bound and dull, I try + To time a simple legend to the sounds + Of winds in the woods, and waves on pebbled bounds,-- + A song of breeze and billow, such as might + Be sung by tired sea-painters, who at night + Look from their hemlock camps, by quiet cove + Or beach, moon-lighted, on the waves they love. + (So hast thou looked, when level sunset lay + On the calm bosom of some Eastern bay, + And all the spray-moist rocks and waves that rolled + Up the white sand-slopes flashed with ruddy gold.) + Something it has--a flavor of the sea, + And the sea's freedom--which reminds of thee. + Its faded picture, dimly smiling down + From the blurred fresco of the ancient town, + I have not touched with warmer tints in vain, + If, in this dark, sad year, it steals one thought from pain. + + + + + +AMY WENTWORTH. + + + Her fingers shame the ivory keys + They dance so light along; + The bloom upon her parted lips + Is sweeter than the song. + + O perfumed suitor, spare thy smiles! + Her thoughts are not of thee: + She better loves the salted wind, + The voices of the sea. + + Her heart is like an outbound ship + That at its anchor swings; + The murmur of the stranded shell + Is in the song she sings. + + She sings, and, smiling, hears her praise, + But dreams the while of one + Who watches from his sea-blown deck + The icebergs in the sun. + + She questions all the winds that blow, + And every fog-wreath dim, + And bids the sea-birds flying north + Bear messages to him. + + She speeds them with the thanks of men + He perilled life to save, + And grateful prayers like holy oil + To smooth for him the wave. + + Brown Viking of the fishing-smack! + Fair toast of all the town!-- + The skipper's jerkin ill beseems + The lady's silken gown! + + But ne'er shall Amy Wentworth wear + For him the blush of shame + Who dares to set his manly gifts + Against her ancient name. + + The stream is brightest at its spring, + And blood is not like wine; + Nor honored less than he who heirs + Is he who founds a line. + + Full lightly shall the prize be won, + If love be Fortune's spur; + And never maiden stoops to him + Who lifts himself to her. + + Her home is brave in Jaffrey Street, + With stately stair-ways worn + By feet of old Colonial knights + And ladies gentle-born. + + Still green about its ample porch + The English ivy twines, + Trained back to show in English oak + The herald's carven signs. + + And on her, from the wainscot old, + Ancestral faces frown,-- + And this has worn the soldier's sword, + And that the judge's gown. + + But, strong of will and proud as they, + She walks the gallery-floor + As if she trod her sailor's deck + By stormy Labrador! + + The sweet-brier blooms on Kittery-side, + And green are Elliot's bowers; + Her garden is the pebbled beach, + The mosses are her flowers. + + She looks across the harbor-bar + To see the white gulls fly, + His greeting from the Northern sea + Is in their clanging cry. + + She hums a song, and dreams that he, + As in its romance old, + Shall homeward ride with silken sails + And masts of beaten gold! + + Oh, rank is good, and gold is fair, + And high and low mate ill; + But love has never known a law + Beyond its own sweet will! + + + + + +THOREAU. + + +Henry David Thoreau was the last male descendant of a French ancestor +who came to this country from the Isle of Guernsey. His character +exhibited occasional traits drawn from this blood in singular +combination with a very strong Saxon genius. + +He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on the 12th of July, 1817. He +was graduated at Harvard College in 1837, but without any literary +distinction. An iconoclast in literature, he seldom thanked colleges +for their service to him, holding them in small esteem, whilst yet his +debt to them was important. After leaving the University, he joined +his brother in teaching a private school, which he soon renounced. His +father was a manufacturer of lead-pencils, and Henry applied himself +for a time to this craft, believing he could make a better pencil than +was then in use. After completing his experiments, he exhibited his +work to chemists and artists in Boston, and having obtained their +certificates to its excellence and to its equality with the best +London manufacture, he returned home contented. His friends +congratulated him that he had now opened his way to fortune. But he +replied, that he should never make another pencil. "Why should I? I +would not do again what I have done once." He resumed his endless +walks and miscellaneous studies, making every day some new +acquaintance with Nature, though as yet never speaking of zoology or +botany, since, though very studious of natural facts, he was incurious +of technical and textual science. + +At this time, a strong, healthy youth, fresh from college, whilst all +his companions were choosing their profession, or eager to begin some +lucrative employment, it was inevitable that his thoughts should be +exercised on the same question, and it required rare decision to +refuse all the accustomed paths, and keep his solitary freedom at the +cost of disappointing the natural expectations of his family and +friends: all the more difficult that he had a perfect probity, was +exact in securing his own independence, and in holding every man to +the like duty. But Thoreau never faltered. He was a born +protestant. He declined to give up his large ambition of knowledge and +action for any narrow craft or profession, aiming at a much more +comprehensive calling, the art of living well. If he slighted and +defied the opinions of others, it was only that he was more intent to +reconcile his practice with his own belief. Never idle or +self-indulgent, he preferred, when he wanted money, earning it by some +piece of manual labor agreeable to him, as building a boat or a fence, +planting, grafting, surveying, or other short work, to any long +engagements. With his hardy habits and few wants, his skill in +wood-craft, and his powerful arithmetic, he was very competent to live +in any part of the world. It would cost him less time to supply his +wants than another. He was therefore secure of his leisure. + +A natural skill for mensuration, growing out of his mathematical +knowledge, and his habit of ascertaining the measures and distances of +objects which interested him, the size of trees, the depth and extent +of ponds and rivers, the height of mountains, and the air-line +distance of his favorite summits,--this, and his intimate knowledge of +the territory about Concord, made him drift into the profession of +land-surveyor. It had the advantage for him that it led him +continually into new and secluded grounds, and helped his studies of +Nature. His accuracy and skill in this work were readily appreciated, +and he found all the employment he wanted. + +He could easily solve the problems of the surveyor, but he was daily +beset with graver questions, which he manfully confronted. He +interrogated every custom, and wished to settle all his practice on an +ideal foundation. He was a protestant _à l'outrance_, and few +lives contain so many renunciations. He was bred to no profession; he +never married; he lived alone; be never went to church; he never +voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank +no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco; and, though a naturalist, +he used neither trap nor gun. He chose, wisely, no doubt, for himself, +to be the bachelor of thought and Nature. He had no talent for wealth, +and knew how to be poor without the least hint of squalor or +inelegance. Perhaps he fell into his way of living without forecasting +it much, but approved it with later wisdom. "I am often reminded," he +wrote in his journal, "that, if I had bestowed on me the wealth of +Croesus, my aims must be still the same, and my means essentially the +same." He had no temptations to fight against,--no appetites, no +passions, no taste for elegant trifles. A fine house, dress, the +manners and talk of highly cultivated people were all thrown away on +him. He much preferred a good Indian, and considered these +refinements as impediments to conversation, wishing to meet his +companion on the simplest terms. He declined invitations to +dinner-parties, because there each was in every one's way, and he +could not meet the individuals to any purpose. "They make their +pride," he said, "in making their dinner cost much; I make my pride in +making my dinner cost little." When asked at table what dish he +preferred, he answered, "The nearest." He did not like the taste of +wine, and never had a vice in his life. He said,--"I have a faint +recollection of pleasure derived from smoking dried lily-stems, before +I was a man. I had commonly a supply of these. I have never smoked +anything more noxious." + +He chose to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them +himself. In his travels, he used the railroad only to get over so +much country as was unimportant to the present purpose, walking +hundreds of miles, avoiding taverns, buying a lodging in farmers' and +fishermen's houses, as cheaper, and more agreeable to him, and because +there he could better find the men and the information he wanted. + +There was somewhat military in big nature not to be subdued, always +manly and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself +except in opposition. He wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder to +pillory, I may say required a little sense of victory, a roll of the +drum, to call his powers into full exercise. It cost him nothing to +say No; indeed, he found it much easier than to say Yes. It seemed as +if his first instinct on hearing a proposition was to controvert it, +so impatient was he of the limitations of our daily thought. This +habit, of course, is a little chilling to the social affections; and +though the companion would in the end acquit him of any malice or +untruth, yet it mars conversation. Hence, no equal companion stood in +affectionate relations with one so pure and guileless. "I love Henry," +said one of his friends, "but I cannot like him; and as for taking his +arm, I should as soon think of taking the arm of an elm-tree." + +Yet, hermit and stoic as he was, he was really fond of sympathy, and +threw himself heartily and childlike into the company of young people +whom he loved, and whom he delighted to entertain, as he only could, +with the varied and endless anecdotes of his experiences by field and +river. And he was always ready to lead a huckleberry-party or a search +for chestnuts or grapes. Talking, one day, of a public discourse, +Henry remarked, that whatever succeeded with the audience was bad. I +said, "Who would not like to write something which all can read, like +'Robinson Crusoe'? and who does not see with regret that his page is +not solid with a right materialistic treatment, which delights +everybody?" Henry objected, of course, and vaunted the better lectures +which reached only a few persons. But, at supper, a young girl, +understanding that he was to lecture at the Lyceum, sharply asked him, +"whether his lecture would be a nice, interesting story, such as she +wished to hear, or whether it was one of those old philosophical +things that she did not care about." Henry turned to her, and +bethought himself, and, I saw, was trying to believe that he had +matter that might fit her and her brother, who were to sit up and go +to the lecture, if it was a good one for them. + +He was a speaker and actor of the truth,--born such,--and was ever +running into dramatic situations from this cause. In any circumstance, +it interested all bystanders to know what part Henry would take, and +what he would say; and he did not disappoint expectation, but used an +original judgment on each emergency. In 1845 he built himself a small +framed house on the shores of Walden Pond, and lived there two years +alone, a life of labor and study. This action was quite native and +fit for him. No one who knew him would tax him with affectation. He +was more unlike his neighbors in his thought than in his action. As +soon as he had exhausted the advantages of that solitude, he abandoned +it. In 1847, not approving some uses to which the public expenditure +was applied, he refused to pay his town tax, and was put in jail. A +friend paid the tax for him, and he was released. The like annoyance +was threatened the next year. But, as his friends paid the tax, +notwithstanding his protest, I believe he ceased to resist. No +opposition or ridicule had any weight with him. He coldly and fully +stated his opinion without affecting to believe that it was the +opinion of the company. It was of no consequence, if every one present +held the opposite opinion. On one occasion he went to the University +Library to procure some books. The librarian refused to lend +them. Mr. Thoreau repaired to the President, who stated to him the +rules and usages, which permitted the loan of books to resident +graduates, to clergymen who were alumni, and to some others resident +within a circle of ten miles' radius from the College. Mr. Thoreau +explained to the President that the railroad had destroyed the old +scale of distances,--that the library was useless, yes, and President +and College useless, on the terms of his rules,--that the one benefit +he owed to the College was its library,--that, at this moment, not +only his want of books was imperative, but he wanted a large number of +books, and assured him that he, Thoreau, and not the librarian, was +the proper custodian of these. In short, the President found the +petitioner so formidable, and the rules getting to look so ridiculous, +that he ended by giving him a privilege which in his hands proved +unlimited thereafter. + +No truer American existed than Thoreau. His preference of his country +and condition was genuine, and his aversation from English and +European manners and tastes almost reached contempt. He listened +impatiently to news or _bon mots_ gleaned from London circles; +and though he tried to be civil, these anecdotes fatigued him. The men +were all imitating each other, and on a small mould. Why can they not +live as far apart as possible, and each be a man by himself? What he +sought was the most energetic nature; and he wished to go to Oregon, +not to London. "In every part of Great Britain," he wrote in his +diary, "are discovered traces of the Romans, their funereal urns, +their camps, their roads, their dwellings. But New England, at least, +is not based on any Roman ruins. We have not to lay the foundations of +our houses on the ashes of a former civilization." + +But, idealist as he was, standing for abolition of slavery, abolition +of tariffs, almost for abolition of government, it is needless to say +he found himself not only unrepresented in actual politics, but almost +equally opposed to every class of reformers. Yet he paid the tribute +of his uniform respect to the Anti-Slavery party. One man, whose +personal acquaintance he had formed, he honored with exceptional +regard. Before the first friendly word had been spoken for Captain +John Brown, he sent notices to most houses in Concord, that he would +speak in a public hall on the condition and character of John Brown, +on Sunday evening, and invited all people to come. The Republican +Committee, the Abolitionist Committee, sent him word that it was +premature and not advisable. He replied,--"I did not send to you for +advice, but to announce that I am to speak." The hall was filled at +an early hour by people of all parties, and his earnest eulogy of the +hero was heard by all respectfully, by many with a sympathy that +surprised themselves. + +It was said of Plotinus that he was ashamed of his body, and it is +very likely he had good reason for it,--that his body was a bad +servant, and he had not skill in dealing with the material world, as +happens often to men of abstract intellect. But Mr. Thoreau was +equipped with a most adapted and serviceable body. He was of short +stature, firmly built, of light complexion, with strong, serious blue +eyes, and a grave aspect,--his face covered in the late years with a +becoming beard. His senses were acute, his frame well-knit and hardy, +his hands strong and skilful in the use of tools. And there was a +wonderful fitness of body and mind. He could pace sixteen rods more +accurately than another man could measure them with rod and chain. He +could find his path in the woods at night, he said, better by his feet +than his eyes. He could estimate the measure of a tree very well by +his eye; he could estimate the weight of a calf or a pig, like a +dealer. From a box containing a bushel or more of loose pencils, he +could take up with his hands fast enough just a dozen pencils at every +grasp. He was a good swimmer, runner, skater, boatman, and would +probably outwalk most countrymen in a day's journey. And the relation +of body to mind was still finer than we have indicated. He said he +wanted every stride his legs made. The length of his walk uniformly +made the length of his writing. If shut up in the house, he did not +write at all. + +He had a strong common sense, like that which Rose Flammock, the +weaver's daughter, in Scott's romance, commends in her father, as +resembling a yardstick, which, whilst it measures dowlas and diaper, +can equally well measure tapestry and cloth of gold. He had always a +new resource. When I was planting forest-trees, and had procured half +a peck of acorns, he said that only a small portion of them would be +sound, and proceeded to examine them, and select the sound ones. But +finding this took time, he said, "I think, if you put them all into +water, the good ones will sink"; which experiment we tried with +success. He could plan a garden, or a house, or a barn; would have +been competent to lead a "Pacific Exploring Expedition"; could give +judicious counsel in the gravest private or public affairs. + +He lived for the day, not cumbered and mortified by his memory. If he +brought you yesterday a new proposition, he would bring you to-day +another not less revolutionary. A very industrious man, and setting, +like all highly organized men, a high value on his time, he seemed the +only man of leisure in town, always ready for any excursion that +promised well, or for conversation prolonged into late hours. His +trenchant sense was never stopped by his rules of daily prudence, but +was always up to the new occasion. He liked and used the simplest +food, yet, when some one urged a vegetable diet, Thoreau thought all +diets a very small matter, saying that "the man who shoots the buffalo +lives better than the man who boards at the Graham House." He +said,--"You can sleep near the railroad, and never be disturbed: +Nature knows very well what sounds are worth attending to, and has +made up her mind not to hear the railroad-whistle. But things respect +the devout mind, and a mental ecstasy was never interrupted." He +noted, what repeatedly befell him, that, after receiving from a +distance a rare plant, he would presently find the same in his own +haunts. And those pieces of luck which happen only to good players +happened to him. One day, walking with a stranger, who inquired where +Indian arrow-heads could be found, he replied, "Everywhere," and, +stooping forward, picked one on the instant from the ground. At Mount +Washington, in Tuckerman's Ravine, Thoreau had a bad fall, and +sprained his foot. As he was in the act of getting up from his fall, +he saw for the first time the leaves of the _Arnica mollis_. + +His robust common sense, armed with stout hands, keen perceptions, and +strong will, cannot yet account for the superiority which shone in his +simple and hidden life. I must add the cardinal fact, that there was +an excellent wisdom in him, proper to a rare class of men, which +showed him the material world as a means and symbol. This discovery, +which sometimes yields to poets a certain casual and interrupted +light, serving for the ornament of their writing, was in him an +unsleeping insight; and whatever faults or obstructions of temperament +might cloud it, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. In his +youth, he said, one day, "The other world is all my art: my pencils +will draw no other; my jack-knife will cut nothing else; I do not use +it as a means." This was the muse and genius that ruled his opinions, +conversation, studies, work, and course of life. This made him a +searching judge of men. At first glance he measured his companion, +and, though insensible to some fine traits of culture, could very well +report his weight and calibre. And this made the impression of genius +which his conversation sometimes gave. + +He understood the matter in hand at a glance, and saw the limitations +and poverty of those he talked with, so that nothing seemed concealed +from such terrible eyes. I have repeatedly known young men of +sensibility converted in a moment to the belief that this was the man +they were in search of, the man of men, who could tell them all they +should do. His own dealing with them was never affectionate, but +superior, didactic,--scorning their petty ways,--very slowly +conceding, or not conceding at all, the promise of his society at +their houses, or even at his own. "Would he not walk with them?" He +did not know. There was nothing so important to him as his walk; he +had no walks to throw away on company. Visits were offered him from +respectful parties, but he declined them. Admiring friends offered to +carry him at their own cost to the Yellow-Stone River,--to the West +Indies,--to South America. But though nothing could be more grave or +considered than his refusals, they remind one in quite new relations +of that fop Brummel's reply to the gentleman who offered him his +carriage in a shower, "But where will _you_ ride, then?"--and +what accusing silences, and what searching and irresistible speeches, +battering down all defences, his companions can remember! + +Mr. Thoreau dedicated his genius with such entire love to the fields, +hills, and waters of his native town, that he made them known and +interesting to all reading Americans, and to people over the sea. The +river on whose banks he was born and died he knew from its springs to +its confluence with the Merrimack. He had made summer and winter +observations on it for many years, and at every hour of the day and +the night. The result of the recent survey of the Water Commissioners +appointed by the State of Massachusetts he had reached by his private +experiments, several years earlier. Every fact which occurs in the +bed, on the banks, or in the air over it; the fishes, and their +spawning and nests, their manners, their food; the shad-flies which +fill the air on a certain evening once a year, and which are snapped +at by the fishes so ravenously that many of these die of repletion; +the conical heaps of small stones on the river-shallows, one of which +heaps will sometimes overfill a cart,--these heaps the huge nests of +small fishes; the birds which frequent the stream, heron, duck, +sheldrake, loon, osprey; the snake, muskrat, otter, woodchuck, and +fox, on the banks; the turtle, frog, hyla, and cricket, which make the +banks vocal,--were all known to him, and, as it were, townsmen and +fellow-creatures; so that he felt an absurdity or violence in any +narrative of one of these by itself apart, and still more of its +dimensions on an inch-rule, or in the exhibition of its skeleton, or +the specimen of a squirrel or a bird in brandy. He liked to speak of +the manners of the river, as itself a lawful creature, yet with +exactness, and always to an observed fact. As he knew the river, so +the ponds in this region. + +One of the weapons he used, more important than microscope or +alcohol-receiver to other investigators, was a whim which grew on him +by indulgence, yet appeared in gravest statement, namely, of extolling +his own town and neighborhood as the most favored centre for natural +observation. He remarked that the Flora of Massachusetts embraced +almost all the important plants of America,--most of the oaks, most +of the willows, the best pines, the ash, the maple, the beech, the +nuts. He returned Kane's "Arctic Voyage" to a friend of whom he had +borrowed it, with the remark, that "most of the phenomena noted might +be observed in Concord." He seemed a little envious of the Pole, for +the coincident sunrise and sunset, or five minutes' day after six +months: a splendid fact, which Annursnuc had never afforded him. He +found red snow in one of his walks, and told me that he expected to +find yet the _Victoria regia_ in Concord. He was the attorney of +the indigenous plants, and owned to a preference of the weeds to the +imported plants, as of the Indian to the civilized man,--and noticed, +with pleasure, that the willow bean-poles of his neighbor had grown +more than his beans. "See these weeds," he said, "which have been +hoed at by a million farmers all spring and summer, and yet have +prevailed, and just now come out triumphant over all lanes, pastures, +fields, and gardens, such is their vigor. We have insulted them with +low names, too,--as Pigweed, Wormwood, Chickweed, Shad-Blossom." He +says, "They have brave names, too,--Ambrosia, Stellaria, Amelanchia, +Amaranth, etc." + +I think his fancy for referring everything to the meridian of Concord +did not grow out of any ignorance or depreciation of other longitudes +or latitudes, but was rather a playful expression of his conviction of +the indifferency of all places, and that the best place for each is +where he stands. He expressed it once in this wise:--"I think nothing +is to be hoped from you, if this bit of mould under your feet is not +sweeter to you to eat than any other in this world, or in any world." + +The other weapon with which he conquered all obstacles in science was +patience. He knew how to sit immovable, a part of the rock he rested +on, until the bird, the reptile, the fish, which had retired from him, +should come back, and resume its habits, nay, moved by curiosity, +should come to him and watch him. + +It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the +country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths +of his own. He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what +creature had taken this path before him. One must submit abjectly to +such a guide, and the reward was great. Under his arm he carried an +old music-book to press plants; in his pocket, his diary and pencil, a +spy-glass for birds, microscope, jack-knife, and twine. He wore straw +hat, stout shoes, strong gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and +smilax, and to climb a tree for a hawk's or a squirrel's nest. He +waded into the pool for the water-plants, and his strong legs were no +insignificant part of his armor. On the day I speak of he looked for +the Menyanthes, detected it across the wide pool, and, on examination +of the florets, decided that it had been in flower five days. He drew +out of his breast-pocket his diary, and read the names of all the +plants that should bloom on this day, whereof he kept account as a +banker when his notes fall due. The Cypripedium not due till +to-morrow. He thought, that, if waked up from a trance, in this swamp, +he could tell by the plants what time of the year it was within two +days. The redstart was flying about, and presently the fine grosbeaks, +whose brilliant scarlet makes the rash gazer wipe his eye, and whose +fine clear note Thoreau compared to that of a tanager which has got +rid of its hoarseness. Presently he heard a note which he called that +of the night-warbler, a bird he had never identified, had been in +search of twelve years, which always, when he saw it, was in the act +of diving down into a tree or bush, and which it was vain to seek; the +only bird that sings indifferently by night and by day. I told him he +must beware of finding and booking it, lest life should have nothing +more to show him. He said, "What you seek in vain for, half your life, +one day you come full upon all the family at dinner. You seek it like +a dream, and as soon as you find it you become its prey." + +His interest in the flower or the bird lay very deep in his mind, was +connected with Nature,--and the meaning of Nature was never attempted +to be defined by him. He would not offer a memoir of his observations +to the Natural History Society. "Why should I? To detach the +description from its connections in my mind would make it no longer +true or valuable to me: and they do not wish what belongs to it." His +power of observation seemed to indicate additional senses. He saw as +with microscope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his memory was a +photographic register of all he saw and heard. And yet none knew +better than he that it is not the fact that imports, but the +impression or effect of the fact on your mind. Every fact lay in glory +in his mind, a type of the order and beauty of the whole. + +His determination on Natural History was organic. He confessed that he +sometimes felt like a hound or a panther, and, if born among Indians, +would have been a fell hunter. But, restrained by his Massachusetts +culture, he played out the game in this mild form of botany and +ichthyology. His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller +records of Butler the apiologist, that "either he had told the bees +things or the bees had told him." Snakes coiled round his leg; the +fishes swam into his hand, and he took them out of the water; he +pulled the woodchuck out of its hole by the tail, and took the foxes +under his protection from the hunters. Our naturalist had perfect +magnanimity; he had no secrets: he would carry you to the heron's +haunt, or even to his most prized botanical swamp,--possibly knowing +that you could never find it again, yet willing to take his risks. + +No college ever offered him a diploma, or a professor's chair; no +academy made him its corresponding secretary, its discoverer, or even +its member. Whether these learned bodies feared the satire of his +presence. Yet so much knowledge of Nature's secret and genius few +others possessed, none in a more large and religious synthesis. For +not a particle of respect had he to the opinions of any man or body of +men, but homage solely to the truth itself; and as he discovered +everywhere among doctors some leaning of courtesy, it discredited +them. He grew to be revered and admired by his townsmen, who had at +first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed him as a +surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, his knowledge of +their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains, and the like, +which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before of his +own farm; so that he began to feel a little as if Mr. Thoreau had +better rights in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of +character which addressed all men with a native authority. + +Indian relics abound in Concord,--arrow-heads, stone chisels, pestles, +and fragments of pottery; and on the river-bank, large heaps of +clam-shells and ashes mark spots which the savages frequented. These, +and every circumstance touching the Indian, were important in his +eyes. His visits to Maine were chiefly for love of the Indian. He had +the satisfaction of seeing the manufacture of the bark-canoe, as well +as of trying his hand in its management on the rapids. He was +inquisitive about the making of the stone arrow-head, and in his last +days charged a youth setting out for the Rocky Mountains to find an +Indian who could tell him that: "It was well worth a visit to +California to learn it." Occasionally, a small party of Penobscot +Indians would visit Concord, and pitch their tents for a few weeks in +summer on the river-bank. He failed not to make acquaintance with the +best of them; though he well knew that asking questions of Indians is +like catechizing beavers and rabbits. In his last visit to Maine he +had great satisfaction from Joseph Polis, an intelligent Indian of +Oldtown, who was his guide for some weeks. + +He was equally interested in every natural fact. The depth of his +perception found likeness of law throughout Nature, and I know not any +genius who so swiftly inferred universal law from the single fact. He +was no pedant of a department. His eye was open to beauty, and his +ear to music. He found these, not in rare conditions, but wheresoever +he went. He thought the best of music was in single strains; and he +found poetic suggestion in the humming of the telegraph-wire. + +His poetry might be bad or good; he no doubt wanted a lyric facility +and technical skill; but he had the source of poetry in his spiritual +perception. He was a good reader and critic, and his judgment on +poetry was to the ground of it. He could not be deceived as to the +presence or absence of the poetic element in any composition, and his +thirst for this made him negligent and perhaps scornful of superficial +graces. He would pass by many delicate rhythms, but he would have +detected every live stanza or line in a volume, and knew very well +where to find an equal poetic charm in prose. He was so enamored of +the spiritual beauty that he held all actual written poems in very +light esteem in the comparison. He admired Aeschylus and Pindar; but, +when some one was commending them, he said that "Aeschylus and the +Greeks, in describing Apollo and Orpheus, had given no song, or no +good one. They ought not to have moved trees, but to have chanted to +the gods such a hymn as would have sung all their old ideas out of +their heads, and new ones in." His own verses are often rude and +defective. The gold does not yet run pure, is drossy and crude. The +thyme and marjoram are not yet honey. But if he want lyric fineness +and technical merits, if he have not the poetic temperament, he never +lacks the causal thought, that his genius was better than his +talent. He knew the worth of the Imagination for the uplifting and +consolation of human life, and liked to throw every thought into a +symbol. The fact you tell is of no value, but only the impression. +For this reason his presence was poetic, always piqued the curiosity +to know more deeply the secrets of his mind. He had many reserves, an +unwillingness to exhibit to profane eyes what was still sacred in his +own, and knew well how to throw a poetic veil over his experience. +All readers of "Walden" will remember his mythical record of his +disappointments:-- + + +"I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still +on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, +describing their tracks, and what calls they answered to. I have met +one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and +even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud; and they seemed as +anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves." +[_Walden_, p. 20.] + + +His riddles were worth the reading, and I confide, that, if at any +time I do not understand the expression, it is yet just. Such was the +wealth of his truth that it was not worth his while to use words in +vain. His poem entitled "Sympathy" reveals the tenderness under that +triple steel of stoicism, and the intellectual subtilty it could +animate. His classic poem on "Smoke" suggests Simonides, but is better +than any poem of Simonides. His biography is in his verses. His +habitual thought makes all his poetry a hymn to the Cause of causes, + + + "I hearing get, who had but ears, + And sight, who had but eyes before; + I moments live, who lived but years, + And truth discern, who knew but learning's lore." + + +And still more in these religious lines:-- + + + "Now chiefly is my natal hour, + And only now my prime of life; + I will not doubt the love untold, + Which not my worth or want hath bought, + Which wooed me young, and wooes me old, + And to this evening hath me brought." + + +Whilst he used in his writings a certain petulance of remark in +reference to churches or churchmen, he was a person of a rare, tender, +and absolute religion, a person incapable of any profanation, by act +or by thought. Of course, the same isolation which belonged to his +original thinking and living detached him from the social religious +forms. This is neither to be censured nor regretted. Aristotle long +ago explained it, when he said, "One who surpasses his fellow-citizens +in virtue is no longer a part of the city. Their law is not for him, +since he is a law to himself." + +Thoreau was sincerity itself, and might fortify the convictions of +prophets in the ethical laws by his holy living. It was an affirmative +experience which refused to be set aside. A truth-speaker he, capable +of the most deep and strict conversation; a physician to the wounds of +any soul; a friend, knowing not only the secret of friendship, but +almost worshipped by those few persons who resorted to him as their +confessor and prophet, and knew the deep value of his mind and great +heart. He thought that without religion or devotion of some kind +nothing great was ever accomplished: and he thought that the bigoted +sectarian had better bear this in mind. + +His virtues, of course, sometimes ran into extremes. It was easy to +trace to the inexorable demand on all for exact truth that austerity +which made this willing hermit more solitary even than he +wished. Himself of a perfect probity, he required not less of +others. He had a disgust at crime, and no worldly success would cover +it. He detected paltering as readily in dignified and prosperous +persons as in beggars, and with equal scorn. Such dangerous frankness +was in his dealing that his admirers called him "that terrible +Thoreau," as if he spoke when silent, and was still present when he +had departed. I think the severity of his ideal interfered to deprive +him of a healthy sufficiency of human society. + +The habit of a realist to find things the reverse of their appearance +inclined him to put every statement in a paradox. A certain habit of +antagonism defaced his earlier writings,--a trick of rhetoric not +quite outgrown in his later, of substituting for the obvious word and +thought its diametrical opposite. He praised wild mountains and winter +forests for their domestic air, in snow and ice he would find +sultriness, and commended the wilderness for resembling Rome and +Paris. "It was so dry, that you might call it wet." + +The tendency to magnify the moment, to read all the laws of Nature in +the one object or one combination under your eye, is of course comic +to those who do not share the philosopher's perception of identity. To +him there was no such thing as size. The pond was a small ocean; the +Atlantic, a large Walden Pond. He referred every minute fact to +cosmical laws. Though he meant to be just, he seemed haunted by a +certain chronic assumption that the science of the day pretended +completeness, and he had just found out that the _savans_ had +neglected to discriminate a particular botanical variety, had failed +to describe the seeds or count the sepals. "That is to say," we +replied, "the blockheads were not born in Concord; but who said they +were? It was their unspeakable misfortune to be born in London, or +Paris, or Rome; but, poor fellows, they did what they could, +considering that they never saw Bateman's Pond, or Nine-Acre Corner, +or Becky-Stow's Swamp. Besides, what were you sent into the world for, +but to add this observation?" + +Had his genius been only contemplative, he had been fitted to his +life, but with his energy and practical ability he seemed born for +great enterprise and for command; and I so much regret the loss of his +rare powers of action, that I cannot help counting it a fault in him +that he had no ambition. Wanting this, instead of engineering for all +America, he was the captain of a huckleberry-party. Pounding beans is +good to the end of pounding empires one of these days; but if, at the +end of years, it is still only beans! + +But these foibles, real or apparent, were fast vanishing in the +incessant growth of a spirit so robust and wise, and which effaced its +defeats with new triumphs. His study of Nature was a perpetual +ornament to him, and inspired his friends with curiosity to see the +world through his eyes, and to hear his adventures. They possessed +every kind of interest. + +He had many elegances of his own, whilst he scoffed at conventional +elegance. Thus, he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, +the grit of gravel; and therefore never willingly walked in the road, +but in the grass, on mountains and in woods. His senses were acute, +and he remarked that by night every dwelling-house gives out bad air, +like a slaughter-house. He liked the pure fragrance of melilot. He +honored certain plants with special regard, and, over all, the +pond-lily,--then, the gentian, and the _Mikania scondens_, and +"life-everlasting," and a bass-tree which he visited every year, when +it bloomed, in the middle of July. He thought the scent a more +oracular inquisition than the sight,--more oracular and +trustworthy. The scent, of course, reveals what is concealed from the +other senses. By it he detected earthiness. He delighted in echoes, +and said they were almost the only kind of kindred voices that he +heard. He loved Nature so well, was so happy in her solitude, that he +became very jealous of cities, and the sad work which their +refinements and artifices made with man and his dwelling. + +The axe was always destroying his forest. "Thank God," he said, "they +cannot cut down the clouds!" "All kinds of figures are drawn on the +blue ground with this fibrous white paint." + +I subjoin a few sentences taken from his unpublished manuscripts, not +only as records of his thought and feeling, but for their power of +description and literary excellence. + + +"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout +in the milk." + +"The chub is a soft fish, and tastes like boiled brown paper salted." + +"The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, +or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the +middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them." + +"The locust z-ing." + +"Devil's-needles zigzagging along the Nut-Meadow brook." + +"Sugar is not so sweet to the palate as sound to the healthy ear." + +"I put on some hemlock-boughs, and the rich salt crackling of their +leaves was like mustard to the ear, the crackling of uncountable +regiments. Dead trees love the fire." + +"The bluebird carries the sky on his back." + +"The tanager flies through the green foliage as if it would ignite the +leaves." + +"If I wish for a horse-hair for my compass-sight, I must go to the +stable; but the hair-bird, with her sharp eyes, goes to the road." + +"Immortal water, alive even to the superficies." + +"Fire is the most tolerable third party." + +"Nature made ferns for pure leaves, to show what she could do in that +line." + +"No tree has so fair a bole and so handsome an instep as the beech." + +"How did these beautiful rainbow-tints get into the shell of the +fresh-water clam, buried in the mud at the bottom of our dark river?" + +"Hard are the times when the infant's shoes are second-foot." + +"We are strictly confined to our men to whom we give liberty." + +"Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be +popular with God himself." + +"Of what significance the things you can forget? A little thought is +sexton to all the world." + +"How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seed-time +of character?" + +"Only he can be trusted with gifts who can present a face of bronze to +expectations." + +"I ask to be melted. You can only ask of the metals that they be +tender to the fire that melts them. To nought else can they be +tender." + + +There is a flower known to botanists, one of the same genus with our +summer plant called "Life-Everlasting," a _Gnaphalium_ like that, +which grows on the most inaccessible cliffs of the Tyrolese mountains, +where the chamois dare hardly venture, and which the hunter, tempted +by its beauty, and by his love, (for it is immensely valued by the +Swiss maidens,) climbs the cliffs to gather, and is sometimes found +dead at the foot, with the flower in his hand. It is called by +botanists the _Gnaphalium leontopodium_, but by the Swiss +_Edelweisse_, which signifies _Noble Purity_. Thoreau seemed +to me living in the hope to gather this plant, which belonged to him +of right. The scale on which his studies proceeded was so large as to +require longevity, and we were the less prepared for his sudden +disappearance. The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how +great a son it has lost. It seems an injury that he should leave in +the midst his broken task, which none else can finish,--a kind of +indignity to so noble a soul, that it should depart out of Nature +before yet he has been really shown to his peers for what be is. But +he, at least, is content. His soul was made for the noblest society; +he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; +wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there +is beauty, he will find a home. + + + + + +A SUMMER DAY. + + + At daybreak, in the fresh light, joyfully + The fishermen drew in their laden net; + The shore shone rosy purple, and the sea + Was streaked with violet, + + And, pink with sunrise, many a shadowy sail + Lay southward, lighting up the sleeping bay, + And in the west the white moon, still and pale, + Faded before the day. + + Silence was everywhere. The rising tide + Slowly filled every cove and inlet small: + A musical low whisper, multiplied, + You heard, and that was all. + + No clouds at dawn,--but, as the sun climbed higher, + White columns, thunderous, splendid, up the sky + Floated and stood, heaped in the sun's clear fire, + A stately company. + + Stealing along the coast from cape to cape, + The weird mirage crept tremulously on, + In many a magic change and wondrous shape, + Throbbing beneath the sun. + + At noon the wind rose,--swept the glassy sea + To sudden ripple,--thrust against the clouds + A strenuous shoulder,--gathering steadily, + Drove them before in crowds, + + Till all the west was dark, and inky black + The level ruffled water underneath, + And up the wind-cloud tossed, a ghostly rack, + In many a ragged wreath. + + Then sudden roared the thunder, a great peal + Magnificent, that broke and rolled away; + And down the wind plunged, like a furious keel + Cleaving the sea to spray, + + And brought the rain, sweeping o'er land and sea. + And then was tumult! Lightning, sharp and keen, + Thunder, wind, rain,--a mighty jubilee + The heaven and earth between! + + And loud the ocean sang,--a chorus grand,-- + A solemn music sung in undertone + Of waves that broke about, on either hand, + The little island lone, + + Where, joyful in His tempest as His calm, + Held in the hollow of that hand of His, + I joined with heart and soul in God's great psalm, + Thrilled with a nameless bliss. + + Soon lulled the wind,-the summer storm soon died; + The shattered clouds went eastward, drifting slow; + From the low sun the rain-fringe swept aside, + Bright in his rosy glow, + + And wide a splendor streamed through all the sky + O'er land and sea one soft, delicious blush, + That touched the gray rocks lightly, tenderly, + A transitory flush. + + Warm, odorous gusts came off the distant land, + With spice of pine-woods, breath of hay new-mown, + O'er miles of waves and sea-scents cool and bland, + Full in our faces blown. + + Slow faded the sweet light, and peacefully + The quiet stars came out, one after one,-- + The holy twilight deepened silently, + The summer day was done. + + Such unalloyed delight its hours had given, + Musing, this thought rose in my grateful mind, + That God, who watches all things, up in heaven, + With patient eyes and kind, + + Saw and was pleased, perhaps, one child of His + Dared to be happy like the little birds, + Because He gave His children days like this, + Rejoicing beyond words,-- + + Dared, lifting up to Him untroubled eyes + In gratitude that worship is, and prayer, + Sing and be glad with ever new surprise + He made His world so fair! + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES + + +_Ravenshoe_. By HENRY KINGSLEY, Author of "Geoffry Hamlyn." +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +This novel belongs to that class which has been most in favor of late +years, in which the incidents and characters are drawn from the daily +life that is going on around us, and the sources of interest are +sought in the acts, struggles, and sufferings of the world that lies +at our feet, discarding the idealizing charm which arises from +distance in space or remoteness in time. The novels of Disraeli, +Bulwer, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Miss Bronté, Mrs. Gaskell, Miss +Muloch, and Miss Evans, differing as they do so widely in style, +treatment, and spirit, all come under this general division. +Fictitious compositions of this class have difficulties +peculiar to themselves, but success, when attained, is proportionally +great; and from the sympathetic element in man they can secure the +interest of their readers, though their plots may be improbable and +their characters unnatural. The scene of "Ravenshoe" is laid in +England, the time is the present, and the men and women are such as +may be seen at a flower-show at Chiswick or on the race-course at +Epsom on a Derby day. The plot is ingenious, thickly strewn with +sudden and startling incidents, though very improbable; but the story +flows on in so rapid and animated a current that the reader can never +pause long enough for criticism, and it is not till he lays the volume +down, and recalls the ground he has been over, that he has leisure to +remark that the close has been reached by such stepping-stones as are +never laid down in the path of real life. + +The characters are various, drawn with the greatest spirit, but not +all of them natural. Lord Saltire, for instance, is a portrait with +which the author has evidently taken much pains; but the elements we +see in him are such as never were, never could be, combined in any +living and breathing man. Father Mackworth is elaborately drawn, but +the sketch wants vitality and unity. Adelaide and Ellen present +essentially the same type, modified by difference of position and +circumstances, and, in the latter, by the infusion of a fanatical +religious element. Charles Ravenshoe, the hero, is well conceived and +consistently carried; and the same may be said of Cuthbert. But the +best character in the book is old Lady Ascot. She is quite original, +and yet quite natural; and we guess that some of her peculiarities are +drawn from life. + +The descriptions of scenery are admirable,--so admirable that we +pardon the author for introducing them a little too frequently. He is +evidently one of those few men who love Nature with a manly and +healthy love,--by whom the outward world is not sought as a shelter +against invading cares, or as balm for a wounded spirit, but who find +in the sunshine, the play of the breeze, and the dance of the waves, a +cheerful, enduring, and satisfying companionship. The scenery is +English, and South English too: the author's pictures are drawn from +memory, and not from imagination. And the whole tone and spirit of the +book are thoroughly English. It represents the best aspects of English +life, character, and manners as they are to-day. Whatever is most +generous, heroic, tender, and true in the men and women of England is +here to be seen, and not drawn in colors any more flattering than it +is the right of fiction to use. We think the author carries us too +much into the stable and the kennel; but this, we need not say, is +also English. + +But we have yet to mention what we consider the highest charm of this +charming book, and that is the combination which we find in it of +healthiness of tone and earnestness of purpose. A healthier book we +have never read. Earnestness of purpose is apt to be attended with +something of excess or extravagance; but in "Ravenshoe" there is +nothing morbid, nothing cynical, nothing querulous, nothing ascetic. +The doctrine of the book is a reasonable enjoyment of all that is good +in the world, with a firm purpose of improving the world in all +possible ways. It is one of the many books which have appeared in +England of late years which show the influence of the life and labors +of the late Dr. Arnold. It is as inspiriting in its influence as a +gallop over one of the breezy downs of Mr. Kingsley's own Devonshire. + +It is, in short, a delightful book, in which all defects of structure +and form are atoned for by a wonderful amount of energy, geniality, +freshness, poetical feeling, and moral elevation. And furthermore, we +think, no one can read it without saying to himself that he would like +to see and know the writer. Long may he live to write new novels! + + + +_Vanity Fair._ Volumes I.-V. New York: Louis H. Stephens, +Publisher for the Proprietors. + +The American is often considered to be by nature unadapted for +jollity, if not positively averse to it. This supposition is not +without some reasonable foundation, and the stranger may be readily +excused for adopting it as an axiomatic truth. Busy calculation and +restless labor appear at first to be the grand elements of American +life; mirth is apparently excluded, as the superfluous members of his +equations are eliminated by the algebraist. Fun is not practical +enough for the American, and subserves none of his profitable +projects; it provokes to idle laughter, and militates against the +unresting career of industry which he has prescribed, and his +utilitarian spirit thinks it were as well abolished. His recreations +are akin to his toil. If he give to study such hours as business +spares, fates first claim his attention, and then philosophy or +ethics: he cannot resign himself to lighter topics. When he reads in +his Horace, "_Dulce est desipere in loco_," he grants the +proposition, with the commentary that he, at least, has very rarely +been "_in loco_." He reads tragedies, and perhaps writes one; but +he does not affect comedies, and he could have no sympathy with an +uproarious burlesque or side-shaking Christmas pantomime. His brethren +who seek the theatre for amusement are of similar opinion, and so are +they who stand behind the foot-lights. Therefore it is, that, for +every passable comedian, America can produce a whole batch of very +fair tragic actors. + +This serious character the American is apt to wear abroad as well as +at home. When he travels, he is wont to be in a hurry, and to examine +curious cities as if he were making sharp bargains against time. In +spite of the wonderful power of adaptation which makes him of all men +the best cosmopolitan, he never is quite perfect in his assumption of +another nationality, and he generally falls short of a thorough +appreciation of its mirthful principle. If he emigrate to France, he +soon feasts upon frogs as freely and speaks with as accurate an accent +as the Parisian, but he cannot quite assume the gay _insouciance_ +of the French; if to England, he adores method, learns to grumble and +imbibe old ale, yet does not become accustomed to the free, blunt +raillery,--the "chaff,"--with which Britons disport themselves; if to +China, he lives upon curries and inscribes his name with a +camel's-hair pencil, but all Oriental _bizarrerie_ fails to +thoroughly amuse him. Wherever he may go, he settles at once and +easily into the outward life of the people among whom he is,--while he +always reserves within himself a cold, stern individuality; he often +is angered when he should be amused, and retorts with resentment when +he should reply in repartee. Still, the American is not sombre to the +core. He has a kind of grim merriment bestowed somewhere in the +recesses of his being. It is quaint and severe, however, and abounding +in dry conceits. It inclines more to the nature of sarcasm than of +flashing wit or genial humor. There is apt to be the bitterness about +it which would provoke a heavy blow, unless it had been itself so +weighty in attack as to crush what might have sprung into +resistance. It passes from badinage into personalities and +recriminations. In these respects it is consonant with the general +bearing of the American character. The levity of wit and the +pleasantry of humor appear at first purposeless; they are immaterial, +and, even when most palpably present, seem, like Macbeth's +encountering witches, to make of themselves air, into which they +vanish. But sarcasm, and the direct application of ridicule, effect +something at once; their course may be swift and cloudy, like that of +the bullet, but it has a definite end in view; they are discharged and +sweep away invisibly, or like a dark speck at most, but the crash and +shiver of the distant target show that the shot has told. They are +practical, and the American understands them; as for mere wit and +humor, he will perhaps investigate them when there shall come to him +that season of leisure which he mythically proposes to enjoy when +there shall be no more work to do, and into which he is usually +ushered by one busier even than himself, and less tolerant of idleness +and folly,--Death, the great Chamberlain of Eternal Halls. + +There is another characteristic of American wit and humor: they are +evanescent and keen, escaping adroitly from the snares of the +printer. America cannot boast of her satirists or humorists as forming +a class like the great English and European groups, and yet her +literature is enriched with many volumes wherein may be found the most +brilliant wit and the most genial, genuine humor. Seldom, however, are +these the main features of the books in which they occur; they are not +bound in the great, all-important chain, but are woven into the little +threads which underlie it; the obtuse or careless reader may easily +overlook them, passing on to the end without suspecting the treasures +which he has missed; and the foreigner, who does not look for such +qualities among a people so perversely practical as Americans, will be +apt entirely to ignore their possible existence. Again, if the +writers are first-class men, their birth is the most purely American +characteristic they possess. Their cast of thought and culture denotes +that they belong to other times and lands as well as to this. They +would have been at home among the _literati_ of Queen Anne's +day,--for their fellowship has been with such in spirit, if not in the +flesh. Therefore the prejudiced, and they whose perceptions are not +quick to recognize the finer traits which indicate the real character +of men and of their works, are wont to say that here is nothing new, +nothing indigenous to the soil, only an outgrowth of the Old +World,--merely exotics, which would soon perish from the pains of +transplanting, if they were not carefully fostered. + +As a bit of drift-wood warns the most unpractised eye of the direction +which a current takes, so the light, ephemeral _brochures_ of any +epoch give a plain hint of the tendency of its thought. The librarian +and historian know the value of newspapers and pamphlets, for in them +can be found what big books and voluminous records do not +contain. From pasquinades, caricatures, and bits of comedy or satire +can be drawn an idea of the popular humor of any era, which the works +of great authors fail to convey. They are spontaneous and unstudied, +regardless alike of reputation already established, which must be +maintained, and of that which may yet be won; for they come from +unknown sources, and exist solely for their own sakes and by their own +vitality. They are, therefore, trustworthy assistants to him who +studies the spirit of any people or generation. + +In this respect American humor has been ill represented. Comic +publications have appeared only at rare intervals, and comic journals +have soon degenerated into stupidity or coarseness. Yet this has not +been for lack of material, but of a proper editorial faculty, and from +the want of a habitude or a willingness on the part of those who +conceive clever things to note them down and give them out in black +and white. When "Vanity Fair" first appeared, we thought we saw in it +the germ of a journal which might be an exponent of our national +spirit of mirthfulness, and we took occasion to say so briefly. We +have not been disappointed. The five volumes which have already been +published in weekly numbers have been true to the honest purpose which +the conductors proposed to themselves and the public in their +prospectus, and are fair representatives of the wit and humor which +are in their essence allied to the merriment and the satire of +Hawthorne and Lowell, Holmes and Saxe, although, of course, they are +not yet developed with like delicacy and brilliance. There is in +these pages a vast deal of genuine, hearty fun, and of sharp, stinging +sarcasm; there are also hundreds of cleverly drawn and cleanly cut +illustrations. Better than these, there is a fearlessness of +consequences and of persons, when a wrong is to be combated, an error +to be set right. And this Touchstone has been impartial as well as +sturdy in his castigation; he has not been blind to the faults of his +friends, or slow in bidding them imitate the excellences of his +enemies; he had "a whip of scorpions" for the late Administration, +when others, whose intuitions were less quick, saw nothing to +chastise, and he has not hesitated to rebuke the official misdemeanors +of these days, because officers have _per contra_ done other +portions of their duties well. According to his creed, a wrong cannot +be palliated into a right, but must be reformed thereto; he has no +tolerance for that evil whose cure is obvious and possible, and he +treats boldly and severely the subjects of which the timid scarcely +dare to speak. + +It cannot, of course, be claimed for "Vanity Fair" that it is all +clever. The brightest wit must say some dull things, and a comic +journal can hardly help letting some dreary attempts at mirth slip +into its columns. We could point out paragraphs in this serial which +are most chaotic and unmeaning, and some, indeed, which fall below its +own excellent standard of refinement; but we do not remember ever to +have met in its pages a _double-entendre_ or a foulness of +speech. We must advise its conductor (who, we may say in passing, is a +gentleman whose writings have not infrequently appeared in the +"Atlantic") never to allow his paper to descend to the level of the +_ignoble vulgus_; and we are glad that in wishing "Vanity Fair" +long life and prosperity we have to censure it only for some slight +violations of good taste, not for any offence against modesty or +decorum. It deserves admission to the library and the drawing-room. + + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered at the Royal +Institution of Great Britain, in April, May, and June, 1861. By Max +Miller, M.A., Fellow of All-Souls College, Oxford, Corresponding +Member of the Institute of France. From the Second London Edition, +revised. New York. C. Scribner. 12mo. pp. 416. $1.50. + +Ballads of the War. No. I. The March to the +Capitol. No. II. Sumter. By Augustine J.H. Duganne. Illustrated. New +York. John Robins. 4to. paper, each number, pp. 12, 25 cts. + +Les Misérables. Par Victor Hugo. Première Partie. Fantine. 2 vols. New +York. F.W. Christen. Paris. Pagnerre. 8vo. pp. 355, 376. $3.00. + +Journal of Alfred Ely, a Prisoner of War in Richmond. Edited by +Charles Lanman. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 359. $1.00. + +The Indian Scout; or, Life on the Frontier. By Gustave +Aimard. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 202. +50 cts. + +The Law and Practice of the Game of Euchre. By a +Professor. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 16mo. pp. 134. 50 +cts. + +Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church. With an Introduction, +on the Study of Ecclesiastical History. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, +D.D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiatical History in the University of +Oxford, and Canon of Christ Church. From the Second London Edition, +revised. New York. Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. 551. $2.50. + +Lyrics for Freedom, and other Poems. Under the Auspices of the +Continental Club. New York. G.W. Carleton. 16mo. pp. xvi., +243. $1.00. + +The C.S.A. and the Battle of Bull Run. A Letter to an English +Friend. By J.G. Barnard, Major of Engineers, U.S.A., +Brigadier-General and Chief Engineer, Army of the Potomac. With Five +Maps. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 8vo. pp. 136. $1.50. + +Artemus Ward, his Book. With Many Comic Illustrations. New +York. G.W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 264. $1.00. + +A Life's Secret. A Story of Woman's Revenge. By Mrs. Henry Wood, +Author of "East Lynne," etc. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 8vo. pp. 144. $1.00. + +Why Paul Ferroll killed his Wife. By the Author of "Paul Ferroll." New +York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. paper, pp. 235. 50 cts. + +Les Misérables. Fantine. A Novel. By Victor Hugo. Translated from the +Original French, by Charles E. Wilbour. New York. G.W. Carleton. +8vo. pp. 171. $1.00. + +Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from +Drawings by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. Barnaby Rudge. In Three +Volumes. New York. Sheldon & Co. 16mo. pp. 315, 315, 310. $2.25. + +A Dictionary of English Etymology. By Hensleigh Wedgwood, M.A., late +Fellow of Chr. Coll. Cam. Vol. I. (A-D.) With Notes and Additions by +George P. Marsh. New York. Sheldon & Co. 4to. pp. 247. $2.00. + +Concord Fight. By S.R. Bartlett. Concord. Albert +Stacy. 16mo. pp. 34. 25 cts. + +First Lessons in Mechanics; with Practical Applications. Designed for +the Use of Schools. By W.E. Worthen. New York. D. Appleton & +Co. 16mo. pp. 192. 50 cts. + +Replies to "Essays and Reviews." By the Rev. E.M. Goulburn, D.D.; +Rev. H.J. Rose, B.D.; Rev. C.A. Heurtley, D.D.; Rev. W. J. Irons, +D.D.; Rev. G. Rorison, M.A.; Rev. A.W. Haddan, B.D.; Rev. +Chr. Wordsworth, D.D. With a Preface by the Lord Bishop of +Oxford, and Letters from the Radcliffe Observer and the Reader in +Geology in the University of Oxford. New York. D. Appleton & +Co. 12mo. pp. 438. $1.25. + +The Two Prima Donnas. A Novel of Real Life. By George Augustus +Sala. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 78. 25 +cts. + +The Stolen Mask; or, The Mysterious Cash-Box. By Wilkie +Collins. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 78. +25 cts. + +The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James +Spedding, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, +M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon +Heath, Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, +Cambridge. Vol. IV. Boston. Brown. & Taggard. 12mo. pp. 483. $1.50. + +John Doe and Richard Roe; or, Episodes of Life in New York. By Edward +S. Gould, Author of "Abridgment of Alison's Europe," etc. New +York. G. W. Carleton. 12 mo. pp. 312. $1.00. + +Game-Fish of the Northern States of America and British Provinces. By +Barnwell. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 324. $1.25. + +Home, and other Poems. By A. H. Caughey. New York. G. W. Carleton. 16 +mo. pp. 82. 50 cts. + +Among the Pines; or, South in Secession-Time. By Edmund Kirke. New +York. J.R. Gilmore. 12mo. pp. 310. $1.00. + +The Morfesons. By Elizabeth Stoddard. New York. G. W. Carleton. +12mo. pp. 259. $1.00. + +Oriental Harems and Scenery. Translated from the French of the +Princess Belgiojoso. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 422. $1.25. + +Love's Labor Won. By Mrs. Emma D. E. N. Southworth. Philadelphia. +T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 383. $1.25. + +The Flirt; or, Passages in the Life of a Fashionable Young Lady. By +Mrs. Grey, Author of "The Gambler's Wife," etc. Philadelphia. +T. E. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 216. 50 cts. + +Naval Text-Book and Dictionary, for the Use of the Midshipmen of the +United States Navy. By B. J. Tatten, Commander U. S. Navy. New +Edition, revised. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 12mo. pp. 449. $2.50. + +Life of Mary, Queen of Scots. In Two Books. By Donald MacLeod, Author +of "Pynnshurst," etc. New York. D. & J. Sadlier &Co. 12mo. pp. 430. +$1.25. + +Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession; with a +Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels. By W. G. Brownlow, +Editor of the "Knoxville Whig." Philadelphia. G. W. Childs. 12mo. +pp. 458. $1.00. + +Les Misérables. Cosette. A Novel. By Victor Hugo. Translated from the +Original French, by Charles E. Wilbour. New York. G. W. Carleton. 8vo. +paper, pp. 164. 50 cts. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 10, NO. 58, AUGUST, 1862 *** + +This file should be named 810a210.txt or 810a210.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 810a211.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 810a210a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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