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diff --git a/9946-8.txt b/9946-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8a6f82 --- /dev/null +++ b/9946-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8877 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, +September, 1862, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 12, 2011 [EBook #9946] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: November 3, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, SEPTEMBER 1862 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, David Kline, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. X--SEPTEMBER, 1862.--NO. LIX. + + + + +DAVID GAUNT. + +Was ihr den Geist der Zeiten heisst, Das ist im Grund der Herren eigner +Geist.--FAUST + +PART I. + +What kind of sword, do you think, was that which old Christian had in +that famous fight of his with Apollyon, long ago? He cut the fiend to +the marrow with it, you remember, at last; though the battle went hardly +with him, too, for a time. Some of his blood, Banyan says, is on the +stones of the valley to this day. That is a vague record of the combat +between the man and the dragon in that strange little valley, with its +perpetual evening twilight and calm, its meadows crusted with lilies, +its herd-boy with his quiet song, close upon the precincts of hell. It +fades back, the valley and the battle, dim enough, from the sober +freshness of this summer morning. Look out of the window here, at the +hubbub of the early streets, the freckled children racing past to +school, the dewy shimmer of yonder willows in the sunlight, like drifts +of pale green vapor. Where is Apollyon? does he put himself into flesh +and blood, as then, nowadays? And the sword which Christian used, like a +man, in his deed of derring-do? + +Reading the quaint history, just now, I have a mind to tell you a modern +story. It is not long: only how, a few months ago, a poor itinerant, and +a young girl, (like these going by with baskets on their arms,) who +lived up in these Virginia hills, met Evil in their lives, and how it +fared with them: how they thought that they were in the Valley of +Humiliation, that they were Christian, and Rebellion and Infidelity +Apollyon; the different ways they chose to combat him; the weapons they +used. I can tell you that; but you do not know--do you?--what kind of +sword old Christian used, or where it is, or whether its edge is rusted. + +I must not stop to ask more, for these war-days are short, and the story +might be cold before you heard it. + + * * * * * + + +A brick house, burrowed into the side of a hill, with red gleams of +light winking out of the windows in a jolly way into the winter's night: +wishing, one might fancy, to cheer up the hearts of the freezing stables +and barn and hen-house that snuggled about the square yard, trying to +keep warm. The broad-backed old hill (Scofield's Hill, a famous place +for papaws in summer) guards them tolerably well; but then, house and +barn and hill lie up among the snowy peaks of the Virginian Alleghanies, +and you know how they would chill and awe the air. People away down +yonder in the river-bottoms see these peaks dim and far-shining, as +though they cut through thick night; but we, up among them here, find +the night wide, filled with a pale starlight that has softened for +itself out of the darkness overhead a great space up towards heaven. + +The snow lay deep, on this night of which I tell you,--a night somewhere +near the first of January in this year. Two old men, a white and a +black, who were rooting about the farm-yard from stable to fodder-rack, +waded through deep drifts of it. + +"Tell yer, Mars' Joe," said the negro, banging the stable-door, "dat +hoss ort n't ter risk um's bones dis night. Ef yer go ter de Yankee +meetin', Coly kern't tote yer." + +"Well, well, Uncle Bone, that's enough," said old Scofield testily, +looking through the stall-window at the horse, with a face anxious +enough to show that the dangers of foundering for Coly and for the Union +were of about equal importance in his mind. + +A heavily built old fellow, big-jointed, dull-eyed, with a short, black +pipe in his mouth, going about peering into sheds and out-houses,--the +same routine he and Bone had gone through every night for thirty +years,--joking, snarling, cursing, alternately. The cramped old routine, +dogged, if you choose to call it so, was enough for him: you could tell +that by a glance at his earnest, stolid face; you could see that it need +not take Prospero's Ariel forty minutes to put a girdle about this man's +world: ten would do it, tie up the farm, and the dead and live +Scofields, and the Democratic party, with an ideal reverence for +"Firginya" under all. As for the Otherwhere, outside of Virginia, he +heeded it as much as a Hindoo does the turtle on which the earth rests. +For which you shall not sneer at Joe Scofield, or the Pagan. How wide is +your own "sacred soil"?--the creed, government, bit of truth, other +human heart, self, perhaps, to which your soul roots itself +vitally,--like a cuttle-fish sucking to an inch of rock,--and drifts out +palsied feelers of recognition into the ocean of God's universe, just as +languid as the aforesaid Hindoo's hold upon the Kalpas of emptiness +underneath the turtle? + +Joe Scofield sowed the fields and truck-patch,--sold the crops down in +Wheeling; every year he got some little, hardly earned snugness for the +house (he and Bone had been born in it, their grandfathers had lived +there together). Bone was his slave; of course, they thought, how should +it be otherwise? The old man's daughter was Dode Scofield; his negro was +Bone Scofield, in degree. Joe went to the Methodist church on Sundays; +he hurrahed for the Democratic candidate: it was a necessity for Whigs +to be defeated; it was a necessity for Papists to go to hell. He had a +tight grip on these truths, which were born, one might say, with his +blood; his life grew out of them. So much of the world was certain,--but +outside? It was rather vague there: Yankeedom was a mean-soiled country, +whence came clocks, teachers, peddlers, and infidelity; and the +English,--it was an American's birthright to jeer at the English. + +We call this a narrow life, prate in the North of our sympathy with the +universal man, don't we? And so we extend a stomachic greeting to our +Spanish brother that sends us wine, and a bow from our organ of ideality +to Italy for beauty incarnate in Art,--see the Georgian slaveholder only +through the eyes of the cowed negro at his feet, and give a dime on +Sunday to send the gospel to the heathen, who will burn forever, we +think, if it never is preached to them. What of your sympathy with the +universal man, when I tell you Scofield was a Rebel? + +His syllogisms on this point were clear, to himself. For slavery to +exist in a country where free government was put on trial was a tangible +lie, that had worked a moral divorce between North and South. Slavery +was the vital breath of the South; if she chose to go out and keep it, +had not freemen the right to choose their own government? To bring her +back by carnage was simply the old game of regal tyranny on republican +cards. So his head settled it: as for his heart,--his neighbors' houses +were in ashes, burned by the Yankees; his son lay dead at Manassas. He +died to keep them back, didn't he? "Geordy boy," he used to call +him,--worth a dozen puling girls: since he died, the old man had never +named his name. Scofield was a Rebel in every bitter drop of his heart's +blood. + +He hurried to the house to prepare to go to the Union meeting. He had a +reason for going. The Federal troops held Romney then, a neighboring +village, and he knew many of the officers would be at this meeting. +There was a party of Confederates in Blue's Gap, a mountain-fastness +near by, and Scofield had heard a rumor that the Unionists would attack +them to-morrow morning: he meant to try and find out the truth of it, so +as to give the boys warning to be ready, and, maybe, lend them a helping +hand. Only for Dode's sake, he would have been in the army long ago. + +He stopped on the porch to clean his shoes, for the floor was newly +scrubbed, and Miss Scofield was a tidy housekeeper, and had, besides, a +temper as hot and ready to light as her father's pipe. The old man +stopped now, half chuckling, peeping in at the window to see if all was +clear within. But you must not think for this that Dode's temper was the +bugbear of the house,--though the girl herself thought it was, and shed +some of the bitterest tears of her life over it. Just a feverish blaze +in the blood, caught from some old dead grandfather, that burst out now +and then. + +Dode, not being a genius, could not christen it morbid sensibility; but +as she had a childish fashion of tracing things to commonplace causes, +whenever she felt her face grow hot easily, or her throat choke up as +men's do when they swear, she concluded that her liver was inactive, and +her soul was tired of sitting at her Master's feet, like Mary. So she +used to take longer walks before breakfast, and cry sharply, +incessantly, in her heart, as the man did who was tainted with leprosy, +"Lord, help me!" And the Lord always did help her. + +My story is of Dode; so I must tell you that these passion-fits were the +only events of her life. For the rest, she washed and sewed and ironed. +If her heart and brain needed more than this, she was cheerful in spite +of their hunger. Almost all of God's favorites among women, before their +life-work is given them, pass through such hunger,--seasons of dull, hot +inaction, fierce struggles to tame and bind to some unfitting work the +power within. Generally, they are tried thus in their youth,--just as +the old aspirants for knighthood were condemned to a night of solitude +and prayer before the day of action. This girl was going through her +probation with manly-souled bravery. + +She came out on the porch now, to help her father on with his coat, and +to tie his spatterdashes. You could not see her in the dark, of course; +but you would not wonder, if you felt her hand, or heard her speak, that +the old man liked to touch her, as everybody did,--spoke to her gently: +her own voice, did I say? was so earnest and rich,--hinted at unsounded +depths of love and comfort, such as utter themselves in some +unfashionable women's voices and eyes. Theodora, or -dosia, or some such +heavy name, had been hung on her when she was born,--nobody remembered +what: people always called her Dode, so as to bring her closer, as it +were, and to fancy themselves akin to her. + +Bone, going in, had left the door ajar, and the red firelight shone out +brightly on her, where she was stooping. Nature had given her a body +white, strong, and womanly,--broad, soft shoulders, for instance, hands +slight and nervous, dark, slow eyes. The Devil never would have had the +courage to tempt Eve, if she had looked at him with eyes as tender and +honest as Dode Scofield's. + +Yet, although she had so many friends, she impressed you as being a shy +home-woman. That was the reason her father did not offer to take her to +the meeting, though half the women in the neighborhood would be there. + +"She a'n't smart, my Dode," he used to say,--"'s got no public sperrit." + +He said as much to young Gaunt, the Methodist preacher, that very day, +knowing that he thought of the girl as a wife, and wishing to be honest +as to her weaknesses and heresies. For Dode, being the only creature in +the United States who thought she came into the world to learn and not +to teach, had an odd habit of trying to pick the good lesson out of +everybody: the Yankees, the Rebels, the Devil himself, she thought, must +have some purpose of good, if she could only get at it. God's creatures +alike. She durst not bring against the foul fiend himself a "railing +accusation," being as timid in judging evil as were her Master and the +archangel Michael. An old-fashioned timidity, of course: people thought +Dode a time-server, or "a bit daft." + +"She don't take sides sharp in this war," her father said to Gaunt, "my +little girl; 'n fact, she isn't keen till put her soul intill anythin' +but lovin'. She's a pore Democrat, David, an' not a strong +Methody,--allays got somethin' till say fur t' other side, Papishers an' +all. An' she gets religion quiet. But it's the real thing,"--watching +his hearer's face with an angry suspicion. "It's out of a clean well, +David, I say!" + +"I hope so, Brother Scofield,"--doubtfully, shaking his head. + +The conversation had taken place just after dinner. Scofield looked upon +Gaunt as one of the saints upon earth, but he "danged him" after that +once or twice to himself for doubting the girl; and when Bone, who had +heard it, "guessed Mist' Dode 'd never fling herself away on sich +whinin' pore-white trash," his master said nothing in reproof. + +He rumpled her hair fondly, as she stood by him now on the porch. + +"David Gaunt was in the house,--he had been there all the evening," she +said,--a worried heat on her face. "Should not she call him to go to the +meeting?" + +"Jest as _you_ please, Dode; jest as you please." + +She should not be vexed. And yet--What if Gaunt did not quite appreciate +his girl, see how deep-hearted she was, how heartsome a thing to look at +even when she was asleep? He loved her, David did, as well as so holy a +man could love anything carnal. And it would be better, if Dode were +married; a chance shot might take him off any day, and then--what? She +didn't know enough to teach; the farm was mortgaged; and she had no +other lovers. She was cold-blooded in that sort of liking,--did not +attract the men: thinking, with the scorn coarse-grained men have for +reticent-hearted women, what a contrast she was to her mother. _She_ was +the right sort,--full-lipped, and a cooing voice for everybody, and such +winning blue eyes! But, after all, Dode was the kind of woman to anchor +to; it was "Get out of my way!" with her mother, as with all milky, +blue-eyed women. + +The old man fidgeted, lingered, stuffing "old Lynchburg" into his pipe, +(his face was dyed saffron, and smelt of tobacco,) glad to feel, when +Dode tied his fur cap, how quick and loving for him her fingers were, +and that he always had deserved they should be so. He wished the child +had some other protector to turn to than he, these war-times,--thinking +uneasily of the probable fight at Blue's Gap, though of course he knew +he never was born to be killed by a Yankee bullet. He wished she could +fancy Gaunt; but if she didn't,--that was enough. + +Just then Gaunt came out of the room on to the porch, and began +loitering, in an uncertain way, up and down. A lean figure, with an +irresolute step: the baggy clothes hung on his lank limbs were +butternut-dyed, and patched besides: a Methodist itinerant in the +mountains,--you know all that means? There was nothing irresolute or +shabby in Gaunt's voice, however, as he greeted the old man,--clear, +thin, nervous. Scofield looked at him wistfully. + +"Dunnot drive David off, Dody," he whispered; "I think he's summat on +his mind. What d'ye think's his last whimsey? Told me he's goin' off in +the mornin',--Lord knows where, nor for how long. Dody, d'ye +think?--he'll be wantin' till come back for company, belike? Well, he's +one o' th' Lord's own, ef he is a bit cranky." + +An odd tenderness came into the man's jaded old face. Whatever trust in +God had got into his narrow heart among its bigotry, gross likings and +dislikings, had come there through the agency of this David Gaunt. He +felt as if he only had come into the secret place where his Maker and +himself stood face to face; thought of him, therefore, with a reverence +whose roots dug deep down below his coarseness, into his uncouth +gropings after God. Outside of this,--Gaunt had come to the mountains +years before, penniless, untaught, ragged, intent only on the gospel, +which he preached with a keen, breathless fervor. Scofield had given him +a home, clothed him, felt for him after that the condescending, curious +affection which a rough barn-yard hen might feel for its adopted poult, +not yet sure if it will turn out an eagle or a silly gull. It was a +strange affinity between the lank-limbed, cloudy-brained enthusiast at +one end of the porch and the shallow-eyed, tobacco-chewing old Scofield +at the other,--but a real affinity, striking something deeper in their +natures than blood-kinship. Whether Dode shared in it was doubtful; she +echoed the "Poor David" in just the voice with which high-blooded women +pity a weak man. Her father saw it. He had better not tell her his fancy +to-night about Gaunt wishing her to be his wife. + +He hallooed to him, bidding him "hap up an' come along till see what the +Yankees were about.--Go in, Dode,--you sha'n't be worrit, child." + +Gaunt came closer, fastening his thin coat. A lean face, sharpened by +other conflicts than disease,--poetic, lonesome eyes, not manly. + +"I am going," he said, looking at the girl. All the pain and struggle of +years came up in that look. She knew where he was going: did she care? +he thought She knew,--he had told her, not an hour since, that he meant +to lay down the Bible, and bring the kingdom of Jesus nearer in another +fashion: he was going to enlist in the Federal army. It was God's cause, +holy: through its success the golden year of the world would begin on +earth. Gaunt took up his sword, with his eye looking awe-struck straight +to God. The pillar of cloud, he thought, moved, as in the old time, +before the army of freedom. She knew that when he did this, for truth's +sake, he put a gulf between himself and her forever. Did she care? Did +she? Would she let him go, and make no sign? + +"Be quick, Gaunt," said Scofield, impatiently. "Bone hearn tell that +Dougl's Palmer was in Romney to-night. He'll be down at Blue's Gap, I +reckon. He's captain now in the Lincolnite army,--one of the hottest of +the hell-hounds,--he is! Ef he comes to the house here, as he'll likely +do, I don't want till meet him." + +Gaunt stood silent. + +"He was Geordy's friend, father," said the girl, gulping back something +in her throat. + +"Geordy? Yes. I know. It's that that hurts me," he muttered, +uncertainly. "Him an' Dougl's was like brothers once, they was!" + +He coughed, lit his pipe, looking in the girl's face for a long time, +anxiously, as if to find a likeness in it to some other face he never +should see again. He often had done this lately. At last, stooping, he +kissed her mouth passionately, and shuffled down the hill, trying to +whistle as be went. Kissing, through her, the boy who lay dead at +Manassas: she knew that. She leaned on the railing, looking after him +until a bend in the road took him out of sight. Then she turned into the +house, with no thought to spare for the man watching her all this while +with hungry eyes. The moon, drifting from behind a cloud, threw a sharp +light on her figure, as she stood in the door-way. + +"Dode!" he said. "Good bye, Dode!" + +She shook hands, saying nothing,--then went in, and shut the door. + +Gaunt turned away, and hurried down the hill, his heart throbbing and +aching against his bony side with the breathless pain which women, and +such men as he, know. Her hand was cold, as she gave it to him; some +pain had chilled her blood: was it because she bade him good-bye +forever, then? Was it? He knew it was not: his instincts were keen as +those of the old Pythoness, who read the hearts of men and nations by +surface-trifles. Gaunt joined the old man, and began talking loosely and +vaguely, as was his wont,--of the bad road, and the snow-water oozing +through his boots,--not knowing what he said. She did not care; he would +not cheat himself: when he told her to-night what he meant to do, she +heard it with a cold, passive disapproval,--with that steely look in her +dark eyes that shut him out from her. "You are sincere, I see; but you +are not true to yourself or to God": that was all she said. She would +have said the same, if he had gone with her brother. It was a sudden +stab, but he forgave her: how could she know that God Himself had laid +this blood-work on him, or the deathly fight his soul had waged against +it? She did not know,--nor care. Who did? + +The man plodded doggedly through the melting snow, with a keener sense +of the cold biting through his threadbare waistcoat, of the solitude and +wrong that life had given him,--his childish eyes turning to the gray +depth of night, almost fierce in their questioning,--thinking what a +failure his life had been. Thirty-five years of struggle with poverty +and temptation! Ever since that day in the blacksmith's shop in Norfolk, +when he had heard the call of the Lord to go and preach His word, had he +not striven to choke down his carnal nature,--to shut his eyes to all +beauty and love,--to unmake himself, by self-denial, voluntary pain? Of +what use was it? To-night his whole nature rebelled against this carnage +before him,--his duty; scorned it as brutal; cried out for a life as +peaceful and meek as that of Jesus, (as if that were not an absurdity in +a time like this,) for happiness, for this woman's love; demanded it, as +though these things were its right! + +The man had a genial, childish temperament, given to woo and bind him, +in a thousand simple, silly ways, into a likeness of that Love that +holds the world, and that gave man no higher hero-model than a trustful, +happy child. It was the birthright of this haggard wretch going down the +hill, to receive quick messages from God through every voice of the +world,--to understand them, as few men did, by his poet's soul,--through +love, or color, or music, or keen healthy pain. Very many openings for +him to know God through the mask of matter. He had shut them; being a +Calvinist, and a dyspeptic, (Dyspepsia is twin-tempter with Satan, you +know,) sold his God-given birthright, like Esau, for a hungry, bitter +mess of man's doctrine. He came to loathe the world, the abode of sin; +loathed himself, the chief of sinners; mapped out a heaven in some +corner of the universe, where he and the souls of his persuasion, +panting with the terror of being scarcely saved, should find refuge. The +God he made out of his own bigoted and sour idea, and foisted on himself +and his hearers as Jesus, would not be as merciful in the Judgment as +Gaunt himself would like to be,--far from it. So He did not satisfy him. +Sometimes, thinking of the pure instincts thwarted in every heart,--of +the noble traits in damned souls, sent hellwards by birth or barred into +temptation by society, a vision flashed before him of some scheme of the +universe where all matter and mind were rising, slowly, through the +ages, to eternal life. "Even so in Christ should all be made alive." All +matter, all mind, rising in degrees towards the Good? made order, +infused by God? And God was Love. Why not trust this Love to underlie +even these social riddles, then? He thrust out the Devil's whisper, +barred the elect into their narrow heaven, and tried to be content. + +Douglas Palmer used to say that all Gaunt needed to make him a sound +Christian was education and fresh meat. Gaunt forgave it as a worldly +scoff. And Palmer, just always, thought, that, if Christ was just, He +would remember it was not altogether Gaunt's fault, nor that of other +bigots, if they had not education nor spiritual fresh meat. Creeds are +not always "good providers." + +The two men had a two-miles' walk before them. They talked little, as +they went. Gaunt had not told the old man that he was going into the +Northern army: how could he? George's dead face was between them, +whenever he thought of it. Still, Scofield was suspicious as to Gaunt's +politics: he never talked to him on the subject, therefore, and to-night +did not tell him of his intention to go over to Blue's Gap to warn the +boys, and, if they were outnumbered, to stay and take his luck with +them. He nor Dode never told Gaunt a secret: the man's brain was as +leaky as a sponge. + +"He don't take enough account o' honor, an' the like, but it's for +tryin' till keep his soul right," he used to say, excusingly, to Dode. +"That's it! He minds me o' th' man that lived up on th' pillar, +prayin'." + +"The Lord never made people to live on pillars," Dode said. + +The old man looked askance at Gaunt's worn face, as he trotted along +beside him, thinking how pure it was. What had he to do with this foul +slough, we were all mired in? What if the Yankees did come, like +incarnate devils, to thieve and burn and kill? This man would say "that +ye resist not evil." He lived back there, pure and meek, with Jesus, in +the old time. He would not dare to tell him he meant to fight with the +boys in the Gap before morning. He wished he stood as near to Christ as +this young man had got; he wished to God this revenge and +bloodthirstiness were out of him; sometimes he felt as if a devil +possessed him, since George died. The old fellow choked down a groan in +the whiffs of his pipe. + +_Was_ the young man back there, in the old time, following the Nazarene? +The work of blood Scofield was taking up for the moment, he took up, +grappled with, tried to put his strength into. Doing this, his true life +lay drained, loathsome, and bare. For the rest, he wished Dode had +cared,--only a little. If one lay stabbed on some of these hills, it +would be hard to think nobody cared: thinking of the old mother he had +buried, years before. Yet Dode suffered: the man was generous to his +heart's core,--forgot his own want in pity for her. What could it have +been that pained her, as he came away? Her father had spoken of Palmer. +_That_? His ruled heart leaped with a savage, healthy throb of jealousy. + +Something he saw that moment made him stop short. The road led straight +through the snow-covered hills to the church where the meeting was to be +held. Only one man was in sight, coming towards them, on horseback. A +sudden gleam of light showed him to them clearly. A small, middle-aged +man, lithe, muscular, with fair hair, dressed in some shaggy dark +uniform and a felt hat. Scofield stopped. + +"It's Palmer!" he said, with an oath that sounded like a cry. + +The sight of the man brought George before him, living enough to wring +his heart He knocked a log off the worm-fence, and stepped over into the +field. + +"I'm goin', David. To think o' him turnin' traitor to Old Virginia! I'll +not bide here till meet him." + +"Brother!" said Gaunt, reprovingly. + +"Don't hold me, Gaunt! Do you want me till curse my boy's old +chum?"--his voice hoarse, choking. + +"He is George's friend still"-- + +"I know, Gaunt, I know. God forgi' me! But--let me go, I say!" + +He broke away, and went across the field. + +Gaunt waited, watching the man coming slowly towards him. Could it be he +whom Dode loved,--this Palmer? A doubter? an infidel? He had told her +this to-day. A mere flesh-and-brain machine, made for the world, and no +uses in him for heaven! + +Poor Gaunt! no wonder he eyed the man with a spiteful hatred, as he +waited for him, leaning against the fence. With his subtle Gallic brain, +his physical spasms of languor and energy, his keen instincts that +uttered themselves to the last syllable always, heedless of all +decencies of custom, no wonder that the man with every feminine, unable +nerve in his body rebelled against this Palmer. It was as natural as for +a delicate animal to rebel against and hate and submit to man. Palmer's +very horse, he thought, had caught the spirit of its master, and put +down its hoofs with calm assurance of power. + +Coming up at last, Gaunt listened sullenly, while the other spoke in a +quiet, hearty fashion. + +"They tell me you are to be one of us to-night," Palmer said, cordially. +"Dyke showed me your name on the enlistment-roll: your motto after it, +was it? 'For God and my right.' That's the gist of the whole matter, +David, I think, eh?" + +"Yes, I'm right. I think I am. God knows I do!"--his vague eyes +wandering off, playing with the horse's mane uncertainly. + +Palmer read his face keenly. + +"Of course you are," he said, speaking gently as he would to a woman. +"I'll find a place and work for you before morning." + +"So soon, Palmer?" + +"Don't look at the blood and foulness of the war, boy! Keep the cause in +view, every moment. We secure the right of self-government for all ages: +think of that! 'God,'--His cause, you know?--and 'your right,' Haven't +you warrant to take life to defend your right--from the Christ you +believe in? Eh?" + +"No. But I know"--Gaunt held his hand to his forehead as if it +ached--"we have to come to brute force at last to conquer the right. +Christianity is not enough. I've reasoned it over, and"-- + +"Yet you look troubled. Well, we'll talk it over again. You've worked +your brain too hard to be clear about anything just now,"--looking down +on him with the questioning pity of a surgeon examining a cancer. "I +must go on now, David. I'll meet you at the church in an hour." + +"You are going to the house, Palmer?" + +"Yes. Good night." + +Gaunt drew back his hand, glancing at the cold, tranquil face, the mild +blue eyes. + +"Good night,"--following him with his eyes as he rode away. + +An Anglo-Saxon, with every birthmark of that slow, inflexible race. He +would make love philosophically, Gaunt sneered. A made man. His thoughts +and soul, inscrutable as they were, were as much the accretion of +generations of culture and reserve as was the chalk in his bones or the +glowless courage in his slow blood. It was like coming in contact with +summer water to talk to him; but underneath was--what? Did Dode know? +Had he taken her in, and showed her his unread heart? Dode? + +How stinging cold it was!--looking up drearily into the drifting heaps +of gray. What a wretched, paltry balk the world was! What a noble part +he played in it!--taking out his pistol. Well, he could pull a trigger, +and let out some other sinner's life; that was all the work God thought +he was fit for. Thinking of Dode all the time. _He_ knew her! _He_ could +have summered her in love, if she would but have been passive and happy! +He asked no more of her than that. Poor, silent, passionate Dode! No one +knew her as he knew her! What were that man's cold blue eyes telling her +now at the house? It mattered nothing to him. + +He went across the cornfield to the church, his thin coat flapping in +the wind, looking at his rusty pistol with a shudder. + + * * * * * + + +Dode shut the door. Outside lay the winter's night, snow, death, the +war. She shivered, shut them out. None of her nerves enjoyed pain, as +some women's do. Inside,--you call it cheap and mean, this room? Yet her +father called it Dode's snuggery; he thought no little nest in the world +was so clean and warm. He never forgot to leave his pipe outside, +(though she coaxed him not to do it,) for fear of "silin' the air." +Every evening he came in after he had put on his green dressing-gown and +slippers, and she read the paper to him. It was quite a different hour +of the day from all of the rest: sitting, looking stealthily around +while she read, delighted to see how cozy he had made his little +girl,--how pure the pearl-stained walls were, how white the matting. He +never went down to Wheeling with the crops without bringing something +back for the room, stinting himself to do it. Her brother had had the +habit, too, since he was a boy, of bringing everything pretty or +pleasant he found to his sister; he had a fancy that he was making her +life bigger and more heartsome by it, and would have it all right after +a while. So it ended, you see, that everything in the room had a meaning +for the girl,--so many mile-stones in her father and Geordy's lives. +Besides, though Dode was no artist, had not what you call taste, other +than in being clean, yet every common thing the girl touched seemed to +catch her strong, soft vitality, and grow alive. Bone had bestowed upon +her the antlers of a deer which he had killed,--the one great trophy of +his life; (she put them over the mantel-shelf, where he could rejoice +his soul over them every time he brought wood to the fire;) last fall +she had hung wreaths of forest-leaves about them, and now they glowed +and flashed back the snow-light, in indignant life, purple and scarlet +and flame, with no thought of dying; the very water in the vases on the +table turned into the silver roots of hyacinths that made the common air +poetic with perfume; the rough wire-baskets filled with mould, which she +hung in the windows, grew living, and welled up, and ran over into +showers of moss, and trailing wreaths of ivy and cypress-vine, and a +brood of the merest flakes of roses, which held the hot crimson of so +many summers gone that they could laugh in the teeth of the winter +outside, and did do it, until it seemed like a perfect sham and a jest. + +The wood-fire was clear, just now, when Dode came in; the little room +was fairly alive, palpitated crimson; in the dark corners, under the +tables and chairs, the shadows tried not to be black, and glowed into a +soft maroon; even the pale walls flushed, cordial and friendly. Dode was +glad of it; she hated dead, ungrateful colors: grays and browns belonged +to thin, stingy duty-lives, to people who are patient under life, as a +perpetual imposition, and, as Bone says, "gets into heben by the skin o' +their teeth." Dode's color was dark blue: you know that means in an +earthly life stern truth, and a tenderness as true: she wore it +to-night, as she generally did, to tell God she was alive, and thanked +Him for being alive. Surely the girl was made for to-day; she never +missed the work or joy of a moment here in dreaming of a yet ungiven +life, as sham, lazy women do. You would think that, if you had seen her +standing there in the still light, motionless, yet with latent life in +every limb. There was not a dead atom in her body: something within, +awake, immortal, waited, eager to speak every moment in the coming color +on her cheek, the quiver of her lip, the flashing words or languor of +her eye. Her auburn hair, even, at times, lightened and darkened. + +She stood, now, leaning her head on the window, waiting. Was she +keeping, like the fire-glow, a still, warm welcome for somebody? It was +a very homely work she had been about, you will think. She had made a +panful of white cream-crackers, and piled them on a gold-rimmed China +plate, (the only one she had,) and brought down from the cupboard a +bottle of her raspberry-cordial. Douglas Palmer and George used to like +those cakes better than anything else she made: she remembered, when +they were starting out to hunt, how Geordy would put his curly head over +the gate and call out, "Sis! are you in a good-humor? Have some of your +famous cakes for supper, that's a good girl!" Douglas Palmer was coming +to-night, and she had baked them, as usual,--stopping to cry now and +then, thinking of George. She could not help it, when she was alone. Her +father never knew it. She had to be cheerful for herself and him too, +when he was there. + +Perhaps Douglas would not remember about the crackers, after all?--with +the blood heating and chilling in her face, as she looked out of the +window, and then at the clock,--her nervous fingers shaking, as she +arranged them on the plate. She wished she had some other way of making +him welcome; but what could poor Dode do? She could not talk to him, had +read nothing but the Bible and Jay's "Meditations"; she could not show +glimpses of herself, as most American women can, in natural, dramatic +words. Palmer sang for her,--sometimes, Schubert's ballads, Mendelssohn: +she could not understand the words, of course; she only knew that his +soul seemed to escape through the music, and come to her own. She had a +strange comprehension of music, inherited from the old grandfather who +left her his temper,--that supernatural gift, belonging to but few souls +among those who love harmony, to understand and accept its meaning. She +could not play or sing; she looked often in the dog's eyes, wondering if +its soul felt as dumb and full as hers; but she could not sing. If she +could, what a story she would have told in a wordless way to this man +who was coming! All she could do to show that he was welcome was to make +crackers. Cooking is a sensual, grovelling utterance of feeling, you +think? Yet, considering the drift of most women's lives, one fancies +that as pure and deep love syllables itself every day in beefsteaks as +once in Sapphic odes. It is a natural expression for our sex, too, +somehow. Your wife may keep step with you in keen sympathy, in brain and +soul; but if she does not know whether you like muffins or toast best +for breakfast, her love is not the kind for this world, nor the best +kind for any. + +She waited, looking out at the gray road. He would not come so +late?--her head beginning to ache. The room was too hot. She went into +her chamber, and began to comb her hair back; it fell in rings down her +pale cheeks,--her lips were crimson,--her brown eyes shone soft, +expectant; she leaned her head down, smiling, thanking God for her +beauty, with all her heart. Was that a step?--hurrying back. Only Coly +stamping in the stable. It was eight o'clock. The woman's heart kept +time to the slow ticking of the clock, with a sick thudding, growing +heavier every moment. He had been in the mountains but once since the +war began. It was only George he came to see? She brought out her work +and began to sew. He would not come: only George was fit to be his +friend. Why should he heed her poor old father, or her?--with the +undefinable awe of an unbred mind for his power and wealth of culture. +And yet--something within her at the moment rose up royal--his equal. He +knew her, as she might be! Between them there was something deeper than +the shallow kind greeting they gave the world,--recognition. She stood +nearest to him,--she only! If sometimes she had grown meanly jealous of +the thorough-bred, made women, down in the town yonder, his friends, in +her secret soul she knew she was his peer,--she only! And he knew it. +Not that she was not weak in mind or will beside him, but she loved him, +as a man can be loved but once. She loved him,--that was all! + +She hardly knew if he cared for her. He told her once that he loved her; +there was a half-betrothal; but that was long ago. She sat, her work +fallen on her lap, going over, as women will, for the thousandth time, +the simple story, what he said, and how he looked, finding in every +hackneyed phrase some new, divine meaning. The same story; yet Betsey +finds it new by your kitchen-fire to-night, as Gretchen read it in those +wondrous pearls of Faust's! + +Surely he loved her that day! though the words were surprised, +half-accident: she was young, and he was poor, so there must be no more +of it then. The troubles began just after, and he went into the army. +She had seen him but once since, and he said nothing then, looked +nothing. It is true they had not been alone, and he thought perhaps she +knew all: a word once uttered for him was fixed in fate. _She_ would not +have thought the story old or certain, if he told it to her forever. But +he was coming to-night! + +Dode was one of those women subject to sudden revulsions of feeling. She +remembered now, what in the hurry and glow of preparing his welcome she +had crushed out of sight, that it was better he should not come,--that, +if he did come, loyal and true, she must put him back, show him the +great gulf that lay between them. She had strengthened herself for +months to do it. It must be done to-night. It was not the division the +war made, nor her father's anger, that made the bar between them. Her +love would have borne that down. There was something it could not bear +down. Palmer was a doubter, an infidel. What this meant to the girl, we +cannot tell; her religion was not ours. People build their faith on +Christ, as a rock,--a factitious aid. She found Him in her life, long +ago, when she was a child, and her soul grew out from Him. He was a +living Jesus to her, not a dead one. That was why she had a healthy +soul. Pain was keener to her than to us; the filth, injustice, bafflings +in the world,--they hurt her; she never glossed them over as +"necessity," or shirked them as we do: she cried hot, weak tears, for +instance, over the wrongs of the slaves about her, her old father's +ignorance, her own cramped life; but she never said for these things, +"Does God still live?" She saw, close to the earth, the atmosphere of +the completed work, the next step upward,--the kingdom of that Jesus; +the world lay in it, swathed in bands of pain and wrong and effort, +growing, unconscious, to perfected humanity. She had faith in the +Recompense, she thought faith would bring it right down into earth, and +she tried to do it in a practical way. She did do it: a curious fact for +your theology, which I go out of the way of the story to give you,--a +peculiar power belonging to this hot-tempered girl,--an anomaly in +psychology, but you will find it in the lives of Jung Stilling and St. +John. This was it: she and the people about her needed many things, +temporal and spiritual: her Christ being alive, and not a dead sacrifice +and example alone, whatever was needed she asked for, and it was always +given her. _Always_. I say it in the full strength of meaning. I wish +every human soul could understand the lesson; not many preachers would +dare to teach it to them. It was a commonplace matter with her. + +Now do you see what it cost her to know that Palmer was an infidel? +Could she marry him? Was it a sin to love him? And yet, could _she_ +enter heaven, he left out? The soul of the girl that God claimed, and +the Devil was scheming for, had taken up this fiery trial, and fought +with it savagely. She thought she had determined; she would give him up. +But--he was coming! he was coming! Why, she forgot everything in that, +as if it were delirium. She hid her face in her hands. It seemed as if +the world, the war, faded back, leaving this one human soul alone with +herself. She sat silent, the fire charring lower into glooming red +shadow. You shall not look into the passion of a woman's heart. + +She rose at last, with the truth, as Gaunt had taught it to her, full +before her, that it would be crime to make compact with sin or a sinner. +She went out on the porch, looking no longer to the road, but up to the +uncertain sky. Poor, simple Dode! So long she had hid the thought of +this man in her woman's breast, clung to it for all strength, all +tenderness! It stood up now before her,--Evil. Gaunt told her to-night +that to love him was to turn her back on the cross, to be traitor to +that blood on Calvary. Was it? She found no answer in the deadened sky, +or in her own heart. She would give him up, then? She looked up, her +face slowly whitening. "I love him," she said, as one who had a right to +speak to God. That was all. So, in old times, a soul from out of the +darkness of His judgments faced the Almighty, secure in its own right: +"Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me." + +Yet Dode was a weak woman; the trial went home to the very marrow. She +stood by the wooden railing, gathering the snow off of it, putting it to +her hot forehead, not knowing what she did. Her brain was dull, +worn-out, she thought; it ached. She wished she could sleep, with a +vacant glance at the thick snow-clouds, and turning to go in. There was +a sudden step on the path,--he was coming! She would see him once +more,--once! God could not deny her that! her very blood leaping into +hot life. + +"Theodora!" (He never called her the familiar "Dode," as the others +did.) "Why, what ails you, child?"--in his quiet, cordial fashion, "Is +this the welcome you give me? The very blood shivers in your hand! Your +lips are blue!"--opening the door for her to go in, and watching her. + +His eye was more that of a physician than a lover, she felt, and cowered +down into a chair he put before the fire for her,--sheltering her face +with her hands, that he might not see how white it was, and despise her. +Palmer stood beside her, looking at her quietly; she had exhausted +herself by some excitement, in her old fashion; he was used to these +spasms of bodily languor,--a something he pitied, but could not +comprehend. It was an odd symptom of the thoroughness with which her +life was welded into his, that he alone knew her as weak, hysteric, +needing help at times. Gaunt or her father would have told you her +nerves were as strong as a ploughman's. + +"Have you been in a passion, my child?" + +She chafed her hands, loathing herself that she could not deaden down +their shiver or the stinging pain in her head. What were these things at +a time like this? Her physician was taking a different diagnosis of her +disease from his first. He leaned over her, his face flushing, his voice +lower, hurried. + +"Were you disappointed? Did you watch--for me?" + +"I watched for you, Douglas,"--trying to rise. + +He took her hand and helped her up, then let it fall: he never held +Dode's hand, or touched her hair, as Gaunt did. + +"I watched for you,--I have something to say to you,"--steadying her +voice. + +"Not to-night," with a tenderness that startled one, coming from lips so +thin and critical. "You are not well. You have some hard pain there, and +you want to make it real. Let it sleep. You were watching for me. Let me +have just that silly thought to take with me. Look up, Theodora. I want +the hot color on your cheek again, and the look in your eye I saw there +once,--only once. Do you remember?" + +"I remember,"--her face crimson, her eyes flashing with tears. "Douglas, +Douglas, never speak of that to me! I dare not think of it. Let me tell +you what I want to say. It will soon be over." + +"I will not, Theodora," he said, coolly. "See now, child! You are not +your healthy self to-night. You have been too much alone. This solitude +down there in your heart is eating itself out in some morbid whim. I saw +it in your eye. Better it had forced itself into anger, as usual." + +She did not speak. He took her hand and seated her beside him, talked to +her in the same careless, gentle way, watching her keenly. + +"Did you ever know the meaning of your name? I think of it often,--_The +gift of God,--Theodora_. Surely, if there be such an all-embracing Good, +He has no more helpful gift than a woman such as you might be." + +She looked up, smiling. + +"Might be? That is not"---- + +"Lover-like? No. Yet, Dode, I think sometimes Eve might have been such a +one as you,--the germ of all life. Think how you loathe death, inaction, +pain; the very stem you thrust into earth catches vitality from your +fingers, and grows, as for no one else." + +She knew, through all, that, though his light words were spoken to +soothe her, they masked a strength of feeling that she dared not palter +with, a something that would die out of his nature when his faith in her +died, never to live again. + +"Eve fell," she said. + +"So would you, alone. You are falling now, morbid, irritable. Wait until +you come into the sunshine. Why, Theodora, you will not know yourself, +the broad, warm, unopened nature." + +His voice faltered; he stooped nearer to her, drew her hand into his +own. + +"There will be some June days in our lives, little one, for you and +me,"--his tone husky, broken,--"when this blood-work is off my hand, +when I can take you. My years have been hard, bare. You know, child. You +know how my body and brain have been worn out for others. I am free now. +When the war is over, I will conquer a new world for you and me." + +She tried to draw away from him. + +"I need no more. I am contented. For the future,--God has it, Douglas." + +"But my hand is on it!" he said, his eye growing hard. "And you are +mine, Theodora!" + +He put his hand on her head: he never had touched her before this +evening: he stroked back her hair with an unsteady touch, but as if it +and she belonged to him, inalienable, secure. The hot blood flushed into +her cheeks, resentful. He smiled quietly. + +"You will bring life to me," he whispered. "And I will bleach out this +anger, these morbid shadows of the lonesome days,--sun them out +with--love." + +There was a sudden silence. Gaunt felt the intangible calm that hung +about this man: this woman saw beneath it flashes of some depth of +passion, shown reluctant even to her, the slow heat of the gloomy soul +below. It frightened her, but she yielded: her will, her purpose slept, +died into its languor. She loved, and she was loved,--was not that +enough to know? She cared to know no more. Did Gaunt wonder what the +"cold blue eyes" of this man told to the woman to-night? Nothing which +his warped soul would have understood in a thousand years. The room +heated, glowless, crimson: outside, the wind surged slow against the +windows, like the surf of an eternal sea: she only felt that her head +rested on his breast,--that his hand shook, as it traced the blue veins +on her forehead: with a faint pleasure that the face was fair, for his +sake, which his eyes read with a meaning hers could not bear; with a +quick throb of love to her Master for this moment He had given her. Her +Master! Her blood chilled. Was she denying Him? Was she setting her foot +on the outskirts of hell? It mattered not. She shut her eyes wearily, +closed her fingers as for life upon the hand that held hers. All +strength, health for her, lay in its grasp: her own life lay weak, +flaccid, morbid on his. She had chosen: she would hold to her choice. + +Yet, below all, the words of Gaunt stung her incessantly. They would +take effect at last. Palmer, watching her face, saw, as the slow minutes +passed, the color fade back, leaving it damp and livid, her lips grow +rigid, her chest heave like some tortured animal. There was some pain +here deeper than her ordinary heats. It would be better to let it have +way. When she raised herself, and looked at him, therefore, he made no +effort to restrain her, but waited, attentive. + +"I must speak, Douglas," she said. "I cannot live and bear this doubt." + +"Go on," he said, gravely, facing her. + +"Yes. Do not treat me as a child. It is no play for me,"--pushing her +hair back from her forehead, calling fiercely in her secret soul for God +to help her to go through with this bitter work He had imposed on her. +"It is for life and death, Douglas." + +"Go on,"--watching her. + +She looked at him. A keen, practical, continent face, with small mercy +for whims and shallow reasons. Whatever feeling or gloom lay beneath, a +blunt man, a truth-speaker, bewildered by feints or shams. She must give +a reason for what she did. The word she spoke would be written in his +memory, ineffaceable. He waited. She could not speak; she looked at the +small vigilant figure: it meant all that the world held for her of good. + +"You must go, Douglas, and never come again." + +He was silent,--his eye contracted, keen, piercing. + +"There is a great gulf between us, Douglas Palmer. I dare not cross it." + +He smiled. + +"You mean--the war?--your father?" + +She shook her head; the words balked in her throat. Why did not God help +her? Was not she right? She put her hand upon his sleeve,--her face, +from which all joy and color seemed to have fallen forever, upturned to +his. + +"Douglas, you do not believe--as I do." + +He noted her look curiously, as she said it, with an odd remembrance of +once when she was a child, and they had shown her for the first time a +dead body, that she had turned to the sky the same look of horror and +reproach she gave him now. + +"I have prayed, and prayed,"--an appealing cry in every low breath. "It +is of no use,--no use! God never denied me a prayer but that,--only +that!" + +"I do not understand. You prayed--for me?" + +Her eyes, turning to his own, gave answer enough. + +"I see! You prayed for me, poor child? that I could find a God in the +world?"--patting the hand resting on his arm pitifully. "And it was of +no use, you think? no use?"--dreamily, his eye fixed on the solemn night +without. + +There was a slow silence. She looked awe-struck in his face: he had +forgotten her. + +"I have not found Him in the world?"--the words dropping slowly from his +lips, as though he questioned with the great Unknown. + +She thought she saw in his face hints that his soul had once waged a +direr battle than any she had known,--to know, to be. What was the end? +God, and Life, and Death, what were they to him now? + +He looked at her at last, recalled to her. She thought he stifled a +sigh. But he put aside his account with God for another day: now it was +with her. + +"You think it right to leave me for this, Theodora? You think it a sin +to love an unbeliever?" + +"Yes, Douglas,"--but she caught his hand tighter, as she said it. + +"The gulf between us is to be the difference between heaven and hell? Is +that true?" + +"_Is_ it true?" she cried suddenly. "It is for you to say. Douglas, it +is you that must choose." + +"No man can force belief," he said, dryly. "You will give me up? Poor +child! You cannot, Theodora!"--smoothing her head with an unutterable +pity. + +"I will give you up, Douglas!" + +"Think how dear I have been to you, how far-off you are from everybody +in the world but me. Why, I know no woman so alone or weak as you, if I +should leave you!" + +"I know it,"--sobbing silently. + +"You will stay with me, Theodora! Is the dull heaven Gaunt prates of, +with its psalms and crowns, better than my love? Will you be happier +there than here?"--holding her close, that she might feel the strong +throb of his heart against her own. + +She shivered. + +"Theodora!" + +She drew away; stood alone. + +"Is it better?"--sharply. + +She clutched her hands tightly, then she stood calm. She would not lie. + +"It is not better," she said, steadily. "If I know my own heart, nothing +in the coming heaven is so dear as what I lose. But I cannot be your +wife, Douglas Palmer." + +His face flashed strangely. + +"It is simple selfishness, then? You fear to lose your reward? What is +my poor love to the eternity of happiness you trade it for?" + +A proud heat flushed her face. + +"You know you do not speak truly. I do not deserve the taunt." + +The same curious smile glimmered over his mouth. He was silent for a +moment. + +"I overrate your sacrifice: it costs you little to say, like the old +Pharisee, 'Stand by, I am holier than thou!' You never loved me, +Theodora. Let me go down--to the land where you think all things are +forgotten. What is it to you? In hell I can lift up my eyes"-- + +She cried out sharply, as with pain. + +"I will not forsake my Master," she said. "He is real, more dear than +you. I give you up." + +Palmer caught her hand; there was a vague deadness in her eye that +terrified him; he had not thought the girl suffered so deeply. + +"See, now," she gasped quickly, looking up, as if some actual Presence +stood near. "I have given up all for you! Let me die! Put my soul out! +What do I care for heaven?" + +Palmer bathed her face, put cordial to her lips, muttering some words to +himself. "Her sins, which are many, should be forgiven; she loves much." +When, long after, she sat on the low settle, quiet, he stood before her. + +"I have something to say to you, Theodora. Do you understand me?" + +"I understand." + +"I am going. It is better I should not stay. I want you to thank God +your love for your Master stood firm. I do. I believe in you: some day, +through you, I may believe in Him. Do you hear me?" + +She bent her head, worn-out. + +"Theodora, I want to leave you one thought to take on your knees with +you. Your Christ has been painted in false colors to you in this matter. +I am glad that as you understand Him you are true to Him; but you are +wrong." + +She wrung her hands. + +"If I could see that, Douglas!" + +"You will see it. The selfish care of your own soul which Gaunt has +taught you is a lie; his narrow heaven is a lie: my God inspires other +love, other aims. What is the old tale of Jesus?--that He put His man's +hands on the vilest before He blessed them? So let Him come to +me,--through loving hands. Do you want to preach the gospel, as some +women do, to the Thugs? I think your field is here. You shall preach it +to the heart that loves you." + +She shook her head drearily. He looked at her a moment, and then turned +away. + +"You are right. There is a great gulf between you and me, Theodora. When +you are ready to cross it, come to me." + +And so left her. + + + +CEREBRAL DYNAMICS. + +The stranger in Paris, exploring its southern suburbs along the +Fontainebleau road, comes upon an ancient pile, extended and renovated +by modern hands, whose simple, unpretending architecture would scarcely +claim a second look. Yet it was once the scene of an experiment of such +momentous consequences that it will ever possess a peculiar interest +both to the philanthropist and the philosopher. It was there, in that +receptacle of the insane, while the storm of the great Revolution was +raging around him, that a physician, learned, ardent, and bold, but +scarcely known beyond the little circle of his friends and patients, +conceived and executed the idea, then no less wonderful than that of +propelling a ship by steam, of striking off the chains of the maniac and +opening the door of his cell. Within a few days, says the record, +fifty-three persons were restored to light and comparative liberty. In +that experiment at the Bicêtre, whose triumphant success won the +admiration even of those ferocious demagogues who had risen to power, +was inaugurated the modern management of the insane, as strongly marked +by kindness and confidence as the old was by severity and distrust. It +was a noble work, whose benefits, reaching down to all future +generations, are beyond the power of estimation; but its remote and +indirect results are scarcely less important than those more immediate +and visible. Here began the true study of mental disease. To the mind of +Pinel, his experiment opened a track of inquiry leading to results +which, like those of the famous discoveries in physical science, will +never cease to be felt. A few collections of cases had been published, +medical scholars, in the midst of their books, had composed elaborate +treatises to show the various ways in which men might possibly become +insane, but no profound, original observer of mental disease had yet +appeared. Trained in that school of exact and laborious inquirers who at +that period were changing the whole face of physical science, he was +well prepared for the work which seemed to be reserved for him, of +laying the foundations of this department of the healing art. + +Without following him in the successive stages of his work, it is +sufficient here to say, that the first step--that of showing that the +insane are not necessarily under the dominion of brute instinct, +incapable even of appreciating the arts of kindness and of using a +restricted freedom--was soon succeeded by another of no less importance +considered in its relations to humanity and psychology. Pinel, who began +his investigations at the Bicêtre in the old belief that insanity +implies disorder of the reasoning faculty, discovered, to his surprise, +that many of his patients evinced no intellectual impairment whatever. +They reasoned on all subjects clearly and forcibly; neither +hallucination nor delusion perverted their judgments; and some even +recognized and deplored the impulses and desires which they could not +control. The fact was too common to be misunderstood, and having been +confirmed by subsequent observers, it has taken its place among the +well-settled truths of modern science. Not very cordially welcomed as +yet into the current beliefs of the time, it is steadily making its way +against the opposition of pride, prejudice, ignorance, and self-conceit. + +The magnitude of this advance in psychological knowledge can be duly +estimated only by considering how imperfect were the prevalent notions +concerning mental disease. For the most part, our ancestors thought no +man insane, whatever his conduct or conversation, who was not actually +raving. If the person were quiet, taciturn, apathetic, he was supposed +to be melancholy or hypochondriacal. If he were elated and restless, +ready for all sorts of undertakings and projects, his condition was +attributed to a great flow of spirits. If, while talking very sensibly +on many subjects and doing many proper things, he manifested a +propensity to wanton mischief, why, then he was possessed with a devil +and consigned to chains and straw,--unless he had committed some +senseless act of crime, in which case he received from the law the usual +doom of felons. + +One of the first fruits of the new method of study introduced by Pinel +was a more philosophical notion of the nature of disease. The various +diseases that afflict mankind had been regarded as so many different +entities that could almost be handled, and many attempts to define and +measure them exactly are on record. They came to be regarded somewhat as +personal foes, to be combated and overcome by the superior prowess of +the physician. It was not until such views were abandoned, and insanity, +as well as every other disease, was considered as an abnormal action or +condition, that true progress could be expected. One of the results of +inquiry into the nature of insanity, starting from this point, has been +a growing conviction that it implies defect and imperfection, as well as +casual disorder. Attention is now directed less to occasional and +exoteric incidents, and more to conditions which inhere in the original +economy of the brain. We are sometimes required to look beyond the +individual, and beyond the nervous system even, if we would discover the +primordial movement which, having passed through one or two generations, +finally culminates in actual disease. We say, in popular phrase, that +the cause of insanity in this person was disappointed love, or reverse +of fortune, and in that, a fever, or a translation of disease; the +popular voice finds an echo in the records of the profession, and it all +passes for very good philosophy. Now, the more we learn, the more reason +have we to believe that the amount of truth in the common statistics +respecting the causes of insanity bears but a very small proportion to +the amount of error. That such things as those just mentioned are often +deeply concerned in the production of insanity cannot be doubted, but +their agency is small in comparison with those which exist in the +original constitution of the patient, and are derived, in greater or +less degree, from progenitors. We would not say that insanity has never +occurred in a person whose brain was not vitiated by hereditary morbid +tendencies, but we do say that the proportion of such cases is +exceedingly small. All the seeming efficiency of the so-called "causes +of insanity" requires that preparation which is produced by the +deteriorating influences of progenitors, and without which they would be +utterly powerless. Let us consider this matter a little more closely by +the light which modern inquiry sheds upon it. + +All the conditions of the bodily organs that determine the character of +the function are not known, but all analogy shows that what in popular +phrase is called _quality_ is one of them. Exactly what this is nobody +knows, nor is it necessary for our present purpose that we should know; +but when we talk of the good or bad quality of an organ, we certainly do +not talk without meaning. We have an intelligible idea of the difference +between that constitution, of an organ which insures the highest measure +of excellence in the function and that which admits of only the lowest. +In the brain, as in other organs, size is to some extent a measure of +power. The largest intellectual and moral endowments no one expects to +see in connection with the smallest brain, and _vice versâ_, setting +aside those instances of large size which are the effect of disease. The +_relative_ size of the different parts of the brain may have something +to do with the character of the function, but this is a contested point. +Education increases the mental efficiency, no doubt, but it is too late +in the day to attribute everything to _that_. So that we are obliged to +resort to that indescribable condition called _quality_, as the chief +source and origin of the differences of mental power observed among men. + +It is easier to say what this condition is not than what it is. It is +not manifested to the senses by weight or color, dryness or moisture, +hardness or softness. In these particulars all brains are pretty nearly +alike. When the cerebral action stops and the man dies, we may find +lesions visible enough to the sense,--vessels preternaturally engorged +with blood, effusions of lymph, thickening of the membranes, changes of +color and consistency,--but no one imagines these to be the cause and +origin of the disturbance. Behind and beyond all this, in that intimate +constitution of the organic molecules which no instrument of sense can +bring to light, lies the source of mental activity, both healthy and +morbid. There lies the source of all cerebral dynamics. Of this we are +sure, unable, as we are, to demonstrate the fact to the senses. + +Scientific observation has made us acquainted with some of the agencies +which vitiate the quality of the brain, and it is our duty to profit by +its results. The principal of them is morbid action in the brain itself, +producing, more or less directly, disorder and weakness. But its +deteriorating influence does not cease with the individual. In a large +proportion of cases it is transmitted to the offspring; and though it +may not appear in precisely the same form, yet the tokens of its +existence are too obvious to be overlooked.--Another agency scarcely +less efficient is that of _neuropathies_, to use the medical +term,--meaning the various forms of disorder which have their origin in +the brain, and comprising not only epilepsy, hysteria, chorea, and other +convulsive affections, but that habit of body and mind which makes a +person _nervous_. While they may abridge the mental efficiency of the +patient comparatively little or not at all, they may exert this effect, +and often do, in the highest degree, on his offspring. The amount of +insanity in the world attributable to insanity in the progenitors, and +therefore called, _par éminence_, hereditary, is scarcely greater than +that which originates in this manner, and of which the essential +condition is no less hereditary.--Another agency, acting on a large +scale in some localities, is exerted by those diseases which are +attributed to some disorder of the lymphatic system, as scrofula and +rickets. Though not entirely unknown to the affluent classes, yet it is +chiefly in the dwellings of the poor that these diseases find their +victims. Cold, moisture, bad air, deficient nourishment,--too frequent +accompaniments of poverty,--are peculiarly favorable to their +production. The physical depravation thus induced is frequently +transmitted to the brain in the next generation, and appears in the +shape of mental disorder.--Again, it is now well known that the +qualities of the race are depreciated by the intermarrying of relatives. +The disastrous influence of such unions is exerted on the nervous system +more than any other, and is a prolific source of deaf-mutism, blindness, +idiocy, and insanity. Not, certainly, in all cases do we see these +results, for the legitimate consequences of this violation of an organic +law are often avoided by the help of more controlling influences, but +they are frequent enough to remove any doubt as to their true cause. And +the chances of exemption are greatly lessened where the marriage of +consanguinity is repeated in the next generation. The manner in which +the evil is effected may be conjectured with some approach to +correctness, but to speculate upon it here would lead us astray from our +present purpose. The amount of the evil may be thought to be +comparatively small, but they who have a professional acquaintance with +the subject would hardly undertake to measure the dimensions of all the +physical and mental suffering which it involves. In one State, at least, +in the Union, it has seemed formidable enough to require an act of the +legislature forbidding the marriage of cousins.--The last we shall +mention, among the agencies concerned in vitiating the quality of the +brain, is that of excessive or long-continued intemperance; and for many +years it has been a most fruitful source of mental deterioration: not, +however, in the way which is generally imagined; for, though it may add +some effect to a popular harangue to attribute a very large proportion +of the existing cases of insanity directly to intemperance, yet, as a +matter of fact, very few, probably, can be fairly traced to this cause +solely. And yet, at the present time, it is unquestionably responsible +for a very large share of the mental infirmities which afflict the race. +The germ of the evil requires a second, perhaps a third, generation to +bring it to maturity. And then it may appear in the form of mania, or +idiocy, or intemperance. As a cause of idiocy, its potency has been +placed beyond a doubt. Dr. S.G. Howe, whose thorough investigations +entitle his conclusions to great weight, says, that, "directly or +indirectly, alcohol is productive of a great proportion of the idiocy +which now burdens the Commonwealth." There is this curious feature of +its deteriorating influence, that the primary effect is not always +persistent, but may be removed by removing the cause. In the Report of +the Hospital at Columbus, Ohio, for 1861, the physician, Dr. Hills, says +of one of his patients, that his father, in the first part of his +married life, was strictly temperate, "and had four children, all yet +remaining healthy and sound. From reverses of fortune, he became +discouraged and intemperate for some years, having in this period four +children, two of whom we had now received into the asylum; a third one +was idiotic, and the fourth epileptic. He then reformed in habits, had +three more children, all now grown to maturity, and to this period +remaining sound and healthy." Another similar case follows. An +intemperate parent had four children, two of whom became insane, one was +an idiot, and the fourth died young, in "fits." Four children born +previous to the period of intemperance, and two after the parent's +reformation, are all sound and healthy. Often, it is well known, +intemperance in the child is the hereditary sequel of intemperance in +the parent. The irresistible craving, without the preliminary gradual +indulgence, and in spite of judicious education, generally distinguishes +it from intemperance resulting from other causes. + +All these agencies have this trait in common, that their damaging effect +is often felt by the offspring as well as the parent, and, in most +cases, in a far higher degree. The common doctrine of hereditary disease +implies the actual transmission of a specific form of disease fully +developed,--or, at least, of a tendency to it that may or may not be +developed. The range within which it operates is supposed to be the +narrow limits covered by a single specific affection. Daily experience, +however, shows that the deviation from the primitive type is limited +only by some conditions of structure. Any pathological result may be +expected, not incompatible with the structure of the organ. And thus it +is that the cerebral affection which fell upon the parent is represented +in one child by insanity, in another by idiocy, in another by epilepsy, +in another by gross eccentricity, in another by moral perversities, in +another by ill-balanced intellect,--each and all implying a brain more +or less vitiated by the parental infirmity. There is nothing strange in +all this diversity of result. In the healthy state, organic action +proceeds with wonderful regularity and uniformity; but when controlled +by the pathological element, all this is changed, although the change +has its limits. This diversity in the results of hereditary transmission +is as strictly according to law as the similarity of features exhibited +by parent and child. No presumption against the fact can be derived from +this quarter, and therefore, if well-authenticated, it must be admitted. +Many a man, however, who admits the general fact, refuses to make the +application where it has not been usually made. When mania occurs in two +or three successive generations, nobody overlooks the hereditary +element; but when the mania of the parent is followed by great +inequalities of character, or strange impulses to criminal acts, then +the effects of disease are straightway ignored, and we think only of +moral liberty and free-will. It may be difficult, sometimes, to make the +proper distinction between the effects of hereditary physical vitiation +and those of bad education and strong temptations; but the difficulty is +of the kind which stands in the way of all successful inquiry, to be +overcome by patient and profound study. + +Some light may be thrown on this deviation from the original type by +considering the forces that are concerned in the hereditary act. The +statement that like produces like is the expression of an obvious law. +But we must bear in mind that the law is only so far observed as is +necessary to maintain the characters of the species. Within that range +there is every possible variety, and for a very obvious reason. Every +individual represents immediately two others, and, indirectly, an +indefinite number. This is done by uniting in himself qualities and +features drawn from each parent, without any obvious principle or law of +selection and combination. One parent may be, apparently, more fully +represented than the other; the defects of the parent may be +transmitted, rather than the excellences; the tendencies to health and +strength may be outnumbered and overborne by the tendencies to disease. +No individual, of course, can receive, entirely and completely, the +features and attributes of both parents, for that would be a sort of +practical absurdity; but in the process of selecting and combining, +Nature exhibits the same inexhaustible variety that appears in all her +operations. Even in the offspring of the same parents, however numerous, +uniformity in this respect is seldom so obvious as diversity. This +cerebral deterioration is subject to the same laws of descent as other +traits, with a few exceptions without much bearing on the present +question. We might as reasonably expect to see the nose or the eyes, the +figure or the motions of either parent transmitted with the exactest +likeness to all the offspring, as to suppose that an hereditary disease +must necessarily be transmitted fully formed, with all the incidents and +conditions which it possessed in the parent. And yet, in the case of +mental disease, the current philosophy can recognize the evidence of +transmission in no shape less demonstrative than delusion or raving. +Contrary to all analogy, and contrary to all fact, it supposes that the +hereditary affection must appear in the offspring in precisely the same +degree of intensity which it had in the parent. If the son is stricken +down with raving mania, like his father before him, then the relation of +cause and effect is obvious enough; but if, on the contrary, the former +exhibits only extraordinary outbreaks of passion, remarkable +inequalities of spirit and disposition, irrelevant and inappropriate +conduct, strange and unaccountable impulses, nothing of this kind is +charged practically to the parental infirmity. + +The cerebral defect once established, the modes in which it may be +manifested in subsequent generations present no uniformity whatever. +Insanity in a parent may be followed by any possible form of mental +irregularity in the descendant,--insanity, idiocy, epilepsy, +drunkenness, criminal impulses, eccentricity. And so, too, eccentricity, +even of the least prominent kind, may be followed by grosser +eccentricity, or even overt insanity, in the descendant. The cerebral +defect is not necessarily manifested in an uninterrupted series of +generations, for it often skips over one, and appears with redoubled +energy in the next; and thus, in looking for proof of hereditary disease +or defect, we are not to stop at the next preceding generation. We are +too little acquainted with the laws of hereditary transmission to +explain these things. We know this, however, that, side by side with +that law which decrees the transmission of defects as well as +excellences, there exists another law which restrains deviations from +the normal type, which extinguishes the errant traits, and reestablishes +the primitive characters of the organism. The combined and alternate +action of these two laws may produce some of the inscrutable phenomena +of hereditary transmission. + +The transmission of the cerebral defect is often manifested in a manner +exceedingly embarrassing to all who hold to the prevalent notions +respecting sanity and insanity. It is sometimes confined to a very +circumscribed range, beyond which the mind presents no material +impairment. The sound and the unsound coexist, not in a state of fusion, +but side by side, each independent of the other, and both derived from a +common source. And the fact is no more anomalous than that often +witnessed, of some striking feature of one parent associated in the +child with one equally striking of the other. It is not the case exactly +of partial insanity, or any mental defect, super-induced upon a mind +otherwise sound,--for such defect is, in some degree, an accident, and +may disappear; but here is a congenital conjunction of sanity and +insanity, which no medical or moral appliances will ever remove. These +persons may get on very well in their allotted part, and even achieve +distinction, while the insane element is often cropping out in the shape +of extravagances or irregularities in thought or action, which, +according to the stand-point they are viewed from, are regarded either +as gross eccentricity, or undisciplined powers, or downright insanity. +For every manifestation of this kind they may show no lack of plausible +reasons, calculated to mislead the superficial observer; but still the +fact remains, that these traits, which are never witnessed in persons of +well-balanced minds, are a part of their habitual character. When people +of this description possess a high order of intellectual endowments, the +unhealthy element seems to impart force and piquancy to their mental +manifestations, and thus increase the embarrassment touching the true +character of their mental constitution. When the defect appears in the +reflective powers, it is often regarded as insanity, though not more +correctly than if it were confined to the emotions and feelings. The man +who goes through life creditably performing his part, but feeling, all +the while, that everybody with whom he has any relations is endeavoring +to oppose and annoy him, strays as clearly from the track of a healthy +mind as if he believed in imaginary plots and conspiracies against his +property or person. In neither case is he completely overcome by the +force of the strange impression, but passes along, to all appearance, +much like other men. Insane, in the popular acceptation, he certainly is +not; but it is equally certain that his mind is not in a healthy +condition. Lord Byron was one of this class, and the fact gives us a +clew to the anomalies of his character. His mother was subject to +violent outbreaks of passion, not unlike those often witnessed in the +insane. On the paternal side his case was scarcely better. The loose +principles, the wild and reckless conduct of his father procured for him +the nickname of "_Mad Jack Byron_"; and his grand-uncle, who killed his +neighbor in a duel, exhibited traits not very characteristic of a +healthy mind. With such antecedents, it is not strange that he was +subject to wild impulses, violent passions, baseless prejudices, +uncompromising selfishness, irregular mental activity. The morbid +element in his nervous system was also witnessed in the form of +epilepsy, from which he suffered, more or less, during his whole life. +The "vile melancholy" which Dr. Johnson inherited from his father, and +which, to use his own expression, "made him mad all his life, at least +not sober," never perverted nor hampered the exercise of his +intellectual powers. He heard the voice of his distant mother calling +"Sam"; he was bound to touch every post he passed in the streets; he +astonished people by his extraordinary singularities, and much of his +time was spent in the depths of mental distress; yet the march of his +intellect, steady, uniform, and measured, gave no token of confusion or +weakness. + +In common life, among an order of men unknown beyond the circle of their +neighborhood, this sort of mental dualism witnessed with remarkable +frequency, though generally regarded as anomalous and unaccountable, +rather than the result of an organic law. In some, the morbid element, +without affecting the keenness of the intellect, is more active, +intruding itself on all occasions, characterizing the ways and manners, +the demeanor and deportment. Under the influence of peculiarly adverse +circumstances, they are liable to lose occasionally the unsteady balance +between the antagonistic forces of their mental nature, to conduct as if +unquestionably insane, and to be treated accordingly. Of such the remark +is always made by the world, which sees no nice distinctions, "If he is +insane now, he was always insane." According as the one or the other +phasis of their mind is exclusively regarded, they are accounted by some +as always crazy, by others as uncommonly shrewd and capable. The +hereditary origin of this mental defect in some form of nervous +affection will always be discovered, where the means of information are +afforded. + +In some persons the morbid element appears in the shape of insensibility +to nice moral distinctions. Their perception of them at all seems to be +the result of imitation rather than instinct. With them, circumstances +determine everything as to the moral complexion of their career in life. +Whether they leave behind them a reputation for flagrant selfishness, +meanness, and dishonesty, or for a commendable prudence and judicious +regard for self,--whether they always keep within the precincts of a +decent respectability, or run into disreputable courses,--depends mostly +on chance and fortune. This intimate association of the saint and the +sinner in the same individual, common as it is, is a stumbling-block to +moralists and legislators. The abnormal element is entirely overlooked, +or rather is confounded with that kind of moral depravity which comes +from vicious training And, certainly, the distinction is not always very +easily made; for, though sufficient light on this point may often be +derived from the antecedents of the individual, yet it is impossible, +occasionally, to remove the obscurity in which it is involved. However +this may be, it is a warrantable inference from the results of modern +inquiry, that the class of cases is not a small one, where the person +commits a criminal act, or falls into vicious habits, with a full +knowledge of the nature and consequences of his conduct, and prompted, +perhaps, by the ordinary inducements to vice, who, nevertheless, would +have been a shining example of virtue, had the morbid element in his +cerebral organism been left out. In our rough estimates of +responsibility this goes for nothing, like the untoward influences of +education; and it could not well be otherwise, though it cannot be +denied that one element of moral responsibility, namely, the wish and +the power to pursue the right and avoid the wrong, is greatly defective. + +There is another phasis of cerebral defect not very unlike the last, +which of late years has been occurring with increasing frequency, +embarrassing our courts, confounding the wise and the simple, and +overwhelming respectable families with shame and sorrow. With an +intellect unwarped by the slightest excitement or delusion, and with +many moral traits, it may be, calculated to please and to charm, its +subjects are irresistibly impelled to some particular form of crime. +With more or less effort they strive against it, and when they yield at +last, their conduct is as much a mystery to themselves as to others. +Ordinary criminals excite some touch of pity, on the score of bad +education or untamed passions; but if, in the common estimation of the +world, there is one criminal more reprehensible than another, it is he +who sins against great light and under the smallest temptations,--and, +of course, the hottest wrath of an incensed community is kindled against +him. + +At the bar of yonder courtroom stands a youth with an aspect and manner +indicative of culture and refinement far above those of the common herd +of criminals. He was detected in the very act of committing a grave +criminal offence. He has been educated under good moral influences, and +possessed a patrimony that supplied every reasonable want. No looseness +of living, no violent passion is alleged against him, and no adequate +motive appears for the act. For a year or two past he has been unusually +restless by day and by night, has slept poorly, and his countenance has +worn an expression of distraction and anxiety. Various little details of +conduct are related of him, which, though not morally censurable, were +offensive to good taste and opposed to the ordinary observances of +society. His friends are sure he is not the man he once was, but no +expert ventures to pronounce him insane. Looking behind the scene, the +mystery clears up, and we behold only a simple operation of cerebral +dynamics. A glance at the family-history shows us a great-grandfather, +an aunt, two second-cousins, and a brother unequivocally insane, the +father and many other members widely noted for eccentricities and +irregularities of a kind scarcely compatible with the idea of sanity. +Considering that the brain does not spring out of the ground, but is the +final product of all the influences which for generations have been +working in the cerebral organism, it is not strange that the quality of +his brain became so vitiated as to be incapable of some of its highest +functions.--Looking a little farther back in our forensic experience, we +behold a youth scarcely arrived at the age of legal majority, with a +simple, verdant look, arraigned for trial on the charge of murder. He +was the servant of a farmer, and his victim was an adopted daughter of +the family, and some years younger than himself. One day they were left +together to take care of the house, a little girl in the neighborhood +having come in to keep them company. While engaged in the domestic +services, quietly and pleasantly, he invited his companion to go with +him into another room where he had something to show her, and there, +within a few minutes, he cut her throat from ear to ear. He soon came +down, told what he had done, and made no attempt to escape. They had +always been on good terms; no provocation, no motive whatever for the +act was shown or suspected. When questioned, he replied only,--"I loved +her, no one could tell how much I loved her." He had been drinking cider +during the morning, but his cool and collected manner, both before and +after the act, showed that he was not intoxicated. His employers +testified that they had always found him good-natured and correct, but +considered his intellect somewhat below the average grade. A few months +subsequently he died in jail of consumption. Regarded from the ordinary +moral stand-points, this was a strange, an unaccountable, a monstrous +act, and we are unable to take the first step towards a solution of the +mystery. Looking, however, at the material conditions of his affections, +his propensities, his impulses,--his cerebral dynamics,--we get a clew, +at least, to the secret. His father was an habitual drunkard, and a +frequent inmate of the poor-house. He had two children,--one an idiot, +and the other the prisoner; and the mental deficiency of the former, and +the senseless impulses to crime manifested by the latter, were equally +legitimate effects of the father's vice.--Here, again, is one who might +justly be regarded as a favored son of fortune. Fine talents, a +college-education, high social position, an honorable and lucrative +business in prospect were all his; but before leaving college he had +made considerable proficiency in lying, drinking, forgery, and +hypocrisy, besides evincing a remarkable ingenuity in concealing these +traits. His vices only increased with years, notwithstanding the various +parental expedients to effect reform,--a voyage to sea, establishment in +business, confinement in a hospital for the insane, a residence in the +country, a settlement in a new territory. All this time his intellect +was cool and clear, except when under the influence of drink, and he was +always ready with the most plausible explanations of his conduct. At +last, however, delusions began to appear, and unquestionable and +incurable insanity was established. The philosophy of our times utterly +fails to account for a phenomenon like this. Had the hand of the law +been laid upon him for his offences, he would have been regarded as one +of those examples of depravity which deserve the severest possible +punishment; and when the true nature of his case appeared at last, +doctors only wondered how so much mental disorder could happen to one +whose progenitors were singularly free from mental infirmities. In +noticing the agencies calculated to vitiate the quality of the brain, we +mentioned the neuropathies as among the most efficient, though their +effect is chiefly witnessed in subsequent generations, and the present +case is an illustration of the fact. His mother was a highly nervous +woman, and for many years a confirmed invalid. + +This, then, being admitted, that a vitiated quality of the brain may be +transmitted to the offspring with accumulating effect, let us see what +are the general characteristics of this effect. We have no reason to +suppose that the brain is exempt from the operation of the same organic +laws which govern the rest of the animal economy. Observation abundantly +shows that its working capacity is diminished, and its activity becomes +irregular in one or more of the various degrees of irregularity, ranging +from a little eccentricity up to raving mania. Occasionally, such defect +is accompanied by remarkable manifestations of mental ability, but it is +no part of our doctrine that such conjunctions are incompatible. Byron +and Johnson accomplished great things; but who will deny that without +that hereditary taint they would have done more and done it better? The +latter, it is well known, was much dependent on moods, and spent long +periods in mental inactivity. The labors of the other were fitful, and +his views of life betray the influence of the same cerebral defect that +led to so much domestic woe. The narrow-chested, round-shouldered +person, whose lungs barely oxydize blood enough to maintain life, is not +expected to walk a thousand miles in a thousand hours, or to excel as a +performer on wind-instruments. We impute to him no fault for this sort +of incompetence. We should rather charge him with consummate folly, if +he undertook a line of exercises for which he is so clearly unfitted. We +do not wonder, in fact, when this unfortunate pulmonary constitution +sends its possessor to an early grave. Why not apply the same philosophy +to the brain, which may partake of all the defects incident to organized +matter? Why expect of one among whose progenitors insanity, idiocy, +scrofula, rickets, and epilepsy have prevailed in an extraordinary +degree all the moral and intellectual excellences displayed by those +whose blood through a long line of ancestors has been untainted by any +of these affections? + +It is chiefly, however, in abnormal activity that the presence of this +cerebral depreciation is indicated. And here we find the same +disposition to insist on positive and absolute conditions, overlooking +those nicer shades of diversity which mark the movements of Nature. It +is the common belief that between eccentricity and insanity a great gulf +is fixed; and in courts of justice this notion is often used with great +effect to overthrow the conclusions of the medical expert, who, while he +admits their essential difference, finds it not very easy to avoid the +trap which a quick-witted lawyer is sure to make of it. Let him +recognize the fact that they are the results of a common agency, +differing chiefly in degree, and then his path is clear, though it may +not lead to popular confidence in his professional views. + +Neither is the cerebral depreciation confined to any particular portion +of the organ; and therefore its effects may be witnessed in any of those +manifestations which are known to depend upon it. The affective powers, +meaning thereby the passions, affections, and emotions, are, like the +intellectual, connected with the brain, and, like them too, are shaped, +in a great degree, by the quality of that organ. It is curious, however, +that, while this fact is admitted in general terms, there is a prevalent +reluctance to make the legitimate practical application. It is denied +that the moral powers and propensities can be affected by disease, +though connected with a material organ. Everybody believes that a man +who thinks his legs are made of glass is insane; but if his affections +only are disordered,--love and kindness being replaced by jealousy and +hate,--an habitual regard for every moral propriety, by unbounded +looseness of life and conversation,--the practice of the strictest +virtue, by unblushing indulgence of crime, and all without apparent +cause or motive,--then the morbid element in the case is overlooked and +stoutly repudiated. We admit that a man may be a fool without any fault +of his own; but if he fall short of any of the requirements of the moral +law, he is regarded as a sinner, and perhaps punished as a criminal. +Before we utterly condemn him for failing to recognize all the sharp +distinctions between right and wrong, for yielding to temptation, and +walking in evil courses, we are bound in justice to inquire whether a +higher grade of moral excellence has not been debarred him by the +defective quality of his brain, the organ by which all moral graces are +manifested,--whether it has not become deteriorated by morbid +predispositions, transmitted with steadily accumulating force, to +insanity, or other affections which are known to spread their noxious +influence over the nervous system. + +A scientific fact is supposed to be entitled to credence, when +accompanied by proper scientific proof; but, nevertheless, many worthy +people cannot resist the conclusion, that, if a man's moral character is +determined by the quality of the brain, then there is no such thing as +responsibility. And so we are brought up all standing against the old +problem of moral liberty, on which oceans of ink have been shed to +little purpose. Heaven forbid that we should add another drop! for our +object will be served by stating very briefly the scientific view of +this phenomenon. Every creature is free, within the limits of the +constitution which Nature has given him, to act and to think, each after +his kind. The horse rejoices in the liberty of acting like a horse, and +not like an ox; and man enjoys the privilege of acting the part of a +man, and not of a disembodied spirit. If the limbs of the former are +struck by an atrophy, we do not expect him to win the race. If the brain +of the latter is blasted by disease or deterioration, we cannot expect +the fruits of a sound and vigorous organism. When we say that a person +with a brain vitiated by an accumulation of hereditary defects is +incapable of that degree of moral excellence which is manifested by men +of the soundest brains, we utter a truism as self-evident, apparently, +as when we say that the ox is incapable of the fleetness of the horse or +the ferocity of the tiger. It is immaterial whether the cerebral +condition in question is one of original constitution or of acquired +deficiency, because the relation between the physical and the moral must +be the same in the one case as in the other. In the toiling masses, who, +from childhood, are brought face to face with want and vice, we do not +expect to find the moral graces of a Channing or a Cheverus; and we do +not hold them to a very strict responsibility for the deficiency. But +they are not utterly destitute of a moral sense, and what we have a +right to expect is, that they improve, in a reasonable degree, the light +and opportunities which have fallen to their lot. The principle is +precisely the same as it regards those whose brains have been vitiated +by some noxious agency. To make them morally responsible in an equal +degree with men more happily endowed would be repugnant to every idea of +right and justice. But within the range of their capacity, whatever it +may be, they are free, and accountable for the use of their liberty. +True, there is often difficulty in making these distinctions, even where +the necessity for it is the greatest; but we dissent from the +conclusion, that therefore the doctrine can have but little practical +value. It is something to have the fact of the intimate connection +between organic conditions and moral manifestations distinctly +recognized. The advance of knowledge will be steadily widening the +practical application of the fact. A judge might not be justified in +favoring the acquittal of a criminal on the ground of his having +inherited a brain of vitiated quality; but, surely, it would not be +repugnant to the testimony of science, or the dictates of common sense +and common justice, if he allowed this fact to operate in mitigation of +sentence. + + + +A NEW SCULPTOR. + +Once to my Fancy's hall a stranger came, + Of mien unwonted, +And its pale shapes of glory without shame + Or speech confronted. + +Fair was my hall,--a gallery of Gods + Smoothly appointed; +With Nymphs and Satyrs from the dewy sods + Freshly anointed. + +Great Jove sat throned in state, with Hermes near, + And fiery Bacchus; +Pallas and Pluto, and those powers of Fear + Whose visions rack us. + +Artemis wore her crescent free of stars, + The hunt just scented; +Glad Aphrodite met the warrior Mars, + The myriad-tented. + +Rude was my visitant, of sturdy form, + Draped in such clothing +As the world's great, whom luxury makes warm, + Look on with loathing. + +And yet, methought, his service-badge of soil + With honor wearing; +And in his dexter hand, embossed with toil, + A hammer bearing. + +But while I waited till his eye should sink, + O'ercome of beauty, +With heart impatience brimming to the brink + Of courteous duty,-- + +He smote my marbles many a murderous blow, + His weapon poising; +I, in my wrath and wonderment of woe, + No comment voicing. + +"Come, sweep this rubbish from the workman's way, + Wreck of past ages,-- +Afford me here a lump of harmless clay, + Ye grooms and pages!" + +Then, from that voidness of our mother Earth, + A frame he builded +Of a new feature,--with the power of birth + Fashioned and welded. + +It had a might mine eyes had never seen, + A mien, a stature, +As if the centuries that rolled between + Had greatened Nature. + +It breathed, it moved; above Jove's classic sway + A place was won it: +The rustic sculptor motioned; then "To-day" + He wrote upon it. + +"What man art thou?" I cried, "and what this wrong + That thou hast wrought me? +My marbles lived on symmetry and song; + Why hast thou brought me + +"A form of all necessities, that asks + Nurture and feeding? +Not this the burthen of my maidhood's tasks, + Nor my high breeding." + +"Behold," he said, "Life's great impersonate, + Nourished by Labor! +Thy Gods are gone with old-time faith and Fate; + Here is thy Neighbor." + + + +PLAYS AND PLAY-ACTING. + +One evening, after seeing Booth in "Richard III.," three of us fell +a-talking about the authorship of the play, and wondering how far +Shakespeare was responsible for what we had heard. Everybody knows that +Colley Cibber improved upon the text of the old folios and quartos: for +what was listened to with delight by Ben Jonson could not satisfy +Congreve, and William III. needed better verses than those applauded by +Queen Elizabeth. None of us knew how great or how many these +improvements were. I doubt whether many of the audience that crowded the +theatre that evening were wiser than we. The next day I got an acting +copy of "Richard III.," and, with the help of Mrs. Clarke's +Concordance,[1] arrived at the following astonishing results. + +"Shakspeare's Historical Tragedy of Richard III., adapted to +Representation by Colley Cibber," (I quote the full title for its +matchless impudence,) makes a pamphlet of fifty-nine small pages. Of +these, Cibber was good enough to write twenty-six out of his own head. +Then, modestly recognizing Shakespeare's superiority, he took +twenty-_seven_ pages from him, (not all from this particular play, to be +sure,) remodelled six other pages of the original, and, mixing it all up +together, produced a play, and called it Shakespeare. + +With Mrs. Clarke's touchstone it is easy to separate the base metal from +the fine gold; though you have only to ring most of Cibber's +counterfeits to see how flat they are. Would any one take the following +for genuine coin, and believe that Shakespeare could make a poor ghost +talk thus? + +"PRINCE E. Richard, dream on, and see the wandering spirits +Of thy young nephews, murdered in the tower: +Could not our youth, our innocence, persuade +Thy cruel heart to spare our harmless lives? +Who, but for thee, alas! might have enjoyed +Our many promised years of happiness. +No soul, save thine, but pities our misusage. +Oh! 'twas a cruel deed! therefore alone, +Unpitying, unpitied shalt thou fall." + +Or thus:-- + +"K. HENRY. The morning's dawn has summoned me away; +And let that wild despair, which now does prey +Upon thy mangled thoughts, alarm the world. +Awake, Richard, awake! to guilty minds +A terrible example!" + +No wonder that Gloucester finds it quite hopeless to reply to such +ghosts in the words Shakespeare put into his mouth, and so has recourse +to Cibber. We are not told what (Cibber's) ghosts say to Richmond; but +he declares,-- +"If dreams should animate a soul resolved, +_I'm more than pleased with those I've had to-night._" + +Just after this, it is rather confusing to find him straying off into +"Henry V." Still, "In peace there's nothing so becomes a man," seems to +promise Shakespeare at least,--so compose yourself to listen and +enjoy:-- + +"In peace there's nothing so becomes a man +As _mild behavior_ and humility; +But when the blast of war blows in our ears, +_Let us be tigers in our fierce deportment_." + +After this outrage, I defy you to help hoping that the comparatively +innocent Richard will chop off Richmond's head,--in spite of history and +Shakespeare. + +It does not follow that all change or omission is unlawful in placing +Shakespeare's plays on the stage. Though in the pit or parquet we sit +(more or less) at our ease, instead of standing as the groundlings did +in old days, yet a tragedy five hours and a half long would be rather +too much of a good thing for us. There must have been a real love of the +drama in those times. Fancy a fine gentleman, able to pay his shilling +and sit with the wits upon the rush-strewn stage, listening for such a +length of time to "Hamlet," with no change of scenes to help the +illusion or break the monotony, beyond a curtain or two hung across the +stage, a wooden gallery at the back whence the court of Denmark might +view "The Mouse-Trap," and, perhaps, a wooden tomb pushed on or +"discovered" in the graveyard-scene by pulling aside one of these +curtains or "traverses." No pretty women, either, dressed in becoming +robes, and invested with the mysterious halo of interest which an +actress seems to bring with her from the side-scenes. No women at all. +Poor Ophelia presented by a great lubberly boy, and the part of the +Queen very likely intrusted to him who was last year the "_jeune +première_," and whose voice is now somewhat cracked within the ring. To +be sure, in those days every gentleman took his pipe with him; and the +fragrant clouds would be some consolation in the eyes, or rather in the +noses, of some of us. But still,--almost six hours of tragedy! It is too +much of a good thing for these degenerate days; and we must allow the +prompter to use his pencil on the actors' copy of "Hamlet," though he +strike out page upon page of immortal philosophy. + +But there are certain parts of this play omitted whose loss makes one +grieve. Why do the actors leave out the strange half-crazed exclamations +wrung from Hamlet by his father's voice repeating "Swear" from beneath +his feet? + + HAM. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. + GHOST [_beneath_]. Swear. + HAM. Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, true-penny?-- + Come on,--you hear this fellow in the cellarage-- + + * * * * * + + Swear by my sword. + GHOST [_beneath_]. Swear. + HAM. _Hic et ubique_? then we'll shift our ground.-- + Come hither, gentlemen, + And lay your hands again upon my sword: + Never to speak of this that you have heard, + Swear by my sword. + GHOST [_beneath_]. Swear. + HAM. Well said, old mole! Canst work i' the ground so fast? + A worthy pioneer I.... + ... This not to do, + So grace and mercy at your most need help you, swear. + GHOST [_beneath_]. Swear. + HAM. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! + +The sensitive organization which makes Hamlet what he is has been too +rudely handled: the machine, too delicate for the rough work of +every-day life, breaks down, under the strain. The horror of the +time--beginning with Horatio's story of the apparition, and growing more +fearful with every moment of reflection, until Hamlet longs for the +coming of the dread hour--reaches a point beyond which human nature has +no power to endure. If he could share his burden with his friend +Horatio,--but Marcellus thrusts himself forward, and he checks the +half-uttered confidence, and struggles to put aside their curiosity with +trifling words. Anything, to be alone and free to think on what he has +heard and what he has to do. And then,--as he is swearing them to +secrecy before escaping from them,--_there_, from under their feet and +out of the solid earth, comes the voice whose adieu is yet ringing in +his ears. In terror they hurry to another spot; but the awful voice +follows their steps, and its tones shake the ground under them. What +wonder, if, broken down by all this, Hamlet utters words which would be +irreverent in their levity, were they not terrible in their wildness? +Have you never marked what pathos there is in a very trivial phrase used +by one so crushed down by grief that he acts and speaks like a little +child? + +It is wonderful that a great actor should neglect a passage that paints +with one touch Hamlet's half-hysterical state. Given as it might be +given, it would curdle the blood in your veins. I asked the best Hamlet +it has been my fortune to see, why he left out these lines. "I have +often thought I would speak them; but I don't know how." That was his +answer, and a very honest one it was. But such a reason is not worthy of +any man who dares to play Hamlet,--much less of one who plays it as ---- +does. + +It is curious to observe how persistently the players, in making up the +stage-travesties of Shakespeare's plays, have followed the uncertain +lead of the quartos, where they and the folio differ. It almost seems as +if the stage-editors found something more congenial in a text made up +from the actors' recollections, plentifully adorned with what we now +call "gag." They appear to forget one capital fact: that Shakespeare was +at once actor, author, and manager,--that he wrote for the stage +exclusively, producing plays for the immediate use of his own +company,--and that his plays may therefore be reasonably supposed to be +"adapted to representation" in their original state. Does Mr. Crummles +know better than Master Shakespeare knew how "Romeo and Juliet" should +be ended with the best effect,--not only to the ear in the closet, but +theatrically on the stage? The story was not a new one; and the +dramatist deliberately followed one of two existing versions rather than +the other. In Boisteau's translation of Bandello's novel, Juliet wakes +from her trance before Romeo's death; in Brooke's poem, which the great +master chose to adopt as his authority, all is over, and she wakes to +find her lover dead. Garrick must needs know better than Shakespeare, +the actor-author; and no stage Romeo has the grace to die until he has, +in elegant phrase, "piled up the agony" with lines like these:-- + +"JULIET. ... Death's in thy face. +ROM. _It is indeed_. I struggle with him now: +The transports that I felt, +To hear thee speak, and see thy opening eyes, +Stopped, for a moment, his impetuous course, +And all my mind was happiness and thee:-- +But now," etc., +"My powers are blasted; +'Twist death and love I'm torn, I am distracted; +_But death is strongest_." + +And then, to give a chance for the manoeuvre beloved by dying +actors,--that getting up and falling back into the arms of the actress +kneeling by him, with a proper amount of gasping and eyes rolling in +delirium,--the stage Romeo adds:-- + +"ROM. She is my wife,--our hearts are twined together:-- +Capulet, forbear:--Paris, loose your hold:-- +Pull not our heart-strings thus;--they crack,--they break:-- +Oh, Juliet, Juliet!" +[_Dies. Juliet faints on his body._ + +Is this Garrick or Otway? (for I believe Garrick borrowed some of his +improvements from Otway's "Caius Marius.") I don't know, and don't care. +It is not Shakespeare. It may "show something of the skill of kindred +genius," as the preface to the acting edition says it does. I confess I +do not see it. I would have such bombast delivered with the traditional +accompaniment of red fire; and the curtain should descend majestically +to the sound of slow music. That would be consistent and appropriate. + + * * * * * + + +It has always been a consoling thought to Englishmen that Shakespeare +exists for them alone,--or that a Frenchman's nature, at least, makes it +hopeless for him to try to understand the great dramatist. They confess +that their neighbors know how to construct the plot of a comedy, and +prove the honesty of their approval by "borrowing" whatever they can +make useful. French tragedies they despise--(though a century ago the +new English tragedies were generally Corneille or Racine in disguise). +As to Shakespeare, it has time out of mind been an article of faith with +the insolent insulars that he is quite above any Frenchman's reach. One +by one they are driven from their foolish prejudices, and made to +confess that Frenchmen _may_ equal them in some serious things, as well +as beat them in all the lighter accomplishments. French iron-clad +steamers have been followed by the curious spectacle of a French actor +teaching an English audience how Shakespeare should be acted. I would +give a good deal to see M. Fechter in Hamlet, Othello, or Iago,--the +only parts he has yet attempted; the rather, because the low condition +of the stage in England, where Mr. Macready and Mr. Charles Kean are +called great actors, makes the English newspaper-criticisms of little +value. In default of this, I have been reading M. Fechter's acting +edition of "Othello," which a friend kindly sent me from London. It is a +curiosity,--not the text, which is incorrect, full of arbitrary changes, +and punctuated in a way almost unintelligible to an English eye: colons +being scattered about with truly French profusion. The stage-directions +are the interest of the book. They are so many and so minute that it +seems a wonder why they were printed, if M. Fechter is sincere in +declaring that he has no desire to force others to follow in his exact +footsteps in this part. But they are generally so judicious, as well as +original, that actors born with English tongues in their heads may well +be ashamed that a foreigner could find so many new and effective +resources on their own ground. For example: when Othello and Iago are +first met by the enraged Brabantio, the Moor is standing on the +threshold of his house, having just opened the door with a key taken +from his girdle. He is going in, when he sees the lights borne by the +other party. Observe how Othello's honest frankness is shown by the +action:-- + +"OTH. But look: what lights come yonder? +IAGO. These are the raised father and his friends. +[_Othello shuts the door quickly and takes the key._ +You were best go in. +OTH. [_coming forward_], Not I: I must be found!" + +Again, at the end of this scene, see how thoroughly the editor has +studied the legitimate dramatic effect of the situations, preserving to +each person his due place and characteristic manner:-- + +"BRAB. [_To his followers_]. Bring him away! +[_They advance to take Othello, who puts them back with a look._ +Mine's not an idle cause: +[_Passes before Othello, who bows to him with respect._ +The Duke himself," etc. +[_Exit, preceded by the servants of the Senate. His followers are about + to pass; Othello stays them, beckons to Cassio, and exit with him. + The rest follow, humbly._ + +The scene wherein Iago first begins to poison the Moor's mind is +admirable in the situations and movements of the actors. A great variety +is given to the dialogue by the minute directions set down for the +guidance of the players. It would be tedious to give them in detail; but +I must point out the truth of one action, near the end. The poison is +working; but as yet Othello cannot believe he is so wronged,--he is only +"perplexed in the extreme,"--not yet transformed quite out of his noble +nature. + +"OTH. [dismissing Iago with a gesture]. Farewell! farewell! +[Stopping him, as he goes to the door on the right. +If more thou dost perceive, let me know more: +Set on thy wife to observe---- +[He stops, suffused with shame, and crosses before Iago, without looking + at him. +Leave me, Iago. +IAGO. My lord, I take my leave." + +This is an idea worthy of a great actor; and of M. Fechter's acting here +an English critic says,--"Delicate in its conception and marvellous in +its close adherence to Nature is the expression that accompanies the +words. The actor's face is literally suffused with a burning blush; and, +as he buries his face in his hands, we almost fancy we see the scalding +tears force their way through the trembling fingers and adorn the +shame-reddened cheeks." The same writer goes on to praise "the ingenuity +and novelty of the glance at the reflection of his dark face in the +mirror, which suggests the words, 'Haply for I am black.'" I cannot +agree. Othello had been too often reproached with his swarthy skin and +likened to the Devil by Desdemona's father to need any such commonplace +reminder of his defects, in his agony of doubt. It is, however, a fair +ground for difference of opinion. But when the same artifice is resorted +to in the last act to explain the words, "It is the cause, it is the +cause, my soul!!"--and Othello is made to take up a toilet-glass which +has fallen from Desdemona's hand,--it becomes a vile conceit, unworthy +of the situation or of an actor like Fechter. A man does not look in the +glass, and talk about his complexion, when he is going to kill what he +loves best in life; and if the words are broken and unintelligible, they +are all the truer to Nature. The whole of the last act, as arranged by +Fechter, is bad. There is no propriety in directing Desdemona to leave +her bed and walk about,--to say nothing of the scramble that must ensue +when Othello "in mad fury throws her onto the bed" again. But what shall +we say of this? + +"OTH. What noise is this? +[_He turns to the side whence the noise comes, and raises the pillow, + but, as Desdemona stirs, replaces it abruptly._ +Not dead! Not yet quite dead! +I, that am cruel, am yet merciful; +I would not have thee linger in thy pain. +[_Passing his poignard under the pillow, and turning away his eyes,_ +So,--so." + +What, but that it is utterly vile and melodramatic, contrary to +Othello's expressed resolve, and quite unnecessary?--for a better effect +would be produced, if the actor averted his head and with both hands +pressed hard upon the pillow, trembling in every limb at the horrible +deed he is forced, in mercy, to bring to a quick end. This idea of +stabbing Desdemona at last is not original with Fechter,--who here, and +in several other places, has consented to follow our stage-traditions, +and has been led astray. + + * * * * * + + +Shakespeare on the stage is a sad falling off from Shakespeare in the +closet. (I do not mean on the American stage only: the theatre in +England is, if possible, lower than with us.) To a great extent this is +unavoidable. Our imaginations are not kept in check by the pitiless +limits that make themselves felt in the theatre. An army, when we read +of it, seems something far grander than all that can be effected by the +best-appointed company of actors. The forest of Ardennes has for us life +and motion beyond the reach of the scene-painter's skill. But these +necessary shortcomings are no excuse for making no attempt to imitate +Nature. Yet hardly any serious effort is made to reach this purpose of +playing. The ordinary arrangement of our stage is as bad as bad can be, +for it fails to look like the places where the action is supposed to +lie. Two rows of narrow screens stretching down from the ends of a broad +screen at the back never can be made to look like a room, still less +like a grove. Such an arrangement may be convenient for the carpenters +or scene-shifters, and is very likely cheaper than a properly designed +interior. But it does not look like what it pretends to be, and has been +superseded on every stage but ours and the English by properly +constructed scenery. Who ever went into a French theatre for the first +time without being charmed by the _reality_ of the scene? They take the +trouble to build a room, when a room is wanted, with side-walls and +doors, and often a ceiling. The consequence is, you can fancy yourself +present at a scene taken from real life. The theatre goes no farther +than the proscenium. Beyond that, you have a parlor, with one wall +removed for your better view. It is Asmodeus's show improved. I went to +a Paris theatre with a friend. The play began with half a dozen +milliners chattering and sewing round a table. After a few moments, my +friend gave a prodigious yawn, and declared he was going home, "for you +might as well sit down and see a parcel of real milliners at work as +this play." Tastes differ; and I did not find this an objection. But +what a compliment that was to the whole corps,--actors, actresses, and +scene-painter!--and how impossible it would be to make the same +complaint of an English play! + +"But," I have been told by theatrical people, "such an arrangement is +all very well in French vaudevilles, where one scene lasts through an +act; but it will not do for English plays, with their constant +scene-shifting." I grant it is less convenient to the stage-manager than +the present wretched assembly of screens; but it is not impracticable in +any play. Witness the melodramas which are the delight of the patrons of +the minor Paris theatres,--_pièces à spectacle en 4 actes et 24 +tableaux_, that is, twenty-four changes of scene. I remember sitting +through one which was so deadly stupid that nothing but the ingenuity of +the stage-arrangements made it endurable. Side-scenes dropped down into +their places,--"flats" fell through the stage or were drawn up out of +sight,--trees and rocks rose out of the earth,--in a word, scenery that +looked like reality, and not like canvas, was disposed and cleared away +with such marvellous rapidity that I forgot to yawn over the play. +Attention to these matters is almost unknown with us: perhaps, in strict +justice, I ought to say was unknown until very lately. Within a few +years, one or two of our theatres have profited by the example set by +stage-managers abroad. At Wallack's, in New York, _rooms_ have to a +great extent taken the place of the old _screens_; and only the other +night at the Boston Museum I saw an arrangement of scenery which really +helped the illusion. + +Let us hope there may be a speedy reform in the matter of the costume of +the players,--at least in plays where the dresses are of our own time. +You may count on your fingers the actresses in America who dress on the +stage as _ladies_ dress in polite society. And as for the actors, I am +afraid one hand has too many fingers for the tally. Because people go to +the President's Ball in frock-coats is no reason why actors who +undertake to look like fashionable gentlemen should outrage all +conventional rules. I once saw a play in which a gentleman came to make +an informal morning-visit to a lady in the country, in that dress which +has received the bitterly ironical name of "full American uniform," that +is to say, black dress-coat and trousers and black satin waistcoat; and +the costume was made even more complete by a black satin _tie_, of many +plaits, with a huge dull diamond pin in it, and a long steel watch-chain +dangling upon the wretched man's stomach. He might have played his part +to perfection,--which he did not, but murdered it in cold blood,--but he +_might_ have done so in vain; nothing would or could absolve him from +such a crime against the god of fashion or propriety. "Little things, +these," the critic may say: and so our actors seem to think. But life is +made up of little things; and if you would paint life, you must attend +to them. Ask any one who has spent (wasted?) evening after evening at +the Paris theatres about them; and, ten to one, he begins by praising +the details, which, in their sum, conveyed the impression of perfection +he brought away with him. + +Unless you are a little cracked on the subject of the stage, (as I +confess I am,) and have talked with a French actor about it, you have no +idea how systematically they train their young actors. I will tell you a +few of the odd facts I picked up in long talks with my friend Monsieur +D----. of the Théâtre Français. + +The Conservatoire, their great school for actors, is, like almost +everything else in Paris, more or less under Government control,--the +Minister of State being charged with its superintendence. He appoints +the professors, who are actors of the Français, and receive a salary of +two thousand francs. The first order a pupil receives, on presenting +himself for instruction, is this: "Say _rose_." Now your Parisian rather +prides himself on a peculiar pronunciation of the letter _r_. He neither +rolls it like an Italian, nor does he make anything like the noise +standing for _r_ in our conversational English,--something like +_uhr-ose_,--a sound said to be peculiar to our language. A Parisian +rolls his r, by making his _uvula_ vibrate, keeping the tongue quite +still: producing a peculiar gurgling sound. This is an abomination in +the ears of the Conservatoire. "Ne _grasseyez_ donc pas, Monsieur," or +"Mademoiselle," says the professor, fiercely,--this peculiar way of +saying _r_ being called _grasseyement_. The pupil tries again, using the +tip of his tongue this time. "Ah! I thought so. Your _r_ is pasty +(_empâté_). Say _tuddah!_" (I spell this sound _à l'Anglaise_.) +"_Tuddah_" repeats the wondering candidate. "_Thuddah?_" the professor +repeats, with great disgust: "I did not ask you to say _thuddah_, but +_tuddah_." The victim tries again and again, and thinks he succeeds; but +the master does not agree with him. His delicate ear detects a certain +thickness of enunciation,--which our _th_ very imperfectly +represents,--a want of crispness, as it were. The tip of the tongue does +not strike the front teeth with a single _tick_, as sharp as a +needle-point; and until he can do this, the pupil can do nothing. He is +dismissed with the advice to say "_tuddah, tuddah, tuddah_," as many +hours a day as he can without losing his mind. D---- told me he often +met young men walking about the streets in all the agonies of this first +step in the art of learning to act, and astonishing the passers-by with +this mysterious jargon. A pupil of average quickness and nicety of ear +learns to say tuddah in about a month. Then he is told to say _rose_ +once more. The training his tongue has received enables him to use only +its very tip. A great point is gained: he can pronounce the _r_. Any +other defects in pronunciation which he has are next attacked and +corrected. Then he is drilled in moving, standing, and carriage. And +finally, "a quantity of practice truly prodigious" is given to the +_ancien répertoire,_--the classic models of French dramatic literature, +Corneille, Racine, Molière, Beaumarchais, etc. The first scholar of each +year has the right to appear at once at the Théâtre Français,--a right +rarely claimed, as most young actors prefer to go through a novitiate +elsewhere to braving the most critical audience in the world before they +have acquired the confidence that comes only with habit and success. +After he has gained a foothold at this classic theatre, an actor still +sees prizes held out to stimulate his ambition. If he keeps the promise +of his youth, he may hope to be chosen a stockholder (_sociétaire_), and +thus obtain a share both in the direction of affairs and in the profits, +besides a retiring pension, depending in, amount upon his term of +service. + +_Panem, et circenses_ is the demand of modern Paris, as it was of old +Rome,--and the people expect the Government to see that neither supply +fails. While the Opera receives large sums to pay for gorgeous scenery +and dresses, the Français is paid for devoting three nights in the week +to the classical school: a real loss to the theatre at times when the +fickle public would gladly crowd the house to applaud the success of the +hour. The Minister of State interferes as seldom as possible with the +management; but when he speaks, his word is law. This was queerly shown +in a dispute about Rachel's _congés_. At first she played during nine +months of the year three times a week; later her duties were reduced to +six months in the year, playing only twice a week, at a salary of forty +thousand francs, with five hundred francs for every extra performance. +Spoiled by indulgence, she demanded leave of absence just when the Queen +of England was coming to Paris. The manager indignantly refused. The +next day the Minister of State politely requested that Mlle. Rachel +might have a short _congé_. "It is not reasonable," said the poor +manager. "We have cut down her duties and raised her salary; now the +Queen is coming, Paris will be full of English, and they are always +crazy after Mlle. Rachel. It is really out of the question, _Monsieur le +Ministre_." The Minister was very sorry, but hoped there would be no +real difficulty. The manager was equally sorry, but really he could not +think of it. "_Monsieur,_" said the Minister, rising and dismissing the +manager, "_il le faut," "Oh, il le faut?_ Then it _must_;--only you +might as well have begun with that." And so Rachel got her leave of +absence. + +(I must insert here from my note-book a criticism on Rachel,--valuable +as coming from a man of talent in her own profession who had worked with +her for years, and deserving additional weight, as it was, no doubt, +rather the collective judgment of her fellow-actors than the opinion of +the speaker alone.) + +"Rachel," said M. D----, "was a great genius,--but a genius that ever +needed the hand of a master to guide its efforts. Without this, she +could do nothing: and Samson was forever behind her, directing her +steps. Mme. Allan, who weighed almost three hundred pounds and had an +abominable voice, was infinitely her superior in the power of creating a +part. But Rachel had the voice of an angel. In the expression of disdain +or terror she was unapproachable. In the softer passions she was feeble. +We all looked upon her _Lady Tartuffe_ as a failure." + + * * * * * + + +Such a school of acting as the Conservatoire and the Français form could +of course never be seen in America. The idea of our popular practical +Government undertaking to direct the amusements of the people is quite +ludicrous. In France, the Government does all it can for the people. +With us, the people are left to do everything for themselves, with the +least possible amount of Government interference. Our play-writers and +play-actors could do a great deal to raise the standard of +stage-literature and of acting, if they would but try. But they do not +try. I went the other evening to see that relic of the Dark Ages, a +sterling English comedy. If any one thinks I go too far in saying that +there is no attempt on our stage to imitate Nature, and that the writing +and acting of English plays are like the landscape-painting of the +Chinese,--a wonderfully good copy of the absurdities handed down through +generations of artists,--let him go and look at one of these plays. He +will see the choleric East-India uncle, with a red face, and a Malacca +cane held by the middle, stumping about, and bullying his nephew,--"a +young rascal,"--or his niece,--"you baggage, you." When this young +person wishes to have a good talk with a friend, they stand up behind +the footlights to do it; and the audience is let into secrets essential +to the plot by means of long "asides" delivered by one, while the other +does nothing and pretends not to hear what is spoken within three feet +of him. The waiting-maid behaves in a way that would get her turned out +of any respectable house, and is chased off the stage by the old +gentleman in a manner that no gentleman ever chases his servants. +Something is the matter with the men's legs: they all move by two steps +and a hitch. They all speak with an intonation as unlike the English of +real life as if they talked Greek. The young people make fools of the +old people in a way they would never dream of in life,--and the old +people are preternaturally stupid in submitting to be made fools of. +After seeing one of these classics, let the spectator sit down and +honestly ask himself if this is an attempt to hold the mirror up to +Nature, or an effort to reflect the traditional manners and customs of +the stage. + +If he thinks he has ever seen anything of the sort in real life, we will +agree to differ. + +[Footnote 1: Are we as grateful as we should be to Mrs. Cowden Clarke? +Did you ever try to find anything by the help of Ayscough, when that was +the best guide to be had? If you have, you remember your teasing search +for the principal word in the passage,--how _day_ seemed a less likely +key than _jocund_, and yet, as this was only an adjective, perhaps +_tiptoe_ were better; or, if you pitched upon _mountain-tops_, it was a +problem with which half of the compound to begin the search. Consider +that Mrs. Clarke is no dry word-critic, to revel in pulling the +soliloquy to pieces, and half inclined to carry the work farther and +give you the separate letters and the number of each, but a woman who +loves Shakespeare and what he wrote. Think of her sitting down for +sixteen years to pick up senseless words one by one, and stow each one +away in its own niche, with a ticket hanging to it to guide the search +of any one who can bring the smallest sample of the cloth of gold he +wants. Think of this, whenever you open her miracle of patient labor, +and be grateful.] + + + + + + + + + +OFF SHORE. + +Rock, little boat, beneath the quiet sky! +Only the stars behold us, where we lie,-- +Only the stars, and yonder brightening moon. + +On the wide sea to-night alone are we: +The sweet, bright, summer day dies silently; +Its glowing sunset will have faded soon. + +Rock softly, little boat, the while I mark +The far-off gliding sails, distinct and dark, +Across the west pass steadily and slow. + +But on the eastern waters sad they change +And vanish, dream-like, gray and cold and strange, +And no one knoweth whither they may go. + +We care not, we, drifting with wind and tide, +With glad waves darkening upon every side, +Save where the moon sends silver sparkles down, + +And yonder slender stream of changing light, +Now white, now crimson, tremulously bright, +Where dark the light-house stands, with fiery crown. + +Thick falls the dew, soundless, on sea and shore; +It shines on little boat and idle oar, +Wherever moonbeams touch with tranquil glow. + +The waves are full of whispers wild and sweet; +They call to me; incessantly they beat +Along the boat from stem to curvèd prow. + +Comes the careering wind, blows back my hair +All damp with dew, to kiss me unaware,-- +Murmuring, "Thee I love,"--and passes on. + +Sweet sounds on rocky shores the distant rote. +Oh, could we float forever, little boat, +Under the blissful sky drifting alone! + + + +LIFE IN THE OPEN AIR. + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "CECIL DREEME" AND "JOHN BRENT." + +KATAHDIN AND THE PENOBSCOT. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +UMBAGOG. + +Rain ends, as even Noah and the Arkites discovered. The new sensation of +tickling frogs could entertain us for one day; bounteous Nature provided +other novelties for the next. We were at the Umbagog chain of lakes, and +while it rained the damster had purveyed us a boat and crew. At sunrise +he despatched us on our voyage. We launched upon the Androscoggin, in a +_bateau_ of the old Canadian type. Such light, clincher-built, +high-nosed, flat-bottomed boats are in use wherever the fur-traders are +or have been. Just such boats navigate the Saskatchawan of the North, or +Frazer's River of the Northwest; and in a larger counterpart of our +Androscoggin bark I had three years before floated down the magnificent +Columbia to Vancouver, bedded on bales of beaver-skins. + +As soon as sunrise wrote itself in shadows over the sparkling water, as +soon as through the river-side belt of gnarled arbor-vitae sunbeams +flickered, we pushed off, rowed up-stream by a pair of stout lumbermen. +The river was a beautiful way, admitting us into the _penetralia_ of +virgin forests. It was not a rude wilderness: all that Northern woods +have of foliage, verdurous, slender, delicate, tremulous, overhung our +shadowy path, dense as the vines that drape a tropic stream. Every giant +tree, every one of the Pinus oligarchy, had been lumbered away: refined +sylvan beauty remained. The dam checked the river's turbulence, making +it slow and mirror-like. It merited a more melodious name than harsh +Androscoggin. + +Five miles of such enchanting voyage brought us to Lake Umbagog. Whiff's +of mist had met us in the outlet. Presently we opened chaos, and chaos +shut in upon us. There was no Umbagog to be seen,--nothing but a few +yards of gray water and a world of gray vapor. Therefore I cannot +criticize, nor insult, nor compliment Umbagog. Let us deem it beautiful. +The sun tried at the fog, to lift it with leverage of his early level +beams. Failing in this attempt to stir and heave away the mass, he +climbed, and began to use his beams as wedges, driving them down more +perpendicularly. Whenever this industrious craftsman made a successful +split, the fog gaped, and we could see for a moment, indefinitely, an +expanse of water, hedged with gloomy forest, and owning for its dominant +height a wild mountain, Aziscohos, or, briefer, Esquihos. + +But the fog was still too dense to be riven by slanting sunbeams. It +closed again in solider phalanx. Our gray cell shut close about us. +Esquihos and the distance became nowhere. In fact, ourselves would have +been nowhere, except that a sluggish damp wind puffed sometimes, and +steering into this we could guide our way within a few points of our +course. + +Any traveller knows that it is no very crushing disappointment not to +see what he came to see. Outside sights give something, but inside joys +are independent. We enjoyed our dim damp voyage heartily, on that wide +loneliness. Nor were our shouts and laughter the only sounds. Loons +would sometimes wail to us, as they dived, black dots in the mist. Then +we would wait for their bulbous reappearance, and let fly the futile +shot with its muffled report,--missing, of course. + +No being has ever shot a loon, though several have legends of some one +who has. Sound has no power to express a profounder emotion of utter +loneliness than the loon's cry. Standing in piny darkness on the lake's +bank, or floating in dimness of mist or glimmer of twilight on its +surface, you hear this wailing note, and all possibility of human +tenancy by the shore or human voyaging is annihilated. You can fancy no +response to this signal of solitude disturbed, and again it comes sadly +over the water, the despairing plaint of some companionless and +incomplete existence, exiled from happiness it has never known, and +conscious only of blank and utter want. Loon-skins have a commercial +value; so it is reported. The Barabinzians of Siberia, a nation "up +beyond the River Ob," tan them into water-proof _paletots_ or +_aquascutums_. How they catch their loon, before they skin their loon, +is one of the mysteries of that unknown realm. + +Og, Gog, Magog, Memphremagog, all agog, Umbagog,--certainly the American +Indians were the Lost Tribes, and conserved the old familiar syllables +in their new home. + +Rowing into the damp breeze, we by-and-by traversed the lake. We had +gained nothing but a fact of distance. But here was to be an interlude +of interest. The "thoro'fare" linking Umbagog to its next neighbor is no +thoro'fare for a _bateau_, since a _bateau_ cannot climb through +breakers over boulders. We must make a "carry," an actual portage, such +as in all chronicles of pioneer voyages strike like the excitement of +rapids into the monotonous course of easy descent. Another boat was +ready on the next lake, but our chattels must go three miles through the +woods. Yes, we now were to achieve a portage. Consider it, _blasé_ +friend,--was not this sensation alone worth the trip? + +The worthy lumbermen, and our supernumerary, the damster's son, +staggered along slowly with our traps. Iglesias and I, having nothing to +carry, enjoyed the carry. We lounged along through the glades, now sunny +for the moment, and dallied with raspberries and blueberries, finer than +any ever seen. The latter henceforth began to impurple our blood. Maine +is lusciously carpeted with them. + +As we oozed along the overgrown trail, dripping still with last night's +rain, drops would alight upon our necks and trickle down our backs. A +wet spine excites hunger,--if a pedestrian on a portage, after voyaging +from sunrise, needs any appetizer when his shadow marks noon. We halted, +fired up, and lunched vigorously on toasted pork and trimmings. As pork +must be the Omega in forest-fare, it is well to make it the Alpha. Fate +thus becomes choice. Citizens uneducated to forest-life with much pains +transport into the woods sealed cans of what they deem will dainties be, +and scoff at woodsmen frizzling slices of pork on a pointed stick. But +Experience does not disdain a Cockney. She broods over him, and will +by-and-by hatch him into a full-fledged forester. After such incubation, +he will recognize his natural food, and compactest fuel for the lamp of +life. He will take to his pork like mother's milk. + +Our dessert of raspberries grew all along the path, and lured us on to a +log-station by the water, where we found another _bateau_ ready to +transport us over Lakes Weelocksebacook, Allegundabagog, and +Mollychunkamug. Doubters may smile and smile at these names, but they +are geography. + +We do not commit ourselves to further judgment upon the first than that +it is doubtless worthy of its name. My own opinion is, that the scenery +felt that it was dullish, and was ashamed to "exhibit" to Iglesias; if +he pronounced a condemnation, Umbagog and its sisters feared that they +would be degraded to fish-ponds merely. Therefore they veiled +themselves. Mists hung low over the leaden waters, and blacker clouds +crushed the pine-dark hills. + +A fair curve of sandy beach separates Weelocksebacook from its neighbor. +There is buried one Melattach, an Indian chief. Of course there has been +found in Maine some one irreverent enough to trot a lame Pegasus over +this grave, and accuse the frowzy old red-skin of Christian virtues and +delicate romance. + +There were no portages this afternoon. We took the three lakes at easy +speed, persuading ourselves that scenes fog would not let us see were +unscenic. It is well that a man should think what he cannot get unworthy +of his getting. As evening came, the sun made another effort, with the +aid of west winds, at the mist. The sun cleft, the breeze drove. +Suddenly the battle was done, victory easily gained. We were cheered by +a gush of level sunlight. Even the dull, gray vapor became a +transfigured and beautiful essence. Dull and uniform it had hung over +the land; now the plastic winds quarried it, and shaped the whole mass +into individuals, each with its character. To the cloud-forms modelled +out of formlessness the winds gave life of motion, sunshine gave life of +light, and they hastened through the lower atmosphere, or sailed +lingering across the blue breadths of mid-heaven, or dwelt peacefully +aloft in the region of the _cirri_; and whether trailing gauzy robes in +flight, or moving stately, or dwelling on high where scope of vision +makes travel needless, they were still the brightest, the gracefullest, +the purest beings that Earth creates for man's most delicate pleasure. + +When it cleared,--when it purveyed us a broadening zone of blue sky and +a heavenful of brilliant cloud-creatures, we were sailing over Lake +Mollychunkamug. Fair Mollychunkamug had not smiled for us until +now;--now a sunny grin spread over her smooth cheeks. She was all +smiling, and presently, as the breeze dimpled her, all a "snicker" up +into the roots of her hair, up among her forest-tresses. Mollychunkamug! +Who could be aught but gay, gay even to the farcical, when on such a +name? Is it Indian? Bewildered Indian we deem it,--transmogrified +somewhat from aboriginal sound by the fond imagination of some +lumberman, finding in it a sweet memorial of his Mary far away in the +kitchens of the Kennebec, his Mary so rotund of blooming cheek, his +Molly of the chunky mug. To him who truly loves, all Nature is filled +with Amaryllidian echoes. Every sight and every sound recalls her who +need not be recalled, to a heart that has never dislodged her. + +We lingered over our interview with Mollychunkamug. She may not be +numbered among the great beauties of the world; nevertheless, she is an +attractive squaw,--a very honest bit of flat-faced prettiness in the +wilderness. + +Above Mollychunkamug is Moosetocmaguntic Lake. Another innavigable +thoro'fare unites them. A dam of Titanic crib-work, fifteen hundred feet +long, confines the upper waters. Near this we disembarked. We balanced +ourselves along the timbers of the dam, and reached a huge log-cabin at +its farther end. + +Mr. Killgrove, the damster, came forth and offered us the freedom of his +settlement in a tobacco-box. Tobacco is hospitality in the compactest +form. Civilization has determined that tobacco, especially in the shape +of smoke, is essential as food, water, or air. The pipe is everywhere +the pipe of peace. Peace, then, and anodyne-repose, after a day of +travel, were offered us by the friendly damster. + +A squad of lumbermen were our new fellow-citizens. These soldiers of the +outermost outpost were in the regulation-uniform,--red-flannel shirts, +impurpled by wetting, big boots, and old felt-hats. Blood-red is the +true soldierly color. All the residents of Damville dwelt in a great +log-barrack, the Hôtel-de-Ville. Its architecture was of the early +American style, and possessed the high art of simplicity. It was solid, +not gingerbreadesque. Primeval American art has a rude dignity, far +better than the sham splendors of our mediaeval and transition period. + +Our new friends, luxurious fellows, had been favored by Fate with a +French-Canadian cook, himself a Three of Frères Provinciaux. Such was +his reputation. We saw by the eye of him, and by his nose, formed for +comprehending fragrances, and by the lines of refined taste converging +from his whole face toward his mouth, that he was one to detect and +sniff gastronomic possibilities in the humblest materials. Joseph +Bourgogne looked the cook. His phiz gave us faith in him; eyes small and +discriminating; nose upturned, nostrils expanded and receptive; mouth +saucy in the literal sense. His voice, moreover, was a cook's,--thick in +articulation, dulcet in tone. He spoke as if he deemed that a throat was +created for better uses than laboriously manufacturing words,--as if the +object of a mouth were to receive tribute, not to give commands,--as if +that pink stalactite, his palate, were more used by delicacies entering +than by rough words or sorry sighs going out of the inner caverns. + +When we find the right man in the right place, our minds are at ease. +The future becomes satisfactory as the past. Anticipation is glad +certainty, not anxious doubt. Trusting our gastronomic welfare fully to +this great artist, we tried for fish below the dam. Only petty +fishlings, weighing ounces, took the bit between their teeth. We +therefore doffed the fisherman and donned the artist and poet, and +chased our own fancies down the dark whirlpooling river, along its dell +of evergreens, now lurid with the last glows of twilight. Iglesias and I +continued dreamily gazing down the thoro'fare toward Mollychunkamug only +a certain length of time. Man keeps up to his highest elations hardly +longer than a _danseuse_ can poise in a _pose_. To be conscious of the +highest beauty demands an involuntary intentness of observation so +fanatically eager that presently we are prostrated and need stimulants. +And just as we sensitively felt this exhaustion and this need, we heard +a suggestive voice calling us from the front-door of the mansion-house +of Damville, and "Supper" was the cry. + +A call to the table may quell and may awaken romance. When, in some +abode of poetized luxury, the "silver knell" sounds musically six, and a +door opens toward a glitter that is not pewter and Wedgewood, and, with +a being fair and changeful as a sunset cloud upon my arm, I move under +the archway of blue curtains toward the asphodel and the nectar, then, O +Reader! Friend! romance crowds into my heart, as color and fragrance +crowd into a rose-bud. Joseph Bourgogne, cook at Damville on +Moosetocmaguntic, could not offer us such substitute for aesthetic +emotions. But his voice of an artist created a winning picture half +veiled with mists, evanescent and affectionate, such as linger fondly +over Pork-and-Beans. + +Fancied joy soon to become fact. We entered the barrack. Beneath its +smoky roof-tree was a pervading aroma; near the centre of that aroma, a +table dim with wefts of incense; at the innermost centre of that aroma +and that incense, and whence those visible and viewless fountains +streamed, was their source,--a Dish of Pork-and-Beans. + +Topmostly this. There were lesser viands, buttresses to this towering +triumph. Minor smokes from minor censers. A circle of little craterlings +about the great crater,--of little fiery cones about that great volcanic +dome in the midst, unopened, but bursting with bounty. We sat down, and +one of the red-shirted boldly crushed the smoking dome. The brave fellow +plunged in with a spoon and heaped our plates. + +_A priori_ we had deduced Joseph Bourgogne's results from inspection of +Joseph. Now we could reason back from one _experimentum crucis_ cooked +by him. Effect and cause were worthy of each other. + +The average world must be revenged upon Genius. Greatness must be +punished by itself or another. Joseph Bourgogne was no exception to the +laws of the misery of Genius. He had a distressing trait, whose +exhibition tickled the _dura ilia_ of the reapers of the forest. Joseph, +poet-cook, was sensitive to new ideas. This sensitiveness to the +peremptory thought made him the slave of the wags of Damville. Whenever +he had anything in his hands, at a stern, quick command he would drop it +nervously. Did he approach the table with a second dish of +pork-and-beans, a yellow dish of beans, browned delicately as a Sèvres +vase, then would some full-fed rogue, waiting until Joseph was bending +over some devoted head, say sharply, "Drop that, Joseph!"--whereupon +down went dish and contents, emporridging the poll and person of the +luckless wight beneath. Always, were his burden pitcher of water, armful +of wood, axe dangerous to toes, mirror, or pudding, still followed the +same result. And when the poet-cook had done the mischief, he would +stand shuddering at his work of ruin, and sigh, and curse his too +sensitive nature. + +In honor of us, the damster kept order. Joseph disturbed the banquet +only by entering with new triumphs of Art. Last came a climax-pie, +--contents unknown. And when that dish, fit to set before a +king, was opened, the poem of our supper was complete. J. B. sailed to +the Parnassus where Ude and Vattel feast, forever cooking immortal +banquets in star-lighted spheres. + +Then we sat in the picturesque dimness of the lofty cabin, under the +void where the roof shut off the stars, and talked of the pine-woods, of +logging, measuring, and spring-drives, and of moose-hunting on +snow-shoes, until our mouths had a wild flavor more spicy than if we had +chewed spruce-gum by the hour. Spruce-gum is the aboriginal quid of +these regions. Foresters chew this tenacious morsel as tars nibble at a +bit of oakum, grooms at a straw, Southerns at tobacco, or school-girls +at a slate-pencil. + +The barrack was fitted up with bunks. Iglesias rolled into one of these. +I mummied myself in my blankets and did penance upon a bench. Pine-knots +in my pallet sought out my tenderest spots. The softer wood was worn +away about these projections. Hillocky was the surface, so that I beat +about uneasily and awoke often, ready to envy Iglesias. But from him, +also, I heard sounds of struggling. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +UP THE LAKES. + +Mr. Killgrove, slayer of forests, became the pilot of our voyage up Lake +Moosetocmaguntic. We shoved off in a _bateau_, while Joseph Bourgogne, +sad at losing us, stood among the stumps, waving adieux with a +dish-clout. We had solaced his soul with meed of praise. And now, alas! +we left him to the rude jokes and half-sympathies of the lumbermen. The +artist-cook saw his appreciators vanish away, and his proud dish-clout +drooped like a defeated banner. + +"A fine lake," remarked Iglesias, instituting the matutinal conversation +in a safe and general way. + +"Yes," returned Mr. Killgrove, "when you come to get seven or eight feet +more of water atop of this in spring, it is considerable of a puddle." + +Our weather seemed to be now bettering with more resolution. Many days +had passed since Aurora had shown herself,--many days since the rising +sun and the world had seen each other. But yesterday this sulky +estrangement ended, and, after the beautiful reconciliation at sunset, +the faint mists of doubt in their brief parting for a night had now no +power against the ardors of anticipated meeting. As we shot out upon the +steaming water, the sun was just looking over the lower ridges of a +mountain opposite. Air, blue and quivering, hung under shelter of the +mountain-front, as if a film from the dim purple of night were hiding +there to see what beauty day had, better than its own. The gray fog, so +dreary for three mornings, was utterly vanquished; all was vanished, +save where "swimming vapors sloped athwart the glen," and "crept from +pine to pine." These had dallied, like spies of a flying army, to watch +for chances of its return; but they, too, carried away by the +enthusiasms of a world liberated and illumined, changed their +allegiance, joined the party of hope and progress, and added the grace +of their presence to the fair pageant of a better day. + +Lake Moosetocmaguntic is good,--above the average. If its name had but +two syllables, and the thing named were near Somewhere, poetry and +rhetoric would celebrate it, and the world would be prouder of itself +for another "gem." Now nobody sees it, and those who do have had their +anticipations lengthened leagues by every syllable of its sesquipedalian +title. One expects, perhaps, something more than what he finds. He finds +a good average sheet of water, set in a circlet of dark forest,--forests +sloping up to wooded hills, and these to wooded mountains. Very good and +satisfactory elements, and worth notice,--especially when the artistic +eye is also a fisherman's eye, and he detects fishy spots. As to +wilderness, there can be none more complete. At the upper end of the +lake is a trace of humanity in a deserted cabin on a small clearing. +There a hermit pair once lived,--man and wife, utterly alone for fifteen +years,--once or twice a year, perhaps, visited by lumbermen. Fifteen +years alone with a wife! a trial, certainly,--not necessarily in the +desponding sense of the word; not as Yankees have it, making trial a +misfortune, but a test. + +Mr. Killgrove entertained us with resinous-flavored talk. The voyage was +unexcitingly pleasant. We passed an archipelago of scrubby islands, and, +turning away from a blue vista of hills northward, entered a lovely +curve of river richly overhung with arbor-vitae, a shadowy quiet reach +of clear water, crowded below its beautiful surface with reflected +forest and reflected sky. + +"Iglesias," said I, "we divined how Mollychunkamug had its name; now, as +to Moosetocmaguntic,--hence that elongated appellative?" + +"It was named," replied Iglesias, "from the adventure of a certain +hunter in these regions. He was moose-hunting here in days gone by. His +tale runs thus:--'I had been four days without game, and naturally +without anything to eat except pine-cones and green chestnuts. There was +no game in the forest. The trout would not bite, for I had no tackle and +no hook. I was starving. I sat me down, and rested my trusty, but futile +rifle against a fallen tree. Suddenly I heard a tread, turned my head, +saw a Moose,--took--my--gun,--tick! he was dead. I was saved. I feasted, +and in gratitude named the lake Moosetookmyguntick.' Geography has +modified it, but the name cannot be misunderstood." + +We glided up the fair river, and presently came to the hut of Mr. Smith, +fisherman and misogynist. And there is little more to be said about Mr. +Smith. He appears in this chronicle because he owned a boat which became +our vehicle on Lake Oquossok, Aquessok, Lakewocket, or Rangeley. Mr. +Smith guided us across the carry to the next of the chain of lakes, and +embarked us in a crazy skiff. It was blowing fresh, and, not to be +wrecked, we coasted close to the gnarled arbor-vitae thickets. Smith +sogered along, drawling dull legends of trout-fishing. + +"Drefful notional critturs traout be," he said,--"olluz bitin' atwhodger +haänt got. Orful contrairy critturs,--jess like fimmls. Yer can cotch a +fimml with a feather, ef she's ter be cotched; ef she haänt ter be +cotched, yer may scoop ther hul world dry an' yer haänt got her. Jess so +traout." + +The misogynist bored us with his dull philosophy. The buffetings of +inland waves were not only insulting, but dangerous, to our leaky punt. +At any moment, Iglesias and I might find ourselves floundering together +in thin fresh water. Joyfully, therefore, at last, did we discern +clearings, culture, and habitations at the lake-head. There was no +tavernous village of Rangeley; that would have been too great a +contrast, after the forest and the lakes, where loons are the only +disturbers of silence,--incongruity enough to overpower utterly the +ringing of woodland music in our hearts. Rangeley was a townless +township, as the outermost township should be. We had, however, learnt +from Killgrove, feller of forests, that there was a certain farmer on +the lake, one of the chieftains of that realm, who would hospitably +entertain us. Smith, wheedler of trout, landed us in quite an ambitious +foamy surf at the foot of a declivity below our future host's farm. + +We had now traversed Lakes Umbagog, Weelocksebacook, Allegundabagog, +Mollychunkamug, Moosetocmaguntic, and Oquossok. + +We had been compelled to pronounce these names constantly. Of course our +vocal organs were distorted. Of course our vocal nervous systems were +shattered, and we had a chronic lameness of the jaws. We therefore +recognized a peculiar appropriateness in the name of our host. + +Toothaker was his name. He dwelt upon the lawn-like bank, a hundred feet +above the lake. Mr. Toothaker himself was absent, but his wife received +us hospitably, disposed us in her guest-chamber, and gratified us with a +supper. + +This was Rangeley Township, the outer settlement on the west side of +Maine. A "squire" from England gave it his name. He bought the tract, +named it, inhabited several years, a popular squire-arch, and then +returned from the wild to the tame, from pine woods and stumpy fields to +the elm-planted hedge-rows and shaven lawns of placid England. The local +gossip did not reveal any cause for Mr. Rangeley's fondness for +contrasts and exile. + +Mr. Toothaker has been a careful dentist to the stumps of his farm. It +is beautifully stumpless, and slopes verdantly, or varied with yellow +harvest, down to the lake and up to the forest primeval. He has +preserved a pretty grove of birch and maple as shelter, ornament, +partridge-cover, and perpendicular wood-pile. Below his house and barns +is the lovely oval of the lake, seen across the fair fields, bright with +wheat, or green with pasture. A road, hedged with briskly-aspiring young +spruces, runs for a mile northward, making a faint show at attacking the +wilderness. A mile's loneliness is enough for this unsupported pioneer; +he runs up a tree, sees nothing but dark woods, thinks of Labrador and +the North Pole, and stops. + +Next morning, Mr. Toothaker returned from a political meeting below +among the towns. It was the Presidential campaign,--stirring days from +pines to prairies, stirring days from codfish to cocoanuts. Tonguey men +were talking from every stump all over the land. Blatant patriots were +heard, wherever a flock of compatriots could be persuaded to listen. The +man with one speech containing two stories was making the tour of all +the villages. The man with two speeches, each with three stories, one of +them very broad indeed, was in request for the towns. The oratorical +Stentorian man, with inexhaustible rivers of speech and rafts of +stories, was in full torrent at mass-meetings. There was no neighborhood +that might not see and hear an M. C. But Rangeley had been the _minus_ +town, and by all the speech-makers really neglected; there was danger +that its voters must deposit their ballots according to their own +judgment, without any advice from strangers. This, of course, would +never do. Mr. Toothaker found that we fraternized in politics. He called +upon us, as patriots, to become the orators of the day. Why not? Except +that these seldom houses do not promise an exhilarating crowd. We +promised, however, that, if he would supply hearers, we between us would +find a speaker. + +Mr. Toothaker called a nephew, and charged him to boot and saddle, and +flame it through the country-side that two "Men from New York" were +there, and would give a "Lecture on Politics," at the Red School-House, +at five, that evening. + +And to the Red School-House, at five, crowded the men, ay, and the women +and children, of Rangeley and thereabout. They came as the winds and +waves come when forests and navies are rended and stranded. Horse, foot, +and charioteers, they thronged toward the rubicund fountain of +education. From houses that lurked invisible in clearings suddenly burst +forth a population, an audience ardent with patriotism, eager for +politics even from a Cockney interpreter, and numerous enough to stir +electricity in a speaker's mind. Some of the matrons brought bundles of +swaddled infants, to be early instructed in good citizenship; but too +often these young patriots were found to have but crude notions on the +subject of applause, and they were ignominiously removed, fighting +violently for their privilege of free speech, doubling their unterrified +fists, and getting as red in the face as the school-house. + +Mr. Toothaker, in a neat speech, introduced the orator, who took his +stand in the schoolmaster's pulpit, and surveyed his stalwart and gentle +hearers, filling the sloping benches and overflowing out-of-doors. +Gaffer and gammer, man and maiden, were distributed, the ladies to the +right of the aisle, the gentlemen to the left. They must not be in +contact,--perhaps because gaffer will gossip with gammer, and youth and +maid will toy. Dignity demanded that they should be distinct as the +conservative Right and radical Left of a French Assembly, Convenient, +this, for the orator; since thus his things of beauty, joys forever, he +could waft, in dulcet tones, over to the ladies' side, and his things of +logic, tough morsels for life-long digestion, he could jerk, like bolts +from an arbalist, over at the open mouths of gray gaffer and robust man. + +I am not about to report the orator's speech. Stealing another's thunder +is an offence punishable condignly ever since the days of Salmoneus. +Perhaps, too, he may wish to use the same eloquent bits in the present +Olympiad; for American life is measured by Olympiads, signalized by +nobler contests than the petty States of Greece ever knew. + +The people of Rangeley disappeared as mysteriously as they had emerged +from the woods, having had their share of the good or bad talk of that +year of freedom. If political harangues educate, the educated class was +largely recruited that that summer. + +Next day, again, was stormy. We stayed quietly under shelter, preparing +for our real journey after so much prelude. The Isaac Newton's +steam-whistle had sent up the curtain; the overture had followed with +strains Der-Frei-schutzy in the Adirondacks, pastoral in the valleys of +Vermont and New Hampshire, funebral and andante in the fogs of +Mollychunkamug; now it was to end in an allegretto gallopade, and the +drama would open. + +At last the sun shone bright upon the silky ripples of the lake. Mr. +Toothaker provided two buggies,--one for himself and our traps, one for +Iglesias and me. We rattled away across county and county. And so at +full speed we drove all day, and, with a few hours' halt, all +night,--all a fresh, starry night,--until gay sunrise brought us to +Skowhegan, on the road to Moosehead Lake. + +As we had travelled all night, breakfast must be our substitute for +slumber. Repletion, instead of repose, must restore us. Two files of +red-shirted lumbermen, brandishing knives at each other across a long +table, only excited us to livelier gymnastics; and when we had thus +hastily crammed what they call in Maine beefsteak, and what they infuse +down East for coffee, we climbed to the top of a coach of the +bounding-billow motion, and went pitching northward. + +Two facts we learned from our coachman: one, that we were passing that +day through a "pretty sassy country"; also, that the same region was +"only meant to hold the world together." Personal "sassiness" is a trait +of which every Yankee is proud; Iglesias and I both venture to hope that +we appreciate the value of that quality, and have properly cultivated +it. Topographical "sassiness," unmodified by culture and control, is a +rude, rugged, and unattractive trait; and New England is, on the whole, +"sassier" than I could wish. Let the dullish day's drive, then, be +passed over dumbly. In the evening, we dismounted at Greenville, at the +foot of Moosehead Lake. + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE BIRCH. + +The rivers of Maine, as a native observed to me, "olluz spread 'mselves +inter bulges." Mollychunkamug and her fellows are the bulges of the +Androscoggin; Moosehead, of the Kennebec. Sluggish streams do not need +such pauses. Peace is thrown away upon stolidity. The torrents of Maine +are hasty young heroes, galloping so hard when they gallop, and charging +with such rash enthusiasm when they charge, hurrying with such Achillean +ardor toward their eternity of ocean, that they would never know the +influence, in their heart of hearts, of blue cloudlessness, or the glory +of noonday, or the pageantries of sunset,--they would only tear and rive +and shatter carelessly. Nature, therefore, provides valleys for the +streams to bulge in, and entertain celestial reflections. + +Nature, arranging lake-spots as educational episodes for the Maine +rivers, disposes them also with a view to utility. Mr. Killgrove and his +fellow-lumbermen treat lakes as log-puddles and raft-depots. Moosehead +is the most important of these, and keeps a steamboat for tugging rafts +and transporting raftsmen. + +Moosehead also provides vessels far dearer to the heart of the +adventurous than anything driven by steam. Here, mayhap, will an +untravelled traveller make his first acquaintance with the birch-bark +canoe, and learn to call it by the affectionate diminutive, "Birch." +Earlier in life there was no love lost between him and whatever bore +that name. Even now, if the untravelled one's first acquaintance be not +distinguished by an unlovely ducking, so much the worse. The ducking +must come. Caution must be learnt by catastrophe. No one can ever know +how unstable a thing is a birch canoe, unless he has felt it slide away +from under his misplaced feet. Novices should take nude practice in +empty birches, lest they spill themselves and the load of full ones,--a +wondrous easy thing to do. + +A birch canoe is the right thing in the right place. Maine's rivers are +violently impulsive and spasmodic in their running. Sometimes you have a +foamy rapid, sometimes a broad shoal, sometimes a barricade of boulders +with gleams of white water springing through or leaping over its rocks. +Your boat for voyaging here must be stout enough to buffet the rapid, +light enough to skim the shallow, agile enough to vault over, or lithe +enough to slip through, the barricade. Besides, sometimes the barricade +becomes a compact wall,--a baffler, unless boat and boatmen can +circumvent it,--unless the nautical carriage can itself be carried about +the obstacle,--can be picked up, shouldered, and made off with. + +A birch meets all these demands. It lies, light as a leaf, on +whirlpooling surfaces. A tip of the paddle can turn it into the eddy +beside the breaker. A check of the setting-pole can hold it steadfast on +the brink of wreck. Where there is water enough to varnish the pebbles, +there it will glide. A birch thirty feet long, big enough for a trio and +their traps, weighs only seventy-five pounds. When the rapid passes into +a cataract, when the wall of rock across the stream is impregnable in +front, it can be taken in the flank by an amphibious birch. The +navigator lifts his canoe out of water, and bonnets himself with it. He +wears it on head and shoulders, around the impassable spot. Below the +rough water, he gets into his elongated chapeau and floats away. Without +such vessel, agile, elastic, imponderable, and transmutable, +Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Penobscot would be no thoro'fares for human +beings. Musquash might dabble, chips might drift, logs might turn +somersets along their lonely currents; but never voyager, gentle or +bold, could speed through brilliant perils, gladdening the wilderness +with shout and song. + +Maine's rivers must have birch canoes; Maine's woods, of course, +therefore, provide birches. The white-birch, paper-birch, canoe-birch, +grows large in moist spots near the stream where it is needed. Seen by +the flicker of a campfire at night, they surround the intrusive +traveller like ghosts of giant sentinels. Once, Indian tribes with names +that "nobody can speak and nobody can spell" roamed these forests. A +stouter second growth of humanity has ousted them, save a few seedy ones +who gad about the land, and centre at Oldtown, their village near +Bangor. These aborigines are the birch-builders. They detect by the +river-side the tree barked with material for canoes. They strip it, and +fashion an artistic vessel, which civilization cannot better. Launched +in the fairy lightness of this, and speeding over foamy waters between +forest-solitudes, one discovers, as if he were the first to know it, the +truest poetry of pioneer-life. + +Such poetry Iglesias had sung to me, until my life seemed incomplete +while I did not know the sentiment by touch, description, even from the +most impassioned witness, addressed to the most imaginative hearer, is +feeble. We both wanted to be in a birch: Iglesias, because he knew the +fresh, inspiring vivacity of such a voyage; I, because I divined it. We +both needed to be somewhere near the heart of New England's wildest +wilderness. We needed to see Katahdin,--the distinctest mountain to be +found on this side of the continent. Katahdin was known to Iglesias. He +had scuffled up its eastern land-slides with a squad of lumbermen. He +had birched it down to Lake Chesuncook in by-gone summers, to see +Katahdin distant. Now, in a birch we would slide down the Penobscot, +along its line of lakes, camp at Katahdin, climb it, and speed down the +river to tide-water. + +That was the great object of all our voyage with its educating +preludes,--Katahdin and a breathless dash down the Penobscot. And while +we flashed along the gleam of the river, Iglesias fancied he might see +the visible, and hear the musical, and be stirred by the beautiful. +These, truly, are not far from the daily life of any seer, listener, and +perceiver; but there, perhaps, up in the strong wilderness, we might be +recreated to a more sensitive vitality. The Antaean treatment is needful +for terrestrials, unless they would dwindle. The diviner the power in +any artist-soul, the more distinctly is he commanded to get near the +divine without him. Fancies pale, that are not fed on facts. It is very +easy for any man to be a plagiarist from himself, and present his own +reminiscences half disguised, instead of new discoveries. Now, up by +Katahdin, there were new discoveries to be made; and that mountain would +sternly eye us, to know whether Iglesias were a copyist, or I a Cockney. + +Katahdin was always in its place up in the woods. The Penobscot was +always buzzing along toward the calm reaches, where it takes the shadow +of the mountain. All we needed was the birch. + +The birch thrust itself under our noses as we drove into Greenville. It +was mounted upon a coach that preceded us, and wabbled oddly along, like +a vast hat upon a dwarf. We talked with its owner, as he dismounted it. +He proved our very man. He and his amphibious canoe had just made the +trip we proposed, with a flotilla. Certain Bostonians had essayed +it,--vague Northmen, preceding our Columbus voyage. + +Enter now upon the scene a new and important character, Cancut the +canoe-man. Mr. Cancut, owner and steerer of a birch, who now became our +"guide, philosopher, and friend," is as American as a birch, as the +Penobscot, or as Katahdin's self. Cancut was a jolly fatling,--almost +too fat, if he will pardon me, for sitting in the stern of the +imponderable canoe. Cancut, though for this summer boatman or bircher, +had other strings to his bow. He was taking variety now, after +employment more monotonous. Last summer, his services had been in +request throughout inhabited Maine, to "peddle gravestones and collect +bills." The Gravestone-Peddler is an institution of New England. His +wares are wanted, or will be wanted, by every one. Without +discriminating the bereaved households, he presents himself at any door, +with attractive drawings of his wares, and seduces people into paying +the late tribute to their great-grandfather, or laying up a monument for +themselves against the inevitable day of demand. His customers select +from his samples a tasteful "set of stones"; and next summer he drives +up and unloads the marble, with the names well spelt, and the cherub's +head artistically chiselled by the best workmen of Boston. Cancut told +us, as an instance of judicious economy, how, when he called once upon a +recent widow to ask what he could do in his line for her deceased +husband's tomb, she chose from his patterns neat head- and foot-stones +for the dear defunct, and then bargained with him to throw in a small +pair for her boy Johnny,--a poor, sick crittur, that would be wanting +his monument long before next summer. + +This lugubrious business had failed to infect Mr. Cancut with +corresponding deportment. Undertakers are always sombre in dreary +mockery of woe. Sextons are solemncholy, if not solemn. I fear Cancut +was too cheerful for his trade, and therefore had abandoned it. + +Such was our guide, the captain, steersman, and ballaster of our vessel. +We struck our bargain with him at once, and at once proceeded to make +preparations. Chiefly we prepared by stripping ourselves bare of +everything except "must-haves." A birch, besides three men, will carry +only the simplest baggage of a trio. Passengers who are constantly to +make portages will not encumber themselves with what-nots. Man must have +clothes for day and night, and must have provisions to keep his clothes +properly filled out. These two articles we took in compact form, +regretting even the necessity of guarding against a ducking by a change +of clothes. Our provision, that unrefined pork and hard tack, presently +to be converted into artist and friend, was packed with a few delicacies +in a firkin,--a commodious case, as we found. + +A little steamer plies upon the lake, doing lumber-jobs, and not +disdaining the traveller's dollars. Upon this, one August morning, we +embarked ourselves and our frail birch, for our voyage to the upper end +of Moosehead. Iglesias, in a red shirt, became a bit of color in the +scene. I, in a red shirt, repeated the flame. Cancut, outweighing us +both together, in a broader red shirt, outglared us both. When we three +met, and our scarlet reflections commingled, there was one spot in the +world gorgeous as a conclave of cardinals, as a squad of British +grenadiers, as a Vermont maple-wood in autumn. + + + +RIFLE-CLUBS. + +A sense of the importance of rifle-practice is becoming very generally +prevalent. Rifle-clubs are organizing in our country-towns, and +target-practice by individuals is increasing to a degree which proves +incontestably the interest which is felt in the subject. The chief +obstacle to the immediate and extensive practical operation of this +interest lies in the difficulty of procuring serviceable guns, except at +such a cost as places them beyond the reach of the majority of those who +would be glad to make themselves familiar with their use. Except in +occasional instances, it is impossible to procure a trustworthy rifle +for a less price than forty or fifty dollars. We believe, however, that +the competition which has already become very active between rival +manufacturers will erelong effect a material reduction of price; and we +trust also that our legislators will perceive the necessity of adopting +a strict military organization of all the able-bodied men in the State, +and providing them with weapons, with whose use they should be +encouraged to make themselves familiar--apart from military drill and +instruction--by the institution of public shooting-matches for prizes. +The absolute necessity of stringent laws, in order to secure the +attainment of anything worthy the name of military education and +discipline, has been clearly proved by the experience of the drill-clubs +which sprang into existence in such numbers last year. To say, that, as +a general rule, the moral strength of the community is not sufficient to +enable a volunteer association to sustain for any great length of time +the severe and irksome details which are inseparable from the attainment +of thorough military discipline, is no more a reflection upon the class +to which the remark is applied than would be the equally true assertion +that their physical strength is not equal to the performance of the work +of an ordinary day-laborer. Under the pressure of necessity, both moral +and physical strength might be forced and kept up to the required +standard; but the mere conviction of expediency is not enough to secure +its development, unless enforced by such laws as will insure universal +and systematic action. A voluntary association for military instruction +may be commenced with a zeal which will carry its members for a time +through the daily routine of drilling; but it will not be long before +the ranks will begin to diminish, and the observance of discipline +become less strict; and if the officers attempt to enforce the laws by +which all have agreed to abide, those laws will speedily be rescinded by +the majority who find them galling, and the tie by which they are bound +together will prove a rope of sand. + +With the return of the troops who are now acquiring military knowledge +in the best of all possible schools, we shall possess the necessary +material for executing whatever system may be decided upon as best for +the military education of the people; but meantime we may lay the +foundation for it, and take the most efficient means of securing +legislative action, by the immediate organization of rifle-clubs for +target-practice throughout the State. These clubs may be commenced very +informally by a simple agreement among those who are interested and are +provided, or will provide themselves, with weapons, to meet together at +stated intervals for target-practice, which should be conducted +according to the rules which have been found most effectual for securing +good marksmanship. The mere interest of competition will be sufficient +to insure private practice in the intervals; and if properly and +respectably conducted, the interest will increase till it becomes +general, and the target-ground will become a central object of +attraction. + +We earnestly invite the attention not only of all who are impressed with +the necessity of inculcating a thorough practical knowledge of the use +of weapons, as a measure of national interest, but of all who are +interested in the subject of physical, and we may add, moral education, +to the field which is here opened, and which, if not improved, as it may +be, for noble and useful ends, will certainly be perverted for low and +immoral purposes. + +The interest which is beginning to be awakened in rifle-practice is the +germ of a great movement, which it is the duty of all who have the +national welfare at heart to use their influence in guiding and +directing, as may easily be done, so that only good may result from it. +Let it be countenanced and encouraged by the men, in every community, +whose words and example give tone to public opinion, and it will become, +as it ought, a means of health-giving and generous rivalry, while it +infuses a sense of national power, which we, of all people on earth, +ought to derive from the consciousness that it is based upon the +physical ability of the people to maintain their own rights. If, +however, it is frowned upon and sneered at, as unworthy the attention of +a morally and intellectually cultivated people, we shall draw upon +ourselves the curse of creating a sin,--of poisoning at its source a +fountain whose elements in themselves are not only innocent, but +abounding in the best ingredients for the development of manly physical +and intellectual character. + +We trust, however, that such a caution is unnecessary. If there are any +among us who, after the past year's experience, can look with doubt or +coldness upon such a movement as we have indicated, we should hardly +care to waste words in arguing the point. That such a feeling should +have heretofore existed is not, perhaps, surprising. The possibility of +such an emergency as has come upon us has seemed so improbable, not to +say impossible, that it has appeared like a waste of time and labor to +prepare for it; and the result has been, that we had come to look upon +military education with much the same feeling as that with which we +regard the pugilistic art, as of questionable, if not decidedly +disreputable character, and such as a nation of our respectability could +by no possibility have occasion for. + +From this dream of security we have been unexpectedly and very +disagreeably awakened, by finding ourselves engaged in a war whose +magnitude we were at first slow to appreciate; and it was not till we +found ourselves ominously threatened by a foreign power, while still +engaged in a fearful struggle at home, that we seemed to be fully +aroused to the necessity of being at all times prepared for defence. + +Then there came over us a universal consciousness of undeveloped +strength,--the feeling of a powerful man, who knows nothing of "the +noble art of self-defence," at finding himself suddenly confronted by a +professional boxer, who demands, with an ominous squaring of the +shoulders, what he meant by treading on his toes,--to which he, poor +man, instead of replying that it was so obviously unintentional that no +gentleman would think of demanding an apology, is fain, in order to +escape the impending blow, to answer by assuring the bully in the most +soothing terms that no insult was intended, that he never will do so +again, and hopes that the occasion may serve as a precedent for Mr. +Bully himself to avoid the corns of his neighbors for the future. + +It is comparatively but few years since the success of Colonel Colt in +the application of the repeating principle to fire-arms was regarded as +a feat in which every American felt a national pride. It was such a vast +improvement upon anything which had previously existed, and the +importance of it was so obvious, that it became as much a matter of +necessity to the whole civilized world as iron-clad steamers have become +since the demonstration of their power which was given by the +performances of the Merrimack and the Monitor. And, indeed, the best +evidence of the universal acknowledgment of this fact is afforded by the +innumerable imitations and attempts at improvement which have since made +their appearance at home and abroad. + +We have used Colt's 51-inch rifle, and also his rifled carbine, very +freely, and tested them thoroughly for range, precision, penetration, +and capacity for continued service, and for our own use in hunting are +entirely satisfied with the performance of this rifle, and should be at +a loss to imagine any possible demand of a hunter's weapon which it +would fail to meet. + +An able and interesting article on "Rifled Guns" in the "Atlantic +Monthly" for October, 1859, has the following passage: "No +breech-loading gun is so trustworthy in its execution as a +muzzle-loader; for, in spite of all precautions, the bullets will go out +irregularly. We have cut out too many balls of Sharpe's rifle from the +target, which had entered sidewise, not to be certain on this point; and +we know of no other breech-loader so little likely to err in this +respect." + +We cannot speak of Sharpe's rifle from our own experience, but from one +of the best riflemen of our acquaintance we have heard the same +report,--that the cones will occasionally turn and strike sidewise. We +do not believe, however, that this fault is a necessary consequence of +the peculiar method of loading; but, whatever may be the cause, with +Colt's rifle the evil does not exist. For the past year we have +practised with it at ranges of from fifty to six hundred yards, and have +fired something like two thousand rounds; and only three balls have +struck the target sidewise, two of which were ricochets, and the third +struck a limb of a bush a few feet in front of the target. In no other +instance has the shot failed to cut a perfectly true round hole, and +these exceptions would of course be equally applicable to any gun. With +the latest pattern of Colt's rifle we have never known an instance of a +premature discharge of either of the chambers; though, from the repeated +inquiries which have been made, it is obvious that such is the general +apprehension. In reply to the common assertion, that much of the +explosive force must be lost by escape of gas between the chamber and +the barrel, we simply state the fact that we have repeatedly shot +through nine inches of solid white cedar timber at forty yards. Finally, +at two hundred yards, we find no difficulty in making an average of five +inches from the centre, in ten successive shots, of which eight inches +is the extreme variation. This is good enough for any ordinary purposes +of hunting or military service,--for anything, in short, but gambling or +fancy work; and for our own use, against either man or beast, we should +ask no better weapon. But we should be very far from advocating its +general adoption in military service; and, indeed, our own experience +with it has brought the conviction that the repeating principle in any +form is decidedly objectionable in guns for the use of ordinary troops +of the line. We do not extend the objection to pistols in their proper +place, but speak now solely of rifles in the hands of infantry. + +In action, the time of each soldier must of necessity be divided between +the processes of loading and firing; and it is better that these should +come in regular alternate succession than that a series of rapid shots +should be succeeded by the longer interval required for inserting a +number of charges. It would be hard to assign definitely the most +important reasons for this conviction, which are based upon, elements +that prevail so generally in the moral and physical characters of men, +and which we have so often seen developed in the excitement of hunting +large game, that we can readily appreciate the motives which have made +sagacious military men very shy of trusting miscellaneous bodies of +soldiers with a weapon whose possible advantages are more than +counterbalanced by the probable mischief that must ensue from the want +of such instinctive power of manipulation as could result only from +constant and long-continued familiarity, and which even then might be +paralyzed in very many instances by nervous excitement. + +We would not, however, be understood as condemning breech-loading guns +for military service. On the contrary, we are firm in the conviction +that they are destined to supersede entirely every species of +muzzle-loaders, which will thenceforward be regarded only as curious +evidences of the difficulty of making an advance of a single step, +which, when taken, seems so simple that it appears incredible that it +was not thought of before. The ingenuity of thousands of our most +skilful men is now turned in this direction, and stimulated by a demand +which will obviously insure a fortune to the successful competitor. The +advantages of a breech-loading gun consist in the greater rapidity with +which it can be loaded and fired, and the avoidance of the exposure +incident to the motions of drawing the ramrod and ramming the cartridge. +We are well aware that rapid firing is in itself an evil, and that a +common complaint with officers is that the men will not take time enough +in aiming to insure efficiency; but granting this, it by no means +follows that the evil will be increased by the ability to load rapidly. +Its remedy lies in thorough discipline and practical knowledge of the +use of the gun; and the soldier will be more likely to take time for +aiming, if he knows he can be ready to repeat his shot almost instantly. + +The contingencies of actual service demand the use of different kinds of +guns to suit the different circumstances which may arise. In rifle-pits, +against batteries, or for picking off artillerymen through the +embrasures of a fort, the telescope-rifle has established its reputation +beyond all question during the war in which we are now engaged. In +repeated instances the enemy's batteries have been effectually kept +silent by the aid of this weapon, till counter-works could be +established, which could by no possibility have been constructed but for +such assistance. During the siege of Yorktown, especially, the fact is +historical that the Confederates acquired such a dread of these weapons +that they forced their negroes to the work of serving the guns, which +they did not dare attempt themselves, and our men were reluctantly +compelled, in self-defence, to pick off the poor fellows who were +unwillingly opposed to them. In more than one instance after an +engagement, members of the "Andrew Sharp-shooters" have indicated +precisely the spot where their victims would be found, and the exact +position of the bullet-holes which had caused their death; for with the +telescope-rifle the question is not, whether an enemy shall be hit, but +what particular feature of his face, or which button of his coat shall +be the target. That this is no exaggeration may be easily proved by the +indisputable evidence of hundreds of targets, every shot in which may be +covered by the palm of the hand, though fired from a distance at which +no unassisted eye could possibly discern the object aimed at. + +But the telescope-rifle is utterly useless, except for special service. +The great body of infantry comprised in an army must be provided with +guns whose general appearance and character admit of no essential +variation from the standard which experience has proved to be the best +for the wants of the service. + +We have given our objections to the whole class of repeating guns in +what we have said of Colt's rifles; and we proceed to note the defects +of other breech-loading guns, some of which would constitute no ground +of objection to the sportsman, but are inadmissible in the soldier's +gun. It is, of course, essential that any breech-loading gun which is +offered for introduction in the army should be at least equal in range, +penetration, and precision, to the best muzzle-loader now in use. It +must be so simple in its construction and mode of operation that its +manipulation may readily become an instinctive action, requiring no +exercise of thought or judgment to guard against errors which might +effect a derangement,--for a large portion of any miscellaneous body of +men would be found incapable of exercising such judgment in the +excitement of action. The limbs and joints comprised in the arrangement +for introducing the charge at the breech must not only be so simple as +to avoid the danger of making mistakes in their use, but of such +strength as will bear the rough usage incident to field-service. They +must, of course, make a perfectly tight joint, and there must be no +possibility of their becoming clogged by fouling, so as to affect the +facility with which they are worked. And finally, it is vitally +important that no special ammunition be required, a failure in the +supply of which may render the weapon useless. + +As this last objection would rule out the whole class of guns requiring +metallic cartridges, and as there are undeniable advantages connected +with their use, we deem it necessary to give our reasons for this +decision somewhat at length. The cartridges are made of copper and +filled with powder, and the ball being inserted in the end, they are +compressed about its base so as to render them perfectly water-tight. +The fulminating powder, being in the base of the cartridge, is exploded +by the blow of the hammer, which falls directly upon it. The advantages +are, that there is no escape of gas, and no liability of injury from +water; and experience has abundantly proved the excellence of the system +in the essential qualities of precision and force. The most obvious +objection to them is the one above alluded to. The cartridges must, of +necessity, be made by special machinery, and can be supplied only from +the manufactory. To this it is replied, that the same objection may be +urged against the use of percussion-caps. We grant it; and if it were +possible to dispense with them, it would be an obvious gain. But because +we must have caps, in spite of their disadvantages, it does not follow +that we should increase unnecessarily the equipments against which the +same objection exists in a much greater degree, owing to the more +intricate process of manufacture and the very much greater difficulty of +transportation. The additional weight for the soldier to carry, also, is +no trifle, and will not be overlooked by those who appreciate the +importance of every ounce that is saved. But apart from minor +objections, a fatal one lies in the fact that every cartridge-box filled +with this ammunition may be considered as a shell liable to explode by +concussion and spread destruction around it. The powder and fulminating +composition being always in contact in every cartridge, it is obvious +that a chance shot may explode the whole boxful; and we have proved by +experiment that this is not an imaginary danger. + +Since the appearance of our previous article on "The Use of the Rifle," +our attention has been called to several new inventions for +breech-loading, some of them exceedingly ingenious and curious, but only +one of which has at once commended itself as being so obviously and +distinctly an improvement as to induce a further test of its powers, and +has proved on trial so entirely efficient, and free from the faults +which seemed to be inseparable from the system, as to lead to the +belief, which we confidently express, that its general adoption as a +military weapon must be a necessary consequence of its becoming known. + +As a full description and report of the trial of this gun has been +officially prepared by a commission appointed for the purpose, and will +probably be published, we shall only say of it here that its performance +is equal in all respects to that of the best muzzle-loader, and, while +possessing all the advantages, it is entirely free from any of the +objections which pertain in one form or another to every breech-loading +gun we have heretofore had an opportunity to inspect. In appearance it +is so nearly like the ordinary soldier's musket that the difference can +be perceived only on examination; and, indeed, it may be used as a +muzzle-loader either with a cartridge or with loose powder and ball. It +is so simple in its mode of operation that there is less danger of error +than with a muzzle-loader; yet the anatomical construction of the limbs +and joints secures a degree of strength equal to that of a solid mass of +iron. The force of the explosion causes so perfect a closing of the +joint as to prevent any possible escape of gas, yet the breech may be +removed by as simple a process as that of cocking the gun; and we have +in the course of experiment fired the gun three hundred times, and have +since seen it fired five hundred times, without once wiping or cleaning, +and the working of the joints was as easy and the shooting as good at +the last as at first. + +It is a singular fact in the history of arms, that the successive +improvements in their construction have occurred at long intervals, and +have made but slow progress towards general adoption even when their +advantages were apparent. It was more than a century after muskets were +first used in war before they were introduced in the English army to the +exclusion of bows and arrows; more than fifty years passed after the +invention of flint-locks before they were substituted for match-locks; +and many years elapsed after the invention of the percussion-lock before +it came into general use. + +It is probable that the introduction of breech-loading guns will be +proportionally slow. A distinguished English military writer says: "With +respect to the choice between muzzle-loaders and breech-loaders, I am +quite satisfied that the latter will eventually carry the day. The best +principles of construction may not yet have been discovered; but I have +no more doubt of their advantage over the muzzle-loaders than I have of +the superiority of the percussion--over flint-lock guns." + +We coincide entirely in this opinion, and we have a very strong feeling +of confidence that the gun we have alluded to is destined to achieve the +consummation here predicted. + +For clubs which propose to combine a military drill with +target-practice, it is of course essential that the guns should be of +uniform pattern. But in our country-towns, until some definite system of +military organization is established by law, it is not likely that +volunteer associations will be formed for anything more than the object +of perfecting themselves in marksmanship. Great numbers of able-bodied +men may be found in every community, who will be very ready to join +associations to meet at stated intervals for simple target-practice, but +who could not afford the time which would necessarily be required for +the attainment of anything like efficient discipline as soldiers. For +such associations it is not only unimportant that the arms should be of +uniform pattern, but a diversity is even desirable, as affording the +means of testing their comparative merits, and thus giving the members +the opportunity of learning from actual observation the governing +principles of the science of projectiles. + +It is essential, however, to the attainment of any proper degree of +skill in the use of the rifle that it should be acquired systematically. +Experience has proved to the instructors at the Hythe School, that, "the +less practice the pupil has previously had with the rifle, the better +shot he is likely in a limited period to become; for, in shooting, bad +habits of any kind are difficult to eradicate, and such is the Hythe +system that it does not admit of being grafted upon any other. Those who +have been zealously engaged in maturing it have left nothing to chance; +they have ascertained by innumerable trials the best way in which every +minute portion of the task to be executed should be performed, and no +deviation, however slight, should be attempted from the directions laid +down. By rigid adherence to them, far more than average proficiency in +shooting is attainable without the expenditure of a single +ball-cartridge. Paradoxical as this may seem, it is nevertheless +strictly true. It is only, however, to be accomplished by a course of +aiming and position drill."[2] + +We have seen too many instances of poor shooting by men who passed for +good riflemen, owing to ignorance of principles whose observance would +alone enable them to adapt their practice to varying circumstances, to +have any doubt of the important truth contained in the above extract; +and we would urge its careful consideration and a compliance with its +suggestions upon every association of riflemen. + +With all the instruction which can be got from books and teachers, +however, it is only by constant practice that one can attain the degree +of skill which inspires entire confidence in his capacity to develop the +best powers of the rifle. It seems a very simple thing to bring the line +of sight upon the target, and to pull the trigger at the right moment; +but, in reality, it is what no man can do without continued practice, +and he who has attained the power will confirm the assertion that the +art of doing it is indescribable, and must be acquired by every man for +himself. + +For the sake of first becoming familiar with the powers of the weapon, +we advise beginners to practise for a time with a rest. This should be a +bag of sand, or some equally inelastic substance, on which the gun can +repose firmly and steadily; and a little practice with such aid will +enable the shooter to realize the relation of the line of sight to the +trajectory under varying circumstances of wind and light, and thus to +proceed knowingly in his subsequent training. But we are unwilling to +give this advice without accompanying it with the caution not to +continue the practice till it becomes habitual. It is very difficult for +one who is accustomed to use a rest to feel the confidence which is +essential to success, when shooting from the shoulder; and no one is +deserving the name of a rifleman who requires such aid. + +It is difficult for an inexperienced person to conceive of the effect of +even a light wind upon so small an object as a rifle-ball, when shot +from the gun. The difficulty arises from the impossibility of taking in +the idea of such rapid flight, or of the resistance produced by it, by +comparison with anything within the limits of our experience. We may +attain a conception of it, however, by trying to move a stick through +the water. Moving it slowly, the resistance is imperceptible; but as we +increase the velocity, we find the difficulty to increase very rapidly, +and if we try to strike a quick blow through the water, we find the +resistance so enormous that the effort is almost paralyzed. +Mathematically, the resistance increases in the ratio of the square of +the velocity; and although the air is of course more easily displaced +than water, the same rule applies to it, and the flight of a ball is so +inconceivably rapid that the resistance becomes enormous. The average +initial velocity of a cannon- or rifle-ball is sixteen hundred feet in a +second, and a twelve-pound round shot, moving at this rate, encounters +an atmospheric resistance of nearly two hundred pounds, or more than +sixteen times its own weight. Perhaps a clearer idea may be attained by +the statement of the fact, that, were it possible to remove this +resistance, or, in other words, to fire a ball in a vacuum, it would fly +ten miles in a second,--the same time it now requires to move sixteen +hundred feet. Bearing in mind this enormous resistance, it will be more +readily apparent that even a slight motion of the element through which +the ball is struggling must influence its course. For this reason it is +that the best time to shoot, as a general rule, is in the morning or +evening, when the air is most apt to be perfectly calm. It will often be +found, after making very satisfactory shots at sunrise, that by ten +o'clock, even on what would be called a calm day, it is impossible to +attain to anything like the accuracy with which the day's work was +begun; and, owing to the irregular motion of the air, the difficulty +cannot be overcome, except to a limited degree, by making allowance for +it. + +It is well, however, to practise in all possible conditions of weather, +and not to be discouraged at finding unaccountable variations at +different times in the flight of balls. A few weeks' experience will at +least enable the learner to judge of the veracity of a class of stories +one often hears, of the feats of backwoodsmen. It is not long since we +were gravely assured by a quondam travelling acquaintance, who no doubt +believed it himself, that there were plenty of men in the South who +could shave off either ear of a squirrel with a rifle-ball at one +hundred yards, without doing him further injury. A short experience of +target-shooting will suffice to demonstrate the absurdity of all the +wonderful stories of this class which are told and often insisted on +with all the bigotry of ignorance. A somewhat extended acquaintance with +backwoodsmen has served only to convince us, that, while a practical +familiarity with the rifle is more general with them than with us, a +scientific knowledge of its principles is rare; and the best +target-shooting we have ever seen was in New England. + +[Footnote 2: _Hand-Book for Hythe._ By Lieut. Hans Busk.] + + + + + +TWO SUMMERS. + +Last summer, when athwart the sky + Shone the immeasurable days, +We wandered slowly, you and I, + Adown these leafy forest-ways, + +With laugh and song and sportive speech, + And mirthful tales of earlier years, +Though deep within the soul of each + Lay thoughts too sorrowful for tears, + +Because--I marked it many a time-- + Your feet grew slower day by day, +And where I did not fear to climb + You paused to find an easier way. + +And all the while a boding fear + Pressed hard and heavy on my heart; +Yet still with words of hope and cheer + I bade the gathering grief depart, + +Saying,--"When next these purple bells + And these red columbines return,-- +When woods are full of piny smells, + And this faint fragrance of the fern,-- + +"When the wild white-weed's bright surprise + Looks up from all the strawberried plain, +Like thousands of astonished eyes,-- + Dear child, you will be well again!" + +Again the marvellous days are here; + Warm on my cheek the sunshine burns, +And fledged birds chirp, and far and near + Floats the strange sweetness of the ferns. + +But down these ways I walk alone, + Tearless, companionless, and dumb,-- +Or rest upon this way-side stone, + To wait for one who does not come. + +Yet all is even as I foretold: + The summer shines on wave and wild, +The fern is fragrant as of old, + And you are well again, dear child! + + + +MR. AXTELL. + +PART II. + +Katie (the doctor's name for her) said consolingly, as we went +up-stairs,-- + +"I am going to sleep in Miss Lettie's little dressing-room; the door is +close beside her bed. If you want me, you can speak,--I shall be sure to +hear"; and she lighted my footsteps to the door. + +I went in hastily, for Katie was gone. The statuesque lady became +informed with life; she started violently, and said,-- + +"Who is it?" + +"I beg pardon for the noise," I said; "how are you?" + +"Thank you, a pain up here, Kate"; and she put her hand, so long giving +support to her chin, upon the top of her head. + +"It isn't Kate"; and I came into full view. + +She looked up at me. + +"Why, you are--yes, I know--Miss Percival," she said. + +"I am." + +"Have you been here long?" + +"Only since yesterday." + +Why did she seem relieved at my reply? + +"Do they think me ill enough to have a stranger come to me?" + +"Almost as polite as the grum brother," I thought; but I said, "You +mustn't let me be a stranger to you. I came,--I wasn't sent for." + +She made an effort to rise from her seat, but, unable, turned her eyes +toward the windows. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"I thought I'd like to know what the weather looks like." + +"Then let me lift the curtains"; and I drew aside the folds, but there +was nothing to be seen. The moon was not yet up; and even had it been, +there was slight chance for seeing it, as the sun had stayed behind +clouds all the day. + +"Put them down, please; there's no light out there." + +"The doctor left some medicine for you; will you take it?" + +"No, I thank you. I hate medicines." + +"So do I." + +"Then pray tell me what you wish me to take it for." + +"You mistake; it was the doctor's order, not mine." + +"The very idea of asking that image of calm decision there to do +anything!--but then I must, I am nurse"; so I ventured, "Had you not +better go to bed?" + +"After a little. Would you bathe my head? this pain distresses me, and I +don't want to dream, I'd rather stay awake." + +As I stood beside her, gently applying the cooling remedy, trying to +stroke away the pain, she asked,-- + +"Did they tell you that my mother is dead?" + +"Yes." + +"She was my mother. Oh, why didn't I tell her? Why? why?" and great +spasms of torturesome pain drew her beautiful face. I didn't tell you +how beautiful she is. Well, it doesn't matter; you couldn't understand, +if I should try. + +She turned suddenly, caught my dress in her hands, and asked,-- + +"Have you a mother, Miss Percival?" and before I could answer my sad +"No," she said, "Forgive me. I forgot for one moment" + +My mother had been twenty years dead. What did she know about it? I, +three years old when she died, but just remembered her. + +Katie came in, bringing "thoughts of me" condensed into aromatic +draughts of coffee, which she put upon the hearth, "to keep warm," she +said. + +I asked her to bring some "sweet" to mix the powder in. + +"I hate disguises," said Miss Axtell; "I'd rather have true bitters than +cover them just a little with sugars. Give it me, if I must take it." + +"But you can't,--not _this_ powder." + +"A glass of water, Kate, please"; and she actually took the bitter dose +of Dover in all its undisguised severity. + +"There! isn't that a thousand times better than covering it all up in a +sweetness that one knows isn't true?" + +She looked a little as if expecting an answer. I would have preferred +not saying my thought, and was waiting, when she asked,-- + +"Don't you think on the subject?" + +"Yes; I think that I like the bitter better when it is concealed." + +"You wouldn't, if you knew, if you had tried it, child." + +"Oh, I have taken a Dover's-powder often, and I always bury it in +sirup." + +She looked a little startled, odd look at me. + +"Do you think I'm talking about that simple powder that I've been +taking?" + +"Weren't you?" + +"Come here, innocent little thing!" she said, and motioned me to a +footstool at her feet. + +Her adjectives were both very unsuitable, when applied to me; but I was +nurse, and must yield to the whim of my patient. + +"Kate, look after Mr. Axtell." + +Poor Kate went out, more from the habit of obedience than apparently to +obey any such behest; but she went, nevertheless. + +"I know who you are; I knew your mother," she said. "Never attempt to +cover up bitterness; it has its use in the world." + +"Will you go to bed now? It's very late," I ventured. + +She went on as though I had not spoken at all,-- + +"There's somebody dead down-stairs, there,--now,--this minute;--but +dead,--dead,--gone beyond my reach.--Child! child! do you know, do you +feel what I mean?" + +"How can I? I haven't seen her; I never saw her." + +"She's dead,--she's dead,--and I meant to--oh! I meant to do it before +she died. Why didn't something tell me? Things do come and speak to me +sometimes,--why not last night?" + +I got anxious. Was this what the doctor meant by incoherent talking? +Away up the village-street I heard the bell striking for midnight. + +"It is time you were asleep; please try and sleep." + +My words did not stay her; she went on,-- + +"If it only had,--then,--at the last,--she might have +forgiven;--yes,--think, it might have been,--and it _is_ not,--no, it +_is not_!--and she lies dead, down-stairs, in the very room!--But are +you sure? Perhaps she isn't dead. Such things have been." + +Oh! what should I do? I thought of Katie. "The next door," she said; +there were but two in the room; it must be this one, then. I opened it. +"No, this is a closet,--dresses are hanging there," I thought; "but +there is a door leading out from it." I looked back to the chair, where +Miss Axtell still sat; she was talking to herself, as if I had not left +the room. I could not venture to open this unknown door without a light +to flow into its darkness. I went back into the room and took up a lamp. + +"What are you doing?" Miss Axtell stopped to ask; then, forgetting me, +she resumed her self-questioning. + +I lighted the lamp and went into the closet. I said that there were +dresses hanging there. Among them my eyes singled out one; it was not +bright,--no, it was a grave, brown, plaid dress. I tried to call Kate. +My voice would not obey me. My tongue was still. I grasped the knob and +turned it; the door opened. Poor Katie! she was asleep. She started up, +bringing the larger half of a dream with her, I'm sure. "It's not so +dreadful. You have me left, father," she said, with her young face rosy, +and very sleepy. I went close to her, put my hand upon the cover, and +said,-- + +"You must call Mr. Axtell, Katie." + +"For what? Is Miss Axtell worse?" + +"I think so; she will not lie down." + +"Do you think I might try to coax her?"--and Katie rubbed her heavy +eyelids, open too soon. + +"If you think you can." + +Miss Axtell had ceased to talk; she had fallen back into the old +absorbed state. Katie kneeled down beside her chair, and spoke. + +"Miss Lettie!" she said. + +Miss Lettie did not answer. Katie put out one finger only. I saw it +shake a bit, as she laid it upon Miss Lettie's hand. As when the doctor +touched her forehead, she came back to her proper self, and said,-- + +"What is it, Kate? Isn't it time you were asleep?" + +"Don't you know that my mother is dead?" said poor motherless Katie. + +"And so is mine," said Miss Axtell. + +"And mine," added I. + +"And is it for that that you don't sleep, Kate?" + +"No, Ma'am; but it is because you won't try to sleep; and you told us +all, when my mother died, that"--and Katie stopped there. + +"Why don't you go on?" I asked, in a low voice. + +"I can't,--I don't remember the words; but you said, Miss Lettie, that +too much sorrow was wicked." + +"And so it is; and mine is, if it keeps you awake. I will lie down." + +The little maid so kindly, gently arranged the pillows, and made the +lady comfortable, that there was little left for me to do. + +When she went back to bury the dream that I so suddenly drew out of the +balmy land, I had only to shade the light, stir the fire a little, and +then wait. From afar up the street came the stroke of one. Miss Axtell's +face was turned away from me. I could only fancy that her eyes were +closed. Once she put an arm over the pillow. I touched it. It burned +with fever-heat. Then all was still. I sat upon a lounge, +comfort-giving, related to the chair in style of covering. I fancied, +after a long quiet, that my patient was asleep. I kept myself awake by +examining this room that I was in. It was, like most of the other rooms, +a hexagon, with two windows looking eastward. An air of homeness was +over, and in, its every appointment. It seemed a room to sing in; _were_ +songs ever heard there? I laid my head upon my hand, and listened to one +that Fancy tried to sing,--I, who never sing, in whose soul music rolls +and swells in great ocean-waves, that never in this world will break +against the shore of sound; and so I builded one, very wild and porous +and wavering, a style of iceberg shore, far out in the limitless, +waters, and listened to the echoes that came,--and, listening, must have +fallen into sleep. + +I awoke with a chill feeling, as if the fire had gone down. A draught +seemed blowing upon me. I got up with a full sense of my position as +keeper of that fire, and went to it. The door into the hall was open. I +glanced at the bed; Miss Axtell was not there. The hall was dark. I +caught up the lamp and hurried out. I leaned over the balustrade and +looked down the stairway. Slowly going down I saw Miss Axtell. Was she a +somnambulist? Perhaps so. I must be cautious. I hastened after her, +moving as noiselessly as she. I took the precaution to leave the lamp in +the upper hall. She was leaning against the wall-side of the staircase. +Just as she reached the lower step, I put my arm around her. There was +no need; she was fully awake. + +"Will you go back to sleep?" she asked of me, before I could find time +to make the same request of her. + +"No,--I came here for you. Where are you going?" + +"In there"; and she pointed to the room where I had seen the doctor and +Katie go,--where she who was dead lay. + +"Oh, come back! please do! that is no place for you"; and I endeavored +to turn her steps. + +"It is well that you say it. She's in there; perhaps she isn't dead. +Such things have been. It was sudden, you know. Let me go." + +I held her with all the strength I had. + +"Leave me to myself. I'm going to tell her,--to tell her _now_. She'll +hear me better than to-morrow; they'll have a fathom of earth over her +heart then: that will be deeper than all that love of Abraham which +covered up her heart from me." + +What could I do? Despite my holding arms, she was gaining toward that +fatal door, and the light was very dim. I called Katie three times, Miss +Axtell still getting near to that I dreaded. + +I heard a door open. I looked back, and saw Mr. Axtell coming from the +library. He came quickly along the hall, arrested his sister's progress, +and said gently, as twice he had spoken before,-- + +"Lettie, where are you going?" + +"In there, Abraham." + +"No, Lettie, you are sick; you must go back up-stairs." + +"I will, when I have told her what I wish." + +"Whom?" + +"Mother." + +What could Mr. Axtell have meant? He asked me to bring down the lamp; he +took it in his own hand, and, supporting his sister, moved on. Was he +going to take her in there. He did. I fled back to the library; +trembling in affright, I sank into the first chair, and, covering my +face with my hands, thought,-- + +"What terrible people these are! Why did I come here, where I was not +wanted?" + +"Poor child!" + +I started up at the words. Mr. Axtell left the door open. + +"You think it strange that I let my sister follow out such a sick fancy, +I suppose." + +"I think it is dreadful,--terrible." + +"Oh, no, it is not. Why do you think so?" + +"Talking to dead people!" + +"Well?" + +"They don't hear you." + +"Perhaps not." + +"You _know_ they _can't_." + +"No, I do not." + +"Then go and learn it. Will you go and listen in there?" + +"I will not." + +"Why?" + +"Lettie wished to be alone." + +"You're very strange people." + +"We are." + +He got up quickly, confusedly, crossed the room, and turned a picture +that was upon the sofa. I had not noticed it before. I glanced up at the +wall. The face was gone. The picture that be turned must have been that. +He came back and stood before me. + +"Were you frightened when Lettie came down?" he asked. + +"Yes; how could I help it?" + +"Why didn't you turn the lock?" + +"I was asleep when she went out." + +"What awakened you?" + +"The cold air from the hall." + +"A careful nurse, you are!" + +"I am not careful." + +"No?" + +He teased me, this man. I hate to be teased. And all this time, whilst +he stood questioning me, Miss Axtell was in that lone, silent room, +confessing to the dead. It was worse than the tower-confessional; and +besides, what had she done that was so bad? Nothing, I felt convinced. +Why would she do such a thing? + +I think I must have spoken the last thought; for Mr. Axtell answered it +in his next words. + +"Lettie is only working out a necessity of her own spirit. She is not +harming any living soul. I cannot see why you should look so white and +terrified about it. Have you tasted the coffee?" + +I had not thought of it: I told him so. + +"Did you give my sister what the doctor left for her?" + +Honestly, I had forgotten that the powders were to be given every +half-hour, and I had offered only one. + +"I don't think you have chosen your vocation wisely," he said, when I +had told him of my forgetfulness. + +"It seems not." + +He went out. Very gently he entered the place of the soulless one. I +heard a low, murmurous sound, with a deal of contentment in it. After a +few moments they came out. He asked me again to carry the lamp. I went +up before them. I couldn't go after; I was afraid of words, or I knew +not what, coming from that room. + +Mr. Axtell gave the second powder, evidently afraid to trust me. Miss +Lettie seemed quite tranquil,--a change had come over her. Her brother +poured a cup of coffee and _told_ me to drink it. What right had he to +tell me to do anything? What right had I to notice it amid the scenes of +this night? but I did, and the coffee remained untasted. + +"I cannot trust you alone," he said; and leaving me sitting there in +Miss Lettie's chair before the fire, he lay down upon the lounge and +went to sleep. + +The half-hour went by; this time I would remember my duty. Miss Axtell +was awake still, but very quiet. Her face was scorched with fever, when +I gave her the third powder. I began to feel excessively sleepy; but to +fail the second time,--it would never answer. The coffee was the +alternative; I drank of it. + +Again Miss Axtell asked that I would bathe her head. That, with the +half-hour powders, which quite forgot their sleep-bestowing +characteristic, was the only change until the day began to dawn. + +Katie crept in with it, all in the little shivers March mornings bring. + +She didn't see Mr. Axtell. She asked,-- + +"How has Miss Lettie been?" + +"I haven't been asleep, I believe," answered Miss Axtell. + +She called Katie to her, and gave some house-orders, in which I thought +I heard an allusion to breakfast, in connection with my name. I knew +nothing about the arrangements of this house, but ventured to follow +Katie out, and ask if there was any one to take my place, should I go +home. Finding that my longer stay was unneedful, I went. How lovely the +earth seemed on that morning, not long ago, and yet so long! Why could +not people live with quiet thoughts, and peaceful quietness of life, in +this little country-village, where there seemed nothing to wake up +torrents? + + * * * * * + + +Sophie stood beside me, with a tempting little cup in her hand; upon the +table lay a breakfast,--for somebody destined, I was sure. + +"I thought I'd waken you, so that you might not lose your night's +sleep," she said. + +"Thank you. What time is it?" + +"Look at what the sun says." + +She put up the shade, and the sun came in from the west. + +"So long? Have I slept?" + +"So long, my dear"; and Sophie gave me a kiss. + +Sophie was not demonstrative. I answered it with-- + +"What queer people you sent me to stay with!" + +"You make a mistake, Anna; think a moment; you're dreaming; I did not +send you there at all." + +"Well, what queer people I went to stay with!" + +"How was Miss Axtell, when you came away?" + +"Really, I don't know; better, I should think. But, Sophie, pray tell me +how it is that I should never have heard of them before." + +"Partly because they have been away during the three years that you have +been in the habit of visiting us,--and partly because Mr. Axtell, and +his sister, too, I think, have a very decided way of avoiding us. What +induces Mr. Axtell to perform the office of sexton is more than any one +in the congregation can divine." + +"I intend to find out, Sophie." + +"How?" + +"In some way,--how, I cannot tell." + +"In the interim, take some breakfast, or you'll lose your curiosity in +hunger." + +Aaron sent for Sophie just here, and, as usual, I was deserted for him. + +I began to scheme a little. "If Miss Axtell had only been the sexton, I +could have found a thread; there must be one. Where shall I look for +it?" + +"How did you manage with our surly Abraham last night? would he let you +stay?" asked Aaron, when I joined the family of two. + +"He was not very surly; I managed him considerably better than I did his +beautiful sister," I said. + +He proceeded to question me of the night-events. I told only of the +visit to the dead, leaving out the conversations preceding the event. + +"An unwarrantable proceeding of Abraham's," said Aaron. + +"And that room, so cold, as they always keep such rooms. I expect to +hear that Miss Axtell is much worse to-day," was Sophie's comment, when +I had told all that I thought it right to tell. + +Aaron went away early in the afternoon, to visit some parishioners who +lived among the highlands, where the snows of winter had made it +difficult to go. + +Sophie said, she would read to me. My piece of "knitting-work" was still +unfinished, and I, sitting near a window looking churchward, knitted, +whilst Sophie pushed back from her low, cool brow those bands of softly +purplish hair, and read to me something that strangely soothed my +militant spirit, lifted me out of my present self, carried me whither +breezes of charity stirred the foliage of the world, and opened sweet +flower-blooms on dark, unpromising trees. I had been wafted up to a +height where I thought I should forever keep in memory the view I saw, +and feel charity toward all erring mortals as long as life endured, when +a noise came to my ears. I knew it instantly, before I could catch my +dropping stitch and look out. It was the first stroke on hard Mother +Earth, the first knocking sound, that said, "We've come to ask one more +grave of you." + +Sophie did not seem to have heard: she went on with her reading. I +looked out. Two men were in the church-yard: one held a measuring-line +in his hand, the other a spade. The one with the spade went on to mark +the hard winter-beaten turf,--the knotted grass he cut through. I saw +him describe the outline of a grave,--the other standing there, silently +looking on. When the grave was marked, the one wielding the spade looked +up at the silent looker-on, who bowed his head, as if to say, "It is +right." Then he began to strike deeper, to hit the stones under the sod. + +"What is it?" asked Sophie, looking up, for now she heard. + +"I think it's Mrs. Axtell's grave that is to be made," I said. + +Sophie came to the window. + +"It's a wonder he don't make it himself." + +"Who make it?" + +"Why, Abraham Axtell. Look now,--see him look at it. It would be very +like him. He's fond of such doleful things. He has a way of haunting the +Church-yard. Aaron sees him there sometimes on moonlight nights." + +Even while she spoke, Mr. Axtell did take the spade from the man; and +striking down deeper, stronger than he, he rolled out stones, and the +yellow, hard earth, crusty with the frost not yet out of it. + +"There! I thought he would. Just watch now, and see of how much use that +man is; he might as well be away," exclaimed Sophie. + +We two watched the other two in yonder church-yard, until the pile of +earth grew so high that it half-concealed them. Two or three times the +man seemed to offer to take the spade from Mr. Axtell, but he kept it +and worked away. At last the excavation grew so deep that one must needs +go down into it to make it deeper. Would Mr. Axtell go? We watched to +see. Sophie said "Yes" to the question; I thought "No." There grew a +pause. Mr. Axtell stopped in his work, looked at the man, and must have +spoken; for he picked up his coat and walked away. + +"I wonder what is coming now," said Sophie. + +"Nothing," answered I; "for Mr. Axtell evidently is going." + +"Time enough to finish to-morrow," she said.--"Where are you going, +Anna?" + +"To ask after his sister," I answered, and hastened out, for I had seen +Mr. Axtell pick up the spade as if to go. + +But he did not go; he stood leaning upon the spade, looking into the +open grave, forgetful of everything above the earth. I thought to +approach him unheard and unseen; but it was willed otherwise, for I +stepped upon some of the crispy earth thrown out, and set the stones to +rattling in a very rude sort of way. He turned quickly upon me. + +"You have chosen a very sad place to meditate over," I said. + +"Does it trouble you, if I have?" he asked, not changing his position. + +"No, not in the least, Sir. I came to ask after Miss Axtell." + +"Lettie is much worse, very ill indeed, to-day." + +"I am very sorry to hear it. I ought not to have thought myself wise +enough to take care of her last night." + +"Yes, you ought; you pleased her; she has asked for you several times +to-day,--only she calls you another name. I wish you wouldn't mind it, +or seem to notice it either." + +"What is the name?" + +"Never mind it now; perhaps you will not see her until she is sane, and +then she will give you only your own." + +"I wish you would tell me." + +The spade upon which Mr. Axtell leaned seemed suddenly to have failed to +do its duty, for it slid along the distance to the very edge of the +grave. Mr. Axtell regained his position and his strength, that had +failed only for the moment. + +"No, you do not wish it," he said. + +What had become of all my sweet charity-blossoms, that unfolded such a +little time ago, when Sophie was reading to me? Surely the time of +withering had not come so soon? An untimely frost must have withered +them all, for I answered,-- + +"You are dogmatical." + +"No, I am not. I only see farther on than you." + +"A pleasant way to say, 'You're blind.'" + +"And if it is true?" + +"To say it to one's self, I suppose, is the better way; for others +certainly will of you." + +"A sensible conclusion. Who taught you it?" + +"You, perhaps." + +"Did I? Then my life has been of some little use." + +"I saw you very usefully employed not long ago." + +"Doing that?" and he pointed to the open place. + +"Yes, the strangest occupation I ever saw a man engaged in." + +"The man did it awkwardly." + +"And you?" + +"Better, as you can see." + +"I'm no judge." + +"Yes, you are." + +I saw Aaron coming, driving slowly on. I knew that I must go in. + +"Shall I come and stay with Miss Axtell to-night?" I asked. + +"You do not look able." + +"I am. I've not been long awake. I am quite restored." + +He looked up at me. It was the very first time that I had seen him do +so. + +"Do you wish to come?" he asked. + +What a question! I couldn't answer. I thought of my tower-secret, which +I felt convinced was wrapped up in that large, sombre mansion, where his +dead mother (whom I had never seen) lay, and his beautiful sister was. I +had not answered him. He spoke again,-- + +"As if it could please you to come where death and suffering are! I will +find some one; if not, I can stay up." + +"I will come, if you can trust me, after last night's errors." + +"You look like one to be trusted." + +"I am glad you think so. Are my services accepted?" + +"Gratefully, if you'll promise one thing." + +"Ask it." + +"Sleep until I send for you." + +"I can't promise." + +"You'll try?" + +"Perhaps"; and I went back to the parsonage. + +Sophie had deserted the reading and the window to do something that she +imagined would please Aaron when he came home. It was nearly evening. +The sun was gone. I resumed my seat and work. + +"You look gloomy, Anna,--what is it?" asked Aaron's evergreen voice, as +Aaron's self came into the room, somewhat the worse for mud and mountain +wear. "Was last night's watching too much for you?" + +"Oh, no; I'm going again to-night." + +"Going where?" Sophie was the questioner. + +"To stay with Miss Axtell." + +"I wouldn't, Anna; one night has made you pale," she said. + +"You're a frightened little thing," I said. "You've Aaron's headachy +eyes of yesterday." + +"Have you promised to go?" Aaron asked. + +"I have. Mr. Axtell is to send for me in time." + +No more was said on the subject. Aaron had learned many things in his +visit to the people's homes. I fancy that he gathered much material for +Sunday-sermons that afternoon. I could not help wishing that he knew all +of last night's teaching to me. An idle wish; how could he? What is +knowledge to one is but dry dust to another soul. The soils of the human +heart are as various as those of our planet, and therein as many and as +strange plants are grown. Why had I always thought mine to be adapted to +the aloe? + +The evening was dull. I asked Aaron to lend me a sermon. He inquired,-- + +"What for?" + +"To go to sleep over," I said. + +"And are they so soporific?" he laughingly asked. + +"It's a great while since I've read one. What have you been doing lately +in your profession? anything remarkable?" + +He brought me one. It aroused me. The evening passed on. I finished the +sermon. Bedtime came in the parsonage, and no messenger from Mr. Axtell +for me. + +Aaron offered to go. I said, "No, they were such strange people, I would +rather not." Chloe came in from the kitchen to say that "Kate, Miss +Axtell's girl, had come, and said, 'Miss Lettie was too ill for Miss +Percival to take care of her. Mr. Abraham couldn't leave her.'" + +The funeral was to be on the morrow. + + + + * * * * * + + + +The morrow came. Early after breakfast I went to the house whereto I had +gone with the neighbor's boy two nights before. I met Mr. Axtell just +leaving. I inquired after his sister. + +"A bad night," he said; "the doctor is here; are you come to stay?" + +"If I can be of use." + +He walked back with me, went to the sick-room, and left me there with +the doctor and Miss Axtell. + +She didn't refuse medicines, it seemed; for Doctor Eaton was +administering something when I went in. + +The same eager look flashed out of his eyes when she spoke to me. She +did not remember me,--she called me Mary. Common name it is, but the +change seemed to please this quaint M.D. + +"Have you found out about the face?" he asked, when he had answered my +inquiries after his patient. + +"I have not." + +"It isn't there any longer. Somebody's taken it away." + +"Ah!" + +"Don't you care to know about it?" + +"Yes, it was a pleasant face,--a prettiness of youth about it." + +"Ask him,--do you hear, young lady?--ask him"; and giving me directions +for the morning, he left. + +Curious old doctor,--what care should he have concerning it? + +The opiate, if opiate it was, that Doctor Eaton gave Miss Axtell, +quickly worked its spell; for after he had gone, she scarcely noticed +me; she only moaned a little, and turned her head upon the pillow, as if +to ease the pain that made her face so flushed. The room was darkened; +the fire upon the hearth was almost out. It didn't seem the same room as +that in which I had heard my song so recently. I had nothing to do but +to sit and watch,--a sad, nerve-aching woman-work, at the best. In my +pocket I had put the bit of woman's wear that I had taken from the iron +bar in my tower. I longed to open the closet-door, and compare it with +the dress that I had seen hanging there. No opportunity came. Miss +Axtell was very drowsy, if not asleep. For full three hours not a +varying occurred. Where had every one gone? Was I forgotten, buried in +with this sick lady out of the world? Not quite; for I heard the +vitalizing charm of a footstep, followed, by the gentlest of knocks, +which I rejoicingly answered. It was the brother, come to look at his +sister. He walked quietly in, stood several moments looking at her face, +as she lay with half the repose of sleep over it, then came to me and +said,-- + +"She looks better." + +"I am glad you think so," I replied; "she seems very ill to me. She +called me Mary, when I first came in; since then she hasn't noticed me." + +"She called you Mary?" he said. "Are you Mary?" + +"My name is Anna," I answered. + +"Then you are not Mary?" + +"Of course not; I am not two." + +After a little while of silence, he said,-- + +"My mother's funeral will be this afternoon." + +"Is there anything that I can do for you before the time?" + +"Yes, if you will." + +"I am ready." + +"Wait here a little," he said, and went down. + +Katie came up, her young rosy face delightful to behold in the half-way +gloom that filled the place. + +"Mr. Abraham is waiting to see you in the library," she said. "I'll stay +till you come up." + +In my short journey down, I marvelled much concerning what he might +want. As I entered the room, I saw no visible thing for hands to do. +Now, if it were but a hat to fold the winding badge of sorrow about, or +a pair of gloves to mend; but no,--he, this strange man, a sort of +barbaric gentleman, looked down at me as I went in. "The doctor was +right; somebody has taken the face down," I thought, as my glance went +up the wall. + +"What is there for me to do?" I asked; for Mr. Axtell seemed to have +forgotten that he had intimated the possibility of such an event. + +"Simply to look upon the face of my mother ere it goes forever away." + +"Do you wish it?" + +"Very much." + +"I would rather not." + +"As you will"; and he turned away proudly, with that high style of +curling pride that has a touch of soul in it. + +"No, Mr. Axtell, it is not as I will; it is very much as I will not. I +can go in there, and look at the face you wish; but it will unfit me for +the duties of life for days to come. The face that I see there will +tenant this house forever, and not this only,--it will be seen wherever +I go." + +"Can you not overcome it?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"Why not, then?" + +"It takes such sweet revenge that my overcoming is the sorriest kind of +victory." + +"It _is_ strange," he said. + +"What, Sir?" + +"I beg your pardon; I was thinking in words," he replied. + +"I am sorry that I cannot do as you wish," I said, and resumed my +profession in the room above. + +The day went on, never pausing one moment for the sorrow and the +suffering that another day had brought to this house in Redleaf. + +Just before the funeral-bell began to toll, Mr. Axtell came again to the +sickroom door. There was no change. I told him so. Why did the man look +as if he had been crying? Was it because he had, I wonder? + +He did not come in. Poor man! He was the only relative, the only one to +stand at the last beside the grave he opened yesterday. I could not help +it, I held out my hand to him as he stood there in the hall, I had no +words wherewith to convey sympathy. He looked at it very much as he +might have done at one of the waxen hands that belong to waxen figures +in a shop-window, without one ray of the meaning it was intended to +convey entering into his mind. I felt confused, uncomfortable. It seemed +to me, then, irreverent to his sorrow, that I, a stranger, should have +attempted the proffer of sympathy; but I must make him comprehend me. + +"I wanted to say that I am sorry with you," I said. + +"Will you say it the same way again?" + +"How?" for this time it was I who did not comprehend. + +He held out his hand. I fulfilled my original intention. + +"I thank you," he said, and went down alone to his mother's funeral. + +How do people ever live through funerals? The solemn tolling of the bell +went on. The village-people came, one by one. Aaron's voice it was that +was heard in the burial-service that came sounding in to me, sitting +close beside the bed whereon the sick one lay. There seemed a comfort in +getting near to her. At last--what a cycle of thought! time it was at +last--I heard the moving sound of many feet, and then I knew that they +were carrying her out, out of the house where she had lived, out of the +house wherein she had died, carrying her forth for burial,--forth to the +grave her only son had made for her; and I, little, shivering, cowardly +soul, hid my face in my hands, and let my tears fall,--not because I +knew this proud lady dead,--not because a fibre from my warm heart was +being drawn out to be knitted into that fathom-deep grave, for it never +would be one of _my_ graves,--but because this death and sorrow _were in +the world_, and I must live my life out in a world _with them_. The +funeral-bell stirred me. I looked out from the window, and saw the long +procession moving slowly on. + +Katie startled me, coming in. + +"The minister's wife is down-stairs; she wants to know if she may come +up," she said. + +"She is my sister, Katie; yes, I think she may come." + +I was so relieved to see Sophie; it was getting back to self again, out +of which I had gone in this house. I could not help expressing my +relief. + +"There's no one down there to close the house and put away the sad +reminders," Sophie said, after asking about my patient. "Some one ought +to make it more cheerful down there before Mr. Axtell comes." + +"Won't you, Sophie, since there's no one else?" + +I could not yet go into the one room. Death had been too recently there. + +"I cannot put away the feeling that I am not wanted; but it has no place +here, now at least, and I will go," she said. + +So, with Katie to help, she went to throw an air of light into the rooms +below, to waft away the sombre shadows that clouded them, to let in a +little of the coming life that must still be lived. And I waited on, +up-stairs, and listened, counting each long, low peal of the bell, as it +shook out its solemn meaning into the March air, and lost itself in +quivering distances. They, the kindly hearts, who had come to perform +the last rite, must have moved very slowly on; for I counted out the +years that the one gone had lived, ere the bell stopped. + +Then was silence. In that stillness they were gently lifting down the +once more little one,--for are not our dead all little ones, to be +watchfully thought of, to be tenderly cared for?--yes, lifting her +gently down into the cradle that God hath prepared, and set the sun to +rock, until His smile shall awaken, and His arms lift us out of it. + +The opiate's power was past. Miss Axtell turned upon the pillow, and +asked Kate for a glass of water. + +I carried it to her, lifted her head, and she drank of it without +opening her eyes. She asked for Abraham. + +"He will be here soon," I replied. + +"I thought it was Kate," she said, calling me my own name. "Have you +been here long?" + +"Since morning." + +"Is it afternoon?" + +"Yes, three o'clock." + +"Why doesn't Abraham come?" + +"He was here not very long ago," I said, and asked her to take some +food, not wishing her to question me. + +"Food!" she said, "what an odd word! Yes, so that you give it to me in +pleasant guise." + +"What is pleasant to you to-day?" + +"Something soft and cool." + +What could I give her? It was very convenient having Sophie so near. +This must be Miss Axtell's self who had spoken. Delighted with the +change, I ran quickly down to beg of sister Sophie a little skill in +preparing some dish suitable to the illness up-stairs. + +"I'll go and make something," she said. + +And straightway taking off her hat and cloak, and tossing them just +where mine had gone two nights before, she followed willing Katie to +regions where I had not been, and I went back to find my patient +perfectly herself,--only oblivious of time. She asked me if the various +preludes to the sad event had been properly done. I answered that it was +over. + +"And I was not to know it?" + +I had heard that tone of voice, surely, somewhere else in life. Where +could it have been? I thought of my tower, and of that dress in there. +Was never to come chance of seeing it? It seemed quite probable, for the +lady asked to have the doors opened through. + +"Through where?" I asked. + +"All of them," she said. + +I opened the two into the dressing-room; there was still another out of +that. Uncertain if she might mean it as well, I went back to ask. + +"Yes," she said; and I opened it. + +The first object that met my sight was the painting--the young girl's +face--that had been in the library. The hair was covered, as if one had +been trying effects of light and shade. I saw this instantly, and turned +away. + +"I would like you to raise the shades in there," Miss Axtell said. "I +like the light that comes in through the distance, the afternoon light; +how much it sees upon the earth!" + +Going in again, I drew up one, put the drapery of the curtains back, and +laid my hand upon the second, when the door from the hall opened, +admitting the owner of the place. + +Mr. Axtell did not look window-ward. He did not see me. A stillness of +thought and being crept over me. I stood, with fingers clasped about the +curtain-cord, enduring conscious paralysis. And he? He laid his overcoat +across one chair; next to it was the one on which the portrait of the +young girl had been placed. In front of it Mr. Axtell kneeled down, +buried his face in his hands, and remained motionless. A second tower I +was imprisoned in, higher up than the first,--a well, deep with veins of +liquid soul, such as man nor patriarch hath ever builded, and I, a bit +of rock-moss, unable to reach out to the light. I heard Miss Axtell's +voice, and yet I could not move. She called, "Miss Percival!"--Mr. +Axtell did not lift his head; she called, "Abraham!"--then I moved. With +a slow swiftness of silence I passed by the kneeling figure, and should +have gained the door, had not Mr. Axtell risen up. His eyes were, for +the second time, upon me. A dark, thunderous look of anger clouded his +face. I stood still and looked at him. If he had evinced emotion at my +presence in any other mode, I could not have met his look. + +"Your sister wished me to raise the shades in here," I said; "she likes +western light." + +"Why not do it, then?"--the anger rolling sombrous as at the first,--he +asked. + +I looked back. Noticing that only one of the shades was lifted,-- + +"I will leave it for you to do," I said; and with one involuntary glance +at the young, life-young face, painted there, I went. + +"I thought I heard Abraham's footsteps in the hall," said Miss Axtell, +when I entered the room. + +"You did," I replied. "He is come in." + +The second time the sister called, "Abraham!" + +"Yes, Lettie," he answered; but he did not come. + +"What is the matter, Abraham?" she asked. "Why do you not come?" + +"I'm coming, Lettie." + +I thought of the "something soft and cool" that Sophie was making for +the invalid; and the thought took me up and carried me away before he +came in. + +It was not destined that I should be long gone; for I met Katie bringing +up something, whose odor was not even a temperate one. + +"How is this?" I asked of her; "did Mrs. Wilton send it?" + +"Yes, Miss Percival." + +"Where is she, Katie?" + +"Gone home, she told me to tell you." + +Why must Sophie run away? She fancies Aaron might not see the stars come +out, if she were not near to point their coming. I would not be so +simple, I think; but, whatever I thought, I took from rosy-faced Katie +the bowl of warm and fragrant gruel, and carried it in to Miss Axtell. + +She took it, looked up smilingly at me, and said, "Something soft and +cool." + +Mr. Axtell held it for her, whilst slowly she took the gruel. + +Doctor Eaton came in. + +"How is this?" he asked; "we shall take great skill and credit to our +individual self for this recovery. Now tell me, Miss Lettie, am I not +the very best physician in all Redleaf?" + +"There being none other in the village, I'll permit you to quaff the +vain draught, so that you will season it with a little of my gruel; I +cannot fancy, even, where it came from," she said, playfully extending +to the doctor her spoon, half filled. + +Doctor Eaton bent forward, and put his lips to the spoon she had not +meant him to touch. + +Miss Axtell seemed surprised. + +"Why did you do it?" she asked, with a little bit of childish petulance. + +"Because I think that you have taken all of it that is good for you at +present. I made use of the speediest remedy; vital cases demand sure +means, you know, Miss Lettie." + +Mr. Axtell held the bowl of gruel no longer. Doctor Eaton turned to me. + +"Have you been here all day?" he asked. + +"I have." + +"Will you put your hat on and walk in the air? There's just time enough +for you to walk to the parsonage and come back, before dark." + +Did Doctor Eaton know how to prescribe for cases which were not vital? +It so seemed; for he had given me my need this once. I put my hat on, as +he had recommended, and went out. The day was saying its soft, genial +farewells, that mingle so charmfully with the promise to come again, +that is repeated throughout the great city of Nature. Doctor Eaton +evidently intended to watch the effect of his dictation, for he joined +me, giving me voice-intimation of his presence. + +"Have you asked him yet?" he said, coming to my side, and speaking in +his peculiar way, very much as if I were a little child, and he its +father. + +"Please tell me what I am expected to do," I replied. + +"To ask Abraham Axtell about that picture, Miss Percival. It will do him +good." + +"I am afraid your prescriptions are not always the most agreeable," I +said. + +"Maybe not; it seems quite possible; but bitters are good,--try them." + +"I would rather not, Doctor Eaton." + +"No? Then offer them to others. Abraham Axtell is one needing them." + +"You are his physician." + +"You think so?" + +"No, I take the seeming." + +"Unsafe road, young lady! don't take it,--take mine. Just ask Abraham +whose face that is, then come and tell me what he tells you." + +"Breach of confidence, Doctor Eaton. I couldn't do it possibly." + +"You'll tell me, though, depend upon it," he said, and was carried off +in great haste to repair a broken bone, and I saw him no more, +until--when? + +I found the reason why Sophie must go home without one word for me. +Aaron had said that he would like some peculiar admixture of flour, +etc.; and she had feared that he might meet disappointment, unless she +prevented it by hurrying home and adding the ingredient of her hands for +his delectable comfort, which bit of spicery he undoubtedly appreciated +to the complete value of the sacrifice. Sophie is wise in her day and +generation. I look with affectionate, reverent admiration upon her life. +It seems that she is in just the position that Creating Wisdom fitted +her for. I saw Aaron looking at her across the table. She was preparing +for him his cup of tea; and of course he had nought to do save to wait, +and in waiting he watched her. What was it that I saw? I cannot tell. +Why, how is this? the world has two sides, two phases; how many more I +cannot know. That which I saw in Aaron's face was a something +transitory, a nebulous luminousness of an existence that I had not +known, had not imagined, having never before received intimation of it. +Why will light evanish so soon?--the fragment that shone in on this +_Terra Incognita_ went out, was submerged in the Cup of _Thea Sinensis_ +that Aaron received from Sophie's hand. I cannot divine why all this new +world of being should fancy to unroll itself, an endless panorama of +pansophical mysteries, before my eyes. I do not appreciate it in the +least. Philip Bailey's "Mystic" is more comprehensible to me. This is a +practical, matter-of-fact world; I know it is. Sophie Percival, my +sister, is the wife of Aaron Wilton, country-clergyman in +Redleaf,--nothing more; and I thought of my untasted cup of tea, in +which lay condensed all the fragrance of Wooeshan hill-sides. + +"Why not take your tea, Anna?" Sophie asked, just as I had decided not +to think of the things that misted around me. + +My answer was a taste of it. I really thought I was doing my duty, when +Sophie's words came upon me, a little distractingly,-- + +"Will you have more sugar in your tea, Anna?" + +"No, I thank you." + +Aaron said,-- + +"The house of Axtell seems to have stolen away your proper self, Anna. +I've been watching you, and I don't really think you've any idea of what +you are subsisting on. Tell me now, what _is_ upon the table?" and Aaron +held a newspaper, lying conveniently near, before my eyes. + +"Confession and absolution are synonymous with you, aren't they, Aaron?" +I asked. "Please give me some bread"; and I put the disagreeable paper +away. + +There was no bread upon the table. + +"My wisdom is confirmed," said Aaron; and he gave me the delectable +substitute, Sophie's handiwork. + + + +METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY. + +XIV. + +If I succeeded in explaining my subject clearly in the last article, my +readers will have seen that the five Orders of the Echinoderms are but +five expressions of the same idea; and I will now endeavor to show that +the same identity of structural conception prevails also throughout the +two other Classes of Radiates, and further, that not only the Orders +within each Class, but the three Classes themselves, Echinoderms, +Acalephs, and Polyps, bear the strictest comparison, founded upon close +structural analysis, and are based upon one organic formula. + +We will first compare the three Orders of Acalephs,--Hydroids being the +lowest, Discophorae; next, and the Ctenophorae highest. The fact that +these animals have no popular names shows how little they are known. It +is true that we hear some of them spoken of as Jelly-Fishes; but this +name is usually applied to the larger Discophore, when it is thrown upon +the beach and lies a shapeless mass of gelatinous substance on the sand, +or is seen floating on the surface of the water. The name gives no idea +of the animal as it exists in full life and activity. When we speak of a +Bird or an Insect, the mere name calls up at once a characteristic image +of the thing; but the name of Jelly-Fish, or Sun-Fish, or Sea-Blubber, +as the larger Acalephs are also called, suggests to most persons a vague +idea of a fish with a gelatinous body,--or, if they have lived near the +sea-shore, they associate it only with the unsightly masses of +jelly-like substance sometimes strewn in thousands along the beaches +after a storm. To very few does this term recall either the large +Discophore, with its purple disk and its long streamers floating perhaps +twenty or thirty feet behind it as it swims,--or the Ctenophore, with +its more delicate, transparent structure, and almost invisible fringes +in parallel rows upon the body, which decompose the rays of light as the +creature moves through the water, so that hues of ruby-red and +emerald-green, blue, purple, yellow, all the colors of the rainbow, +ripple constantly over its surface when it is in motion,--or the +Hydroid, with its little shrub-like communities living in tide-pools, +establishing themselves on rocks, shells, or sea-weeds, and giving birth +not only to animals attached to submarine bodies, like themselves, but +also to free Medusae or Jelly-Fishes that in their turn give birth again +to eggs which return to the parent-form, and thus, by alternate +generations, maintain two distinct patterns of animal life within one +cycle of growth. + +Perhaps, of all the three Classes of Radiates, Acalephs are the least +known. The general interest in Corals has called attention to the +Polyps, and the accessible haunts of the Sea-Urchins and Star-Fishes +have made the Echinoderms almost as familiar to the ordinary observer as +the common sea-shells, while the Acalephs are usually to be found at a +greater distance from the shore, and are not easily kept in confinement. +It is true that the Hydroids live along the shore, and may be reared in +tanks without difficulty; but they are small, and would be often taken +for sea-weeds by those ignorant of their true structure. + +Thus this group of animals, with all their beauty of form, color, and +movement, and peculiarly interesting from their singular modes of +growth, remains comparatively unknown except to the professional +naturalist. It may, therefore, be not uninteresting or useless to my +readers, if I give some account of the appearance and habits of these +animals, keeping in view, at the same time, my ultimate object, namely, +to show that they are all founded on the same structural elements and +have the same ideal significance. I will begin with some account of the +Hydroids, including the story of the alternate generations, by which +they give birth to Medusae, while the Medusae, in their turn, reproduce +the Hydroids, from which they spring. But first, a few words upon the +growth of Radiates in general. + +There is no more interesting series of transformations than that of the +development of Radiates. They are all born as little transparent +globular bodies, covered with vibratile cilia, swimming about in this +condition for a longer or shorter time; then, tapering somewhat at one +end and broadening at the other, they become attached by the narrower +extremity, while at the opposite one a depression takes place, deepening +in the centre till it becomes an aperture, and extending its margin to +form the tentacles. All Radiates pass through this Polyp-like condition +at some period of their lives, either before or after they are hatched +from the eggs. In some it forms a marked period of their existence, +while in others it passes very rapidly and is undergone within the egg; +but, at whatever time and under whatever conditions it occurs, it forms +a necessary part of their development, and shows that all these animals +have one and the same pattern of growth. This difference in the relative +importance and duration of certain phases of growth is by no means +peculiar to the Radiates, but occurs in all divisions of the Animal +Kingdom. There are many Insects that pass through their metamorphoses +within the egg, appearing as complete Insects at the moment of their +birth; but the series of changes is nevertheless analogous to that of +the Butterfly, whose existence as Worm, Chrysalis, and Winged Insect is +so well known to all. Take the Grasshopper, for instance: with the +exception of the wings, it is born in its mature form; but it has had +its Worm-like stage within the egg as much as the Butterfly that we knew +a few months ago as a Caterpillar. In the same way certain of the higher +Radiates undergo all their transformations, from the Polyp phase of +growth to that of Acaleph or Echinoderm, after birth; while others pass +rapidly through the lower phases of their existence within the egg, and +are born in their final condition, when all their intermediate changes +have been completed. We have appropriate names for all the aspects of +life in the Insect: we call it Larva in its first or Worm-like period, +Chrysalis in its second or Crustacean-like phase of life, and Imago in +its third and last condition as Winged Insect. But the metamorphoses of +the Radiates are too little known to be characterized by popular names; +and when they were first traced, the relation between their different +phases of existence was not understood, so that the same animal in +different stages of growth has frequently been described as two or more +distinct animals. This has led to a confusion in our nomenclature much +to be regretted; for, however inappropriate it may be, a name once +accepted and passed into general use is not easily changed. + +That early stage of growth, common to all Radiates, in which they +resemble the Polyps, has been called the Hydra state, in consequence of +their resemblance to the fresh-water Hydra to be found in quantities on +the under side of Duck-Weed and Lily-pads. For any one that cares to +examine these animals, it may be well to mention that they are easily +found and thrive well in confinement. Dip a pitcher into any pool of +fresh water where Duck-Weed or Lilies are growing in the summer, and you +are sure to bring up hundreds of these fresh-water Hydrae, swarming in +myriads in all our ponds. In a glass bowl their motions are easily +watched; and a great deal may be learned of their habits and mode of +life, with little trouble. Such an animal soon completes its growth: for +the stage which I have spoken of as transient for the higher Radiates is +permanent for these; and when the little sphere moving about by means of +its vibratile cilia has elongated a little, attached itself by the lower +end to some surface, while the inversion of the upper end has formed the +mouth and digestive cavity, and the expansion of its margin has made the +tentacles, the very simple story of the fresh-water Hydra is told. But +the last page in the development of these lower Radiates is but the +opening chapter in that of the higher ones, and I will give some account +of their transformations as they have been observed in the Acalephs. + +[Illustration: Coryne mirabilis, natural size] + +On shells and stones, on sea-weeds or on floating logs, there may often +be observed a growth of exquisitely delicate branches, looking at first +sight more like a small bunch of moss than anything else. But gather +such a mossy tuft and place it in a glass bowl filled with sea-water, +and you will presently find that it is full of life and activity. Every +branch of this miniature shrub terminates in a little club-shaped head, +upon which are scattered a number of tentacles. They are in constant +motion, extending and contracting their tentacles, some of the heads +stretched upwards, others bent downwards, all seeming very busy and +active. Each tentacle has a globular tip filled with a multitude of +cells, the so-called lasso-cells, each one of which conceals a coiled-up +thread. These organs serve to seize the prey, shooting out their long +threads, thus entangling the victim in a net more delicate than the +finest spider's web, and then carrying it to the mouth by the aid of the +lower part of the tentacle. The complication of structure in these +animals, a whole community of which, numbering from twenty to thirty +individuals, is not more than an inch in height, is truly wonderful. In +such a community the different animals are hardly larger than a +good-sized pin's head; and yet every individual has a digestive cavity +and a complete system of circulation. Its body consists of a cavity +inclosed in a double wall, continuing along the whole length of each +branch till it joins the common stem forming the base of the stock. In +this cavity the food becomes softened and liquefied by the water that +enters with it through the mouth, and is thus transformed into a +circulating fluid which flows from each head to the very base of the +community and back again. The inner surface of the digestive cavity is +lined with brownish-red granules, which probably aid in the process of +digestion; they frequently become loosened, fall into the circulating +fluid, and may be seen borne along the stream as it passes up and down. +The rosy tint of the little community is due to these reddish granules. + +[Illustration: Single head or branch of Coryne mirabilis magnified, with +a Medusa bud: a, stem; c, club-shaped body; o, mouth; tt, tentacles; d, +Medusa bud.] + +This crowd of beings united in a common life began as one such little +Hydra-like animal as I have described above,--floating free at first, +then becoming attached, and growing into a populous stock by putting out +buds at different heights along the length of the stem. The formation of +such a bud is very simple, produced by the folding outwardly of the +double wall of the body, appearing first as a slight projection of the +stem sideways, which elongates gradually, putting out tentacles as it +grows longer, while at the upper end an aperture is formed to make the +mouth. This is one of the lower group of Radiates, known as Hydroids, +and long believed to be Polyps, from their mode of living in communities +and reproducing their kind by budding, after the fashion of Corals. But +if such a little tuft of Hydroids has been gathered in spring, a close +observer may have an opportunity of watching the growth of another kind +of individual from it, which would seem to show its alliance with the +Acalephs rather than the Polyps. At any time late in February or early +in March, bulb-like projections, more globular than the somewhat +elongated buds of the true Hydroid heads, may be seen growing either +among the tentacles of one of these little animals, or just below the +head where it merges in the stem,[3] Very delicate and transparent in +substance, it is hardly perceptible at first; and the gradual formation +of its internal structure is the less easily discerned, because a horny +sheath, forming the outer covering of the Hydroid stock, extends to +inclose and shield the new-comer, whom we shall see to be so different +from the animal that gives it birth that one would suppose the Hydroid +parent must be as much surprised at the sight of its offspring as the +Hen that has accidentally hatched a Duck's egg. At the right moment this +film is torn open by the convulsive contractions of the animal, which, +thus freed from its envelope, begins at once to expand. By this time +this little bud has assumed the form of a Medusoid or Jelly-Fish disk, +with its four tubes radiating from the central cavity. The proboscis, so +characteristic of all Jelly-Fishes, hangs from the central opening; and +the tentacles, coiled within the internal cavity up to this time, now +make their appearance, and we have a complete little Medusa growing upon +the Hydroid head. Gradually the point by which it is attached to the +parent-stock narrows and becomes more and more contracted, till the +animal drops off and swims away, a free Jelly-Fish. + +[Illustration: Little Jelly-Fish, commonly called Sarsia, the free +Medusa, of Coryne mirabilis.] + +The substance of these animals seems to have hardly more density or +solidity than their native element. I remember showing one to a friend +who had never seen such an animal before, and after watching its +graceful motions for a moment in the glass bowl where it was swimming, +he asked, "Is it anything more than organized water?" The question was +very descriptive; for so little did it seem to differ in substance from +the water in which it floated that one might well fancy that some drops +had taken upon themselves organic structure, and had begun to live and +move. It swims by means of rapid contractions and expansions of its +disk, thus impelling itself through the water, its tentacles floating +behind it and measuring many times the length of the body. The disk is +very convex, as will be seen by the wood-cut; four tubes radiate from +the central cavity to the periphery, where they unite in a circular tube +around the margin and connect also with the four tentacles; from the +centre of the lower surface hangs the proboscis, terminating in a mouth. +Notwithstanding the delicate structure of this little being, it is +exceedingly voracious. It places itself upon the surface of the animal +on which it feeds, and, if it have any hard parts, it simply sucks the +juices, dropping the dead carcass immediately after; but it swallows +whole the little Acalephs of other Species and other soft animals that +come in its way. Early in summer these Jelly-Fishes drop their eggs, +little transparent pear-shaped bodies, covered with vibratile cilia. +They swim about for a time, until they have found a resting-place, where +they attach themselves, each one founding a Hydroid stock of its own, +which will in time produce a new brood of Medusae. + +This series of facts, presented here in their connection, had been +observed separately before their true relation was understood. +Investigations had been made on the Hydroid stock, described as +_Coryne_, and upon its Medusoid offspring, described as _Sarsia_, named +after the naturalist Sars, whose beautiful papers upon this class of +animals have associated his name with it; but the investigations by +which all these facts have been associated in one connected series are +very recent. These transformations do not correspond to our common idea +of metamorphoses, as observed in the Insect, for instance. In the +Butterfly's life we have always one and the same individual,--the +Caterpillar passing into the Chrysalis state, and the Chrysalis passing +into the condition of the Winged Insect. But in the case I have been +describing, while the Hydroid gives birth to the Medusa, it still +preserves its own distinct existence; and the different forms developed +on one stock seem to be two parallel lives, and not the various phases +of one and the same life. This group of Hydroids retains the name of +Coryne; and the Medusa born from it, Sarsia, has received, as I have +said, the name of the distinguished investigator to whose labors we owe +much of our present knowledge of these animals.--Let us look now at +another group of Hydroids, whose mode of development is equally curious +and interesting. + +The little transparent embryos from which they arise, oval in form, with +a slight, scarcely perceptible depression at one end, resemble the +embryos of Coryne already described. They may be seen in great numbers +in the spring, floating about in the water, or rather swimming,--for the +motion of all Radiates in their earliest stage of existence is rapid and +constant, in consequence of the vibratile cilia that cover the surface. +At this stage of its existence such an embryo is perfectly free, but +presently its wandering life comes to an end; it shows a disposition to +become fixed, and proceeds to choose a suitable resting-place. I use the +word "choose" advisedly; for though at this time the little embryo seems +to have no developed organs, it yet exercises a certain discrimination +in its selection of a home. Slightly pear-shaped in form, it settles +down upon its narrower end; it wavers and sways to and fro, as if trying +to get a firm foothold and force itself down upon the surface to which +it adheres; but presently, as if dissatisfied with the spot it has +chosen, it suddenly breaks loose and swims away to another locality, +where the same examination is repeated, not more to its own satisfaction +apparently, for the creature will renew the experiment half a dozen +times, perhaps, before making a final selection and becoming permanently +attached to the soil. In the course of this process the lower end +becomes flattened, and moulds itself to the shape of the body on which +it rests. Once settled, this animal, thus far hardly more than a +transparent oblong body without any distinct organs, begins to develop +rapidly. It elongates, forming a kind of cup-like base or stem, the +upper end spreads somewhat, the depression at its centre deepens, a +mouth is formed that gapes widely and opens into the digestive cavity, +and the upper margin spreads out to form a number of tentacles, few at +first, but growing more and more numerous till a wreath is completed all +around it. In this condition the young Jelly-Fish has been described +under the name of _Scyphostoma_. As soon as this wreath of tentacles is +formed, a constriction takes place below it, thus separating the upper +portion of the animal from the lower by a marked dividing-line. +Presently a second constriction takes place below the first, then a +third, till the entire length of the animal is divided across by a +number of such transverse constrictions, the whole body growing, +meanwhile, in height. But now an extraordinary change takes place in the +portions thus divided off. Each one assumes a distinct organic +structure, as if it had an individual life of its own. The margin +becomes lobed in eight deep scallops, and a tube or canal runs through +the centre of each such lobe to the centre of the body, where a +digestive cavity is already formed. At this time the constrictions have +deepened, so that the margins of all the successive divisions of the +little Hydroid are very prominent, and the whole animal looks like a +pile of saucers, or of disks with scalloped edges and the convex side +turned downward. Its general aspect may be compared to a string of +Lilac-blossoms, such as the children make for necklaces in the spring, +in which the base of one blossom is inserted into the upper side of the +one below it. In this condition our Jelly-Fish has been called +_Strobila_. + +[Illustration: Scyphostoma of Aurelia flavidula, our common white +Jelly-Fish with a rosy cross.] + +[Illustration: Strobila of Aurelia flavidula.] + +While these organic changes take place in the lower disks, the topmost +one, forming the summit of the pile and bearing the tentacles, undergoes +no such modification, but presently the first constriction dividing it +from the rest deepens to such a degree that it remains united to them by +a mere thread only, and it soon breaks off and dies. This is the signal +for the breaking up of the whole pile in the same way by the deepening +of the constrictions; but, instead of dying, as they part, they begin a +new existence as free Medusae. Only the lowest portion of the body +remains, and around the margin of this tentacles have developed +corresponding to those which crowned the first little embryo; this +repeats the whole history again, growing up during the following season +to divide itself into disks like its predecessor. + +[Illustration: Strobila of Aurelia flavidula: a, Scyphostoma reproduced +at the base of a Strobila, bb, all the disks of which have dropped off +but the last.] + +As each individual separates from the community of which it has made a +part, it reverses its position, and, instead of turning the margin of +the disk upward, it turns it downward, thus bringing the mouth below and +the curve of the disk above. These free individuals have been described +under the name of _Ephyra_. This is the third phase of the existence of +our Jelly-Fish. It swims freely about, a transparent, umbrella-like +disk, with a proboscis hanging from the lower side, which, to complete +the comparison, we may call the handle of the umbrella. The margin of +the disk is even more deeply lobed than in the Hydroid condition, and in +the middle of each lobe is a second depression, quite deep and narrow, +at the base of which is an eye. How far such organs are gifted with the +power of vision we cannot decide; but the cells of which they are +composed certainly serve the purpose of facets, of lenses and prisms, +and must convey to the animal a more or less distinct perception of +light and color. The lobes are eight in number, as before, with a tube +diverging from the centre of the body into each lobe. Shorter tubes +between the lobes alternate with these, making thus sixteen radiating +tubes, all ramifying more or less. + +[Illustration: Ephyra of Aurelia flavidula.] + +[Illustration: Aurelia flavidula, the common white Jelly-Fish of our +sea-shores, seen from above: c, mouth; eeeeee, eyes; mmmm, lobes or +curtain of the mouth in outlines; ooo, ovaries; ttt, tentacles; ww +ramified tubes.] + +From this stage to its adult condition, the animal undergoes a +succession of changes in the gradual course of its growth, +uninterrupted, however, by any such abrupt transition as that by which +it began its life as a free animal. The lobes are gradually obliterated, +so that the margin becomes almost an unbroken circle. The eight eyes +were, as I have said, at the bottom of depressions in the centre of the +several lobes; but, by the equalizing of the marginal line, the gradual +levelling, as it were, of all the inequalities of the edge, the eyes are +pushed out, and occupy eight spots on the margin, where a faint +indentation only marks what was before a deep cut in the lobe. The eight +tubes of the lobes have extended in like manner to the edge, and join it +just at the point where the eyes are placed, so that the extremity of +each tube unites with the base of each eye. Those parts of the margin +filling the spaces between the eyes correspond to the depressions +dividing the lobes or scallops in the earlier stage, and to those +radiate the eight other tubes alternating with the eye-tubes, now +divided into numerous branches. Along each of these spaces is developed +a fine, delicate fringe of tentacles, hanging down like a veil when the +animal is at rest, or swept back when it is in motion. In the previous +stage, the tubes ramified toward the margin; but now they branch at or +near their point of starting from the central cavity, so extensively +that every part of the body is traversed by these collateral tubes, and +when one looks down at it from above through the gelatinous transparent +disk, the numerous ramifications resemble the fine fibrous structure of +a leaf with its net-work of nervules. + +On the lower side, or what I have called in a previous article the oral +region of the animal, a wonderfully complicated apparatus is developed. +The mouth projects in four angles, and at each such angle a curtain +arises, stretching outwardly, and sometimes extending as far as the +margin. These curtains are fringed and folded on the lower edge, so that +they look like four ruffled flounces hanging from the lower side of the +animal. On the upper side of the body, but alternating in position with +these curtains, are the four ovaries, crescent-like in shape, and so +placed as to form the figure of a cross, when seen from above through +the transparency of the disk. I should add, that, though I speak of some +organs as being on the upper and others on the lower side of the body, +all are under the convex, arched surface of the disk, which is +gelatinous throughout, and simply forms a transparent vaulted roof, as +it were, above the rest of the body. + +[Illustration: Aurelia flavidula, seen in profile] + +When these animals first make their appearance in the spring, they may +be seen, when the sky is clear and the sea smooth, floating in immense +numbers near the surface of the water, though they do not seek the glare +of the sun, but are more often found about sheltered places, in the +neighborhood of wharves or overhanging rocks. As they grow larger, they +lose something of their gregarious disposition,--they scatter more; and +at this time they prefer the sunniest exposures, and like to bask in the +light and warmth. They assume every variety of attitude, but move always +by the regular contraction and expansion of the disk, which rises and +falls with rhythmical alternations, the average number of these +movements being from twelve to fifteen in a minute. There can be no +doubt that they perceive what is going on about them, and are very +sensitive to changes in the state of the atmosphere; for, as soon as the +surface of the water is ruffled, or the sky becomes overcast, they sink +into deeper water, and vanish out of sight. When approached with a +dip-net, it is evident, from the acceleration of their movements, that +they are attempting to escape. + +At the spawning season, toward the end of July or the beginning of +August, they gather again in close clusters. At this period I have seen +them at Nahant in large shoals, covering a space of fifty feet or more, +and packed so closely in one unbroken mass that an oar could not be +thrust between them without injuring many. So deep was the phalanx that +I could not ascertain how far it extended below the surface of the +water, and those in the uppermost layer were partially forced out of the +water by the pressure of those below. + +It is not strange that the relation between the various phases of this +extraordinary series of metamorphoses, so different from each other in +their external aspects, should not have been recognized at once, and +that this singular Acaleph should have been called Scyphostoma in its +simple Hydroid condition, Strobila after the transverse division of the +body had taken place, Ephyra in the first stages of its free existence, +and Aurelia in its adult state,--being thus described as four distinct +animals. These various forms are now rightly considered as the +successive stages of a development intimately connected in all its +parts,--beginning with the simple Hydroid attached to the ground, and +closing in the shape of our common Aurelia, with its white transparent +disk, its silky fringe of tentacles around the margin, its ruffled +curtains hanging from the mouth, and its four crescent-shaped ovaries +grouped to form a cross on the summit. From these ovaries a new brood of +little embryos is shed in due time. + +There are other Hydroids giving rise to Medusae buds, from which, +however, the Medusae do not separate to begin a new life, but wither on +the Hydroid stock, after having come to maturity and dropped their eggs. +Such is the _Hydractinia polyclina_. This curious community begins, like +the preceding ones, with a single little individual, settling upon some +shell or stone, or on the rocks in a tide-pool, where it will sometimes +cover a space of several square feet. Rosy in color, very soft and +delicate in texture, such a growth of Hydractinia spreads a velvet-like +carpet over the rocks on which it occurs. They may be kept in aquariums +with perfect success, and for that purpose it is better to gather them +on single shells or stones, so that the whole community may be removed +unbroken. These colonies of Hydractinia have one very singular +character: they exist in distinct communities, some of which give birth +only to male, others to female individuals. The functions, also, are +divided,--certain members of the community being appointed to special +offices, in which the others do not share. Some bear the Medusae buds, +which in due time become laden with eggs, but, as I have said, wither +and die after the eggs are hatched. Others put forth Hydroid buds only, +while others again are wholly sterile. About the outskirts of the +community are more simple individuals, whose whole body seems to be +hardly more than a double-walled tube, terminating in a knob of +lasso-cells. They are like long tentacles placed where they can most +easily seize the prey that happens to approach the little colony. The +entire community is connected at its base by a horny net-work, uniting +all the Hydroid stems in its meshes, and spreading over the whole +surface on which the colony has established itself. + +[Illustration: Hydractinia polyclina: _a_, sterile individual; _b_, +fertile individual, producing female Medusae; _d_, _e_, female Medusae, +containing advanced eggs; _f_, _g_, _h_, _i_, Cluster of female Medusas, +with less advanced eggs; _o_, peduncle of month, with short globular +tentacles; _c_, individual with globular tentacles, upon which no +Medusae have appeared, or from which they have dropped.] + +There is a very curious and beautiful animal, or rather community of +animals, closely allied to the _Hydractinia polyclina_, which next +deserves to be noticed. The Portuguese Man-of-War--so called from its +bright-colored crest, which makes it so conspicuous as it sails upon the +water, and the long and various streamers that hang from its lower +side--is such a community of animals as I have just described, reversed +in position, however, with the individuals hanging down, and the base +swollen and expanded to make the air-bladder which forms its brilliant +crested float. In this curious Acalephian Hydroid, or _Physalia_, the +individuality of function is even more marked than in the Hydractinia. +As in the latter, some of the individuals are Medusae-bearing, and +others simple Hydrae; but, beside these, there are certain members of +the community who act as swimmers, to carry it along through the +water,--others that are its purveyors, catching the prey, by which, +however, they profit only indirectly, for others are appointed to eat +it, and these feeders may be seen sometimes actually gorged with the +food they have devoured, and which is then distributed throughout the +community by the process of digestion and circulation. + +[Illustration: Physalia, or Portuguese Man-of-War.] + +It would be hopeless, even were it desirable, to attempt within the +limits of such an article as this to give the faintest idea of the +number and variety of these Hydroids; and I will therefore say nothing +of the endless host of Tubularians, Campanularians, Sertularians, etc. +They are very abundant along our coast, and will well reward any who +care to study their habits and their singular modes of growth. For their +beauty, simply, it is worth while to examine them. Some are deep red, +others rosy, others purple, others white with a glitter upon them, as if +frosted with silver. Their homes are very various. Some like the fresh, +deep sea-water, while they avoid the dash and tumult of the waves; and +they establish themselves in the depressions on some low ledge of rocks +running far out from the shore, and yet left bare for an hour or two, +when the tide is out. In such a depression, forming a stony cup filled +with purest sea-water, overhung by a roof of rock, which may be fringed +by a heavy curtain of brown sea-weed, the rosy-headed, branching +Eudendrium, one of the prettiest of the Tubularians, may be found. +Others like the tide-pools, higher up on the rocks, that are freshened +by the waves only when the tide is full: such are the small, creeping +Campanularians. Others, again, like the tiny Dynamena, prefer the +rougher action of the sea; and they settle upon the sides of rents and +fissures in the cliffs along the shore, where even in calm weather the +waves rush in and out with a certain degree of violence, broken into +eddies by the abrupt character of the rocks. Others seek the broad +fronds of the larger sea-weeds, and are lashed up and down upon their +spreading branches, as they rock to and fro with the motion of the sea. +Many live in sheltered harbors, attaching themselves to floating logs, +or to the keels of vessels; and some are even so indifferent to the +freshness of the water that they may be found in numbers along the +city-wharves.[4] + +Beside the Jelly-Fishes arising from Hydroids, there are many others +resembling these in all the essential features of their structure, but +differing in their mode of development; for, although more or less +Polyp-like when first born from the egg, they never become attached, nor +do they ever bud or divide, but reach their mature condition without any +such striking metamorphoses as those that characterize the development +of the Hydroid Acalephs. All the Medusas, whether they arise from buds +on the Hydroid stock, like the Sarsia, or from transverse division of +the Hydroid form, like the Aurelia, or grow directly from the egg to +maturity, without pausing in the Hydroid phase, like the Campanella, +agree in the general division and relation of parts. All have a central +cavity, from which arise radiating tubes extending to the margin of the +umbrella-like disk, where they unite either in a net-work of meshes or +in a single circular tube. But there is a great difference in the oral +apparatus; the elaborate ruffled curtains, that hang from the corners of +the mouth, occur only in the Species arising from the transverse +division of the Polyp-like young. For this reason they are divided into +two Orders,--the Hydroids and the Discophorae. + +The third Order, the Ctenophorae, are among the most beautiful of the +Acalephs. I have spoken of the various hues they assume when in motion, +and I will add one word of the peculiarity in their structure which +causes this effect. The Ctenophorae differ from the Jelly-Fishes +described above in sending off from the main cavity only two main tubes, +instead of four like the others; but each of these tubes divides and +subdivides in four branches as it approaches the periphery. From the +eight branches produced in this way there arise vertical tubes extending +in opposite directions up and down the sides of the body. Along these +vertical tubes run the rows of little locomotive oars, or combs, as they +have been called, from which these animals derive their name of +Ctenophorae. The rapid motion of these flappers causes the decomposition +of the rays of light along the surface of the body, producing the most +striking prismatic effect; and it is no exaggeration to say that no +jewel is brighter than these Ctenophorae as they move through the water. + +[Illustration: Idyia roseola; one of our Ctenophorae: a, anal aperture; +b, radiating tube; c, circular tube; d, e, f, g, h, rows of locomotive +fringes.] + + * * * * * + + +I trust I have succeeded in showing that the three Orders of the +Acalephs are, like the five Orders of the Echinoderms, different degrees +of complication of the same structure. In the Hydroids, the organization +does not rise above the simple digestive cavity inclosed by the double +body-wall; and we might not suspect their relation to the Acalephs, did +we not see the Jelly-Fish born from the Hydroid stock. In the +Hydroid-Medusae and Discophorae, instead of a simple digestive sac, as +in the Hydroids, we have a cavity sending off tubes toward the +periphery, which ramify more or less in their course. Now whether there +are four tubes or eight, whether they ramify extensively or not, whether +there are more or less complicated appendages around the margin or the +mouth, makes no difference in the essential structure of these bodies. +They are all disk-like in outline, they all have tentacles hanging from +the margin, and a central cavity from which tubes diverge that divide +the body into a certain number of portions, bearing in all the same +relation to each other and to the central cavity. In the Ctenophorae, +another complication of structure is introduced in the combination of +vertical with horizontal tubes and the external appendages accompanying +them. + +But, whatever their differences may be, a very slight effort of the +imagination only is needed to transform any one of these forms into any +other. Reverse the position of any simple Hydra, so that the tentacles +hang down from the margin, and let four tubes radiate from the central +cavity to the periphery, and we have the lowest form of Jelly-Fish. +Expand the cup of the Hydra to form a gelatinous disk, increase the +number of tubes, complicate their ramifications, let eyes be developed +along the margin, add some external appendages, and we have the +Discophore. Elongate the disk in order to give the body an oval form, +diminish the number of main tubes, and let them give off vertical as +well as horizontal branches, and we have the Ctenophore. + +In the Class of Polyps there are but two Orders,--the Actinoids and the +Halcyonoids; and I have already said so much of the structure of Polyps +that I think I need not repeat my remarks here in order to show the +relation between these groups. The body of all Polyps consists of a sac +divided into chambers by vertical partitions, and having a wreath of +hollow tentacles around the summit, each one of which opens into one of +the chambers. The greater complication of these parts and their +limitation in definite numbers constitute the characters upon which +their superiority or inferiority of structure is based. Here the +comparison is easily made; it is simply the complication and number of +identical parts that make the difference between the Orders. The +Actinoids stand lowest from the simple character and indefinite increase +of these parts; while the Halcyonoids, with their eight lobed tentacles, +corresponding to the same number of internal divisions, are placed above +them. + +We have the key-note to the common structure of the three Classes whose +Orders we have been comparing in the name of the division to which they +all belong: they are _Radiates._ The idea of radiation lies at the +foundation of all these animals, whatever be their form or substance. +Whether stony, like the Corals, or soft, like the Sea-Anemone, or +gelatinous and transparent, like the Jelly-Fish, or hard and brittle, +like the Sea-Urchins,--whether round or oblong or cylindrical or +stellate, in all, the internal structure obeys this law of radiation. + +Not only is this true in a general way, but the comparison may be traced +in all the details. One may ask how the narrow radiating tubes of the +Acalephs, traversing the gelatinous mass of the body, can be compared to +the wide radiating chambers of the Polyp; and yet nothing is more simple +than to thicken the partitions in the Polyps so much as to narrow the +chambers between them, till they form narrow alleys instead of wide +spaces, and then we have the tubes of the Jelly-Fish. In the Jelly-Fish +there is a circular tube around the margin into which all the radiating +tubes open. What have we to compare with this in the Polyps? The outer +edge of each partition in the Polyp is pierced by a hole near the +margin. Of course when the partition is thickened, this hole, remaining +open, becomes a tube; for what is a tube but an elongated hole? The +comparison of the Acalephs with the Echinoderms is still easier, for +they both have tubes; but in the latter the tubes are inclosed in walls +of their own, instead of traversing the mass of the body, as in +Acalephs, etc. + + * * * * * + + +In preparing these articles on the homologies of Radiates, I have felt +the difficulty of divesting my subject of the technicalities which cling +to all scientific results, until they are woven into the tissue of our +every-day knowledge and assume the familiar garb of our common +intellectual property. When the forms of animals are as familiar to +children as their A, B, C, and the intelligent study of Natural History, +from the objects themselves, and not from text-books alone, is +introduced into all our schools, we shall have popular names for things +that can now only be approached with a certain professional stateliness +on account of their technical nomenclature. The best result of such +familiarity with Nature will be the recognition of an intellectual unity +holding together all the various forms of life as parts of one Creative +Conception. + +[Footnote 3: See lower wood-cut, p. 294, _d_.] + +[Footnote 4: Those who care to know more of the habits and structure of +these animals will find more detailed descriptions of all the various +species, illustrated by numerous plates, in the fourth volume of my +_Contributions to the Natural History of the United States,_ just +published.] + + + + + +GABRIEL'S DEFEAT. + +In exploring among dusty files of newspapers for the true records of +Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner, I have caught occasional glimpses of a +plot perhaps more wide in its outlines than that of either, which has +lain obscure in the darkness of half a century, traceable only in the +political events which dated from it, and the utter incorrectness of the +scanty traditions which assumed to preserve it. And though researches in +public libraries have only proved to me how rapidly the materials for +American history are vanishing,--since not one of our great institutions +possesses, for instance, a file of any Southern newspaper of the year +1800,--yet the little which I have gained may have an interest which +makes it worth preserving. I have never been able to see why American +historians should be driven to foreign lands for subjects, when our own +nation has furnished tyrannies more terrible than that of Philip of +Spain, and heroes more silent than William of Orange,--or why our +novelists must seek themes in Italy, on the theory avowed by one of the +most gifted of their number, that this country is given over to a "broad +commonplace prosperity," and harbors "no picturesque or gloomy wrong." +But since, as the Spanish proverb says, no man can at the same time ring +the bells and walk in the procession, so it has perhaps happened that +those most qualified to record the romance of slave-institutions have +been thus far too busy in dealing with the reality. + +Three times, at intervals of thirty years, has a wave of unutterable +terror swept across the Old Dominion, bringing thoughts of agony to +every Virginian master, and of vague hope to every Virginian slave. Each +time has one man's name become a spell of dismay and a symbol of +deliverance. Each time has that name eclipsed its predecessor, while +recalling it for a moment to fresher memory: John Brown revived the +story of Nat Turner, as in his day Nat Turner recalled the vaster +schemes of Gabriel. + +On September 8th, 1800, a Virginia correspondent wrote thus to the +Philadelphia "United States Gazette":-- + + "For the week past, we have been under momentary expectation of a + rising among the negroes, who have assembled to the number of nine + hundred or a thousand, and threatened to massacre all the whites. + They are armed with desperate weapons, and secrete themselves in the + woods. God only knows our fate; we have strong guards every night + under arms." + +It was no wonder, if there were foundation for such rumors. Liberty was +the creed or the cant of the day. France was being rocked by revolution, +and England by Clarkson. In America, slavery was habitually recognized +as a misfortune and an error, only to be palliated by the nearness of +its expected end. How freely anti-slavery pamphlets had been circulated +in Virginia we know from the priceless volumes collected and annotated +by Washington, and now preserved in the Boston Athenaeum. Jefferson's +"Notes on Virginia," itself an anti-slavery tract, had passed through +seven editions. Judge St. George Tucker, law-professor in William and +Mary College, had recently published his noble work, "A Dissertation on +Slavery, with a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in the State of +Virginia." From all this agitation a slave insurrection was a mere +corollary. With so much electricity in the air, a single flash of +lightning foreboded all the terrors of the tempest. Let but a single +armed negro be seen or suspected, and at once on many a lonely +plantation there were trembling hands at work to bar doors and windows +that seldom had been even closed before, and there was shuddering when a +gray squirrel scrambled over the roof, or a shower of walnuts came down +clattering from the overhanging boughs. + +Early in September, 1800, as a certain Mr. Moseley Sheppard, of Henrico +County in Virginia, was one day sitting in his counting-room, two +negroes knocked at the door and were let in. They shut the door +themselves, and began to unfold an insurrectionary plot, which was +subsequently repeated by one of them, named Ben Woodfolk or Woolfolk, in +presence of the court, on the fifteenth of the same month. + +He stated that about the first of the preceding June he had been asked +by a negro named Colonel George whether he would like to be made a +Mason. He refused; but George ultimately prevailed on him to have an +interview with a certain leading man among the blacks, named Gabriel. +Arrived at the place of meeting, he found many persons assembled, to +whom a preliminary oath was administered, that they would keep secret +all which they might hear. The leaders then began, to the dismay of this +witness, to allude to a plan of insurrection, which, as they stated, was +already far advanced toward maturity. Presently a man named Martin, +Gabriel's brother, proposed religious services, caused the company to be +duly seated, and began an impassioned exposition of Scripture, bearing +upon the perilous theme. The Israelites were glowingly portrayed as a +type of successful resistance to tyranny; and it was argued, that now, +as then, God would stretch forth His arm to save, and would strengthen a +hundred to overthrow a thousand. Thus passed, the witness stated, this +preparatory meeting. At a subsequent gathering the affair was brought to +a point, and the only difficult question was, whether to rise in +rebellion upon a certain Saturday, or upon the Sunday following. Gabriel +said that Saturday was the day already fixed, and that it must not be +altered; but George was for changing it to Sunday, as being more +convenient for the country negroes, who could travel on that day without +suspicion. Gabriel, however, said decisively that they had enough to +carry Richmond without them, and Saturday was therefore retained as the +momentous day. + +This was the confession, so far as it is now accessible; and on the +strength of it Ben Woolfolk was promptly pardoned by the court for all +his sins, past, present, or to come, and they proceeded with their +investigation. Of Gabriel little appeared to be known, except that he +had been the property of Thomas Prosser, a young man who had recently +inherited a plantation a few miles from Richmond, and who had the +reputation among his neighbors of "behaving with great barbarity to his +slaves." Gabriel was, however, reported to be "a fellow of courage and +intellect above his rank in life,"--to be about twenty-five years of +age,--and to be guiltless of the alphabet. + +Further inquiry made it appear that the preparations of the insurgents +were hardly adequate to any grand revolutionary design,--at least, if +they proposed to begin with open warfare. The commissariat may have been +well organized, for black Virginians are apt to have a prudent eye to +the larder; but the ordnance department and the treasury were as low as +if Secretary Floyd had been in charge of them. A slave called "Prosser's +Ben" testified that he went with Gabriel to see Ben Woolfolk, who was +going to Caroline County to enlist men, and that "Gabriel gave him three +shillings for himself and three other negroes, to be expended in +recruiting men." Their arms and ammunition, so far as reported, +consisted of a peck of bullets, ten pounds of powder, and twelve +scythe-swords, made by Gabriel's brother Solomon, and fitted with +handles by Gabriel himself. "These cutlasses," said subsequently a white +eyewitness, "are made of scythes cut in two and fixed into well-turned +handles. I have never seen arms so murderous. Those who still doubt the +importance of the conspiracy which has been so fortunately frustrated +would shudder with horror at the sight of these instruments of death." +And as it presently appeared that a conspirator named Scott had +astonished his master by accidentally pulling ten dollars from a ragged +pocket which seemed inadequate to the custody of ten cents, it was +agreed that the plot might still be dangerous, even though the resources +seemed limited. + +And indeed, as was soon discovered, the effective weapon of the +insurgents lay in the very audacity of their plan. The scheme, as it +existed in the mind of Gabriel, was as elaborate as that of Denmark +Vesey, and as thorough as that of Nat Turner. If the current statements +of all the Virginia letter-writers were true, "nothing could have been +better contrived." It was to have taken effect on the first day of +September. The rendezvous for the blacks was to be a brook six miles +from Richmond. Eleven hundred men were to assemble there, and were to be +divided into three columns, their officers having been designated in +advance. All were to march on Richmond,--then a town of eight thousand +inhabitants,--under cover of night. The right wing was instantly to +seize upon the penitentiary building, just converted into an arsenal; +while the left wing was to take possession of the powder-house. These +two columns were to be armed chiefly with clubs, as their undertaking +depended for success upon surprise, and was expected to prevail without +hard fighting. But it was the central force, armed with muskets, +cutlasses, knives, and pikes, upon which the chief responsibility +rested; these men were to enter the town at both ends simultaneously, +and begin a general carnage, none being excepted save the French +inhabitants, who were supposed for some reason to be friendly to the +negroes. In a very few hours, it was thought, they would have entire +control of the metropolis. And that this hope was not in the least +unreasonable was shown by the subsequent confessions of weakness from +the whites. "They could scarcely have failed of success," wrote the +Richmond Correspondent of the Boston "Chronicle," "for, after all, we +could only muster four or five hundred men, of whom not more than thirty +had muskets." + +For the insurgents, if successful, the penitentiary held several +thousand stand of arms; the powder-house was well stocked; the capitol +contained the State treasury; the mills would give them bread; the +control of the bridge across James River would keep off enemies from +beyond. Thus secured and provided, they planned to issue proclamations +summoning to their standard "their fellow-negroes and the friends of +humanity throughout the continent." In a week, it was estimated, they +would have fifty thousand men on their side, with which force they could +easily possess themselves of other towns; and, indeed, a slave named +John Scott--possibly the dangerous possessor of the ten dollars--was +already appointed to head the attack on Petersburg. But in case of final +failure, the project included a retreat to the mountains, with their +new-found property. John Brown was therefore anticipated by Gabriel, +sixty years before, in believing the Virginia mountains to have been +"created, from the foundation of the world, as a place of refuge for +fugitive slaves." + +These are the statements of the contemporary witnesses; they are +repeated in many newspapers of the year 1800, and are in themselves +clear and consistent. Whether they are on the whole exaggerated or +understated, it is now impossible to say. It is certain that a Richmond +paper of September 12th (quoted in the "New York Gazette" of September +18th) declares that "the plot has been entirely exploded, which was +shallow; and had the attempt been made to carry it into execution, but +little resistance would have been required to render the scheme entirely +abortive." But it is necessary to remember that this is no more than the +Charleston newspapers said at the very crisis of Denmark Vesey's +formidable plot. "Last evening," wrote a lady from Charleston in 1822, +"twenty-five hundred of our citizens were under arms to guard our +property and lives. But it is a subject _not to be mentioned_ [so +underscored]; and unless you hear of it elsewhere, say nothing about +it." Thus it is always hard to know whether to assume the facts of an +insurrection as above or below the estimates. This Virginian excitement +also happened at a period of intense political agitation, and was seized +upon as a boon by the Federalists. The very article above quoted is +ironically headed, "Holy Insurrection," and takes its motto from +Jefferson, with profuse capital letters,--"The Spirit of the Master is +abating, that of the Slave rising from the dust, his condition +mollifying." + +In view of the political aspect thus given to the plot, and of its +ingenuity and thoroughness likewise, the Virginians were naturally +disposed to attribute to white men some share in it; and speculation +presently began to run wild. The newspapers were soon full of theories, +no two being alike, and no one credible. The plot originated, some said, +in certain handbills written by Jefferson's friend Callender, then in +prison at Richmond on a charge of sedition; these were circulated by two +French negroes, aided by a "United Irishman," calling himself a +Methodist preacher,--and it was in consideration of these services that +no Frenchman was to be injured by the slaves. When Gabriel was arrested, +the editor of the "United States Gazette" affected much diplomatic +surprise that no letters were _yet_ found upon his person "from Fries, +Gallatin, or Duane, nor was he at the time of his capture accompanied by +any United Irishman." "He, however, acknowledges that there are others +concerned, and that he is not the principal instigator." All Federalists +agreed that the Southern Democratic talk was constructive +insurrection,--which it certainly was,--and they painted graphic +pictures of noisy "Jacobins" over their wine, and eager, dusky listeners +behind their chairs. "It is evident that the French principles of +liberty and equality have been effused into the minds of the negroes, +and that the incautious and intemperate use of the words by some whites +among us have inspired them with hopes of success." "While the fiery +Hotspurs of the State vociferate their _French babble_ of the natural +equality of man, the insulted negro will be constantly stimulated to +cast away his cords and to sharpen his pike." "It is, moreover, +believed, though not positively known, that a great many of our +profligate and abandoned whites (who are distinguished by the burlesque +appellation of _Democrats_) are implicated with the blacks, and would +have joined them, if they had commenced their operations.... The Jacobin +printers and their friends are panic-struck. Never was terror more +strongly depicted in the countenances of men." These extracts from three +different Federalist newspapers show the amiable emotions of that side +of the house; while Democratic Duane, in the "Aurora," could find no +better repartee than to attribute the whole trouble to the policy of the +Administration in renewing commercial intercourse with San Domingo. + +I have discovered in the Norfolk "Epitome of the Times," for October 9, +1800, a remarkable epistle written from Richmond jail by the unfortunate +Callender himself. He indignantly denies the charges against the +Democrats, of complicity in dangerous plots, boldly retorting them upon +the Federalists. "An insurrection at this critical moment by the negroes +of the Southern States would have thrown everything into confusion, and +consequently it was to have prevented the choice of electors in the +whole or the greater part of the States to the south of the Potomac. +Such a disaster must have tended directly to injure the interests of Mr. +Jefferson, and to promote the slender possibility of a second election +of Mr. Adams." And, to be sure, the "United States Gazette" followed up +the thing with a good, single-minded party malice which cannot be +surpassed in these present days, ending in such altitudes of sublime +coolness as the following:--"The insurrection of the negroes in the +Southern States, which appears to be organized on the true French plan, +must be decisive with every reflecting man in those States of the +election of Mr. Adams and General Pinckney. The military skill and +approved bravery of the General must be peculiarly valuable to his +countrymen at these trying moments." Let us have a military +Vice-President, by all means, to meet this formidable exigency of +Gabriel's peck of bullets, and this unexplained three shillings in the +pocket of "Prosser's Ben"! + +But Gabriel's campaign failed, like that of the Federalists, and the +appointed day brought disasters more fatal than even the sword of +General Pinckney. The affrighted negroes declared that "the stars in +their courses fought against Sisera." The most furious tempest ever +known in Virginia burst upon the land that day, instead of an +insurrection. Roads and plantations were submerged. Bridges were carried +away. The fords, which then, as now, were the ordinary substitutes for +bridges in that region, were rendered wholly impassable. The Brook +Swamp, one of the most important strategic points of the insurgents, was +entirely inundated, hopelessly dividing Prosser's farm from Richmond; +the country negroes could not get in, nor those from the city get out. +The thousand men dwindled to a few hundred,--and these half paralyzed by +superstition; there was nothing to do but to dismiss them, and before +they could reassemble they were betrayed. + +That the greatest alarm was instantly created throughout the community, +there is no question. All the city of Richmond was in arms, and in all +large towns of the State the night-patrol was doubled. It is a little +amusing to find it formally announced, that "the Governor, impressed +with the magnitude of the danger, has appointed for himself three +Aides-de-camp." A troop of United States cavalry was ordered to +Richmond. Numerous arrests were made. Men were convicted on one day and +hanged on the next,--five, six, ten, fifteen at a time, almost without +evidence. Three hundred dollars were offered by Governor Monroe for the +arrest of Gabriel; as much more for another chief named Jack Bowler, +_alias_ Ditcher; whereupon Bowler, _alias_ Ditcher, surrendered himself, +but it took some weeks to get upon the track of Gabriel. He was finally +captured at Norfolk, on board a schooner just arrived from Richmond, in +whose hold he had concealed himself for eleven days, having thrown +overboard a bayonet and bludgeon, which were his only arms. Crowds of +people collected to see him, including many of his own color. He was +arrested on September 24th, convicted on October 3d, and executed on +October 7th; and it is known of him further only, that, like almost all +leaders of slave insurrections, he showed a courage which his enemies +could not gainsay. "When he was apprehended, he manifested the greatest +marks of firmness and confidence, showing not the least disposition to +equivocate or screen himself from justice,"--but making no confession +that could implicate any one else. "The behavior of Gabriel under his +misfortunes," said the Norfolk "Epitome" of September 25th, "was such as +might be expected from a mind capable of forming the daring project +which he had conceived." The "United States Gazette" for October 9th +states, more sarcastically, that "the General is said to have manifested +the utmost composure, and with the true spirit of heroism seems ready to +resign his high office, and even his life, rather than gratify the +officious inquiries of the Governor." + +Some of these newspapers suggest that the authorities found it good +policy to omit the statement made by Gabriel, whatever it was. At any +rate, he assured them that he was by no means the sole instigator of the +affair; he could name numbers, even in Norfolk, who were more deeply +concerned. To his brother Solomon he is said to have stated that the +real head of the plot was Jack Bowler. Still another leader was "General +John Scott," already mentioned, the slave of Mr. Greenhow, hired by Mr. +McCrea. He was captured by his employer in Norfolk, just as he was +boldly entering a public conveyance to escape; and the Baltimore +"Telegraphe" declared that he had a written paper directing him to apply +to Alexander Biddenhurst or Weddenhurst in Philadelphia, "corner of +Coats Alley and Budd Street, who would supply his needs." What became of +this military individual, or of his Philadelphia sympathizers, does not +appear. But it was noticed, as usually happens in such cases, that all +the insurgents had previously passed for saints. "It consists within my +knowledge," says one letter-writer, "that many of these wretches who +were or would have been partakers in the plot have been treated with the +utmost tenderness by their masters, and were more like children than +slaves." + +These appear to be all the details now accessible of this once famous +plot. They were not very freely published even at the time. "The +minutiae of the conspiracy have not been detailed to the public," said +the "Salem Gazette" of October 7th, "and, perhaps, through a mistaken +notion of prudence and policy, will not be detailed, in the Richmond +papers." The New York "Commercial Advertiser" of October 13th was still +more explicit. "The trials of the negroes concerned in the late +insurrection are suspended until the opinions of the Legislature can be +had on the subject. This measure is said to be owing to the immense +numbers who are interested in the plot, whose death, should they all be +found guilty and be executed, will nearly produce the annihilation of +the blacks in this part of the country." And in the next issue of the +same journal a Richmond correspondent makes a similar statement, with +the following addition:-- + + "A conditional amnesty is perhaps expected. At the next session of + the Legislature [of Virginia] they took into consideration the + subject referred to them, in secret session, with closed doors. The + whole result of their deliberations has never yet been made public, + as the injunction of secrecy has never been removed. To satisfy the + court, the public, and themselves, they had a task so difficult to + perform, that it is not surprising that their deliberations were in + secret." + +It is a matter of historical interest to know that in these mysterious +sessions lay the germs of the American Colonization Society. A +correspondence was at once secretly commenced between the Governor of +Virginia and the President of the United States, with a view to securing +a grant of land whither troublesome slaves might be banished. Nothing +came of it then; but in 1801, 1802, and 1804, these attempts were +renewed. And finally, on January 22d, 1805, the following vote was +passed, still in secret session:--"_Resolved_, that the Senators of this +State in the Congress of the United States be instructed, and the +Representatives be requested, to use their best efforts for the +obtaining from the General Government a competent portion of territory +in the State of Louisiana, to be appropriated to the residence of such +people of color as have been or shall be emancipated, or hereafter may +become dangerous to the public safety," etc. But of all these efforts +nothing was known till their record was accidentally discovered by +Charles Fenton Mercer in 1816. He at once brought the matter to light, +and moved a similar resolution in the Virginia Legislature; it was +almost unanimously adopted, and the first formal meeting of the +Colonization Society, in 1817, was called "in aid" of this Virginia +movement. But the whole correspondence was never made public until the +Nat-Turner insurrection of 1831 recalled the previous excitement, and +these papers were demanded by Mr. Summers, a member of the Legislature, +who described them as "having originated in a convulsion similar to that +which had recently, but more terribly, occurred." + +But neither these subsequent papers, nor any documents which now appear +accessible, can supply any authentic or trustworthy evidence as to the +real extent of the earlier plot. It certainly was not confined to the +mere environs of Richmond. The Norfolk "Epitome" of October 6th states +that on the sixth and seventh of the previous month one hundred and +fifty blacks, including twenty from Norfolk, were assembled near +Whitlock's Mills in Suffolk County, and remained in the neighborhood +till the failure of the Richmond plan became known. Petersburg +newspapers also had letters containing similar tales. Then the alarm +spread more widely. Near Edenton, N.C., there was undoubtedly a real +insurrection, though promptly suppressed; and many families ultimately +removed from that vicinity in consequence. In Charleston, S.C., there +was still greater excitement, if the contemporary press may be trusted; +it was reported that the freeholders had been summoned to appear in +arms, on penalty of a fine of fifteen pounds, which many preferred to +pay rather than risk taking the fever which then prevailed. These +reports were, however, zealously contradicted in letters from +Charleston, dated October 8th, and the Charleston newspapers up to +September 17th had certainly contained no reference to any especial +excitement. This alone might not settle the fact, for reasons already +given. But the omission of any such affair from the valuable pamphlet +containing reminiscences of insurrections in South Carolina, published +in 1822 by Edwin C. Holland, is presumptive evidence that no very +extended agitation occurred. + +But wherever there was a black population, slave or emancipated, men's +startled consciences made cowards of them all, and recognized the negro +as a dangerous man, because an injured one. In Philadelphia it was +seriously proposed to prohibit the use of sky-rockets for a time, +because they had been employed as signals in San Domingo. "Even in +Boston," said the New York "Daily Advertiser" of September 20th, "fears +are expressed, and measures of prevention adopted." This probably refers +to a singular advertisement which appeared in some of the Boston +newspapers on September 16th, and runs as follows:-- + + "NOTICE TO BLACKS. + + "The officers of the police having made returns to the subscriber of + the names of the following persons who are Africans or negroes, not + subjects of the Emperor of Morocco nor citizens of any of the United + States, the same are hereby warned and directed to depart out of this + Commonwealth before the tenth day of October next, as they would + avoid the pains and penalties of the law in that case provided, which + was passed by the Legislature March 26, 1788. + + "CHARLES BULFINCH, + + "Superintendent. + + "By order and direction of the Selectmen." + +The names annexed are about three hundred, with the places of their +supposed origin, and they occupy a column of the paper. So at least +asserts the "United States Gazette" of September 23d. "It seems +probable," adds the editor, "from the nature of the notice, that some +suspicion of the design of the negroes is entertained, and we regret to +say there is too much cause." The law of 1788 above mentioned was "an +act for suppressing rogues, vagabonds, and the like," which forbade all +persons of African descent, unless citizens of some one of the United +States or subjects of the Emperor of Morocco, from remaining more than +two months within the Commonwealth, on penalty of imprisonment and hard +labor. This singular statute remained unrepealed until 1834. + +Amid the general harmony in the contemporary narratives of Gabriel's +insurrection, it would be improper to pass by one exceptional legend, +which by some singular fatality has obtained more circulation than all +the true accounts put together. I can trace it no farther back than Nat +Turner's time, when it was published in the Albany "Evening Journal"; +thence transferred to the "Liberator" of September 17th, 1831, and many +other newspapers; then refuted in detail by the "Richmond Enquirer" of +October 21st; then resuscitated in the John-Brown epoch by the +Philadelphia "Press," and extensively copied. It is fresh, spirited, and +full of graphic and interesting details, nearly every one of which is +altogether false. + +Gabriel in this narrative becomes a rather mythical being, of vast +abilities and life-long preparations. He bought his freedom, it is +stated, at the age of twenty-one, and then travelled all over the +Southern States, enlisting confederates and forming stores of arms. At +length his plot was discovered, in consequence of three negroes' having +been seen riding out of a stable-yard together; and the Governor offered +a reward of ten thousand dollars for further information, to which a +Richmond gentleman added as much more. Gabriel concealed himself on +board the Sally Ann, a vessel just sailing for San Domingo, and was +revealed by his little nephew, whom he had sent for a jug of rum. +Finally the narrative puts an eloquent dying speech into Gabriel's +mouth, and, to give a properly tragic consummation, causes him to be +torn to death by four wild horses. The last item is, however, omitted in +the more recent reprints of the story. + +Every one of these statements appears to be absolutely erroneous. +Gabriel lived and died a slave, and was probably never out of Virginia. +His plot was voluntarily revealed by accomplices. The rewards offered +for his arrest amounted to three hundred dollars only. He concealed +himself on board the schooner Mary, bound to Norfolk, and was discovered +by the police. He died on the gallows, with ten associates, having made +no address to the court or the people. All the errors of the statement +were contradicted when it was first made public, but they have proved +very hard to kill. + +It is stated at the close of this newspaper romance,--and it may +nevertheless be true,--that these events were embodied in a song bearing +the same title with this essay, "Gabriel's Defeat," and set to a tune of +the same name, both being composed by a colored man. The reporter claims +to have heard it in Virginia, as a favorite air at the dances of the +white people, as well as in the huts of the slaves. It would certainly +be one of history's strange parallelisms, if this fatal enterprise, like +that of John Brown afterwards, should thus triumphantly have embalmed +itself in music. But I have found no other trace of such a piece of +border-minstrelsy, and it is probable that even this plaintive memorial +has at length disappeared. + +Yet, twenty-two years after these events their impression still remained +vivid enough for Benjamin Lundy, in Tennessee, to write,--"So well had +they matured their plot, and so completely had they organized their +system of operations, that nothing but a seemingly miraculous +intervention of the arm of Providence was supposed to have been capable +of saving the city from pillage and flames, and the inhabitants thereof +from butchery. So dreadful was the alarm and so great the consternation +produced on this occasion, that a member of Congress from that State was +some time after heard to express himself in his place as follows: 'The +night-bell is never heard to toll in the city of Richmond but the +anxious mother presses her infant more closely to her bosom.'" The +Congressman was John Randolph of Roanoke, and it was Gabriel who had +taught him the lesson. + +And longer than the melancholy life of that wayward statesman,--down +even to the beginning of the present civil war, and perhaps to this very +moment,--there lingered in Richmond a memorial of those days, most +peculiar and most instructive. Before the days of Secession, when the +Northern traveller in Virginia, after traversing for weary leagues its +miry ways, its desolate fields, and its flowery forests, rode at last +into its metropolis,--now slowly expanded into a city of twenty-eight +thousand inhabitants,--he was sure to be guided erelong to visit its +stately Capitol, modelled by Jefferson, when French minister, from the +Maison Carrée. Standing before it, he might admire undisturbed the +Grecian outline of its exterior, or criticize at will the unsightly +cheapness of its stucco imitations; but he found himself forbidden to +enter, save by passing an armed and uniformed sentinel at the door-way. +No other State of the Union has thus found it necessary in time of +profoundest quiet to protect its State-House by a permanent cordon of +bayonets; indeed, the Constitution expressly prohibits to any State a +standing army, however small. Yet there for sixty years has stood +sentinel the "Public Guard" of Virginia, wearing the suicidal motto of +that decaying Commonwealth, "_Sic semper Tyrannis_"; and when one asked +the origin of the precaution, one learned that it was the lasting +memorial of Gabriel's insurrection, the stern heritage of terror +bequeathed by his defeat. + + + +BETHEL. + +We mustered at midnight, in darkness we formed, +And the whisper went round of a fort to be stormed; +But no drum-beat had called us, no trumpet we heard, +And no voice of command, but our Colonel's low word,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +And out, through the mist and the murk of the morn, +From the beaches of Hampton our barges were borne; +And we heard not a sound, save the sweep of the oar, +Till the word of our Colonel came up from the shore,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +With hearts bounding bravely, and eyes all alight, +As ye dance to soft music, so trod we, that night; +Through the aisles of the greenwood, with vines overarched, +Tossing dew-drops, like gems, from our feet, as we marched,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +As ye dance with the damsels, to viol and flute, +So we skipped from the shadows, and mocked their pursuit; +But the soft zephyrs chased us, with scents of the morn, +As we passed by the hay-fields and green waving corn,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +For the leaves were all laden with fragrance of June, +And the flowers and the foliage with sweets were in tune; +And the air was so calm, and the forest so dumb, +That we heard our own heart-beats, like taps of a drum,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +Till the lull of the lowlands was stirred by a breeze, +And the buskins of Morn brushed the tops of the trees, +And the glintings of glory that slid from her track +By the sheen of our rifles were gayly flung back,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +And the woodlands grew purple with sunshiny mist, +And the blue-crested hill-tops with rose-light were kissed, +And the earth gave her prayers to the sun in perfumes, +Till we marched as through gardens, and trampled on blooms,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +Ay! trampled on blossoms, and seared the sweet breath +Of the greenwood with low-brooding vapors of death; +O'er the flowers and the corn we were borne like a blast, +And away to the fore-front of battle we passed,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +For the cannon's hoarse thunder roared out from the glades, +And the sun was like lightning on banners and blades, +When the long line of chanting Zouaves, like a flood, +From the green of the woodlands rolled, crimson as blood,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +While the sound of their song, like the surge of the seas, +With the "Star-Spangled Banner" swelled over the leas; +And the sword of DURYEA, like a torch, led the way, +Bearing down on the batteries of Bethel, that day,--[5] + "Column! Forward!" + +Through green-tasselled cornfields our columns were thrown, +And like corn by the red scythe of fire we were mown; +While the cannon's fierce ploughings new-furrowed the plain, +That our blood might be planted for LIBERTY'S grain,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +Oh! the fields of fair June have no lack of sweet flowers, +But their rarest and best breathe no fragrance like ours; +And the sunshine of June, sprinkling gold on the corn, +Hath no harvest that ripeneth like BETHEL'S red morn,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +When our heroes, like bridegrooms, with lips and with breath, +Drank the first kiss of Danger and clasped her in death; +And the heart of brave WINTHROP grew mute, with his lyre, +When the plumes of his genius lay moulting in fire,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +Where he fell shall be sunshine as bright as his name, +And the grass where he slept shall be green as his fame; +For the gold of the Pen and the steel of the Sword +Write his deeds--in his blood--on the land he adored,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +And the soul of our comrade shall sweeten the air, +And the flowers and the grass-blades his memory upbear; +While the breath of his genius, like music in leaves, +With the corn-tassels whispers, and sings in the sheaves,-- + "Column! Forward!" + +[Footnote 5: The march on Bethel was begun in high spirits at midnight, +but it was near noon when the Zouaves, in their crimson garments, led by +Colonel Duryea, charged the batteries, after singing the "Star-Spangled +Banner" in chords. Major Winthrop fell in the storming of the enemy's +defences, and was left on the battle-field. Lieutenant Greble, the only +other officer killed, was shot at his gun soon after. This fatal contest +inaugurated the "war of posts" which has since raged in Virginia.] + + + + +THE HORRORS OF SAN DOMINGO. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE BUCCANEERS--FLIBUSTIERS--TORTUGA--SETTLEMENT OF THE WESTERN PART OF +SAN DOMINGO BY THE FRENCH. + +Peaceable voyagers in the West Indies were much astonished at their +first sight of certain men, who might have been a new species of native, +generated with slight advances upon the old stock by the principle of +selection, or spontaneous growths of a soil well guanoed by ferocity. +They sported the scarlet suit of the Carib, but of a dye less innocent, +as if the fated islands imparted this color to the men who preyed upon +them. A cotton shirt hung on their shoulders, and a pair of cotton +drawers struggled vainly to cover their thighs: you had to look very +closely to pronounce upon the material, it was so stained with blood and +fat. Their bronzed faces and thick necks were hirsute, as if overgrown +with moss, tangled or crispy. Their feet were tied up in the raw hides +of hogs or beeves just slaughtered, from which they also frequently +extemporized drawers, cut while reeking, and left to stiffen to the +shape of the legs. A heavy-stocked musket, made at Dieppe or Nantes, +with a barrel four and a half feet long, and carrying sixteen balls to +the pound,[6] lay over the shoulder, a calabash full of powder, with a +wax stopper, was slung behind, and a belt of crocodile's skin, with four +knives and a bayonet, went round the waist. These individuals, if the +term is applicable to the phenomena in question, were Buccaneers.[7] + +The name is derived from the arrangements which the Caribs made to cook +their prisoners of war. After being dismembered, their pieces were +placed upon wooden gridirons, which were called in Carib, _barbacoa_. It +will please our Southern brethren to recognize a congenial origin for +their favorite barbecue. The place where these grilling hurdles were set +up was called boucan, and the method of roasting and smoking, +_boucaner_. The Buccaneers were men of many nations, who hunted the wild +cattle, which had increased prodigiously from the original Spanish +stock; after taking off the hide, they served the flesh as the Caribs +served their captives. There appears to have been a division of +employment among them; for some hunted beeves merely for the hide, and +others hunted the wild hogs to salt and sell their flesh. But their +habits and appearance were the same. The beef-hunters had many dogs, of +the old mastiff-breed imported from Spain, to assist in running down +their game, with one or two hounds in each pack, who were taught to +announce and follow up a trail. + +The origin of these men, called Buccaneers, can be traced to a few +Norman-French who were driven out of St. Christophe, in 1630, by the +Spaniards. This island was settled jointly, but by an accidental +coincidence, by French and English, in 1625. They lived tranquilly +together for five years: the hunting of Caribs, who disputed their title +to the soil, being a bond of union between them which was stronger than +national prejudice. But the Spanish power became jealous of this +encroachment among the islands, which it affected to own by virtue of +Papal dispensation. Though Spain did not care to occupy it, Cuba and the +Main being too engrossing, she determined that no other power should do +so. She therefore took advantage of disturbances which arose there, in +consequence, the French writers affirm, of the perfidious ambition of +Albion, and chased both parties out of the island. The French soon +recovered possession of it, which they solely held in future; but many +exiles never returned, preferring to woo Fortune in company with the +French and English adventurers who swarmed in those seas, having +withdrawn, for sufficient reasons, from civilized society before a +graceful retreat became impossible. This medley of people settled at +first upon the northern and western coasts of San Domingo,--the latter +being as yet unoccupied. A few settlements of Spaniards upon the +northern coast, which suffered from their national antipathies and had +endeavored to root them out, were quickly broken up by them. The Dutch, +of course, were friendly, and promised to supply them with necessaries +in payment for hides, lard, and meat, _boucané_. + +Their favorite haunt was the little island Tortuga,[8] so named, some +say, from its resemblance to a turtle afloat, and others, from the +abundance of that "green and glutinous" delight of aldermen. It is only +two or three leagues distant from the northern coast of San Domingo, off +the mouth of Trois Rivières. Its northern side is inaccessible: a boat +cannot find a nook or cove into which it may slip for landing or +shelter. But there is one harbor upon the southern side, and the +Buccaneers took possession of this, and gradually fortified it to make a +place tenable against the anticipated assaults of the Spaniards. The +soil was thin, but it nourished great trees which seemed to grow from +the rocks; water was scarce; the hogs were numerous, smaller and more +delicate than those of San Domingo; the sugar-cane flourished; and +tobacco of superior quality could be raised. About five-and-twenty +Spaniards held the harbor when these adventurers approached to take +possession. There were, besides, a few other rovers like themselves, +whom the new community adopted. The Spaniards made no resistance, and +were suffered to retire. + +There was cordial fellowship between the _Flibustiers_ and Buccaneers, +for they were all outlaws, without a country, with few national +predilections,--men who could not live at home except at the risk of +apprehension for vagrancy or crime,--men who ran away in search of +adventure when the public ear was ringing with the marvels and riches of +the Indies, and when a multitude of sins could be covered by judicious +preying. The Spaniards were the victims of this floating and roving St. +Giles of the seventeenth century. If England or France went to war with +Spain, these freebooters obtained commissions, and their pillaging grew +honorable; but it did not subside with the conclusion of a peace. They +followed their own policy of lust and avarice, over regions too far from +the main history of the times to be controlled. + +The word _Flibustier_ is derived from the Dutch _Vlieboot_, fly-boat, +swift boat, a kind of small craft whose sailing qualities were superior +to those of the other vessels then in vogue. It is possible that the +English made freebooter[9] out of the French adaptation. The fly-boat +was originally only a long, light pinnace[10] or cutter with oars, +fitted also to carry sail; we often find the word used by the French +writers to designate vessels which brought important intelligence. They +were favorite craft with the _Flibustiers_, not from their swiftness +alone, but from their ease of management, and capacity to run up the +creeks and river-openings, and to lie concealed. From these they boarded +the larger vessels, to plunder or to use them for prolonged freebooting +expeditions. The _Flibustier_, then, was a sea-hunter or pirate, as the +Buccaneer was a land-hunter, but ready also for pillaging expeditions, +in which they coöperated. And their pursuits were interchangeable: the +Buccaneer sometimes went to sea, and the _Flibustier_, in times of +marine scarcity, would don the hog-skin breeches, and run down cows or +hunt fugitive negroes with packs of dogs. The Buccaneers, however, +slowly acquired a tendency to settle, while the _Flibustiers_ preferred +to keep the seas, till Europe began to look them up too sharply; so that +the former became, eventually, the agricultural nucleus of the western +part of San Domingo, when the supply of wild cattle began to fail. This +failure happened partly in consequence of their own extravagant +hunting-habits, and partly through the agency of the Spaniards of the +eastern colony, who thought that by slaughtering the cattle their French +neighbors would be driven, for lack of employment, from the soil. + +The Buccaneers generally went to the chase in couples, attended by their +dogs and _Engagés_. These hired or _engaged_ men first appear in the +history of the island as valets of the Buccaneers. But, in their case, +misfortune rather than vice was the reason of their appearance in such +doubtful companionship. They were often sold for debt or inability to +pay a rent, as happened in Scotland even during the eighteenth century; +they were deluded to take ship by the flaming promises which the +captains of vessels issued in the ports of different countries, to +recruit their crews, or with the wickeder purpose of kidnapping simple +rustics and hangers-on of cities; they sometimes came to a vessel's side +in poverty, and sold their liberty for three years for the sake of a +passage to the fabled Ind; press-gangs sometimes stole and smuggled them +aboard of vessels just ready to sail; very young people were induced to +come aboard,--indeed, one or two cases happened in France, where a +schoolmaster and his flock, who were out for a walk, were cajoled by +these purveyors of avaricious navigators, and actually carried away from +the country. There was, besides, a regular method of supplying the +French colonies in the different islands with voluntary _engagés_, who +agreed to serve for three years at certain wages, with liberty and a +small allotment of land at the expiration of the time. These were called +"thirty-six months' men." Sometimes their regular indenture was +respected, and sometimes violently set aside to make the signers +virtually slaves. This was done occasionally by the French in imitation +of the English. A number of _engagés_ at St. Christophe, finding that +they were not set at liberty at the expiration of their three years, and +that their masters intended to hold them two years more, assembled +tumultuously, and threatened to attack the colony. This was in 1632. +Their masters were not in sufficient force to carry out their plan, and +the Governor was obliged to set at liberty all who had served their +time. In 1719, the French Council of State decreed, in consequence of +the scarcity of _engagés_, that all vagabonds and criminals sentenced to +the galleys should be transported for colonial service; and in order to +diminish the expense of shipping them, every vessel leaving France for +the Antilles was compelled to carry three _engagés_ free of expense. + +The amount of misery created by these various methods of supplying the +islands with human labor cannot be computed. The victims were very +humble; the manner of their taking-off was rarely noticed; the spirit of +the age never stooped to consider these trifles of sorrow, nor to +protect by some legislation the unfortunates who suffered in remote +islands, whence their cries seldom reached the ears of authority. It +would have been surprising, if many of these _engagés_ had not assumed +the habits of their masters, and kept the wandering hordes by land and +sea recruited. Some of the most famous Buccaneers--for that name +popularly included also the _Flibustiers_--were originally thirty-six +months' men who had daring and conduct enough to make the best of their +enforced condition. + +These _engagés_ were in all respects treated as slaves, especially when +bound to agricultural service. Their master left them to the mercies of +an overseer, who whistled them up at daybreak for wood-cutting or labor +in the tobacco-fields, and went about among them with a stout stick, +which he used freely to bring the lagging up to their work. Many +cruelties are related of these men, but they are of the ordinary kind to +be found in the annals of all slave-holding countries. The fact that the +_engagés_ were indentured only for three years made no difference with +men whose sole object was to use up every available resource in the +pursuit of wealth. Bad treatment, chagrin, and scurvy destroyed many of +them. The French writers accused the English of treating their _engagés_ +worse than any other nation, as they retained them for seven years, at +the end of which time they gave them money enough to procure a +lengthened debauch, during which they generally signed away their +liberty for seven more years. Oexmelin says that Cromwell sold more than +ten thousand Scotch and Irish, destined for Barbadoes. A whole ship-load +of these escaped, but perished miserably of famine near Cape Tiburon, at +a place which was afterwards called _L'Anse aux Ibernois_. + +The first _engagés_ were brought by the French from Dieppe: they signed +contracts before notaries previously to quitting the country. This class +of laborers was eagerly sought by all the colonists of the West Indies, +and a good many vessels of different nations were employed in the trade. +There was in Brazil a system of letting out land to be worked, called a +_labrados_,[11] because a manager held the land from a proprietor for a +certain share of the profits, and cultivated it by laborers procurable +in various ways. The name of Labrador is derived by some writers from +the stealing of natives upon our northern coast by the Portuguese, to be +enslaved. It is certain that they did this as early as 1501,[12] and +named the coast afterwards _Terra de Laborador_. + +The Buccaneers, hunting in couples, called each other _matelot_, or +shipmate: the word expresses their amphibious capacity. When a bull was +run down by the dogs, the hunter, almost as fleet of foot as they, ran +in to hamstring him, if possible,--if not, to shoot him. A certain +mulatto became glorious in buccaneering annals for running down his +game: out of a hundred hides which he sent to France, ten only were +pierced with bullet-holes. When the animal was stripped of its skin, the +large bones were drawn from the flesh for the sake of the marrow, of +which the two _matelots_ made their stout repast. Portions of the flesh +were then _boucané_ by the followers, the rest was left to dogs and +birds, and the chase was pursued day by day till a sufficient number of +hides were collected. These were transported to the little coves and +landing places, where they were exchanged for powder and shot, spirits +and silver. Then a grand debauch at Tortuga followed, with the wildest +gratification of every passion. Comrades quarrelled and sought each +other's blood; their pleasure ran _amôk_ like a mad Malay. When wine was +all drunk and the money gamed away, another expedition, with fresh air +and beef-marrow, set these independent bankrupts again to rights. + +The _Flibustiers_ had an inexpensive way of furnishing themselves with +vessels for prosecuting their piratical operations. A dozen of them in a +boat would hang about the mouth of a river, or in the vicinity of a +Spanish port, enduring the greatest privations with constancy, till they +saw a vessel which had good sailing qualities and a fair equipment. If +they could not surprise it, they would run down to board it regardless +of its fire, and swarm up the side and over the decks in a perfect fury, +which nothing could resist, driving the crew into the sea. These +expeditions were always prefaced by religious observances. On this point +they were very strict; even before each meal, the Catholics chanted the +Canticle of Zacharias, the Magnificat, and the Miserere, and the +Protestants of all nations read a chapter of the Bible and sang a psalm. +For many a Huguenot was in these seas, revenging upon mankind its +capability to perpetrate, in the name of religion, a St. Bartholomew's. + +Captain Daniel was a _Flibustier_ with religious tendencies. Finding +himself out of poultry, as he lay between Les Saintes and Dominica, +(1701,) he approached the former island by night, landed and carried off +the _curé_ and some of the principal inhabitants. These were not the +fowls he wanted, but rather decoys to the fattest poultry-yards. The +account of his exquisite mingling of business and religion gives us a +glimpse into the interior of flibustierism. We translate from Father +Labat, who had the story from the astonished _curé_. They were very +polite to them, he says, "and while the people were bringing in the +provisions, they begged the _curé_ to say mass in their vessel, which he +did not care to refuse. They sent on shore for the proper accessories, +and set up a tent on the quarter-deck, furnished with an altar, to +celebrate the mass, which they chanted zealously with the inhabitants +who were on board. It was commenced by a discharge of musketry, and of +eight pieces of cannon with which their bark was armed. They made a +second discharge at the Sanctus, a third at the Elevation, and a fourth +at the Benediction, and, finally, a fifth after the Exaudiat and the +prayer for the King, which was followed by a ringing _Vive le Roi_. Only +one slight incident disturbed a little our devotions. One of the +_Flibustiers_, taking an indecent posture during the Elevation, was +reprimanded by Captain Daniel. Instead of correcting himself, he made +some impertinent answer, accompanied with an execrable oath, which was +paid on the spot by the Captain, who pistolled him in the head, swearing +before God that he would do the same to the first man who failed in +respect for the Holy Sacrifice. The _curé_ was a little flustered, as it +happened very close to him. But Daniel said to him, 'Don't be troubled, +father; 't was a rascal whom I had to punish to teach his duty': a very +efficacious way to prevent the recurrence of a similar fault. After +mass, they threw the body into the sea, and paid the holy father +handsomely for his trouble and his fright. They gave him some valuable +clothes, and as they knew that he was destitute of a negro, they made +him a present of one,"--"which," says Father Labat, "I received an order +to reclaim, the original owner having made a demand for him." + +Such was Captain Daniel's rubricated copy of the Buccaneers' [Greek: +Leitourgia]. One may judge from this what the early condition of +religion must have been in the French colony of San Domingo, which +sprang from these pirates of the land and sea. And it seems that their +reverence for the observances diminished in an inverse proportion to +their perils. Father Labat said mass in the little town of Cap Français, +in 1701. The chapel was not much better than an _ajoupa_, that is, a +four-posted square with a sloping roof of leaves or light boards. The +aisle had half a foot of dust in the dry season, and the same depth of +mud during rain. "I asked the sacristan, who also filled the office of +chanter, if he should chant the Introit, or begin simply with the Kyrie +Eleïson; but he replied that it was not their custom to chant a great +deal, they were content with low mass, brief, and well hurried up, and +never chanted except at funerals. However, I did not omit to bless the +water and asperse the people; and as I thought that the solemnity of the +day demanded a little preaching, I preached, and gave notice that I +should say mass on the following day." This he did, but was infinitely +scandalized at the behavior of the people, comparing it with that of the +thorough-going Catholics of the other French islands. "They came into +the chapel as to an assembly, or to some profane spectacle; they talked, +laughed, and joked. The people in the gallery talked louder than I did, +and mingled the name of God in their discourse in an insufferable +manner. I mildly remonstrated with them three or four times; but seeing +that it had no effect, I spoke in a way that compelled some officers to +impose silence. A well-behaved person had the goodness to inform me, +after mass, that it was necessary to be rather more indulgent with the +_People of the Coast_, if one wanted to live with them." This was an old +euphemism for _Flibustiers_. The good father could expect nothing +better, especially as so many of his audience may have been Calvinists, +for the first habitant at Cap Français was of that sect. These men were +trying to become settled; and the alternative was between rapine with +religion and raising crops without it. The latter became the habitude of +the island; for the descendants of the Buccaneers could afford the +luxury of absolute sincerity, which even their hardy progenitors were +too weak to seize. + +In the other Islands, however, the priest had the colonists well in +hand, as may be understood from the lofty language which he could assume +towards petty sacramental infractions. At St. Croix, for instance, three +light fellows made a mock of Sunday and the mass, saying, "We go +a-fishing," and tried to persuade some neighbors to accompany them. + +"No; 't is Trinity Sunday, and we shall go to mass." + +"And will the Trinity help you to your dinner? Come, mass will keep for +another time." + +The decent neighbors refusing, these three unfortunate men departed, and +were permitted by an inscrutable Providence to catch a great number of +little fishes, which they shared with their conforming neighbors. All +ate of them, but with this difference, that the three anti-sabbatarians +fell sick, and died in twenty-four hours, while the others experienced +no injury. The effect of this gastric warning is somewhat weakened by +the incautious statement of the narrative, that a priest, who ran from +one dying man to another, became overheated, and contracted a fatal +illness. + +The Catholic profession brought no immunity to the Spanish navigators. +Our _Flibustiers_, strengthened by religious exercises, and a pistol in +each hand, stormed upon the deck, as if they had fallen from the clouds. +"_Jesus, son demonios estos_": "They are demons, and not men." After +they had thus "cleared" their vessel, they entered into a contract, +called _chasse-partie_, the articles of which regulated their voyage and +the disposition of the booty. They were very minutely made out. Here are +some of the awards and reimbursements. The one who discovered a prize +earned one hundred crowns; the same amount, or a slave, recompensed for +the loss of an eye. Two eyes were rated at six hundred crowns, or six +slaves. For the loss of the right hand or arm two hundred crowns or two +slaves were paid, and for both six hundred crowns. When a _Flibustier_ +had a wound which obliged him to carry surgical helps and substitutes, +they paid him two hundred crowns, or two slaves. If he had not entirely +lost a member, but was only deprived of its use, he was recompensed the +same as if the member had disappeared. + +"They have also regard to qualities and places. Thus, the captain or +chief is allotted five or six portions to what the ordinary seamen have, +the master's mate only two, and other officers proportionable to their +employ, after which they draw equal parts from the highest to the lowest +mariner, the boys not being omitted, who draw half a share, because, +when they take a better vessel than their own, it is the boys' duty to +fire their former vessel and then retire to the prize." + +Among the conventions of English pirates we find some additional +articles which show a national difference. Whoever shall steal from the +company, or game up to the value of a piece of eight, (piastre, +translated _écu_ by the French,--rated by the English of that day at not +quite five shillings sterling,--about a dollar,) shall be landed on a +desert place, with a bottle of water, gun, powder, and lead. Whoever +shall maltreat or assault another, while the articles subsist, shall +receive the Law of Moses: this was the infliction of forty consecutive +strokes upon the back, a whimsical memento of the dispensation in the +Wilderness. There were articles relative to the treatment and +disposition of women, which sometimes depended upon the tossing of a +coin,--_jeter à croix pile_,--but they need not be repeated: on this +point the French were worse than the English. + +The English generally wound up their convention with the solemn +agreement that not a man should speak of separation till the gross +earnings amounted to one thousand pounds per head. Then the whole +company associated by couples, for mutual support in anticipation of +wounds and danger, and to devise to each other all their effects in case +of death. While at sea, or engaged in expeditions against the coasts of +Terra Firma, their friendship was of the most romantic kind, inspired by +a common feeling of outlawry, and colored by the risks of their +atrocious employment. They called themselves "Brothers of the Coast," +and took a solemn oath not to secrete from each other any portion of the +common spoil, nor uncharitably to disregard each other's wants. Violence +and lust would have gone upon bootless ventures, if justice and +generosity had not been crimped to strengthen the crew. + +These buccaneering conventions were gradually imposed upon all the +West-Indian neighborhood, by the title of uncompromising strength, and +became known as the "Usage of the Coast." When the Brothers met with any +remonstrance which referred the rights of navigators and settlers back +to the Common Law of Europe, they were accustomed to defend their Usage, +saying that their baptism had absolved them from all previous +obligations. This was an allusion to the marine ceremony called in later +times "Crossing the Line," and administered only upon that occasion; but +at first it was performed when vessels were passing the Raz de +Fonteneau, on their way to and from the Channel, and originated before +navigators crossed the Atlantic or passed the Tropic of Cancer. The Raz, +or Tide-Race, was a dangerous passage off the coast of Brittany; some +religious observance among the early sailors, dictated by anxiety, +appears to have degenerated into the Neptunian frolic, which included a +copious christening of salt water for the raw hands, and was kept up +long after men had ceased to fear the unknown regions of the ocean. +Perhaps an aspersion with holy-water was a part of the original rite, on +the ground that the mariner was passing into new countries, once thought +uninhabited, as into a strange new-world, to sanctify the hardiness and +propitiate the Ruler of Sea and Air. The Dutch, also, performed some +ceremony in passing the rocks, then called Barlingots, which lie off the +mouth of the Tagus. Gradually the usage went farther out to sea; and the +farther it went, of course, the more unrestrained it grew. + +This was the baptism which regenerated Law for the Buccaneers. It also +absolved them from the use of their own names, which might, indeed, in +many cases have been but awkward conveniences; and they were not known +except by _sobriquets_. But when they became _habitans_ or settlers, and +took wives, their surnames appeared for the first time in the +marriage-contract; so that it was a proverb in the islands,--"You don't +know people till they marry." + +The institution of marriage was not introduced among the Buccaneers for +many years after their settlement of the western coast. In the mean time +they selected women for extemporaneous partners, to whom they addressed +a few significant words before taking them home to their _ajoupas_, to +the effect that their antecedents were not worth minding, but _this_, +slightly tapping the musket, "which never deceived me, will avenge me, +if _you_ do." + +These women, with the exception of one or two organized emigrations of +poor, but honest, girls, were the sweepings of the streets of Paris and +London. They were sometimes deported with as little ceremony as the +_engagés_, and sometimes collected by the Government, especially of +France, for the deliberate purpose of meeting the not over nice demands +of the adventurers; for it was the interest of France to pet Tortuga and +the western coast. All the French islands were stocked in the same +manner. Du Tertre devotes a page to the intrigues of a Mademoiselle de +la Fayolle, who appeared in St. Christophe with a strong force of these +unfortunate women, in 1643. They were collected from St. Joseph's +Hospital in Paris, to prevent the colonists from leaving the island in +search of wives. Mademoiselle came with letters from the Queen and other +ladies of quality, and quite dazzled M. Aubert, the Governor, who +proposed to his wife that she should be accommodated in the chateau. She +had a restless and managing temper, and her power lasted as long as her +merchandise. + +In 1667 there was an auction-sale of fifty girls without character at +Tortuga. They went off so well that fifty more were soon supplied. +Schoelcher says that in the twelfth volume of the "Archives de la +Marine" there is a note of "one hundred nymphs for the Antilles and a +hundred more for San Domingo," under the date of 1685. + +Here were new elements of civilization for the devoted island, whose +earliest colonists were pirates pacified by prostitutes. They were the +progenitors of families whom wealth and colonial luxury made famous; for +in such a climate a buccaneering nickname will soon flower into titles +which conceal the gnarled and ugly stock. Some of these French Dianas +led a healthy and hardy life with their husbands, followed them to the +chase, and emulated their exploits with the pistol and the knife. Some +blood was thus renewed while some grew more depraved, else the colony +would have rotted from the soil. + +Nature struggles to keep all her streams fresh and clear. The children +of adventurers may inherit the vices of their parents; but Nature +silently puts her fragrant graft into the withering tree, and it learns +to bud with unexpected fruit. Inheritance is only one of Mother Nature's +emphatic protestations that her wayward children will be the death of +her; but she knows better than that, unfortunately for the respectable +vice and meanness which flourish in every land and seek to prolong their +line. California and Australia soon reach the average of New York and +London, and invite Nature to preserve through them, too, her world. She +drains and plants these unwholesome places; powerful men and lovely +women are the Mariposa cedars which attest her splendid tillage. But a +part of this Nature consists of conservative decency in men who belong +to law-abiding and Protestant races. For want of this, surgery and +cautery became Nature's expedients for Hayti, which was one of the worst +sinks on her great farm. + +If a greater number of female emigrants had been like Mary Read, pirate +as she was, the story of Hayti would have been modified. She had the +character which Nature loves to civilize. + +Mary Read was the illegitimate daughter of an Englishwoman, who brought +her up as a boy, after revealing to her the secret of her origin, +apparently wishing to protect her against the mischances which befell +herself. She was first a footman, then a sailor on board a man-of-war; +afterwards she served with great bravery in Flanders in a regiment of +infantry. Then she entered a cavalry regiment, where she fell deeply in +love with a comrade, and her woman's nature awoke. Obeying the +uncontrollable instinct, she modestly revealed her sex to him, and was +married with great _éclat_, after he had sought in vain, repelled by her +high conduct, to make her less than wife. He died soon after, and the +Peace of Ryswick compelled her to assume her male attire again and seek +employment. She went before the mast in a vessel bound for the West +Indies, which was taken by English pirates, with whom she afterwards +enjoyed the benefit of a royal proclamation pardoning all pirates who +submitted within a limited period. Their money gave out, and they +enlisted under a privateer captain to cruise against the Spaniards; but +the men, finding a favorable opportunity, took the vessel from the +officers, and commenced their old trade. Mary was as brave as any in +boarding Spanish craft, pistol in hand, to clear the decks; no peril +made her falter, but she was disarmed again by love in the person of a +fine young pirate of superior mind and grace. She made a friend of him, +revealed her sex, and married him. Her husband had a falling-out with a +comrade, and a duel impended. Torn with love and dread, she managed to +pick a quarrel with his antagonist, appointed a meeting an hour before +the one which her husband expected, and was lucky enough to postpone the +latter indefinitely. At her trial in Jamaica, she would have escaped +through the compassion of the court, if some one had not deposed that +she often deliberately defended piracy with the argument that pirates +were fortunately amenable to capital punishment, and this was a +restraint to cowards, without which a thousand rascals who passed for +honest people, but who did nothing but pillage widows and orphans and +defraud their neighbors, would rush into a more honorable profession, +the ocean would be covered with this _canaille_, and the ruin of +commerce would involve that of piracy. She died in prison of a fever. + +Ann Bonny was born in Cork. She was of a truculent disposition, and the +murdering part of piracy was much to her taste. When her husband was led +out to execution, the special favor was granted of an interview with +her; but her only benediction was,--"I'm sorry to find ye in this state; +if ye had fought like a man, ye would not be seein' yerself hung like a +dog." + +But what could angels themselves have done to make Captain Teach +presentable in the best society? _Blackbeard_ was his _sobriquet_, for +he had one flowing over his chest which patriarchs might be forgiven for +coveting. The hair of his head was tastefully done up with ribbons, and +inframed his truculent face. When he went into a fight, three pairs of +pistols hung from a scarf, and two slow-matches, alight and projecting +under his hat, glowed above his cruel eyes. Certainly, the light of +battle was not in his case a metaphor. + +On board his vessel, one day, Captain Teach, just combing upon +strong-water, summoned his crew. "Go to, now, let us make a hell," he +cried, "and get a little seasoned. We'll find who can stand it longest." +Thereupon they all went down into the hold, which he had carefully +battened down; then he lighted sundry pots of sulphur, and showed +superior qualifications for the future by smoking them all out. + +On the day of his last combat, when advised to confide to his wife where +his money was hid, he refused, saying that only he and the Devil knew +where it was, and the survivor was to have it. + +Whenever these English pirates found a clergyman, they acted as if +pillaging had been only a last resort, owing to the scarcity of that +commodity in those seas. Captain Roberts took a vessel which had on +board a body of English troops with their chaplain, destined for +garrison-duty. His crew went into ecstasies of delight, as if they had +separated themselves from mankind and incurred atrocious suspicions from +their desire to seek for religious persons in all places. They wanted +nothing but a chaplain; they had never wanted anything else; he must +join them; he would have nothing to do but to pray and make the punch. +As he steadily refused, they reluctantly parted with him; but, smitten +with his firmness, they retained of his effects nothing but three +prayer-books and a corkscrew. + +These were but common villains. The genuine _Flibustier_ mingled +national hatred with his avarice, and harried the Spanish coasts with a +sense of being the avenger of old affronts, at least the divine +instrument of his country's honest instincts, whose duty it was to smite +and spoil, as if the Armada were yet upon the seas as the Inquisition +was upon the land. Frenchmen and Englishmen, Huguenot and Dutch +Calvinists, Willis, Warner, Montbar the Exterminator, Levasseur, +Lolonois, Henry Morgan, Coxon and Sharp, Bartholomew the Portuguese, +Rock the Dutchman, were representative men. They gave a villanous +expression, and an edge which avarice whetted, to the religious +patriotism of their countrymen. The sombre and deadly prejudices which +lay half torpid in their cage at home escaped from restraint in these +men, and suddenly acted out their proper nature on the highways of the +world. + +We have no space to record particular deeds and cruelties. The stories +of the exploits of the _Flibustiers_ show that their outlaw-life had +developed all the powerful traits which make pioneering or the +profession of arms so illustrious. Audacity, cunning, great endurance, +tenacity of purpose, all the character of the organizing nations whence +they sprang, appeared in them so stained by murder and bestiality of +every kind, that the impression made by their career is revolting, and +gets no mitigation from their better qualities. They were generous to +each other, and scrupulously just; but it was for the sake of +strengthening their hands against mankind. They fought against the +enemies of their respective nations with all the fiendishness of popular +hate that has broken loose from popular restraints and civilizing checks +and has become a beast. Commerce was nothing to them but a convenience +for plunder; a voyaging ship was an oasis in the mid-waste on which they +swarmed for an orgy of avarice and gluttony; the cities of the Spanish +Main were hives of wealth and women to be overturned and rifled, and +their mother-country a retreat where the sanctimonious old age of a few +survivors of these successful crimes could display their money and their +piety, and perhaps a titled panel on their coach. Henry Morgan was +knighted, and made a good end in the Tower of London as a political +prisoner. Pierre le Grand, the first _Flibustier_ who took a ship, +retired to France with wealth and consideration. Captain Avery, who had +an immense fame, was the subject of a drama entitled "The Happy Pirate," +which inoculated many a prentice-lad with cutlasses and rollicking +ferocity. Others became the agents of easy cabinets who always winked at +buccaneering, because it so often saved them the expense of war. What +gift or place would a slave-holding cabinet, or a Southern Confederacy, +have thought too dear to bestow upon Captain Walker, whose criminal acts +were feeding the concealed roots of the Great Conspiracy, if his murder +and arson had become illustrious by success? + +The _Flibustiers_ were composed of many nations. The Buccaneers were +mostly French. Their head-quarters, or principal _boucans_, upon San +Domingo, were on the peninsula of Samana, at Port Margot, Savanna Brulée +near Gonaives, and the landing-place of Mirebalais. The Spaniards gained +at first several advantages over them by cutting off the couples which +were engaged in chasing the wild cattle. This compelled the Buccaneers +to associate in larger bands, and to add Spaniards to their list of +game. The word _massacre_ on the maps of the island marks places where +sanguinary surprises were effected by either party; but the Spaniards +lost more blood than their wily antagonists, and were compelled to +abandon all their settlements on the northern and northeastern coasts +and to fall back upon San Domingo and their other towns. The +_Flibustiers_ blockaded their rivers, intercepted the vessels of +slave-traders of all nations, made prizes of the cargoes, and sold them +to the French of the rising western colony, to the English at Jamaica, +or among the other islands, wherever a contraband speculation could be +made. This completed the ruin of Spanish San Domingo; for the +Government, crippled by land- and sea-fights with English, French, and +Dutch, was unable to protect its colonies. It is very strange to notice +this sudden weakness of the nation which was lately so domineering; the +causes which produced it have been stated elsewhere[13] with great +research and power. + +The Spaniards had made a few settlements in the western part of the +island, the principal one of which was Yaguana, or Leogane. They were +too far from the eastern population to be successfully defended or +succored, in case of the attacks which were constantly expected after +Drake's expedition. In 1592, the town of Azua was taken and destroyed by +an English force under Christopher Newport, who was making war against +the Spaniards on his own account. He afterwards attacked Yaguana, was at +first repulsed, but took it by night and burned it to the ground. In +consequence of this, all the western settlements were abandoned; and not +a Spaniard remained in that part of the island after 1606. Cruisers of +other nations seized the ports for their private convenience. + +A brief outline will suffice to conduct us to the secure establishment +of the French in Western San Domingo. Tortuga was attacked by the +Spaniards in 1638; the Buccaneers were surprised, put to the sword, and +scattered. A few joined their brethren in San Domingo. Their +discomfiture was thought to be so complete that no garrison was left +upon Tortuga. At the same time the Spaniards organized bands of fifty +men each, called _la cinquantaine_ by the French Buccaneers, to serve as +a kind of rural police to hunt down the latter and exterminate them. For +safety the French collected, and put at their head Willis, an +Englishman, who had just then appeared with two or three hundred men, +with the view of joining those of his countrymen who were Buccaneers. He +led them back to Tortuga, and threw up some rude works to command the +harbor. But the national antipathies soon appeared, on the occasion of +some encroachment of Willis, whose countrymen were the more numerous +party. The French despatched secret agents to St. Christophe, who made +it clear to M. de Poincy, the Governor of that island, that the English +could be easily dispossessed by a small force attacking them from +without, while the French rose within. The Governor thought it was a +good opportunity to weed the Huguenots, who were always making trouble +about religious matters, out of his colony; he did not hesitate, +therefore, to cooperate with the outlaws for so nice a game as driving +out the English by getting rid of his heretics. The operation was +intrusted to M. Levasseur, a brave and well-instructed Huguenot officer, +who took with him about a hundred men. Willis decamped at their first +summons, knowing the temper of his French subjects; and Levasseur +landed, and immediately began to fortify a platform-rock which rose only +a few paces from the water's edge. This he intrenched, surrounding an +open square capable of accommodating three or four hundred men. A +never-failing spring gushed from the rock for the supply of a garrison. +From the middle of this platform there rose conveniently another rock +thirty feet high, with scarped sides, upon which he built a block-house +for himself and the ammunition, communicating with the platform by a +movable ladder of iron. He made the place so formidable as a +buccaneering centre that the Spaniards resolved to attack it. They tried +it at first from the sea, but, being well battered, retired and +disembarked six hundred men by night to make a land-attack. They were +defeated, with the loss of a hundred men. + +Levasseur appears to have grown arrogant with his success. He began to +abuse and persecute all the Catholics, burned their chapel, and drove +away a priest. He had stocks set up, made of iron, which he called his +Hell, and the fort where he kept it, Purgatory. Du Tertre says that he +wanted to make of Tortuga a little Geneva. He disavowed the authority of +M. de Poincy, and when the latter demanded restitution of a _Nôtre Dame_ +of silver which the _Flibustiers_ had taken from a Spanish vessel, he +sent a model of it, constructed of wood, with the message that Catholics +were too spiritual to attach any value to the material, but as for +himself, he had a liking for the metal. Levasseur was assassinated by +two of his captains after a reign of a dozen years. + +The next Governor sent by De Poincy to Tortuga was a Catholic, the +Chevalier Fontenay. The religion of this stronghold changed, but not its +habits. The Spaniards planned a second attack upon it in 1653, and +succeeded by dragging a couple of light cannon up the mountain so as to +command the donjon built by Levasseur. The French took refuge upon the +coast of San Domingo, where they waited for an opportunity to repossess +their little island. This soon followed upon an application made by De +Rausset, one of Levasseur's old comrades, to the French West India +Company for a sufficient force to drive out the Spaniards. De Rausset's +plan succeeded, Tortuga passed permanently into French hands, and the +Spaniards confined themselves for the future to annoying the new +colonies of Buccaneers which overflowed upon San Domingo. But their +efforts disappear after a terrible defeat inflicted upon them in 1665, +which the _Flibustiers_ followed up by the sack and destruction of +Santiago, the town second in importance to San Domingo. Henceforth the +history of the island belongs to France. + +[To be continued.] + +[Footnote 6: This musket was afterwards called _fusil boucanier_. _Fusil +demi-boucanier_ was the same kind, with a shorter barrel.] + +[Footnote 7: _Histoire des Avanturiers Flibustiers, avec la Vie, les +Moeurs, et les Coutumes des Boucaniers_, par A.O. Oexmelin, who went out +to the West Indies as a poor _Engagé_, and became a Buccaneer. Four +Volumes. New Edition, printed in 1744: Vol. III., containing the Journal +of a Voyage made with _Flibustiers_ in the South Sea in 1685, by Le +Sieur Ravenau de Lussan; and Vol. IV., containing a History of English +pirates, with the Lives of two Female Pirates, Mary Read and Ann Bonny, +and Extracts from Pirate-Codes: translated from the English of Captain +Charles Johnson.--Charlevoix, _Histoire de St. Domingue_, Vols. III. and +IV.--_The History of the Bucaniers of America, from the First Original +down to this Time; written in several Languages, and now collected into +One Volume._ Third Edition, London, 1704: containing Portraits of all +the Celebrated _Flibustiers,_ and Plans of some of their +Land-Attacks.--_Nouveaux Voyages aux Isles Françoises de l'Amérique_, +par le Père Labat, 1724, Tom. V, pp. 228-230. See also Archenholtz.] + +[Footnote 8: Not to be confounded with the Tortugas, the westernmost +islands of the Florida Keys (_Cayos_, Spanish for rocks, shoals, or +islets).] + +[Footnote 9: Charlevoix will have it reversed, and derives _flibustier_ +from _freebooter;_ but this English word is not old enough to have been +a vagrom in those seas at that time. Webster derives it from the Dutch +_Vrijbuiter;_ but that and the corresponding German word were themselves +derived. Schoelcher says that it is a corruption of an English word, +_fly-boater_, one who manages a fly-boat; and he adds,--"Our _flibot_, a +small and very fast craft, draws its origin from the English _fly-boat, +bateau mouche, bateau volant_." But this is only a kind of pun. Perhaps +the Dutch named it so, not from its swiftness, but from its resemblance, +with its busy oars and darting motions, to a slender-legged fly. There +appears to be no ground for saying that the boat was so called because +it first came into use upon the river Vlie in Holland. It might have +been a boat used by the inhabitants of Vlieland, a town on the island of +the same name, north of Texel. _Freebooter_ is such a good word for +_flibustier_ that it was easy to accuse it of the parentage.] + +[Footnote 10: Pinnaces of five or six tons, which could be packed on +shipboard in pieces and put together when wanted, were built in the +reign of Elizabeth. The name is of Spanish origin, from the pine used +for material.] + +[Footnote 11: See a contract of this kind in _Histoire Générale des +Antilles_, Du Tertre, Tom. I. p. 464.] + +[Footnote 12: Bancroft's _United States_, Vol. I. p. 14.] + +[Footnote 13: Buckle's _History of Civilization_, Vol. II. chap. 1.] + + + +A COMPLAINT OF FRIENDS. + +If things would not run into each other so, it would be a thousand times +easier and a million times pleasanter to get on in the world. Let the +sheepiness be set on one side and the goatiness on the other, and +immediately you know where you are. It is not necessary to ask that +there be any increase of the one or any diminution of the other, but +only that each shall preempt its own territory and stay there. Milk is +good, and water is good, but don't set the milk-pail under the pump. +Pleasure softens pain, but pain embitters pleasure; and who would not +rather have his happiness concentrated into one memorable day that shall +gleam and glow through a lifetime, than have it spread out over a dozen +comfortable, commonplace, humdrum forenoons and afternoons, each one as +like the others as two peas in a pod? Since the law of compensation +obtains, I suppose it is the best law for us; but if it had been left +with me, I should have made the clever people rich and handsome, and +left poverty and ugliness to the stupid people; because--don't you +see?--the stupid people won't know they are ugly, and won't care if they +are poor, but the clever people will be hampered and tortured. I would +have given the good wives to the good husbands, and made drunken men +marry drunken women. Then there would have been one family exquisitely +happy, instead of two struggling against misery. I would have made the +rose-stem downy, and put all the thorns on the thistles. I would have +gouged out the jewel from the toad's head, and given the peacock the +nightingale's voice, and not set everything so at half and half. + +But that is the way it is. We find the world made to our hand. The wise +men marry the foolish virgins, and the splendid virgins marry dolts, and +matters in general are so mixed up that the choice lies between nice +things about spoiled and vile things that are not so bad after all, and +it is hard to tell sometimes which you like best or which you loathe +least. + +I expect to lose every friend I have in the world by the publication of +this paper--except the dunces who are impaled in it. They will never +read it, and if they do, will never suspect I mean them; while the +sensible and true friends, who do me good and not evil all the days of +their lives, will think I am driving at their noble hearts, and will at +once haul off and leave me inconsolable. Still I am going to write it. +You must open the safety-valve once in a while, even if the steam does +whiz and shriek, or there will be an explosion, which is fatal, while +the whizzing and shrieking are only disagreeable. + +Doubtless friendship has its advantages and its pleasures; doubtless +hostility has its isolations and its revenges: still, if called upon to +choose once for all between friends and foes, I think, on the whole, I +should cast my vote for the foes. Twenty enemies will not do you the +mischief of one friend. Enemies you always know where to find. They are +in fair and square perpetual hostility, and you keep your armor on and +your sentinels posted; but with friends you are inveigled into a false +security, and, before you know it, your honor, your modesty, your +delicacy are scudding before the gales. Moreover, with your friend you +can never make reprisals. If your enemy attacks you, you can always +strike back and hit hard. You are expected to defend yourself against +him to the top of your bent. He is your legal opponent in honorable +warfare. You can pour hot-shot into him with murderous vigor; and the +more he wriggles, the better you feel. In fact, it is rather refreshing +to measure swords once in a while with such a one. You like to exert +your power and keep yourself in practice. You do not rejoice so much in +overcoming your enemy as in overcoming. If a marble statue could show +fight, you would just as soon fight it; but as it cannot, you take +something that can, and something, besides, that has had the temerity to +attack you, and so has made a lawful target of itself. But against your +friend your hands are tied. He has injured you. He has disgusted you. He +has infuriated you. But it was most Christianly done. You cannot hurl a +thunderbolt, or pull a trigger, or lisp a syllable, against those +amiable monsters who with tenderest fingers are sticking pins all over +you. So you shut fast the doors of your lips, and inwardly sigh for a +good, stout, brawny, malignant foe, who, under any and every +circumstance, will design you harm, and on whom you can lavish your +lusty blows with a hearty will and a clear conscience. + +Your enemy keeps clear of you. He neither grants nor claims favors. He +awards you your rights,--no more, no less,--and demands the same from +you. Consequently there is no friction. Your friend, on the contrary, is +continually getting himself tangled up with you "because he is your +friend." I have heard that Shelley was never better pleased than when +his associates made free with his coats, boots, and hats for their own +use, and that he appropriated their property in the same way. Shelley +was a poet, and perhaps idealized his friends. He saw them, probably, in +a state of pure intellect. I am not a poet; I look at people in the +concrete. The most obvious thing about my friends is their avoirdupois; +and I prefer that they should wear their own cloaks and suffer me to +wear mine. There is no neck in the world that I want my collar to span +except my own. It is very exasperating to me to go to my bookcase and +miss a book of which I am in immediate and pressing need, because an +intimate friend has carried it off without asking leave, on the score of +his intimacy. I have not, and do not wish to have, any alliance that +shall abrogate the eighth commandment. A great mistake is lying round +loose hereabouts,--a mistake fatal to many friendships that did run +well. The common fallacy is, that intimacy dispenses with the necessity +of politeness. The truth is just the opposite of this. The more points +of contact there are, the more danger of friction there is, and the more +carefully should people guard against it. If you see a man only once a +month, it is not of so vital importance that you do not trench on his +rights, tastes, or whims. He can bear to be crossed or annoyed +occasionally. If he does not have a very high regard for you, it is +comparatively unimportant, because your paths are generally so diverse. +But you and the man with whom you dine every day have it in your power +to make each other exceedingly uncomfortable. A very little dropping +will wear away rock, if it only keep at it. The thing that you would not +think of, if it occurred only twice a year, becomes an intolerable +burden when it happens twice a day. This is where husbands and wives run +aground. They take too much for granted. If they would but see that they +have something to gain, something to save, as well as something to +enjoy, it would be better for them; but they proceed on the assumption +that their love is an inexhaustible tank, and not a fountain depending +for its supply on the stream that trickles into it. So, for every little +annoying habit, or weakness, or fault, they draw on the tank without +being careful to keep the supply open, till they awake one morning to +find the pump dry, and, instead of love, at best, nothing but a cold +habit of complacence. On the contrary, the more intimate friends become, +whether married or unmarried, the more scrupulously should they strive +to repress in themselves everything annoying, and to cherish both in +themselves and each other everything pleasing. While each should draw on +his love to neutralize the faults of his friend, it is suicidal to draw +on his friend's love to neutralize his own faults. Love should be +cumulative, since it cannot be stationary. If it does not increase, it +decreases. Love, like confidence, is a plant of slow growth, and of most +exotic fragility. It must be constantly and tenderly cherished. Every +noxious and foreign element must be carefully removed from it. All +sunshine, and sweet airs, and morning dews, and evening showers must +breathe upon it perpetual fragrance, or it dies into a hideous and +repulsive deformity, fit only to be cast out and trodden under foot of +men, while, properly cultivated, it is a Tree of Life. + +Your enemy keeps clear of you not only in business, but in society. If +circumstances thrust him into contact with you, he is curt and +centrifugal. But your friend breaks in upon your "saintly solitude" with +perfect equanimity. He never for a moment harbors a suspicion that he +can intrude, "because he is your friend." So he drops in on his way to +the office to chat half an hour over the latest news. The half-hour +isn't much in itself. If it were after dinner, you wouldn't mind it; but +after breakfast every moment "runs itself in golden sands," and the +break in your time crashes a worse break in your temper. "Are you busy?" +asks the considerate wretch, adding insult to injury. What can you do? +Say yes and wound his self-love forever? But he has a wife and family. +You respect their feelings, smile and smile, and are villain enough to +be civil with your lips, and hide the poison of asps under your tongue, +till you have a chance to relieve your o'ercharged heart by shaking your +fist in impotent wrath at his retreating form. You will receive the +reward of your hypocrisy as you richly deserve, for ten to one he will +drop in again when he comes back from his office, and arrest you +wandering in Dreamland in the beautiful twilight. Delighted to find that +you are neither reading nor writing,--the absurd dolt! as if a man +weren't at work unless he be wielding a sledge-hammer!--he will preach +out, and prose out, and twaddle out another hour of your golden +even-tide, "because he is your friend." You don't care whether he is +judge or jury,--whether he talks sense or nonsense; you don't want him +to talk at all. You don't want him there any way. You want to be alone. +If you don't, why are you sitting there in the deepening twilight? If +you wanted him, couldn't you send for him? Why don't you go out into the +drawing-room, where are music, and lights, and gay people? What right +have I to suppose, that, because you are not using your eyes, you are +not using your brain? What right have I to set myself up as judge of the +value of your time, and so rob you of perhaps the most delicious hour in +all your day, on pretence that it is of no use to you?--take a pound of +flesh clean out of your heart and trip on my smiling way as if I had not +earned the gallows? + +And what in Heaven's name is the good of all this ceaseless talk? To +what purpose are you wearied, exhausted, dragged out and out to the very +extreme of tenuity? A sprightly badinage,--a running fire of nonsense +for half an hour,--a tramp over unfamiliar ground with a familiar +guide,--a discussion of something with somebody who knows all about it, +or who, not knowing, wants to learn from you,--a pleasant interchange of +commonplaces with a circle of friends around the fire, at such hours as +you give to society: all this is not only tolerable, but +agreeable,--often positively delightful; but to have an indifferent +person, on no score but that of friendship, break into your sacred +presence, and suck your blood through indefinite cycles of time, is an +abomination. If he clatters on an indifferent subject, you can do well +enough for fifteen minutes, buoyed up by the hope that he will presently +have a fit, or be sent for, or come to some kind of an end. But when you +gradually open to the conviction that _vis inertiae_ rules the hour, and +the thing which has been is that which shall be, you wax listless; your +chariot-wheels drive heavily; your end of the pole drags in the mud, and +you speedily wallow in unmitigated disgust. If he broaches a subject on +which you have a real and deep living interest, you shrink from +unbosoming yourself to him. You feel that it would be sacrilege. He +feels nothing of the sort. He treads over your heart-strings in his +cow-hide brogans, and does not see that they are not whip-cords. He +pokes his gold-headed cane in among your treasures, blind to the fact +that you are clutching both arms around them, that no gleam of flashing +gold may reveal their whereabouts to him. You draw yourself up in your +shell, projecting a monosyllabic claw occasionally as a sign of +continued vitality; but the pachyderm does not withdraw, and you +gradually lower into an indignation,--smothered, fierce, intense. + +Why, _why_, WHY will people inundate their unfortunate victims with such +"weak, washy, everlasting floods"? Why will they haul everything out +into the open day? Why will they make the Holy of Holies common and +unclean? Why will they be so ineffably stupid as not to see that there +is that which speech profanes? Why will they lower their drag-nets into +the unfathomable waters, in the vain attempt to bring up your pearls and +gems, whose lustre would pale to ashes in the garish light,--whose only +sparkle is in the deep sea-soundings? _Procul, O procul este, profani!_ + +Oh, the matchless power of silence! There are words that concentrate in +themselves the glory of a lifetime; but there is a silence that is more +precious than they. Speech ripples over the surface of life, but silence +sinks into its depths. Airy pleasantnesses bubble up in airy, pleasant +words. Weak sorrows quaver out their shallow being and are not. When the +heart is cleft to its core, there is no speech nor language. + +Do not now, Messrs. Bores, think to retrieve your characters by coming +into my house and sitting mute for two hours. Heaven forbid that your +blood should be found on my skirts! but I believe I shall kill you, if +you do. The only reason why I have not laid violent hands on you +heretofore is that your vapid talk has operated as a wire to conduct my +electricity to the receptive and kindly earth; but if you intrude upon +my magnetisms without any such life-preserver, your future in this world +is not worth a crossed six-pence. Your silence would break the reed that +your talk but bruised. The only people with whom it is a joy to sit +silent are the people with whom it is a joy to talk. Clear out! + +Friendship plays the mischief in the false ideas of constancy which are +generated and cherished in its name, if not by its agency. Your enemies +are intense, but temporary. Time wears off the edge of hostility. It is +the alembic in which offences are dissolved into thin air, and a calm +indifference reigns in their stead. But your friends are expected to be +a permanent arrangement. They are not only a sore evil, but of long +continuance. Adhesiveness seems to be the head and front, the bones and +blood of their creed. It is not the direction of the quality, but the +quality itself, which they swear by. Only stick, it is no matter what +you stick to. Fall out with a man, and you can kiss and be friends as +soon as you like; the recording angel will set it down on the credit +side of his books. Fall in, and you are expected to stay in, _ad +infinitum_, _ad nauseam_. No matter what combination of laws got you +there, there you are, and there you must stay, for better, for worse, +till merciful Death you do part,--or you are--"fickle." You find a man +entertaining for an hour, a week, a concert, a journey, and _presto!_ +you are saddled with him forever. What preposterous absurdity! Do but +look at it calmly. You are thrown into contact with a person, and, as in +duty bound, you proceed to fathom him: for every man is a possible +revelation. In the deeps of his soul there may lie unknown worlds for +you. Consequently you proceed at once to experiment on him. It takes a +little while to get your tackle in order. Then the line begins to run +off rapidly, and your eager soul cries out, "Ah! what depth! What +perpetual calmness must be down below! What rest is here for all my +tumult! What a grand, vast nature is this!" Surely, surely, you are on +the high seas. Surely, you will now float serenely down the eternities! +But by-and-by there is a kink. You find, that, though the line runs off +so fast, it does not go down,--it only floats out. A current has caught +it and bears it on horizontally. It does not sink plumb. You have been +deceived. Your grand Pacific Ocean is nothing but a shallow little brook +that you can ford all the year round, if it does not utterly dry up in +the summer heats, when you want it most; or, at best, it is a fussy +little tormenting river, that won't and can't sail a sloop. What are you +going to do about it? You are going to wind up your lead and line, +shoulder your birch canoe as the old sea-kings used, and thrid the deep +forests, and scale the purple hills, till you come to water again, when +you will unroll your lead and line for another essay. Is that +fickleness? What else can you do? Must you launch your bark on the +unquiet stream, against whose pebbly bottom the keel continually grates +and rasps your nerves--simply that your reputation suffer no detriment? +Fickleness? There was no fickleness about it. You were trying an +experiment which you had every right to try. As soon as you were +satisfied, you stopped. If you had stopped sooner, you would have been +unsatisfied. If you had stopped later, you would have been dissatisfied. +It is a criminal contempt of the magnificent possibilities of life not +to lay hold of "God's occasions floating by." It is an equally criminal +perversion of them to cling tenaciously to what was only the +_simulacrum_ of an occasion. A man will toil many days and nights among +the mountains to find an ingot of gold, which, found, he bears home with +infinite pains and just rejoicing; but he would be a fool who should +lade his mules with iron-pyrites to justify his labors, however severe. + +Fickleness! what is it, that we make such an ado about it? And what is +constancy, that it commands such usurious interest? The one is a foible +only in its relations. The other is only thus a virtue. "Fickle as the +winds" is our death-seal upon a man; but should we like our winds +un-fickle? Would a perpetual Northeaster lay us open to perpetual +gratitude? or is a soft South gale to be orisoned and vespered +forevermore? + +I am tired of this eternal prating of devotion and constancy. It is +senseless in itself and harmful in its tendencies. The dictate of reason +is to treat men and women as we do oranges. Suck all the juice out and +then let them go. Where is the good of keeping the peel and pulp-cells +till they get old, dry, and mouldy? Let them go, and they will help feed +the earth-worms and bugs and beetles who can hardly find existence a +continued banquet, and fertilize the earth which will have you give +before you receive. Thus they will ultimately spring up in new and +beautiful shapes. Clung to with constancy, they stain your knife and +napkin, impart a bad odor to your dining-room, and degenerate into +something that is neither pleasant to the eye nor good for food. I +believe in a rotation of crops, morally and socially, as well as +agriculturally. When you have taken the measure of a man, when you have +sounded him and know that you cannot wade in him more than ankle-deep, +when you have got out of him all that he has to yield for your soul's +sustenance and strength, what is the next thing to be done? Obviously, +pass him on; and turn you "to fresh woods and pastures new." Do you work +him an injury? By no means. Friends that are simply glued on, and don't +grow out of, are little worth. He has nothing more for you, nor you for +him; but he may be rich in juices wherewithal to nourish the heart of +another man, and their two lives, set together, may have an endosmose +and exosmose whose result shall be richness of soil, grandeur of growth, +beauty of foliage, and perfectness of fruit; while you and he would only +have languished into aridity and a stunted crab-tree. + +For my part, I desire to sweep off my old friends with the old year and +begin the new with a clean record. It is a measure absolutely necessary. +The snake does not put on his new skin over the old one. He sloughs off +the first, before he dons the second. He would be a very clumsy serpent, +if he did not. One cannot have successive layers of friendships any more +than the snake has successive layers of skins. One must adopt some +system to guard against a congestion of the heart from plethora of +loves. I go in for the much-abused fair-weather, skin-deep, April-shower +friends,--the friends who will drop off, if let alone,--who must be kept +awake to be kept at all,--who will talk and laugh with you as long as it +suits your respective humors and you are prosperous and happy,--the +blessed butterfly-race who flutter about your June mornings, and when +the clouds lower, and the drops patter, and the rains descend, and the +winds blow, will spread their gay wings and float gracefully away to +sunny southern lands where the skies are yet blue and the breezes +violet-scented. They are not only agreeable, but deeply wise. So long as +a man keeps his streamer flying, his sails set, and his hull above +water, it is pleasant to paddle alongside; but when the sails split, the +yards crack, and the keel goes staggering down, by all means paddle off. +Why should you be submerged in his whirlpool? Will he drown any more +easily because you are drowning with him? Lung is lung. He dies from +want of air, not from want of sympathy. When, a poor fellow sits down +among the ashes, the best thing his friends can do is to stand afar off. +Job bore the loss of property, children, health, with equanimity. Satan +himself found his match there; and for all his buffetings, Job sinned +not, nor charged God foolishly. But Job's three friends must needs make +an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him, +and after this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day,--and no wonder. + +Your friends have an intimate knowledge of you that is astonishing to +contemplate. It is not that they know your affairs, which he who runs +may read, but they know you. From a bit of bone, Cuvier could predicate +a whole animal, even to the hide and hair. Such moral naturalists are +your dear five hundred friends. It seems to yourself that you are +immeasurably reticent. You know, of a certainty, that you project only +the smallest possible fragment of yourself. You yield your universality +to the bond of common brotherhood; but your individualism--what it is +that makes you you--withdraws itself naturally, involuntarily, +inevitably, into the background,--the dim distance which their eyes +cannot penetrate. But, from the fraction which you do project, they +construct another you, call it by your name, and pass it around for the +real, the actual you. You bristle with jest and laughter and wild whims, +to keep them at a distance; and they fancy this to be your every-day +equipment. They think your life holds constant carnival. It is +astonishing what ideas spring up in the heads of sensible people. There +are those who assume that a person can never have had any grief, unless +somebody has died, or he has been disappointed in love,--not knowing +that every avenue of joy lies open to the tramp of pain. They see the +flashing coronet on the queen's brow, and they infer a diamond woman, +not recking of the human heart that throbs wildly out of sight. They see +the foam-crest on the wave, and picture an Atlantic Ocean of froth, and +not the solemn sea that stands below in eternal equipoise. You turn to +them the luminous crescent of your life, and they call it the whole +round globe; and so they love you with a love that is agate, not pearl, +because what they love in you is something infinitely below the highest. +They love you level: they have never scaled your heights nor fathomed +your depths. And when they talk of you as familiarly as if they had +taken out your auricles and ventricles, and turned them inside out, and +wrung them, and shaken them,--when they prate of your transparency and +openness, the abandonment with which you draw aside the curtain and +reveal the inmost thoughts of your heart,--you, who are to yourself a +miracle and a mystery, you smile inwardly, and are content. They are on +the wrong scent, and you may pursue your plans in peace. They are +indiscriminate and satisfied. They do not know the relation of what +appears to what is. If they chance to skirt along the coasts of your +Purple Island, it will be only chance, and they will not know it. You +may close your port-holes, lower your draw-bridge, and make merry, for +they will never come within gun-shot of the "Round Tower of your heart." + +There is no such thing as knowing a man intimately. Every soul is, for +the greater part of its mortal life, isolated from every other. Whether +it dwell in the Garden of Eden or the Desert of Sahara, it dwells alone. +Not only do we jostle against the street-crowd unknowing and unknown, +but we go out and come in, we lie down and rise up, with strangers. +Jupiter and Neptune sweep the heavens not more unfamiliar to us than the +worlds that circle our own hearth-stone. Day after day, and year after +year, a person moves by your side; he sits at the same table; he reads +the same books; he kneels in the same church. You know every hair of his +head, every trick of his lips, every tone of his voice; you can tell him +far off by his gait. Without seeing him, you recognize his step, his +knock, his laugh. "Know him? Yes, I have known him these twenty years." +No, you don't know him. You know his gait, and hair, and voice. You know +what preacher he hears, what ticket he voted, and what were his last +year's expenses; but you don't know him. He sits quietly in his chair, +but he is in the temple. You speak to him; his soul comes out into the +vestibule to answer you, and returns,--and the gates are shut; therein +you cannot enter. You were discussing the state of the country; but, +when you ceased, he opened a postern-gate, went down a bank, and +launched on a sea over whose waters you have no boat to sail, no star to +guide. You have loved and reverenced him. He has been your concrete of +truth and nobleness. Unwittingly you touch a secret spring, and a +Blue-Beard Chamber stands revealed. You give no sign; you meet and part +as usual; but a Dead Sea rolls between you two forevermore. + +It must be so. Not even to the nearest and dearest can one unveil the +secret place where his soul abideth, so that there shall be no more any +winding ways or hidden chambers; but to your indifferent neighbor, what +blind alleys, and deep caverns, and inaccessible mountains! To him who +"touches the electric chain wherewith you're darkly bound," your soul +sends back an answering thrill. Our little window is opened, and there +is short parley. Your ships speak each other now and then in welcome, +though imperfect communication; but immediately you strike out again +into the great, shoreless sea, over which you must sail forever alone. +You may shrink from the far-reaching solitudes of your heart, but no +other foot than yours can tread them, save those + + "That, eighteen hundred years ago, were nailed, + For our advantage, to the bitter cross." + +Be thankful that it is so,--that only His eye sees whose hand formed. If +we could look in, we should be appalled at the vision. The worlds that +glide around us are mysteries too high for us. We cannot attain to them. +The naked soul is a sight too awful for man to look at and live. There +are individuals whose topography we would like to know a little better, +and there is danger that we crash against each other while roaming +around in the dark; but, for all that, would we not have the +Constitution broken up. Somebody says, "In heaven there will be no +secrets," which, it seems to me, would be intolerable. (If that were a +revelation from the King of Heaven, of course I would not speak +flippantly of it; but, though towards Heaven we look with reverence and +humble hope, I do not know that Tom, Dick, and Harry's notions of it +have any special claim to our respect.) Such publicity would destroy all +individuality, and undermine the foundations of society. +Clairvoyance--if there be any such thing--always seemed to me a stupid +impertinence. When people pay visits to me, I wish them to come to the +front-door, and ring the bell, and send up their names. I don't wish +them to climb in at the window, or creep through the pantry, or, worst +of all, float through the keyhole, and catch me in undress. So I believe +that in all worlds thoughts will be the subjects of volition,--more +accurately expressed when expression is desired, but just as entirely +suppressed when we will suppression. + +After all, perhaps the chief trouble arises from a prevalent confusion +of ideas as to what constitutes a man your friend. Friendship may stand +for that peaceful complacence which you feel towards all well--behaved +people who wear clean collars and use tolerable grammar. This is a very +good meaning, if everybody will subscribe to it. But sundry of these +well-behaved people will mistake your civility and complacence for a +recognition of special affinity, and proceed at once to frame an +alliance offensive and defensive while the sun and the moon shall +endure. Oh, the barnacles that cling to your keel in such waters! The +inevitable result is, that they win your intense rancor. You would feel +a genial kindliness towards them, if they would be satisfied with that; +but they lay out to be your specialty. They infer your innocent little +inch to be the standard-bearer of twenty ells, and goad you to frenzy. I +mean you, you desperate little horror, who nearly dethroned my reason +six years ago! I always meant to have my revenge, and here I impale you +before the public. For three months, you fastened yourself upon me; and +I could not shake you off. What availed it me, that you were an honest +and excellent man? Did I not, twenty times a day, wish you had been a +villain, who had insulted me, and I a Kentucky giant, that I might have +the unspeakable satisfaction of knocking you down? But you added to your +crimes virtue. Villany had no part or lot in you. You were a member of a +church, in good and regular standing; you had graduated with all the +honors worth mentioning; you had not a sin, a vice, or a fault that I +knew of; and you were so thoroughly good and repulsive that you were a +great grief to me. Do you think, you dear, disinterested wretch, that I +have forgotten how you were continually putting yourself to horrible +inconveniences on my account? Do you think I am not now filled with +remorse for the aversion that rooted itself ineradicably in my soul, and +which now gloats over you, as you stand in the pillory where my own +hands have fastened you? But can Nature be crushed forever? Did I not +ruin my nerves, and seriously injure my temper, by the overpowering +pressure I laid upon them to keep them quiet when you were by? Could I +not, by the sense of coming ill through all my quivering frame, presage +your advent as exactly as the barometer heralds the approaching storm? +Those three months of agony are little atoned for by this late +vengeance: but go in peace! + +Mysterious are the ways of friendship. It is not a matter of reason or +of choice, but of magnetisms. You cannot always give the premises nor +the argument, but the conclusion is a palpable and stubborn fact. Abana +and Pharpar may be broad, and deep, and blue, and grand; but only in +Jordan shall your soul wash and be clean. A thousand brooks are born of +the sunshine and the mountains: very, very few are they whose flow can +mingle with yours, and not disturb, but only deepen and broaden the +current. + +Your friend! Who shall describe him, or worthily paint what he is to +you? No merchant, nor lawyer, nor farmer, nor statesman claims your +suffrage, but a kingly soul. He comes to you from God,--a prophet, a +seer, a revealer. He has a clear vision. His love is reverence. He goes +into the _penetralia_ of your life,--not presumptuously, but with +uncovered head, unsandalled feet, and pours libations at the innermost +shrine. His incense is grateful. For him the sunlight brightens, the +skies grow rosy, and all the days are Junes. Wrapped in his love, you +float in a delicious rest, rocked in the bosom of purple, scented waves. +Nameless melodies sing themselves through your heart. A golden glow +suffuses your atmosphere. A vague, fine ecstasy thrills to the sources +of life, and earth lays hold on heaven. Such friendship is worship. It +elevates the most trifling services into rites. The humblest offices are +sanctified. All things are baptized into a new name. Duty is lost in +joy. Care veils itself in caresses. Drudgery becomes delight. There is +no longer anything menial, small, or servile. All is transformed + + "Into something rich and strange." + +The homely household-ways lead through beds of spices and orchards of +pomegranates. The daily toil among your parsnips and carrots is plucking +May violets with the dew upon them to meet the eyes you love upon their +first awaking. In the burden and heat of the day you hear the rustling +of summer showers and the whispering of summer winds. Everything is +lifted up from the plane of labor to the plane of love, and a glory +spans your life. With your friend, speech and silence are one,--for a +communion mysterious and intangible reaches across from heart to heart. +The many dig and delve in your nature with fruitless toil to find the +spring of living water: he only raises his wand, and, obedient to the +hidden power, it bends at once to your secret. Your friendship, though +independent of language, gives to it life and light. The mystic spirit +stirs even in commonplaces, and the merest question is an endearment. +You are quiet because your heart is over-full. You talk because it is +pleasant, not because you have anything to say. You weary of terms that +are already love-laden, and you go out into the highways and hedges, and +gather up the rough, wild, wilful words, heavy with the hatreds of men, +and fill them to the brim with honey-dew. All things great and small, +grand or humble, you press into your service, force them to do soldier's +duty, and your banner over them is love. + +With such a friendship, presence alone is happiness; nor is absence +wholly void,--for memories, and hopes, and pleasing fancies sparkle +through the hours, and you know the sunshine will come back. + +For such friendship one is grateful. No matter that it comes unsought, +and comes not for the seeking. You do not discuss the reasonableness of +your gratitude. You only know that your whole being bows with humility +and utter thankfulness to him who thus crowns you monarch of all realms. + +And the kingdom is everlasting. A thin, pale love dies weakly with the +occasion that gave it birth; but such friendship is born of the gods, +and is immortal. Clouds and darkness may sweep around it, but within the +cloud the glory lives undimmed. Death has no power over it. Time cannot +diminish, nor even dishonor annul it. Its direction may have been +unworthy, but itself is eternal. You go back into your solitudes: all is +silent as aforetime, but you cannot forget that a Voice once resounded +there. A Presence filled the valleys and gilded the mountain-tops, +--breathed upon the plains, and they sprang up in lilies +and roses,--flashed upon the waters, and they flowed to spheral +melody,--swept through the forests, and they, too, trembled into song. +And though now the warmth has faded out, though the ruddy tints and +amber clearness have paled to ashen hues, though the murmuring melodies +are dead, and forest, vale, and hill look hard and angular in the sharp +air, you know that it is not death. The fire is unquenched beneath. You +go your way not disconsolate. There needs but the Victorious Voice. At +the touch of the Prince's lips, life shall rise again and be perfected +forevermore. + + + +THE LIFE OF BIRDS. + +When one thinks of a bird, one fancies a soft, swift, aimless, joyous +thing, full of nervous energy and arrowy motions,--a song with wings. So +remote from ours their mode of existence, they seem accidental exiles +from an unknown globe, banished where none can understand their +language; and men only stare at their darting, inexplicable ways, as at +the gyrations of the circus. Watch their little traits for hours, and it +only tantalizes curiosity. Every man's secret is penetrable, if his +neighbor be sharp-sighted. Dickens, for instance, can take a poor +condemned wretch, like Fagin, whose emotions neither he nor his reader +has experienced, and can paint him in colors that seem made of the +soul's own atoms, so that each beholder feels as if he, personally, had +been the man. But this bird that hovers and alights beside me, peers up +at me, takes its food, then looks again, attitudinizing, jerking, +flirting its tail, with a thousand inquisitive and fantastic +motions,--although I have power to grasp it in my hand and crush its +life out, yet I cannot gain its secret thus, and the centre of its +consciousness is really farther from mine than the remotest planetary +orbit. "We do not steadily bear in mind," says Darwin, with a noble +scientific humility, "how profoundly ignorant we are of the condition of +existence of every animal." + +What "sympathetic penetration" can fathom the life, for instance, of +yonder mysterious, almost voiceless, Humming-Bird, smallest of feathery +things, and loneliest, whirring among birds, insect-like, and among +insects, bird-like, his path untraceable, his home unseen? An image of +airy motion, yet it sometimes seems as if there were nothing joyous in +him. He seems like some exiled pigmy prince, banished, but still regal, +and doomed to wings. Did gems turn to flowers, flowers to feathers, in +that long-past dynasty of the Humming-Birds? It is strange to come upon +his tiny nest, in some gray and tangled swamp, with this brilliant atom +perched disconsolately near it, upon some mossy twig; it is like +visiting Cinderella among her ashes. And from Humming-Bird to Eagle, the +daily existence of every bird is a remote and bewitching mystery. + +Pythagoras has been charged, both before and since the days of Malvolio, +with holding that "the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a +fowl,"--that delinquent men must revisit earth as women, and delinquent +women as birds. Malvolio thought nobly of the soul, and in no way +approved his opinion; but I remember that Harriet Rohan, in her +school-days, accepted this, her destiny, with glee. "When I saw the +Oriole," she wrote to me, "from his nest among the plum-trees in the +garden, sail over the air and high above the Gothic arches of the elm, a +stream of flashing light, or watched him swinging silently on pendent +twigs, I did not dream how near akin we were. Or when a Humming-Bird, a +winged drop of gorgeous sheen and gloss, a living gem, poising on his +wings, thrust his dark, slender, honey-seeking bill into the white +blossoms of a little bush beside my window, I should have thought it no +such bad thing to be a bird, even if one next became a bat, like the +colony in our eaves, that dart and drop and skim and skurry, all the +length of moonless nights, in such ecstasies of dusky joy." Was this +weird creature, the bat, in very truth a bird, in some far primeval +time? and does he fancy, in unquiet dreams at nightfall, that he is +one still? I wonder whether he can enjoy the winged brotherhood +into which he has thrust himself,--victim, perhaps, of some rash +quadruped-ambition,--an Icarus doomed forever _not_ to fall. + +I think, that, if required, on pain of death, to name instantly the most +perfect thing in the universe, I should risk my fate on a bird's egg. +There is, first, its exquisite fragility of material, strong only by the +mathematical precision of that form so daintily moulded. There is its +absolute purity from external stain, since that thin barrier remains +impassable until the whole is in ruins,--a purity recognized in the +household proverb of "An apple, an egg, and a nut." Then, its range of +tints, so varied, so subdued, and so beautiful,--whether of pure white, +like the Martin's, or pure green, like the Robin's, or dotted and +mottled into the loveliest of browns, like the Red Thrush's, or +aqua-marine, with stains of moss-agate, like the Chipping-Sparrow's, or +blotched with long weird ink-marks on a pale ground, like the Oriole's, +as if it bore inscribed some magic clue to the bird's darting flight and +pensile nest. Above all, the associations and predictions of this little +wonder,--that one may bear home between his fingers all that winged +splendor, all that celestial melody, coiled in mystery within these tiny +walls! Even the chrysalis is less amazing, for its form always preserves +some trace, however fantastic, of the perfect insect, and it is but +moulting a skin; but this egg appears to the eye like a separate unit +from some other kingdom of Nature, claiming more kindred with the very +stones than with feathery existence; and it is as if a pearl opened and +an angel sang. + +The nest which is to contain these fair things is a wondrous study also, +from the coarse masonry of the Robin to the soft structure of the +Humming-Bird, a baby-house among nests. Among all created things, the +birds come nearest to man in their domesticity. Their unions are usually +in pairs, and for life; and with them, unlike the practice of most +quadrupeds, the male labors for the young. He chooses the locality of +the nest, aids in its construction, and fights for it, if needful. He +sometimes assists in hatching the eggs. He feeds the brood with +exhausting labor, like yonder Robin, whose winged picturesque day is +spent in putting worms into insatiable beaks, at the rate of one morsel +in every three minutes. He has to teach them to fly, as among the +Swallows, or even to hunt, as among the Hawks. His life is anchored to +his home. Yonder Oriole fills with light and melody the thousand +branches of a neighborhood; and yet the centre for all this divergent +splendor is always that one drooping dome upon one chosen tree. This he +helped to build in May, confiscating cotton as if he were a Union +provost-martial, and singing many songs, with his mouth full of plunder; +and there he watches over his household, all through the leafy June, +perched often upon the airy cradle-edge, and swaying with it in the +summer wind. And from this deep nest, after the pretty eggs are hatched, +will he and his mate extract every fragment of the shell, leaving it, +like all other nests, save those of birds of prey, clean and pure, when +the young are flown. This they do chiefly from an instinct of delicacy; +since wood-birds are not wont to use the same nest a second time, even +if they rear several broods in a season. + +The subdued tints and notes which almost always mark the female sex, +among birds,--unlike insects and human beings, of which the female is +often more showy than the male,--seem designed to secure their safety +while sitting on the nest, while the brighter colors and louder song of +the male enable his domestic circle to detect his whereabouts more +easily. It is commonly noticed, in the same way, that ground-birds have +more neutral tints than those which build out of reach. With the aid of +these advantages, it is astonishing how well these roving creatures keep +their secrets, and what sharp eyes are needed to spy out their +habitations,--while it always seems as if the empty last-year's nests +were very plenty. Some, indeed, are very elaborately concealed, as of +the Golden-Crowned Thrush, called, for this reason, the Oven-Bird,--the +Meadow-Lark, with its burrowed gallery among the grass,--and the +Kingfisher, which mines four feet into the earth. But most of the rarer +nests would hardly be discovered, only that the maternal instinct seems +sometimes so overloaded by Nature as to defeat itself, and the bird +flies and chirps in agony, when she might pass unnoticed by keeping +still. The most marked exception which I have noticed is the Red Thrush, +which, in this respect, as in others, has the most high-bred manners +among all our birds: both male and female sometimes flit in perfect +silence through the bushes, and show solicitude only in a sob which is +scarcely audible. + +Passing along the shore-path by our lake, one day in June, I heard a +great sound of scuffling and yelping before me, as if dogs were hunting +rabbits or woodchucks. On approaching, I saw no sign of such +disturbances, and presently a Partridge came running at me through the +trees, with ruff and tail expanded, bill wide open, and hissing like a +Goose,--then turned suddenly, and with ruff and tail furled, but with no +pretence of lameness, scudded off through the woods in a circle,--then +at me again fiercely, approaching within two yards, and spreading all +her furbelows, to intimidate, as before,--then, taking in sail, went off +again, always at the same rate of speed, yelping like an angry squirrel, +squealing like a pig, occasionally clucking like a hen, and, in general, +so filling the woods with bustle and disturbance that there seemed no +room for anything else. Quite overawed by the display, I stood watching +her for some time, then entered the underbrush, where the little +invisible brood had been unceasingly piping, in their baby way. So +motionless were they, that, for all their noise, I stood with my feet +among them, for some minutes, without finding it possible to detect +them. When found and taken from the ground, which they so closely +resembled, they made no attempt to escape; but, when replaced, they +presently ran away fast, as if conscious that the first policy had +failed, and that their mother had retreated. Such is the summer-life of +these little things; but come again in the fall, when the wild autumnal +winds go marching through the woods, and a dozen pairs of strong wings +will thrill like thunder through the arches of the trees, as the +full-grown brood whirrs away around you. + +Not only have we scarcely any species of birds which are thoroughly and +unquestionably identical with European species, but there are certain +general variations of habit. For instance, in regard to migration. This +is, of course, a Universal instinct, since even tropical birds migrate +for short distances from the equator, so essential to their existence do +these wanderings seem. But in New England, among birds as among men, the +roving habit seems unusually strong, and abodes are shifted very +rapidly. The whole number of species observed in Massachusetts is about +the same as in England,--some three hundred in all. But of this number, +in England, about a hundred habitually winter on the island, and half +that number even in the Hebrides, some birds actually breeding in +Scotland during January and February, incredible as it may seem. Their +habits can, therefore, be observed through a long period of the year; +while with us the bright army comes and encamps for a month or two and +then vanishes. You must attend their dress-parades, while they last; for +you will have but few opportunities, and their domestic life must +commonly be studied during a few weeks of the season, or not at all. + +Wonderful as the instinct of migration seems, it is not, perhaps, so +altogether amazing in itself as in some of its attendant details. To a +great extent, birds follow the opening foliage northward, and flee from +its fading, south; they must keep near the food on which they live, and +secure due shelter for their eggs. Our earliest visitors shrink from +trusting the bare trees with their nests; the Song-Sparrow seeks the +ground; the Blue-Bird finds a box or a hole somewhere; the Red-Wing +haunts the marshy thickets, safer in spring than at any other season; +and even the sociable Robin prefers a pine-tree to an apple-tree, if +resolved to begin housekeeping prematurely. The movements of birds are +chiefly timed by the advance of vegetation; and the thing most +thoroughly surprising about them is not the general fact of the change +of latitude, but their accuracy in hitting the precise locality. That +the same Cat-Bird should find its way back, every spring, to almost the +same branch of yonder larch-tree,--that is the thing astonishing to me. +In England, a lame Redstart was observed in the same garden for sixteen +successive years; and the astonishing precision of course which enables +some birds of small size to fly from Australia to New Zealand in a +day--probably the longest single flight ever taken--is only a part of +the same mysterious instinct of direction. + +In comparing modes of flight, the most surprising, of course, is that of +the Swallow tribe, remarkable not merely for its velocity, but for the +amazing boldness and instantaneousness of the angles it makes; so that +eminent European mechanicians have speculated in vain upon the methods +used in its locomotion, and prizes have been offered, by mechanical +exhibitions, to him who could best explain it. With impetuous dash, they +sweep through our perilous streets, these wild hunters of the air, "so +near, and yet so far"; they bathe flying, and flying they feed their +young. In my immediate vicinity, the Chimney-Swallow is not now common, +nor the Sand-Swallow; but the Cliff-Swallow, that strange emigrant from +the Far West, the Barn-Swallow, and the white-breasted species, are +abundant, together with the Purple Martin. I know no prettier sight than +a bevy of these bright little creatures, met from a dozen different +farm-houses to picnic at a way-side pool, splashing and fluttering, with +their long wings expanded like butterflies, keeping poised by a constant +hovering motion, just tilting upon their feet, which scarcely touch the +moist ground. You will seldom see them actually perch on anything less +airy than some telegraphic wire; but, when they do alight, each will +make chatter enough for a dozen, as if all the rushing hurry of the +wings had passed into the tongue. + +Between the swiftness of the Swallow and the stateliness of the birds of +prey, the whole range of bird-motion seems included. The long wave of a +Hawk's wings seems almost to send a slow vibration through the +atmosphere, tolling upon the eye as yon distant bell upon the ear. I +never was more impressed with the superior dignity of these soarings +than in observing a bloodless contest in the air, last April. Standing +beside a little grove, on a rocky hill-side, I heard Crows cawing near +by, and then a sound like great flies buzzing, which I really +attributed, for a moment, to some early insect. Turning, I saw two Crows +flapping their heavy wings among the trees, and observed that they were +teasing a Hawk about as large as themselves, which was also on the wing. +Presently all three had risen above the branches, and were circling +higher and higher in a slow spiral. The Crows kept constantly swooping +at their enemy, with the same angry buzz, one of the two taking +decidedly the lead. They seldom struck at him with their beaks, but kept +lumbering against him, and flapping him with their wings, as if in a +fruitless effort to capsize him; while the Hawk kept carelessly eluding +the assaults, now inclining on one side, now on the other, with a +stately grace, never retaliating, but seeming rather to enjoy the novel +amusement, as if it were a skirmish in balloons. During all this, +indeed, he scarcely seemed once to wave his wings; yet he soared +steadily aloft, till the Crows refused to follow, though already higher +than I ever saw Crows before, dim against the fleecy sky; then the Hawk +flew northward, but soon after he sailed over us once again, with loud, +scornful _chirr_, and they only cawed, and left him undisturbed. + +When we hear the tumult of music from these various artists of the air, +it seems as if the symphony never could be analyzed into its different +instruments. But with time and patience it is not so difficult; nor can +we really enjoy the performance, so long as it is only a confused chorus +to our ears. It is not merely the highest form of animal language, but, +in strictness of etymology, the only form, if it be true, as is claimed, +that no other animal employs its tongue, _lingua_, in producing sound. +In the Middle Ages, the song of birds was called their Latin, as was any +other foreign dialect. It was the old German superstition, that any one +who should eat the heart of a bird would thenceforth comprehend its +language; and one modern philologist of the same nation (Masius +declares) has so far studied the sounds produced by domestic fowls as to +announce a Goose-Lexicon. Dupont de Nemours asserted that he understood +eleven words of the Pigeon language, the same number of that of Fowls, +fourteen of the Cat tongue, twenty-two of that of Cattle, thirty of that +of Dogs, and the Raven language he understood completely. But the +ordinary observer seldom attains farther than to comprehend some of the +cries of anxiety and fear around him, often so unlike the accustomed +carol of the bird,--as the mew of the Cat-Bird, the lamb-like bleating +of the Veery and his impatient _yeoick_, the _chaip_ of the Meadow-Lark, +the _towyee_ of the Chewink, the petulant _psit_ and _tsee_ of the +Red-Winged Blackbird, and the hoarse cooing of the Bobolink. And with +some of our most familiar birds the variety of notes is so great as +really to promise difficulties in the American department of the +bird-lexicon. I have watched two Song-Sparrows, perched near each other, +in whom the spy-glass could show not the slightest difference of +marking, even in the characteristic stains upon the breast, who yet +chanted to each other, for fifteen minutes, over and over, two elaborate +songs which had nothing in common. I have observed a similar thing in +two Wood-Sparrows, with their sweet, distinct, accelerating lay; nor can +I find it stated that the difference is sexual. Who can claim to have +heard the whole song of the Robin? Taking shelter from a shower beneath +an oak-tree, the other day, I caught a few of the notes which one of +those cheery creatures, who love to sing in wet weather, tossed down to +me through the drops. + +(Before noticing me,) _chirrup, cheerup_ +(pausing in alarm, at my approach,) _che, che, che;_ +(broken presently by a thoughtful strain,) _caw, caw,_ +(then softer and more confiding,) _see, see, see;_ +(then the original note, in a whisper,) _chirrup, cheerup;_ +(often broken by a soft note,) _see, wee;_ +(and an odder one,) _squeal;_ +(and a mellow note,) _tweedle._ + +And all these were mingled with more complex combinations, and with +half-imitations, as of the Blue-Bird, so that it seemed almost +impossible to doubt that there was some specific meaning, to him and his +peers, in this endless vocabulary. Yet other birds, as quick-witted as +the Robins, possess but one or two chirping notes, to which they seem +unable to give more than the very rudest variation of accent. + +The controversy between the singing-birds of Europe and America has had +various phases and influential disputants. Buffon easily convinced +himself that our Thrushes had no songs, because the voices of all birds +grew harsh in savage countries, such as he naturally held this continent +to be. Audubon, on the other hand, relates that even in his childhood he +was assured by his father that the American songsters were the best, +though neither Americans nor Europeans could be convinced of it. +MacGillivray, the Scottish naturalist, reports that Audubon himself, in +conversation, arranged our vocalists in the following order:--first, the +Mocking-Bird, as unrivalled; then, the Wood-Thrush, Cat-Bird, and Red +Thrush; the Rose-Breasted, Pine, and Blue Grosbeak; the Orchard and +Golden Oriole; the Tawny and Hermit Thrushes; several Finches, +--Bachmann's, the White-Crowned, the Indigo, and the Nonpareil; +and finally, the Bobolink. + +Among those birds of this list which frequent Massachusetts, Audubon +might well put the Wood-Thrush at the head. As I sat the other day in +the deep woods beside a black brook which dropped from stone to stone +beneath the shadow of our Rattlesnake Rocks, the air seemed at first as +silent above me as the earth below. The buzz of summer sounds had not +begun. Sometimes a bee hummed by with a long swift thrill like a chord +of music; sometimes a breeze came resounding up the forest like an +approaching locomotive, and then died utterly away. Then, at length, a +Veery's delicious note rose in a fountain of liquid melody from beneath +me; and when it was ended, the clear, calm, interrupted chant of the +Wood-Thrush fell like solemn water-drops from some source above--I am +acquainted with no sound in Nature so sweet, so elevated, so serene. +Flutes and flageolets are Art's poor efforts to recall that softer +sound. It is simple, and seems all prelude; but the music to which it is +the overture must belong to other spheres. It might be the _Angelus_ of +some lost convent. It might be the meditation of some maiden-hermit, +saying over to herself in solitude, with recurrent tuneful pauses, the +only song she knows. Beside this soliloquy of seraphs, the carol of the +Veery seems a familiar and almost domestic thing; yet it is so charming +that Audubon must have designed to include it among the Thrushes whose +merits he proclaims. + +But the range of musical perfection is a wide one; and if the standard +of excellence be that wondrous brilliancy and variety of execution +suggested by the Mocking-Bird, then the palm belongs, among our +New-England songsters, to the Red Thrush, otherwise called the Mavis or +Brown Thrasher. I have never heard the Mocking-Bird sing at liberty; and +while the caged bird may surpass the Red Thrush in volume of voice and +in quaintness of direct imitation, he gives me no such impression of +depth and magnificence. I know not how to describe the voluble and +fantastic notes which fall like pearls and diamonds from the beak of our +Mavis, while his stately attitudes and high-born bearing are in full +harmony with the song. I recall the steep, bare hill-side, and the two +great boulders which guard the lonely grove, where I first fully learned +the wonder of this lay, as if I had met Saint Cecilia there. A +thoroughly happy song, overflowing with life, it gives even its most +familiar phrases an air of gracious condescension, as when some great +violinist stoops to the "Carnival of Venice." The Red Thrush does not, +however, consent to any parrot-like mimicry, though every note of wood +or field--Oriole, Bobolink, Crow, Jay, Robin, Whippoorwill--appears to +pass in veiled procession through the song. + +Retain the execution of the Red Thrush, but hopelessly impair his organ, +and you have the Cat-Bird. This accustomed visitor would seem a gifted +vocalist, but for the inevitable comparison between his thinner note and +the gushing melodies of the lordlier bird. Is it some hopeless +consciousness of this disadvantage which leads him to pursue that +peculiar habit of singing softly to himself very often, in a fancied +seclusion? When other birds are cheerily out-of-doors, on some bright +morning of May or June, one will often discover a solitary Cat-Bird +sitting concealed in the middle of a dense bush, and twittering busily, +in subdued rehearsal, the whole copious variety of his lay, practising +trills and preparing half-imitations, which, at some other time, sitting +on the topmost twig, he shall hilariously seem to improvise before all +the world. Can it be that he is really in some slight disgrace with +Nature, with that demi-mourning garb of his,--and that his feline cry of +terror, which makes his opprobrium with boys, is part of some hidden +doom decreed? No, the lovely color of the eggs which his companion +watches on that laboriously builded staging of twigs shall vindicate +this familiar companion from any suspicion of original sin. Indeed, it +is well demonstrated by our American oölogist, Dr. Brewer, that the eggs +of the Cat-Bird affiliate him with the Robin and the Wood-Thrush, all +three being widely separated in this respect from the Red Thrush. The +Red Thrush builds on the ground, and has mottled eggs; while the whole +household establishment of the Wood-Thrush is scarcely distinguishable +from that of the Robin, and the Cat-Bird differs chiefly in being more +of a carpenter and less of a mason. + +The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, which Audubon places so high on his list of +minstrels, comes annually to one region in this vicinity, but I am not +sure of having heard it. The young Pine Grosbeaks come to our woods in +winter, and have then but a subdued twitter. Every one knows the +Bobolink; and almost all recognize the Oriole, by sight at least, even +if unfamiliar with all the notes of his cheery and resounding song. The +Red-Eyed Flycatcher, heard even more constantly, is less generally +identified by name; but his note sounds all day among the elms of our +streets, and seems a sort of piano-adaptation, popularized for the +million, of the rich notes of the Thrushes. He is not mentioned by +Audubon among his favorites, and has no right to complain of the +exclusion. Yet the birds which most endear summer are not necessarily +the finest performers; and certainly there is none whose note I could +spare less easily than the little Chipping-Sparrow, called hereabouts +the Hair-Bird. To lie half-awake on a warm morning in June, and hear +that soft insect-like chirp draw in and out with long melodious +pulsations, like the rising and falling of the human breath, condenses +for my ear the whole luxury of summer. Later in the day, among the +multiplicity of noises, the chirping becomes louder and more detached, +losing that faint and dream-like thrill. + +The bird-notes which have the most familiar fascination are perhaps +simply those most intimately associated with other rural things. This +applies especially to the earliest spring songsters. Listening to these +delicious prophets upon some of those still and moist days which slip in +between the rough winds of March and fill our lives for a moment with +anticipated delights, it has seemed to me that their varied notes were +sent to symbolize all the different elements of spring association. The +Blue-Bird seems to represent simply spring's faint, tremulous, liquid +sweetness, the Song-Sparrow its changing pulsations of more positive and +varied joy, and the Robin its cheery and superabundant vitality. The +later birds of the season, suggesting no such fine-drawn sensations, yet +identify themselves with their chosen haunts, so that we cannot think of +the one without the other. In the meadows, we hear the languid and +tender drawl of the Meadow-Lark,--one of the most peculiar of notes, +almost amounting to affectation in its excess of laborious sweetness. +When we reach the thickets and wooded streams, there is no affectation +in the Maryland Yellow-Throat, that little restless busybody, with his +eternal _which-is-it, which-is-it, which-is-it_, emphasizing each +syllable at will, in despair of response. Passing into the loftier +woods, we find them resounding with the loud proclamation of the +Golden-Crowned Thrush,--_scheat, scheat, scheat, scheat_,--rising and +growing louder in a vigorous way that rather suggests some great +Woodpecker than such a tiny thing. And penetrating to some yet lonelier +place, we find it consecrated to that life-long sorrow, whatever it may +be, which is made immortal in the plaintive cadence of the Pewee. + +There is one favorite bird,--the Chewink, or Ground-Robin,--which, I +always fancied, must have been known to Keats when he wrote those few +words of perfect descriptiveness,-- + + "If an innocent bird + Before my heedless footsteps _stirred and stirred + __In little journeys_." + +What restless spirit is in this creature, that, while so shy in its own +personal habits, it yet watches every visitor with a Paul-Pry curiosity, +follows him in the woods, peers out among the underbrush, scratches upon +the leaves with a pretty pretence of important business there, and +presently, when disregarded, ascends some small tree and begins to carol +its monotonous song, as if there were no such thing as man in the +universe? There is something irregular and fantastic in the coloring, +also, of the Chewink: unlike the generality of ground-birds, it is a +showy thing, with black, white, and bay intermingled, and it is one of +the most unmistakable of all our feathery creatures, in its aspect and +its ways. + +Another of my favorites, perhaps from our sympathy as to localities, +since we meet freely every summer at a favorite lake, is the King-Bird +or Tyrant-Flycatcher. The habits of royalty or tyranny I have never been +able to perceive,--only a democratic habit of resistance to tyrants; but +this bird always impresses me as a perfectly well-dressed and +well-mannered person, who amid a very talkative society prefers to +listen, and shows his character by action only. So long as he sits +silently on some stake or bush in the neighborhood of his family-circle, +you notice only his glossy black cap and the white feathers in his +handsome tail; but let a Hawk or a Crow come near, and you find that he +is something more than a mere lazy listener to the Bobolink: far up in +the air, determined to be thorough in his chastisements, you will see +him, with a comrade or two, driving the bulky intruder away into the +distance, till you wonder how he ever expects to find his own way back +again. He speaks with emphasis, on these occasions, and then reverts, +more sedately than ever, to his accustomed silence. + +After all the great labors of Audubon and Wilson, it is certain that the +recent visible progress of American ornithology has by no means equalled +that of several other departments of Natural History. The older books +are now out of print, and there is actually no popular treatise on the +subject to be had: a destitution singularly contrasted with the variety +of excellent botanical works which the last twenty years have produced. +Nuttall's fascinating volumes, and Brewer's edition of Wilson, are +equally inaccessible; and the most valuable contributions since their +time, so far as I know, are that portion of Dr. Brewer's work on eggs +printed in the eleventh volume of the "Smithsonian Contributions," and +four admirable articles in this very magazine.[14] But the most +important observations are locked up in the desks or exhibited in the +cabinets of private observers, who have little opportunity of comparing +facts with other students, or with reliable printed authorities. What do +we know, for instance, of the local distribution of our birds? I +remember that in my latest conversation with Thoreau, last December, he +mentioned most remarkable facts in this department, which had fallen +under his unerring eyes. The Hawk most common at Concord, the Red-Tailed +species, is not known near the sea-shore, twenty miles off,--as at +Boston or Plymouth. The White-Breasted Sparrow is rare in Concord; but +the Ashburnham woods, thirty miles away, are full of it. The Scarlet +Tanager's is the commonest note in Concord, except the Red-Eyed +Flycatcher's; yet one of the best field-ornithologists in Boston had +never heard it. The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak is seen not infrequently at +Concord, though its nest is rarely found; but in Minnesota Thoreau found +it more abundant than any other bird, far more so than the Robin. But +his most interesting statement, to my fancy, was, that, during a stay of +ten weeks on Monadnock, he found that the Snow-Bird built its nest on +the top of the mountain, and probably never came down through the +season. That was its Arctic; and it would probably yet be found, he +predicted, on Wachusett and other Massachusetts peaks. It is known that +the Snow-Bird, or "Snow-Flake," as it is called in England, was reported +by Audubon as having only once been proved to build in the United +States, namely, among the White Mountains, though Wilson found its nests +among the Alleghanies; and in New England it used to be the rural belief +that the Snow-Bird and the Chipping-Sparrow were the same. + +After July, most of our birds grow silent, and, but for the insects, +August would be almost the stillest month in the year,--stiller than the +winter, when the woods are often vocal with the Crow, the Jay, and the +Chickadee. But with patient attention one may hear, even far into the +autumn, the accustomed notes. As I sat in my boat, one sunny afternoon +of last September, beneath the shady western shore of our quiet lake, +with the low sunlight striking almost level across the wooded banks, it +seemed as if the last hoarded drops of summer's sweetness were being +poured over all the world. The air was full of quiet sounds. Turtles +rustled beside the brink and slid into the water,--cows plashed in the +shallows,--fishes leaped from the placid depths,--a squirrel sobbed and +fretted on a neighboring stump,--a katydid across the lake maintained +its hard, dry croak,--the crickets chirped pertinaciously, but with +little fatigued pauses, as if glad that their work was almost done,--the +grasshoppers kept up their continual chant, which seemed thoroughly +melted and amalgamated into the summer, as if it would go on +indefinitely, though the body of the little creature were dried into +dust. All this time the birds were silent and invisible, as if they +would take no more part in the symphony of the year. Then, as if by +preconcerted signal, they joined in: Crows cawed anxiously afar; Jays +screamed in the woods; a Partridge clucked to its brood, like the gurgle +of water from a bottle; a Kingfisher wound his rattle, more briefly than +in spring, as if we now knew all about it and the merest hint ought to +suffice; a Fish-Hawk flapped into the water, with a great rude splash, +and then flew heavily away; a flock of Wild Ducks went southward +overhead, and a smaller party returned beneath them, flying low and +anxiously, as if to pick up some lost baggage; and, at last, a Loon +laughed loud from behind a distant island, and it was pleasant to people +these woods and waters with that wild shouting, linking them with +Katahdin Lake and Amperzand. + +But the later the birds linger in the autumn, the more their aspect +differs from that of spring. In spring, they come, jubilant, noisy, +triumphant, from the South, the winter conquered and the long journey +done. In autumn, they come timidly from the North, and, pausing on their +anxious retreat, lurk within the fading copses and twitter snatches of +song as fading. Others fly as openly as ever, but gather in flocks, as +the Robins, most piteous of all birds at this season,--thin, faded, +ragged, their bold note sunk to a feeble quaver, and their manner a mere +caricature of that inexpressible military smartness with which they held +up their heads in May. + +Yet I cannot really find anything sad even in November. When I think of +the thrilling beauty of the season past, the birds that came and went, +the insects that took up the choral song as the birds grew silent, the +procession of the flowers, the glory of autumn,--and when I think, that, +this also ended, a new gallery of wonder is opening, almost more +beautiful, in the magnificence of frost and snow, there comes an +impression of affluence and liberality in the universe, which seasons of +changeless and uneventful verdure would never give. The catkins already +formed on the alder, quite prepared to droop into April's beauty,--the +white edges of the May-flower's petals, already visible through the bud, +show in advance that winter is but a slight and temporary retardation of +the life of Nature, and that the barrier which separates November from +March is not really more solid than that which parts the sunset from the +sunrise. + +[Footnote 14: "Our Birds and their Ways" (December, 1857); "The +Singing-Birds and their Songs" (August, 1858); "The Birds of the Garden +and Orchard" (October, 1858); "The Birds of the Pasture and Forest" +(December, 1853);--the first by J. Elliot Cabot, and the three last by +Wilson Flagg.] + + + +THE NEW OPPOSITION PARTY. + +In the rapid alternations of opinion produced by the varying incidents +of the present war, a few days effect the work of centuries. We may +therefore be pardoned for giving an antique coloring to an event of +recent occurrence. Accordingly we say, once upon a time, (Tuesday, July +1, 1862) a great popular convention of all who loved the Constitution +and the Union, and all who hated "niggers," was called in the city of +New York. The place of meeting was the Cooper Institute, and among the +signers to the call were prominent business and professional men of that +great metropolis. At this meeting, that eminently calm and learned +jurist, the Honorable W.A. Duer, interrupted the course of an elaborate +argument for the constitutional rights of the Southern rebels by a +melodramatic exclamation, that, if we hanged the traitors of the country +in the order of their guilt, "the next man who marched upon the scaffold +after Jefferson Davis would be Charles Sumner." + +The professed object of the meeting was to form a party devoted to the +support of "the Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." Its +practical effect was to give the Confederates and foreign powers a broad +hint that the North was no longer a unit. The coincidence of the meeting +with the Federal reverses before Richmond made its professed object all +the more ridiculous. The babbling and bawling of the speakers about "the +rights of the South," and "the infamous Abolitionists who disgraced +Congress," were but faint echoes of the Confederate cannon which had +just ceased to carry death into the Union ranks. Both the speeches and +the cannon spoke hostility to the National Cause. The number of the +dead, wounded, "missing," and demoralized members of the great Army of +the Potomac exceeded, on that Tuesday evening, any army which the United +States had ever, before the present war, arrayed on any battle-field. +Jefferson Davis, on that evening, was safer at Richmond than Abraham +Lincoln was at Washington. A well-grounded apprehension, not only for +the "Union," but for the safety of loyal States, was felt on that +evening all over the North and West. It was, in fact, the darkest hour +in the whole annals of the Republic. Even the authorities at Washington +feared that the Army of the Potomac was destroyed. This was exactly the +time for the Honorable Mr. Wickliffe and the Honorable Mr. Brooks, for +the Honorable W. A. Duer and the Honorable Fernando Wood, to delight the +citizens of New York with their peculiar eloquence. This was the +appropriate occasion to stand up for the persecuted and down-trodden +South! This was the grand opportunity to assert the noble principle, +that, by the Constitution, every traitor had the right to be tried by a +jury of traitors! This was the time to dishonor all the New England +dead! This was the time to denounce the living worthies of New England! +Hang Jeff. Davis? Oh, yes! We all know that he is secure behind his +triumphant slayers of the real defenders of the Constitution and the +Union. Neither hangman nor Major-General can get near _him_. But Charles +Sumner is in our power. We can hang him easily. He has not two or four +hundred thousand men at his back. He travels alone and unattended. Do we +want a constitutional principle for combining the two men in one act of +treason? Here is a calm jurist,--here, gentlemen of the party of the +Constitution and the Laws, is the Honorable W. A. Duer. What does he +say? Simply this: "Hang Jeff. Davis and Charles Sumner." Davis we cannot +hang, but Sumner we can. Let us take one-half of his advice; +circumstances prevent us from availing ourselves of the whole. There is, +to be sure, no possibility of hanging Charles Sumner under any law known +to us, the especial champions of the laws. But what then? Don't you see +the Honorable W. A. Duer appeals, in this especial case, to "the higher +law" of the mob? Don't you see that he desires to shield Jeff. Davis by +weaving around his august person all the fine cobwebs of the Law, while +he proposes to have Sumner hanged on "irregular" principles, unknown to +the jurisprudence of Marshall and Kent? + +But enough for the New York meeting. It was of no importance, except as +indicating the existence, and giving a blundering expression to the +objects, of one of the most malignant and unpatriotic factions which +this country has ever seen. The faction is led by a few cold-blooded +politicians universally known as the meanest sycophants of the South and +the most impudent bullies of the North; but they have contrived to array +on their side a considerable number of honest and well-meaning dupes by +a dexterous appeal to conservative prejudice and conservative passion, +so that hundreds serve their ends who would feel contaminated by their +companionship. Never before has Respectability so blandly consented to +become the mere instrument and tool of Rascality. The rogues trust to +inaugurate treason and anarchy under the pretence of being the special +champions of the Constitution and the Laws. Their real adherents are +culled from the most desperate and dishonest portions of our population. +They can hardly indite a leading article, or make a stump speech, +without showing their proclivities to mob-law. To be sure, if a known +traitor is informally arrested, they rave about the violation of the +rights of the citizen; but they think Lynch-law is good enough for +"Abolitionists." If a General is assailed as being over prudent and +cautious in his operations against the common enemy, they immediately +laud him as a Hannibal, a Caesar, and a Napoleon; they assume to be his +special friends and admirers; they adjure him to persevere in what they +conceive to be his policy of inaction; and, as he is a great master in +strategy, they hint that his best strategic movement would be a +movement, _à la_ Cromwell, on the Abolitionized Congress of the United +States. Disunion, anarchy, the violation of all law, the appeal to the +lowest and fiercest impulses of the most ignorant portions of the +Northern people,--these constitute the real stock-in-trade of "the +Hang-Jeff.-Davis-and-Charles-Sumner" party; but the thing is so managed, +that, formally, this party appears as the special champion of the Union, +the Constitution, and the Laws. + +Those politicians who personally dislike the present holders of +political power, those politicians who think that the measures of +confiscation and emancipation passed by the Congress which has just +adjourned are both unjust and impolitic, unconsciously slide into the +aiders and abettors of the knaves they individually despise and +distrust. The "radicals" must, they say, at all events, be checked; and +they lazily follow the lead of the rascals. The rascals intend to ruin +the country. But then they propose to do it in a constitutional way. The +only thing, it seems, that a lawyer and a jurist can consider is Form. +If the country is dismembered, if all its defenders are slain, if the +Southern Confederacy is triumphant, not only at Richmond, but at +Washington and New York, if eight millions of people beat twenty +millions, and the greatest of all democracies ignominiously succumbs to +the basest of all aristocracies, the true patriots will still have the +consolation, that the defeat, the "damned defeat," occurred under the +strictest forms of Law. Better that ten Massachusetts soldiers should be +killed than that one negro should be illegally freed! Better that +Massachusetts should be governed by Jeff. Davis than that it should be +represented by such men as Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, notoriously +hostile to the constitutional rights of the South! Subjection, in +itself, is bad; but the great American idea of local governments for +local purposes, and a general government for general purposes, still, +thank God! may survive it. To be sure, we may be beaten and enslaved, +The rascals, renegades, and liberticides may gain their object. This +object we shall ever contemn. But if they gain it fairly, under the +forms of the Constitution, it is the duty of all good citizens to +submit. Our Southern opponents, we acknowledge, committed some +"irregularities"; but nobody can assert, that, in dealing with them, we +deviated, by a hair's-breadth, from the powers intrusted to the +Government by the Fathers of the Republic. While the country is +convulsed by a rebellion unprecedented in the whole history of the +world, we are compelled by our principles to look upon it as lawyers, +and not as statesmen. We apply to it the same principles which our +venerated forefathers applied to Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts and +the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania. To be sure, the +"circumstances" are different; but we need not remind the philanthropic +inhabitants of our section of the country, that "principles are +eternal." We judge the existing case by these eternal principles. We may +fail, and fail ignominiously; but, in our failure, nobody can say that +we violated any sacred form of the ever-glorious Constitution of the +United States. The Constitution has in it no provisions to secure its +own existence by unconstitutional means. It is therefore our duty, as +lawyers as well as legislators, to allow the gentlemen who have +repudiated it, because they were defeated in an election, to enjoy all +its benefits. That they do not seem to appreciate these benefits, but +shoot, in a shockingly "irregular" manner, all who insist on imposing on +them its blessings, furnishes no reason why we should partake in their +guilt by violating its provisions. It is true that the Government +established by the Constitution may fall by a strict adherence to our +notions of the Constitution; but even in that event we shall have the +delicious satisfaction of contemplating it in memory as a beautiful +idea, after it has ceased to exist as a palpable fact. As the best +constitution ever devised by human wisdom, we shall always find a more +exquisite delight in meditating on the mental image of its perfect +features than in enjoying the practical blessings of any other +Government which may be established after it is dead and gone; and our +feeling regarding it can be best expressed in the words in which the +lyric poet celebrates his loyalty to the soul of the departed object of +his affection:-- + +"Though many a gifted mind we meet, + And fairest forms we see, +To live with them is far less sweet + Than to remember thee!" + +It is fortunate both for our safety and the safety of the Constitution, +that these politico-sentimental gentlemen represent only a certain +theory of the Constitution, and not the Constitution itself. Their +leading defect is an incapacity to adjust their profound legal +intellects to the altered circumstances of the country. Any child in +political knowledge is competent to give them this important item of +political information,--that by no constitution of government ever +devised by human morality and intelligence were the rights of rascals so +secured as to give them the privilege of trampling on the rights of +honest men. Any child in political knowledge is competent to inform them +of this fundamental fact, underlying all laws and constitutions,--that, +if a miscreant attempts to cut your throat, you may resist him by all +the means which your strength and his weakness place in your power. Any +child in political knowledge is further competent to furnish them with +this additional bit of wisdom,--that every constitution of government +provides, under the war-power it confers, against its own overthrow by +rebels and by enemies. If rebels rise to the dignity and exert the power +of enemies, they can be proceeded against both as rebels and as enemies. +As rebels, the Government is bound to give them all the securities which +the Constitution may guaranty to traitors. As enemies, the Government is +restricted only by the vast and vague "rights of war," of which its own +military necessities must be the final judge. + +"But," say the serene thinkers and scholars whom the rogues use as +mouthpieces, "our object is simply to defend the Constitution. We do not +believe that the Government has any of the so-called 'rights of war' +against the rebels. If Jefferson Davis has committed the crime of +treason, he has the same right to be tried by a jury of the district in +which his alleged crime was committed that a murderer has to be tried by +a similar jury. We know that Mr. Davis, in case the rebellion is +crushed, will not only be triumphantly acquitted, but will be sent to +Congress as Senator from Mississippi. This is mortifying in itself, but +it still is a beautiful illustration of the merits of our admirable +system of government. It enables the South to play successfully the +transparent game of 'Heads I win, tails you lose,' and so far must be +reckoned bad. But this evil is counterbalanced by so many blessings, +that nobody but a miserable Abolitionist will think of objecting to the +arrangement. We, on the whole, agree with the traitors, whose designs we +lazily aid, in thinking that Jeff. Davis and Charles Sumner are equally +guilty, in a fair estimate of the causes of our present misfortunes. +Hang both, we say; and we say it with an inward confidence that neither +will be hanged, if the true principles of the Constitution be carried +out." + +The political rogues and the class of honest men we have referred to +are, therefore, practically associated in one party to oppose the +present Government. The rogues lead; the honest men follow. If this new +party succeeds, we shall have the worst party in power that the country +has ever known. Buchanan as President, and Floyd as Secretary of War, +were bad enough. But Buchanan and Floyd had no large army to command, no +immense material of war to direct. As far as they could, they worked +mischief, and mischief only. But their means were limited. The +Administration which will succeed that of Abraham Lincoln will have +under its control one of the largest and ablest armies and navies in the +world. Every general and every admiral will be compelled to obey the +orders of the Administration. If the Administration be in the hands of +secret traitors, the immense military and naval power of the country +will be used for its own destruction. A compromise will be patched up +with the Rebel States. The leaders of the rebellion will be invited back +to their old seats of power. A united South combined with a Pro-slavery +faction in the North will rule the nation. And all this enormous evil +will be caused by the simplicity of honest men in falling into the trap +set for them by traitors and rogues. + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + +_The Tariff-Question, considered in Regard to the Policy of England and +the Interests of the United States; with Statistical, and Comparative +Tables_. By ERASTUS B. BIGELOW. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 4to. + +Under this modest title, the American public is presented with a work of +uncommon research, and of great practical utility and value. Its author +is well known as a skilful and most successful inventor, in whose +admirable power-looms nearly all the carpets of the world are now woven. +On the subject of manufactures few can speak with more authority, +whether in reference to its general bearings or its minute details. The +work before us affords ample proof of his ability to discuss one of the +most important questions in political economy. + +The hundred pages of text are followed by two hundred and thirty-four +pages of tabular statistics. This large and well-arranged body of +invaluable information, though styled an appendix, was, in fact, the +precursor of the argument, and constitutes the solid base on which it +rests. These tables are "not mere copies or abstracts, but the result of +labored and careful selection, comparison, and combination." In this +treasury of facts, derived for the most part from official records, the +commercial and industrial interests of the United States and of England, +especially, are presented in all their most important aspects and +relations. The amount of information here given is immense; and knowing, +as we do, the scrupulous care of the collector, we cannot doubt its +accuracy. Independently of its connection with the author's argument, +this feature of the work cannot fail to give it value and a permanent +place in every library, office, counting-room, and workshop of the +country. + +In his discussion of the tariff question, Mr. Bigelow assumes it as a +settled principle of national policy that revenue should be raised by +duties on imports. To clear the ground from ambiguity, he states exactly +what he means when he uses the terms "free-trade" and "protection," and +then proceeds to describe and explain the tariff-policy of Great +Britain. Not without good reason does he give this prominence to the +action of that great power. It is not merely that England stands at the +head of manufacturing and commercial nations, or that our +business-connections with her are intimate and extensive. The fact which +makes English policy so important an element in the discussion is found +in the persistent and too often successful efforts of that country to +shape American opinion and legislation on questions of manufacture and +trade. Nowhere else have we seen the utter fallacy of the free-trade +argument, as urged by Great Britain on other countries upon the strength +of her own successful example, so clearly shown. The nature, object, +extent, and motive of the tariff-reforms effected by Sir Robert Peel and +Mr. Gladstone are made plain, not only by the quoted explanations of +those statesmen, but by statistical facts and figures. Until she had +carried her manufactures to a height of prosperity where competition +could no longer touch them, England was, of all nations, the most +protective. Then she became of a sudden wondrously liberal. Her +protective laws were abolished, and, with a mighty show of generosity, +she opened her ports to the commerce of the world. Foreign producers +were magnanimously told that they could send their goods freely into +England at a time when English manufactures were underselling and +supplanting theirs in their own markets. The sacrifice of duties +actually made by England on foreign manufactures, and which she paraded +before the world as a reason why other nations should imitate and +reciprocate her action, amounted, as we learn from the work before us, +to this immense annual sum of two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars, +being "less than one-fourth part of the tax which Englishmen annually +pay for the privilege of keeping their dogs!" + +It is true that the exports and trade of England have increased with +extraordinary rapidity since 1853, and that the free-trade economists of +that country ascribe this great prosperity in large degree to their +alleged reforms. That they have no good ground for such a representation +is shown conclusively by Mr. Bigelow. During the same period, France, +with high protection, and the United States, with moderate protection, +made equal or even greater advances. The causes of this increased +prosperity must, therefore, have been general in their nature and +influence. The progress of invention and discovery, and the increased +supply of gold, are mentioned by the author as among the most efficient. + +The immense extent and vast importance of English manufactures, and +especially of the cotton-manufacture, are fully unfolded, and we cannot +wonder at the earnest and unceasing efforts of that country to preserve +and to extend this great interest. This necessity is strikingly evinced +in the section on "The Dependent Condition of England." We can only +allude to this part of the argument, as full of striking suggestions, +and as showing that in some very important respects England is the most +dependent of all countries, and that the continued maintenance of her +life and power rests on the maintenance of her manufacturing supremacy. +In the section headed "Efforts of England to extend her Manufactures," +we have some curious and instructive history, and we specially commend +this part of the work to those who have been accustomed to lend a +willing ear to British talk on the subjects of protection and +free-trade. + +Mr. Bigelow devotes a short, but graphic and comprehensive, section to +the "Condition and Resources of the United States." "The Tariffs of the +United States," their merits and defects, are briefly considered. His +"Reasons in Favor of a Protective Policy" leave, as it seems to us, very +little to be said on the other side. From a multitude of passages which +we have been tempted to quote, we select the following, as a not +unfavorable specimen of the work:-- + +"War is an evil to which we are always liable, and shall continue to be +liable, until the Millennium comes. With reference to this always +existent danger, no nation which is not willing to be trampled on can +safely take its position on Quaker ground. That the possible event may +not find us unprepared, we build fortresses and war-ships, and maintain +armies and artillery at vast expense. No one but the mere visionary +denies the propriety or the necessity of this. Yet it is demonstrable +that a nation about to be involved in war will find a well-developed +industrial and productive power of more real value than any or than all +of the precautionary measures above mentioned; since, without such +power, neither forts nor armies can long be sustained. + +"It is obvious that the doctrine of free-trade (I mean, of course, +genuine free-trade, and not the British counterfeit) ignores the +probability, if not, indeed, the possibility of war. Could peace, +perpetual and universal, be guarantied to the world, the argument +against protection would possess a degree of strength, which, as things +now are, does not and cannot belong to it. May it not be well for us to +consider, whether, on the whole, we can do better than to take things as +they are, by conforming our national policy, not to an imaginary era of +universal peace and philanthropy, but to the hard and selfish world in +which we happen to live? + +"Lest this remark should be misinterpreted, I disclaim all intent to +intimate that men acting in communities are released from those +obligations of morality and justice which bind them as individuals. As +civilization advances and mankind become more enlightened and virtuous, +the beneficial change cannot fail to show itself in the public councils +of the world, and in the kinder and broader spirit that will animate and +control the intercourse of nations. Meanwhile, let us not expect to find +in collective humanity the disinterested goodness which is so rarely +exhibited by the individual members. Let us rather assume that other +nations will act, in the main, on selfish principles; and let us shape +our own course as a nation in accordance with that presumption. Few, I +think, will call this uncharitable, when they recall to mind our own +experience during the year past. Why were so many among us surprised and +disappointed at the course pursued by the English, generally, in +reference to our domestic difficulties? Simply because they forgot, +that, with the mass of mankind, self-interest is a far stronger motive +than philanthropy. That England should sympathize, even in the slightest +degree, with a rebellious conspiracy against a kindred and friendly +nation,--a conspiracy based openly and confessedly on the extension and +perpetuity of an institution--which Englishmen everywhere professed to +regard with the deepest abhorrence,--was certainly very inconsistent; +but it was not at all strange. In fact, it was precisely the thing which +we might expect would happen under the circumstances. Those who made the +mistake have learned a lesson in human nature which should prevent them +from repeating the blunder." + +From the past opinions and present condition of our Southern States, and +from the history of the war thus far, the author strongly argues the +necessity of a policy designed and fitted to build up a diversified +industry and a vigorous productive power. In regard to the degree of +protection, he advocates no more than is necessary to equalize +advantages. In consequence of her abundant capital, lower rate of +interest, and cheaper labor, England can manufacture at less cost than +we can; and this disadvantage can be counteracted only by protective +legislation. The benefits which have accrued to the manufacturers of +England from a governmental policy on whose stability they could rely, +the advantage of a long and firmly established business with all its +results of experience and skill, and the collateral aid of a widely +extended commerce, are points clearly brought out and presented to the +consideration of American economists. + +But our limits forbid that we should attempt any further exposition of +this excellent work. The section on "Free Trade" cannot fail to arrest +attention, and that upon "The Harmony of Interests among the States" is +full of common sense inspired by the broadest patriotism. + +Our imperfect abstract gives but a meagre notion of the fulness and +completeness of this admirable work. It will accomplish its object, if +it send the reader to the book itself. The appearance of the volume is +timely. Events and circumstances have prepared the minds of our +countrymen to understand and to appreciate the argument. The book cannot +fail to diffuse sounder views of the great topics which it discusses, +and will exert, we trust, a beneficial influence on the legislation of +the country. + +_The Slave-Power; its Character, Career, and Probable Designs: being an +Attempt to explain the Real Issue involved in the American Contest_. By +J. E. CAIRNES, M. A, London: Parker, Son, & Bourn. 8vo. + +This book, which is dedicated to John Stuart Mill, and is in excellent +keeping with that writer's article on "The Civil War in America," +deserves a respectful and even cordial welcome from the people of this +country. It has grown out of a course of university-lectures on +North-American Slavery, more especially considered in its economical +aspects. But the author has been led to enlarge his view, and has +brought before the public one of the most significant works that have +yet appeared on this momentous subject. So far as the treatise is a +speculative one, it has an interest for all inquirers. So far as it is +intended to influence or modify the current estimate of the great +conflict in this country, it bears more directly on the people of +England; but, unless we have determined neither to seek nor to miss the +sympathy of intelligent Englishmen, we ought to hail so manly and +powerful an attempt to correct the errors which prevail in the +mother-country. We do not undertake at this time to subscribe to +everything we find in this book, nor are we now about to criticize its +contents. Our wish is to introduce it to our readers as a comforting +proof that there is a leaven yet working among our English kinsmen which +it would be extremely unjust in us not to recognize. We quote an English +critic, who says:--"The work is exceedingly able, as well as exceedingly +opportune. It will do much to arrest the extraordinary tide of sympathy +with the South which the clever misrepresentations of Southern advocates +have managed to set running in this country, and to imprint the picture +of a modern slave-community on the imagination of thoughtful men." +Professor Cairnes sets himself at the start against the endeavor to +refer this great crisis to superficial and secondary causes. He pierces +the question to the core, and finds there what has too often been +studiously kept out of sight, the cancer of Slavery. Acknowledging what +has been so diligently harped upon, that the motive of the war is not +the overthrow of the slave-power, he still insists that Slavery is the +cause of the war. This he attempts to establish historically and +economically; nor does he leave the subject without a searching look +into Southern society and a prospective glance at the issues of the +contest. He has freely consulted American authorities, most of which are +familiar to many of our readers; he has also turned to good account the +reports of open-eyed English travellers, and the opinions of sensible +French writers, not overlooking the remarkably clear narrative of our +political history in the "Annuaire des Deux Mondes" for 1860. He handles +his materials with great skill, and, in a word, has brought to bear on +his difficult subject an amount of good sense and sound thought quite +remarkable in a foreigner who is dealing with the complex politics of a +distant country. + +Professor Cairnes, in opposition to the Southern doctrine proclaimed at +home and abroad, views the present rebellion as unconstitutional, and as +therefore amenable to the usual tests by which a revolutionary movement +is justified or condemned. He refers to the manner in which the English +people allowed their sympathies "to be carried, under the skilful +management of Southern agency acting through the press, round to the +Southern side"; and while he admires the spectacle of a people rising +"for no selfish object, but to maintain the integrity of their common +country, and to chastise a band of conspirators, who, in the wantonness +of their audacity, had dared to attack it," he attributes the "cold +criticism and derision" of the English public to a shallow, but natural, +misconception of the real issue. So far as in him lies, he does not +intend that the case shall be so misconceived any longer. Without +declaring himself an advocate or apologist of American democracy, he +warmly pleads that democracy ought not to bear the burdens of +oligarchy,--that the faults and mistakes in the policy of this country +ought not all to be laid at the door of the present National Government, +and thus redound to the benefit of its Southern foes, when so many of +those faults and mistakes were committed under the sway of the very +class in whose behalf they are now quoted. Our sensitive countrymen, who +have so keenly smarted under English indifference or hostility, may +console themselves with the thought that there is one Englishman of +undoubted ability and sincerity who calls the Southern Confederation +"the opprobrium of the age." + +Near the close of the volume the author strives to penetrate the +darkness which hangs over the present conflict. He does not think "that +the North is well advised in its attempt to reconstruct the Union in its +original proportions." He would have the North supported in striving for +"a degree of success which shall compel the South to accept terms of +separation, such as the progress of civilization in America and the +advancement of human interests throughout the world imperatively +require." The terms of his proposed settlement we have not room here to +consider. + +With this hasty notice, and without any attempt at criticism, we dismiss +a thoughtful and interesting book, which, however in some particulars it +may fail to meet the entire acceptance of all American readers, is well +worthy of their calm and deliberate perusal. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number +59, September, 1862, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, SEPTEMBER 1862 *** + +***** This file should be named 9946-8.txt or 9946-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/4/9946/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, David Kline, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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