1.

2,

Class

Book.___
\

AS^"3

jUxber^itie oEtiition

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE

BEING VOLUME

VII.

OF

EMERSON'S COMPLETE WORKS

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE

TWELVE CHAPTERS

BY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Beto

anti EeijiseU d^tiitwn

BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
New

York

11 East Seventeenth Street

1883

1-'^

^^V/

Copyright, 1870,

By RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

Copyright, 1883,

By

EDWARD

W. EMERSON.

All rights reserved.

By Tmrnfer

TAc Riverside Press, Cambridge

Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton

& Co.

CONTENTS.
PAQE

Society and Solitude

Civilization

21

Art

39

Eloquence

61

Domestic Life

99

Farming

131

Works and Days

149

Books

179

Clubs

211

Courage

237

Success

265

Old Age

297

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

FELL

had in
dusa,

in with a humorist

his

chamber a

and who assured

that fine

work

my

on

travels,

cast of the Rondanini

me

that the

who
Me-

name which

of art bore in the catalogues

was

a misnomer, as he was convinced that the sculptor

who carved

it

intended

mother of the Muses.

it

for

Memory, the

In the conversation that

my new friend made some extraordinary

confessions. (^" Do you not see," he said, "the

followed,

penalty of learning, and that each of these scholars

to

whom you

have met at S

though he were

be the last man, would, like the executioner in

He

Hood's poem, guillotine the

last

added many

but his evident ear-

lively remarks,

nestness engaged
that followed

had good

my

attention,

we became

abilities,

tone of the people.

and

in the weeks

better acquainted.

He

a genial temper, and no vices

but he had one defect,

his will, such that

but one ? "j

he could not speak

in the

There was some paralysis on

when he met men on common

terms he spoke weakly and from the point, like a

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

10

His consciousness of the

flighty girl.

He

worse.

fault

tavern their manly speech.N

in the

made

it

envied every drover and lumbeiman

He

coveted

Mirabeau's don terrible de la familiarite^ belicA^g

that he whose sympathy goes lowest

from
self

whom

man

the

he declared that he could not get enough alone

to write a letter to

a friend. /He

The

hid himself in pastures^

not solitary enough

When

out.

He

trees.

behind trees; above

they will keep a secret

m.ost agreeable

he

was

first

thing < he

could not enough con;

set

oaks there,

set evergreens, for

all,

all

the city

moon put him

the sun and

Set a hedge here

ceal himself.
trees

left

solitary river

he bought a house, the

did was to plant

to

is

kings liave the most to fear, (For him-

the year round,

The

compliment you could pay him was

imply that you had not observed him in a house

or a street where you

had met him.^ Whilst he

suf-

fered at being seen where he was, he consoled himself

with the delicious thought of the inconceivable

number

of places

of his tailor
color
for a

not.

(^

All he wished

was to provide that sober mean of

and cut which would never detain the eye

moment. \ He went

London.
val,

where he was

In

all

to Vienna, to

Smyrna, to

the variety of costumes, a carni-

a kaleidoscope of clothes, to his horror he

could never discover a

man

anything like his own dress.

in the street

He

who wore

would have given

\

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

His dismay

his soul for tlie ring of Gyges.

visibility

11
at his

" Do
am in such great terror of
who am only waiting to shuffle off

had blunted the

fears of mortality.

you think," he said, " I

being shot,

my

I,

corporeal jacket to slip

stars,

and put diameters

me and

sidereal orbits between

to

wear out ages in

itself, if it
.

away

into

the back

of the solar system

all souls,

solitude, fend forget

be possible^' \

He had

and

there
memory^^

a remorse run-

niiig to despair of his social gaucheries,

and walked

miles and miles to get the twitchings out of his face,

the starts and shrugs out of his arms and shoulders.

/God may

forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness

V. has no forgiveness in heaven or earth.

in

Newton not

so

much

his letter to Collins, in

insert his

name with

my

admired

moon

as

which he forbade him to

the solution of the problem in

the " Philosophical Transactions "

haps increase

He

his theory of the

"It would per-

acquaintance, the thing which I

chiefly study to decline."

These conversations led

the knowledge of

similar

me somewhat
cases,

and

to

later to--

the

dis-

covery that they are not of very infrequent occurrence.

Few

substances are found pure^^nature.

Those constitutions which can bear in open day

the rough dealing of the world must be of that

mean and average

atmospheric

air,

structure such as iron

and water.

and

salt,

But there are metals,

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

12

and sodium,

like potassium

must be kept under

whicli, to

be kept pure,

Sucli are the talents

naptlia.

determined on some specialty, which a culminating

civilization fosters in the heart of great cities

To
ton

the culture of the world an Archimedes, a

is

If

of dancing, port,

" Theory of the

New-

them by a certhese had been good fellows, fond

and clubs, we should have had no

indispensable

tain aridity.

and

Nature protects her own work.

in royal chambers.

so she guards

Sphere " and

" Principia."

no

^""^^hey had that necessity of isolation which genius

feels.

Each must stand on

would keep

his

his glass tripod if he

Even Swedenborg,

electricity.

whose theory of the universe

is

based on affection,

and who reprobates

to weariness the

vice of pure intellect,

is

traordinary exception

do not

dange r and

make an exalso angels who

constrained to
" There are

consociated, but separate, house

live

and

house ; these dwell in the midst of heaven, because

they are the best of angels."

We

have known

many

with that

fine geniuses

imperfection that they cannot do anything useful,

not so

much

worse,

and

who has

as write

tragic, that

fine traits.

one clean sentence.

no

At a

man

and one by an

by

fit

distance he

but bring him hand to hand, he

protects himself

-is

solitude,

acid, worldly

is

'Tis

for society
is

admired,

a cripple.

One

and one by courtesy,

manner,

each

con-

.
;

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

how he can

cealing

the thinness of his skin and his

But there

incapacity for strict association.

remedy

13

is

no

that can reach the heart of the disease but

either habits of self-reliance that should go in practice to

making the man independent

race, or else a religion of love.

human

of the

Now

he hardly

seems entitled to marry; for how can he protect

a woman,
(

We

who cannot

pray to be

Heaven takes

protect himself

But the wary

_conventiQiig.l.

care you shall not be,

if

there

is

any-

thing go^cl in_jouA Danttf'yaaj-^se^yUja^ company,

and was never invited

had a

Angelo

to dinnerT^T^ficlmel

,Tlie..^nist^rs of beauty

sad, sour time oi\t.

Colum-

are rarely beautiful in coaches aijd jalo^ns.

bus discovered no

Yet each

isle

or key so lonely as nimself

of these potentatefe'sa\V' i^51l the reason

of his exclusion.

S.ojjtary

Why,

was he ?^

By .tji^

but his society was limited only

yes

affliount of

brain Nature appropriated^in J;l;g^t age to carry on

the government of the world.

'

" Tf* I stay," said

Dante, when there wi^'q[uestiqn c^.go^ng to Home,

"

who

will

go

But the
have

and

ifl|

"

gb^ w^io w^tl staj^?

necessity of solitude isl(leej)er than

and

said,

is

organic.

philosopher whose world

one person.

He

but we are

still

and ^needs

to

is

affects to

I have seen

we

many

large enough for only

be a good companion

surprising his secret, that he

impose his system on

all

means

the

rest.

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

14

The determination

of each is

like that of each tree

up

wonder, when each has

from

all the others,

into free space.

^ 'Tis

no

his whole head, our societies

should be so smallNX Like President Tyler, our

party

falls

from us every day, and we must ride

in a sulky at last,
to thee,

there

j Dear heart take

is

it sarlly liQine-

no co-operation.

We begin with

friendships, and' all our youtlTls a reconnoitering

and recruiting

of the holy fraternity they shall com-

But

bine for the salvation of men.

stars

seem a nebula of united

so the remoter

light, yet there is

no

group which a telescope will not resolve ;(_and the

(

'.,

dearest fi^iends are separated by impassable gulfs.A

llie co-operation isvinyohmtary,

us by the Genius of Life,

part of his prerogative.

who

and is"pur~upon
reserves this as a

'T is fine for "us to talk

we

sit

the

moment we meet with anybody, each becomes

and muse and are serene and complete

but

a fraction.

Though

the stuff of tragedy and of romances

a moral union of .two superior persons whose

is

in

confi-

dence in each other for long years, out of sight and

in sight,
tified

by

and against all_appearances,

is at last jus-

victorious proof of probity to gods

and

men, causing joyful emotions, tears and glory,

though there be for heroes

this

moral imion, yet

they too are as far off as ever from an intellectual

union, and the moral union

is

for comparatively

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

low and external purposes, like
a ship's company or of a
lar

^nd

tlie

15

co-operation of

But how

fire-club.

insu-

we

patheticany"soIitary"are all the people

C Nor dare they tell what they think of each

when they meet in the street. ) We have a

know

other

be sure, to taunt

fine right, to

men

of the world

with superficial and treacherous courtesies

Such

is

finds underneath our domestic

and neighborly

and making our warm covenants

into the desert,

sentimental and momentary.

We must

the ends of thought were peremptory,

such ruinous

to be secured at

deeper than can be

and

life,

each adult soul as with whips

irresistibly driving

sities

the tragic necessity which strict science

told,

eternities.^

cost.

and belong

infer that

if

they were

(They

are

immen-

to the

They reach down

to that

depth (where society itseK originates and disappears

where the question

men ? where
But

this

is.

the_individual

is lost

is first,

man or

in^hisjojjrce.y

banishment to the rocks and echoes no

make

metaphysics can

right or tolerable.

result is so against nature,

it

Which

This

such a half-view, that

must be corrected by a common sense and expe-

rience.

"

and there

A man is born by the side of his father,

he remains." A man must be clothed

with society, or we shall feel a certain

.

and

poverty, as of a displaced

member.

He

is

to

bareness

and unfurnished

be dressed in arts and

institu-

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

16

tions, as well as in

man

(Now and

body-garments.

made can

exquisitely

men and you undo

but coop up most

then

and must

live alone,

;)

them. ( " The

king lived and ate in his hall with men, and under'\ When a young barrister
Mr. Mason, " I keep my chamber

stood men," said Selden.

said to the late
to read law,"

" Eead law

"'tis in the court-room

" replied the veteran,

you must readjajv." Nor

learn to write,

Both

't is

in the street

for the vehicle

and

is

you would

If

the rule otherwise for literatiTfer

you must learn

it.

for the aims of fine arts

you must frequent the public square. iThe people,

and not the

is

college, is the writer's

home.

^^

A scholar

a candle which the love and desire of

Never

will light.

charm the disguised soul that

under this bearded and that rosy visage
power

and

to

ration,

all

men

his lands or his rents, but the

^pis products are

of the baker or the weaver.

sits
is

veiled

his rent

as needful as those

Society cannot do

without cultivated men. 'As soon as the first^ants

are satisfied, the higher wants become imperative.
'^
'Tis hard to mesmerize ourselves, to whip our

own

top

but through sympathy we are capable of

energy and endurance.

Concert

fires

people to a

certain fury of performance they can rarely reach

alone.

Here

is

the use of

with the great to be great

an existing standard

^^

society;

it

so easy to

as easy as

it is

is

so easy

come

uj) to

to the lover

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

swim to
The

to

maiden

his

tlirougli

waves so grim be-

benefits of affection are

fore.

one event which never

17

immense; and

romance

loses its

is

the

tthe

encounter with superior persons on terms allowing

the happiest intercourse.
It

by no means follows that we are not

had been sent

tedious.

backwoodsman, who

to the university, told

he heard the best-bred young

men

me

that

when

at the law-school

talk together, he reckoned himself a boor

whenever he caught them

for

and because the

society, because soirees are tedious

soiree finds us

fit

but

and had one

apart,

to

himself alone, then they were the boors and he the

better

we

man.

And

if

we

recall the rare hours

when

encountered the best persons, we then found

ourselves,

and then

That was

society,

first

society

seemed

to exist.

though in the transom of a brig

or on the Florida Keys.

cold sluggish blood thinks

enough

to the purpose,

it

has not facts

and must decline

its

turn in

the conversation. (But they who^ speak Jbiaye no

more,

have

less

'T

is

not

new

facts that avail,

but the heat to dissolve everybody's

facts.

Heat

puts you in right relation with magazines of facts.

The

capital defect of cold, arid natures

v_

is

the want

They seem a power incredible,

The recluse witas if God should raise the dead.
nesses what others perform by their aid, with a
of animal spirits.

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE,

18
kind of

It is as

fear.

much

out of his possibility

as the prowess of Coeur-de-Lion, or an Irishman's

day's-work on the railroad.

and the future are always

constitute the

'T

is

said the present

rivals.

Animal sj)irits
and their feats

power of the present,

are like the structure of a pyramid.

is

Their result

a lord, a general, or a boon companion.

Before

Memory

with his

these what a base mendicant

leathern badge

But

constitutions,

all

and

obtain them,

is

disengaged only by the

As Bacon

friction of society.

"To

is

this genial heat is latent in

it

said of manners,

only needs not to despise

them," so we say of animal

spirits that

they are

the spontaneous product of health and of a social

habit.

"

diseases,

For beha^dor, men learn

But the people are

\

dos^.

In

it,

as they take

one of another."

If solitude

society,

is

to

be taken in very small

proud, so

high Sbdvantages are

dividual as disqualifications.

is

set

We

society vulgar,

down

to the in-

sink as easily as

we rise, through sympathy. So many men whom I

know are degraded by their sympathies their nan^

tive

aims being high enough, but their relation

too tender to the gross people about them.

I

all

Men

^*^

cannot afford to live together on their merits, and

they adjust themselves by their demerits,

their love of gossip, or

jual good-nature. J

brave aspirant.

by sheer tolerance and

They untune and

by

/
'

ani-

dissipate the

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

The remedy
from the
if

we come

to reinforce each of these

is

other.

19

moods

Conversation will not corrupt us

to tlie assembly in our

own garb and

speech and with the energy of health to select what

is

ours and reject

have

wEaFis not.^ Society we must

society, and not exchanging

be

;(T3ut let it

news or eating from tlie~same dishj Is

to sit in one of

houses of

my

your chairs ?

society

nearest relatives, because I do not

wish to be alone.
ity,

it

I cannot go to the

Society exists by chemical affin-

and not otherwise.)

f Put any company

dom

of people together with free-

for conversation,

and a rapid

self-distribution

The best
would be more

takes place into sets and pairs.

are ac-

cused of exclusivenessTj|{It

true to

say they separate as

oil

from water, as children

from old people, without love or hatred in the

and any interference

would produce constraint and

matter, each seeking his like

with the

affinities

suffocation.

iment.

All conversation

know

that

my friend

you know that he cannot

is

a magnetic exper-

can talk eloquently;

articulate a sentence

we

have seen him in different company. ( Assort your

Put Stubbs and Coleridge,

Quintilian and Aunt Miriam, into pairs, and you

party, or invite none.)^

make them

all

wretched^ 'T is an extempDre^Sing-

Leave them to seek their

own mates, and they tvill be as merry as sparrows.
Sing built in a parlor.

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

20

A higher

civility will re-establish in

our customs

we have lost. What to

do with these brisk young men who break through
all fences, and make themselves at home in every
a certain reverence which

house ?

(.

I find out in an instant

if

my

companion

does not want me, and ropes cannot hold

my

welcome

gone.

is

One would

me when

think that the

would pronounce themselves with a surer

^^^--^
reciprocity.
affinities

Here

again, as so often, Nature delights to put

us between extreme antagonisms, and our safety

in the skill with

Solitude

which we keep the diagonal

impracticable,

is

and

society fatal^

is

line.

We

must keep our head in the one and our hands in

the other.

)The conditions are met,

if

we keep our

independence, yet do not lose our sympathy.

These

wonderful horses need to be driven T^ynne hands.)

We require
revelations

aces

such a solitude as shall hold us to

when we

for most

men

are in the street

in public.

words.

its

in pal-

are cowed in society, and say

good things to^you in private, but

them

and

BuF let-us^hot

will not stand to

be the victims of

Society and solitude are deceptive names.

It is not the circumstance of seeing

more or fewer

people, but the readiness of sympathy, that imports

and a sound mind

insight,

will derive its principles

from

with ever a purer ascent to the sufficient

and absolute

right,

and

will accept society as the

natural element in which they are to be applied,

CIVILIZATION.

CIVILIZATION.

CERTAIN degree of progress from the rudest

state in

man

which

is

found,

a dweller

in caves,

a cannibal, and eater of

a certain deworms, and

or on trees, like an ape,

pounded

snails,

offal,

gree of progress from this extreme

It is

ilization.

Nobody has attempted a

degrees.

is

Civ^

called

many

a vague, complex name, of

Mr.

definition.

Guizot, writing a book on the subject, does not.

implies the evolution of

brought to supreme

delicacy of

sentiment, as in

practical power, religion, liberty, sense of

and

we

taste.

honor,

In the hesitation to define what

usually suggest

by negations.

it

It

a highly organized man,

A nation

it is,

that

has no clothing, no iron, no alphabet, no marriage,

no

no abstract thought, we

arts of peace,

barous.

And

ported, as
it is

after

among

often a

many

call bar-

arts are invented or im-

the Turks and Moorish nations,

little

complaisant to call them

civil-

ized.

Each nation grows

a civilization of

its

its own genius, and has

The Chinese and Japan-

after

own.

CIVILIZATION.

24
ese,

though each complete in his way,

from the man of Madrid or the man of

(The term
brutes

is

different

is

New

none

York.

In the

imports a mysterious progress.

and in mankind to-day the savage

tribes are gradually extinguished rather than civil-

The' Indians of this country have not learned

ized.

the white man's

to-day

is

the growth
that

is

teeth,"

work

and in Africa the negro

is

not arrested, but the like progress

made by a boy " when he cuts his eyechildish illusions passing daily
as we say,

away and he seeing things

sively,
is made by tribes.

really

and comprehen-

It is the learning the

secret of curnulative powerj^ of advancing

self.

It implies a facility of association,

compare,
is

of

In other races

the negro of Herodotus.

his habits

and

He

traditions.

is

to

The Indian

the ceasing^ f rora fixed ideas,.

gloomy and distressed when urged

on one's

power

to depart

from

overpowered by

The

the gaze of the white, and his eye sinks.

casion of one of these starts of growth

is

oc-

always

some novelty that astounds the mind and provokes

it

to dare to change.

Pytheas, a

Manco Capac

improvement,

there

is

a Cadmus, a

at the beginning of each

some superior foreigner importing

new and wonderful

arts,

course he must not

know

the
,

Thus

too much, but must have

sympathy, language, and gods of

would inform.

But

Of

and teaching them.

those

chiefly the sea-shore has

he

been

CIVILIZATION,

25

the point of departure, to knowledge, as to com-

The most advanced

who navigate the most.

merce.
those

the sea requires in the sailor

very

fast,

\^ clears his

Where

are always

nations

The power which

makes a man of him

and the change of shores and population

head of much nonsense of

we begin

shall

and

feats of liberty

is

wigwam.

list

of those

made

each of which feats

Thus the effect of a framed

immense on the tranquillity, power,

an epoch of history
or stone house

wit,

his

or end the

and refinement of the

builder.

A man

or in a camp, a nomad, will die with no

than the wolf or the horse leaves.

in a cave

more

But

estate

so simple

a labor as a house being achieved, his chief enemies

He

are kept at bay.

is

safe

from the teeth of wild

animals, from frost, sun-stroke, and weather

fine faculties

begin to yield their fine harvest.

and
In-

vention and art are born, manners and social beauty

and

delight.

'T

is

gets into a log-hut

think they found

it

how soon a piano

You would
under a pine-stump. With it
wonderful

on the

frontier.

comes a Latin grammar,

and

head boys has written a

hymn on Sunday.

let colleges,

now

let senates

one of those tow-

take heed

Now

for here

is

one who opening these fine tastes on the basis of

the pioneer's iron constitution, will gather all their
laurels in his strong hands.

When

the Indian trail gets widened, graded and

CIVILIZATION.

26

bridged to a good road, there

is

is

a benefactor, there

a missionary, a pacificator, a wealth-bringer, a

maker

Another

of markets, a vent for industry.

step in civility

is

the change from war, hunting, and

pasturage, to agriculture.

Our Scandinavian

fore-

fathers have left us a significant legend to convey

" There

their sense of the importance of this step.

was once a giantess who had a daughter, and the

saw a husbandman ploughing in the

child

Then

field.

she ran and picked

him up with her finger and

thumb, and put him and his plough and his oxen
into her apron, and carried them to her mother, and
said,

'

Mother, what sort of a beetle

found wriggling in the sand

said,

'

Put

it

away,

my

child

is this

that I

But the mother

we must begone out

'

of this land, for these people will dwell in

Another success

is

the post-office, with

its

"
it.'

educating

energy augmented by cheapness and guarded by a

certain religious sentiment in

mankind

so that the

power of a wafer or a drop of wax or gluten

guard a
i

comes

to its address as if

brought

tion.

The

letter, as it flies

it,

I look

to

over sea over land and

a battalion of artillery

upon as a

fine

meter of

civiliza-

division of labor, the multiplication of the

arts of peace,

ance to each
his faculty,

which

man

is

nothing but a large allow-

to choose his

to live

by

work according

his better hand,

fills

to

the

CIVILIZATION.

27

State with useful and happy laborers; and they,

demand by

creating

the very temptation of

productions, are rapidly and

good

sale

ments

their

and what a

police

nocently employed

men

by

and ten command-

work thus becomes.

Johnson's remark that "

their

surely rewarded

So true

are seldom

Dr.

is

more

in-

than when they are making

money."

The

skilful

combinations of

civil

government,

though they usually follow natural leadings, as the

lines of race, language, religion,

wisdom and conduct

require

and

territory, yet

in the rulers,

and in

We

see in-

"

their result delight the imagination.

surmountable multitudes obejdng, in opposition to

their strongest passions, the restraints of a

power

which they scarcely perceive, and the crimes of a

single individual

marked and punished

tance of half the earth."

at the dis-

Eight position of woman in the State

is

another

Poverty and industry with a healthy mind

index.

read very easily the laws of humanity, and love

them

place the sexes in right relations of mutual

respect,

charm
poetic,

and a severe morality gives that

to

woman which

and

self

educates

sacrificing

learning, conversation

and

all

Dr.

essential

is delicate,

breeds courtesy and

wit, in her

so that I have thought a sufficient

ization is the influence of

that

rough mate

measure of

good women.

Thomas Brown.

civil-

28

CIVILIZATION.

Another measure of culture

knowledge, overrunning

all

by the cheap

caste, and,

is

the

the diffusion of
old barriers

of

press, bringing the uni-

versity to every poor man's door in the newsboy's

Scraps of science, of thought, of poetry are

basket.

in the coarsest sheet, so that in every house

itate to

we

hes-

burn a newspaper until we have looked

it

through.

The

complete equipment,

ship, in its latest

abridgment and compend of a nation's* arts

shij)

steered

by compass and

is
:

an
the

chart, longitude reck-

oned by lunar observation and by chronometer,

driven by steam; and in wildest sea-mountains, at
vast distances from home,
"

The

Go

No

pulses of her iron heart

beating through the storm."

use can lessen the wonder of this control by so

weak a

creature of forces so prodigious.

remem-

ber I watched, in crossing the sea, the beautiful

skill

whereby the engine in

was made

to

water out of
plying

man
to

skill

constant working

produce two hundred gallons of fresh

salt water,

all the ship's

The

its

every hour,

thereby sup-

want.

that pervades complex details

the

that maintains himself; the chimney taught

burn

its

all that is

own smoke

consumed on

the farm
it;

made

to

produce

the very prison com-

"

:;

CIVILIZATION.
pellecl to

better

maintaiu

still,

and yield a revenue, and,

itself

made a reform
men out of

tory of honest

made

29

fresh water out of

and a manufac-

school

rogues, as the steamer

salt,

all these are ex-

amples of that tendency to combine antagonisms

and

utilize evil

which

the index of high civiliza-

is

tion.
'

Civilization
ization.

is

the result of highly complex organ-

In the snake,

no hands, no

no

feet,

all the
fins,

organs are sheathed

no

In bird and

wings..

beast the organs are released and begin to play.

In man they are

action.

With

all

unbound and

full

of joyful

uns waddling he receives the

this

absolute illumination

we

call

Reason, and thereby

true liberty.

Climate has

much

to

do with

this melioration.

The highest civility has never loved

Wherever snow falls there is usually

Where the banana grows

lent

and pampered

the

man

is

civil

freedom.

the animal system

indo-

is

at the cost of higher qualities

But

sensual and cruel.

not invariable.

the hot zones.

High degrees

this scale is

of moral sentiment

control the unfavorable influences of climate

some of our grandest examples

come from the equatorial

of

men and

regions,

and

of races

as the genius

of Egypt, of India, and of Arabia.

These feats are measures or

and temperate climate

is

traits of civility;

an important influence,

"

CIVILIZATION.

30

though not quite indispensable, for there have been

learning, philosophy

and

art in Iceland,

But one condition

tropics.

is

education of man, namely, morality.

be no high
it

may

civility

and

in the

essential to the social

There can

without a deep morality, though

not always call

itself

by that name, but

sometimes the point of honor, as in the institution

of chivalry

Roman

or patriotism, as in the Spartan

republics

and

or the enthusiasm of some relig-

ious sect which imputes

its

virtue to

its

dogma

or

the cabalism or es2)rit de corps of a masonic or

other association of friends.

The

evolution of a highly-destined society

be moral

tial wheels.
is

moral

it

must run
It

must

in the grooves of the celes-

must be catholic in aims.

What

It is the respecting in action catholic

or universal ends.

Hear the

gives of moral conduct

'

immediate motive of thy

definition

which Kant

Act always

so that the

will

may become a

uni-

versal rule for all intelligent beings."

Civilization depends

on morality.

good in man leans on what

holds in small as in great.

and success

work

is

Everything

higher.

Thus

all

This rule

our strength

of our hands

depend on

our borrowing the aid of the elements.

You have

in the

seen a carpenter on a ladder with a broad-axe chop-

ping upward chips from a beam.

at

what disadvantage he works

How awkward
But

see

him on

cnn[LiZATioN.
the ground, dressing

31

Now,

timber under him.

lils

not his feeble muscles but the force of gravity

down

brings

the axe

that

is

to say, the planet

The farmer had much

itself splits his stick.

ill-

temper, laziness and shirking to endure from his

hand-sawyers, until one day he bethought him to

put his saw-mill on the edge of a waterfall

and

the river never tires of turning his wheel ; the river

is

good natured, and never hints an objection.

We
fast

had

go

letters to send: couriers could not

enough nor far enough

foundered their horses

broke their wagons,

bad roads

drifts in winter, heats in

the horses out of a walk.

in spring, snow-

summer; could not get

But we found out that

the air and earth were full of Electricity, and

ways going our way,

Would

send.
as not

objection,
ets,

just the

al-

way we wanted

he tahe a message f

had nothing

no time.

Just as

else to do
would carry it in
Only one doubt occurred, one staggering
he had no carpet-bag, no visible pock;

no hands, not so much as a mouth, to carry a

letter.

But

after

much thought and many

experi-

ments we managed to meet the conditions, and

fold

to

lief

up the

letter in

such invisible compact form as

he could carry in those invisible pockets of

never \^rought by needle and thread,
like a

to

liis,

it

went

more than the saw-mill the

skill

aiid

charm.

I admire

still

CIVILIZATION.

?.9

which, on the sea-shore, makes the tides drive the

wheels and grind corn, and which thus engages the

assistance of the

moon,

like a hired hand, to grind,

and wind, and pump, and saw, and

stone,

sj)lit

and

roll iron.

CNow

that

is

the wisdom of a man, in every in-

stance of his labor,(^to hitch his

and

is

the

way we

are strong,

might of the elements.

ity,

The

by borrowing the

forces of steam, grav-

galvanism, light, magnets, wind,

day by day and

to a star,

done by the gods themselves.

see his chore

That

wagon

fire,

serve us

cost us nothing.

Our astronomy

is

full of

examples of calling in
Thus, on a

the aid of these magnificent helpers.

planet so small as ours, the want of an adequate

base for astronomical measurements

is

early

felt, as,

for example, in detecting the parallax of a star.

But the astronomer, having by an observation fixed

the place of a star,
by so simple an expedient as
waiting six months and then repeating his obser-

vation, contrived to put the diameter of the earth's

orbit, say

two hundred millions of miles, between

his first observation

afforded

him a

and

his second,

and

this line

respectable base for his triangle.

All our arts aim to win this vantage.

not bring the heavenly powers to us, but

We
if

we

canwill

only choose our jobs in directions in which they

travel, they will

undertake them with the greatest

"

CUHLIZATION.
It is a

pleasure.

peremptory rule with them that

We

^""^liey never go out of their road.

superserviceably

foreordained

paths,

all

as our

that

way

but they swerve never from their

neither

moon, nor a bubble of

And

are dapper

way and

busybodies and run this

little

33

the

nor

sun,

the

nor a mote of dust.

air,

handiworks borrow the elements, so

our social and political action leans on princi-

To accomplish anything

ples.

excellent the will

must work for catholic and universal ends.

puny

creature, walled in

wrote,

on every

side, as

Daniel

" Unless above himself he can

Erect himself,

but when his

^v^ll

how poor

a tiling

is

man

when he

leans on a principle,

is

the vehicle of ideas, he borrows their omnipotence.

may be strong, but

Gibraltar

and bestow on the hero

ideas are impregnable,

" It

their invincibility.

was a great instruction," said a

saint in

Crom well's

war, " that the best courages are but beams of the

Almighty. '\ Hitch j our

/

to a star.

^Let us

not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and

has: alone.

help.

w^on

way,

We

Let us not

Charles's

V Hercules

lie

and

shall find all their

steal.

No

q-od will

teams going the other

Wain, Great Bear, Orion, Leo,

every god will leave us.

Work

rather

for those interests which the divinities honor

VOL. VII.

and

CIVILIZATION.

34
promote,

freedom, knowledge,

justice, love,

util-

ity.

Tf

(^

we can thus

Olympian

ride in

chariots

by put-

ting our works in the path of the celestial circuits,

we can harness
ness,

also evil agents, the

and force them

Thus a wise govern-

ends of wisdom and virtue.

ment puts

What

fines

and penalties on pleasant

vices.

a benefit would the American government,

not yet relieved of

self

powers of dark-

to serve against their will the

and

States,

its

extreme need, render to

and hamlet

to every city, village,

it-

in the

would tax whiskey and rum almost to

if it

the point of prohibition

Was

said that he found vices very

it

Bonaparte who

good patriots ?

"he

got five millions from the love of brandy, and he

should be glad to

know which

pay him as much."

would

of the virtues

Tobacco and of)ium have

broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of

armies,

if

you choose

to

make them pay high

for

such joy as they give and such harm as they do.

These are

traits

and measures and modes

the true test of civilization

the size of
of

man

cities,

is,

and

not the census, nor

nor the crops,

the country turns out.

no, but the kind

I see the vast ad-

vantages of this country, spanning the breadth of

the temperate zone.
prosperity,

I see the

towns on

immense material

towns, states on states, and

wealth piled in the massive architecture of

cities

CIVILIZATION.

35

California quartz-mountains dumped down in New

York to be repiled architecturally along-shore from
Canada to Cuba, and thence westward to California
again. But it is not New York streets, built by the
confluence of workmen and wealth of all nations,

though stretching out towards Philadelphia until

they touch

it,

and northward

until they touch

New

Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Worcester, and Boston,

not

these that

But when I look over

which animate and

are,

the

real

estimation.

this constellation of

illustrate the land,

cities

and see how

the government has to do with their daily

little
life,

make

how

self-helped

knots of men

self-directed all families

kindred blood, of habitual hos-

cieties of trade, of
pitality,

and

in purely natural societies, so-

man

house and house,

acting on

man by

weight of opinion, of longer or better-directed

dustry
tation
to

the refining influence of

women, the

in-

invi-

which experience and permanent causes open

youth and labor

when

I see

whom

virtuous and gifted person,

how much each

men consider,

all

lives affectionately with scores of excellent people

who

are not

known

far

from home, and perhaps

with great reason reckons these people his superiors in virtue

their qualities,
has,

and

and

in these

than great

cities

in the

see

symmetry and

force of

what cubic values America

a better

certificate of civilization

or enormous wealth.

CIVILIZATION.

36

In

and

moral

strictness, the vital re finements are the

intellectual

steps.

The appearance of the

Indian Buddh in Greece,

Hebrew Moses, of the

Wise Masters,

of the Seven

riglit Socrates,

and

of the

of the acute

Zeno

stoic

and up-

in Judaea,

modern Christendom,
Huss, Savonarola, and Luther,

the advent of Jesus, and, in

of

the realists

new

are causal facts which carry forward races to

convictions

and elevate the rule

presence of these agencies

it

is

of

life.

In the

frivolous to insist

on the invention of printing or gunpowder,

of

steam-power or gas-light, j)ercussion-caps and rubber-shoes,

which

toys thrown off from

are

security, freedom,

These

morality creates in society.

fort

and smoothness

to house

and

arts

backward

all

that

add a com-

street life

purer morality, which kindles genius,

lization, casts

that

and exhilaration which a healthy

but a

civilizes

we held sacred

civi-

into

the profane, as the flame of oil throws a shadow

when shined upon by

Not the

less the

the flame of the Bude-light.

popular measures of progress will

ever be the arts and the laws.

But if there be a country which cannot stand

any one of these tests,
a country where knowl-

edge cannot be diffused without perils of mob-law

and statute-law

the post-oflice

is

letters

where speech

is

not free

where

violated, mail-bags opened,

and

where public debts and

pri-

tampered with

CIVILIZATION.

37

vate debts outside of the State are

where liberty

tion of social life

woman

is

repudiated;

attacked in the primary institu-

is

where the position of the white

injuriously affected by the outlawry of

woman

the black

where the

arts,

such as they

have, are all imported, having no indigenous life

where the laborer

his

is

not secured in the earnings of

own hands where suffrage

;

that country
barbarous

is,

and no advantages

not free or equal

is

in all these respects, not civil,

of

soil,

but

climate, or

coast can resist these suicidal mischiefs.

Morality and
essential
liberty.

all

the incidents of morality are

as, justice to

the citizen, and

Montesquieu says

personal

" Countries are well

cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are

free

"

and the remark holds not

less

but more

true of the culture of men, than of the tillage of

land.

And

the highest proof of civility

whole public action of the State

is

is

that the

directed on se-

curing the greatest good of the greatest number.

ART.

AET.

All

departments of

life at

the present day,

Trade, Politics, Letters, Science, or Religion,

seem

to feel,

and

to labor to express, the identity

They are rays of one sun they translate each into a new lansTiao^e the sense of the
other.
They are sublime when seen as emanations

of their law.

of a Necessity contradistinguished from the vulgar

Fate by being instant and

man

alive,

as well as his works in its flowino^ beneficence.

This influence
ciples

On

is

conspicuously visible in the prin-

and history of Art.

one side in primary communication with

absolute truth

human mind on

through thought and

instinct, the

the other side tends,

by an equal

necessity, to the publication

its

and dissolving

and embodiment of

thought, modified and dwarfed

and untruth which

by the impurity

in all our experience injure the

individuality through which

not only suffers, but cries

it

passes.

The

child

not only hungers, but

The man not only thinks, but speaks and

acts.
Every thought that arises in the mind, in
its rising aims to pass out of the mind into act J
eats.

ART.

42

moment

just as every plant, in the

up

struggles

tion; but action

thought

Jhat

it

is

as

is

much

of germination,

ij

its

the seed of ac-

second form as

It rises in thought, to the end

J
be uttered and acted. The more pro-'
first.

ijts

may

toiought

to light,

found the thought, the more burdensome.

in proportion to the dej)th of

its

sense does

Always
it

knock

importunately at the gates of the soul, to be spoken,

to be done.

the birth.

What
Speech

great pleasure

The

is
is

im

will

ou t.

It struggles to

a great pleasure, and action a

they cannot be foreborne.

utterance of thought and emotion in speech

and action may be conscious or unconscious.

sucking child

an unconscious

is

an ecstasy of fear or anger

is

actor.

The
The man in

an unconscious

large part of our habitual actions

actor.

are uncon-

and most of our necessary words

sciously done,

are unconsciously said.

"i

The

conscious utterance of thought,

or action, to any end,

tative

quence
to the

first

imielo-

from

his first pile of toys or chip bridge

masonry

of

Pacific Railroad

Minot Rock Lighthouse or the

from the tattooing of the Owhy-

hees to the Vatican Gallery

l^edient of private

stitution
spirit's

by speech

Art J From the

babble of a child to the despotism of

is

from

from the simplest ex-

prudence to the American Con-

its first to its last

works. Art

is

the

voluntary use and combination of things to

ART.
serve

its

end.

ual action.

'

The

"Will distinguishes

bird, the beaver,

have no art

unconscious action

for

the same

what they do

is

true of all

relatively to the doer,

relatively to the First Cause,

sense, recognizing

this

as spirit-

but relatively to the Supreme

And

Being, they have.

it

Relatively to themselves, the bee, the

they do instinctively

stinct

43

the

it is

it is in-

In

Art.

Spirit which informs

Nature, Plato rightly said, "Those things which

are said to be done

Divine Art."
It

tive.

by Nature are indeed done by

Art, universally,

was defined by

is

Aristotle,

the spirit crea-

"The

reason of

the thing, without the matter."

we

If

follow the popidar distinction of works

according to their aim,

we should

say, the Spirit,

in its creation, aims at use or at beauty,

Art divides

The
lie

itself into

useful arts

and hence

the Useful and the Fine Arts.

comprehend not only those that

next to instinct, as agriculture, building, weav-

ing, &c.,

but also navigation, practical chemistry,

and the construction of aU the grand and

as language, the watch,

pher

delicate

and instruments by which man serves himself

tools

made

and

the ship, the decimal

also the sciences,

ci-

so far as they are

serviceable to political economy.

When we

reflect

on the pleasure we receive from

a ship, a railroad, a dry-dock

or from a picture, a

dramatic representation, a statue, a poem,

we

find

ART.

44

that these have not a quite simple, but a blended

We find

origin.

And

What

that the question,

leads us directly to another,

the solution of this

Who

is

Art

the Artist

is

the key to the history of

is

Art.
I hasten to state the principle which prescribes,

through different means,

and the beautiful

versal soul

is

the beautiful

its

firm law to the useful

The law

arts.

The

is this.

uni-

the alone creator of the useful and

make anything

therefore to

beautiful, the individual

useful or

must be submitted to the

universal mind.

In the

first

place let us consider this in reference

Here the omnipotent agent

to the useful arts.

Nature;

Nature

all
is

human

the representative of the universal mind,

and the law becomes

complement
said, in

is

acts are satellites to her orb.

this,

that

Art must be a

to nature, strictly subsidiary.

allusion

to

the

great

structures

It

was

of

the

ancient Romans, the aqueducts and bridges, that

"their Art was a Nature working to municipal

ends."

That

is

a true account of

Smeaton

of useful art.

built

all

just

works

Eddystone Light-

house on the model of an oak-tree, as being the

form in nature best designed

telescope on the
built a bridge

to resist a constant

CDollond formed his achromatic

assailing force.

model

by

of the

human

eye^

Duhamel

letting in a piece of stronger tim-

45

ART.

ber for the middle of the under surface, getting his

hint from the structure of the shin-bone.

The

first

and

last lesson of the useful arts is that

They must be

Nature tyrannizes over our works.

conformed to her law, or they

powder by her omnipresent

nothing whimsical will endure.

You

terfering with Art.

be ground to

will

Nothing

activity.

Nature

is

cannot build your house

There

or pagoda as you will, but as you must.

The verandah

far.

goda roof can curve upward only

The

It

discretion of

wind,

such

is

by the weight

only within narrow limits that the

the

architect

sun, rain, the size of

like,

or pa-

to a certain point.

slope of your roof is determined

of snow.

may range gravity,

men and animals, and
:

have more to say than he.

It is the

law

of fluids that prescribes the shape of the boat,

keel,

rudder, and bows,

and,

above, the form and tackle of the

to

have no option about his

Man

sails.

seems insignificant.

so minutely

what

will

He

fit

best,

Beneath a

is artificial

in

man's

seems to take his task

from imitations of Nature, that his

works become as
free.

what

seems

but merely the

as if he were fitting a screw or a door.

necessity thus almighty,

in the finer fluid

tools,

necessity to learn from Nature

life

is

The leaning

a quick bound set to your caprice.

tower can only lean so

droll,

ever in-

it

were hers, and he

is

no longer

ART.

46

But
all

if

we work

witliin this limit, slie yields us

All powerful action

her strength.

by bringing the forces of nature

We

objects.

is

performed

upon our

to bear

do not grind corn or

lift

the loom

by

our own strength, but we build a mill in such

position as to set the north

wind

to play

upon our

instrument, or the elastic force of steam, or the ebb

and flow

So in our handiwork, we do

of the sea.

few things by muscular

but we place our-

force,

selves in such attitudes as to bring the force of

gravity, that

is,

the weight of the planet, to bear

upon the spade or the axe we

all

In short, in

wield.

our operations we seek not to use our own, but

to bring a quite infinite force to bear.

Let

lis

now

consider this law as

works that have beauty for

productions of

the

prominent fact

is

is

Fine Arts.

is

to be

made

contribution to

affects the

work

the

His art

A great deduc-

of art.

before we can

is,

Here again the

subordination of man.

the least part of his

tion

it

their end, that

know

his pro^Dcr

it.

Music, Eloquence, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture,

Architecture.

Fine Arts.

This

is

a rough enumeration of the

I omit Rhetoric, which only respects

the form of eloquence and poetry.

and eloquence are mixed

arts,

Architecture

whose end

is

some-

times beauty and sometimes use.

It will be seen that in each of these arts there is

ART.

47

not spiritual.

Each has a material

'

much which
basis,

in

and

is

in each the creating intellect is crippled

some degree by the

The

basis of poetry

only on one side.

is

language, which

it

common

works.

material

is

It is a demi-god.

applied primarily to the

man,

on which

stuff

But being

necessities

of

not new-created by the poet for his

own

basis of music is the qualities of the air

and

it is

ends.

The

the vibrations of sonorous bodies.

The

pulsation

of a stretched string or wire gives the ear the pleas-

ure of sweet sound, before yet the musician has

enhanced

by concords and combina-

this pleasure

tions.

Eloquence, as far as

how much by
tor, the

it is

a fine

art, is

modified

the material organization of the ora-

tone of the voice, the physical strength, the

play of the eye and countenance.

All this

is

so

much

deduction from the purely spiritual pleasure,

as so

much deduction from

is

the merit of Art, and

the attribute of Nature.

In painting, bright colors stimulate the eye before yet they are harmonized into a landscape.

In

sculpture and in architecture the material, as marble or granite,

and

in architecture the mass, are

sources of great pleasure quite independent of the

artificial

arrangement.

model, in the plan; for

The
it is

art

resides

in

the

on that the genius of

ART.

48
the artist
ple.

is

expended, not on the statue or the tem-

much

Just as

better as

the polished statue

is

of dazzling marble than the clay model, or as

more impressive as

is

the granite cathedral or pyr-

amid than the ground-plan or

profile of

much more beauty owe they

paper, so

much

them on

to

Nature

than to Art.

There

is

still

larger deduction to be

made from

the genius of the artist in favor of Nature than I

have yet

specified.

A jumble
in which the

on a viol or a

of musical sounds

rhythm

of the tune

is

flute,

played without

one of the notes being right, gives pleasure to the

unskilful ear.

A very coarse

imitation of the hu-

man form on canvas, or in wax -work; a coarse

sketch in colors of a landscape, in which imitation
is all

that

is

attempted,

these

things give to un-

who do not ask a

much pleasure as a

practised eyes, to the uncultured,

fine spiritual delight, almost as

statue of

Canova or a picture

the statue of

Canova

of Titian.

give the great part of the pleasure

in

they are the

a higher de-

basis

on which the

light,

but to which these are indispensable.

is

And

or the picture of Titian, these

fine spirit rears

Another deduction from the genius of the artist

is conventional in his art, of which there is

what

much

in every

work

of art.

Thus how much

is

there that is not original in every particular build-

49

ART.

poem,

ing, in every statue, in every tune, painting,

or harangue

whatever

form of a

national or usual

is

Roman

the usage of building all

as

churches in the

cross, the prescribed distribution of parts

of a theatre, the custom of draping a statue in

Yet who

costume.

classical

will

deny that the

merely conventional part of the performance contributes

One

much

to its effect ?

more exhausts I believe

consideration

all

the deductions from the genius of the artist in any

This

given work.

is

Thus the

the adventitious.

pleasure that a noble temple gives us

part owing to the temple.

is

only in

by the

It is exalted

beauty of sunlight, the play of the clouds, the landscape around

it, its

and towers in
quence

is

grouping with the houses,

The pleasure

its vicinity.

in greatest part

trees,

of elo-

owing often to the stim-

ulus of the occasion which produces

it,

to the

magic of sympathy, which exalts the feeling of

each by radiating on him the feeling of

The

effect of

music belongs

place, as the church, or the

the

company

or, if

all.

how much

moonlight walk

or to

on the stage, to what went be-

fore in the play, or to the expectation of

come

to the

what

shall

after.

In poetry, " It

is

tradition

more than invention

that helps the poet to a good fable."

titious

beauty of poetry

VOL. VII.

may be

The adven-

felt in the

greater

ART.

50

delight wliich a verse gives in liappy quotation than

in the poem.
it

is

artist

a curious proof of our conviction that the

does not feel himself to be the parent of his

work, and

is

as

much

surprised at the effect as we,

we are so unwilling to impute our best sense of

any work of art to the author. The highest praise
we can attribute to any writer, painter, sculptor,

that

builder,

is,

that he actually possessed the thought

or feeling with which he has inspired us.

itate

at doing

think that
affix to

it.

Ixe

We

hes-

Spenser so great an honor as to

intended by his allegory the sense

We

we

grudge to Homer the wide human

circumspection his commentators ascribe to him.

Even Shakspeare, of whom we can believe every

we think indebted to Goethe and to Coleridge for the wisdom they detect in his Hamlet and
Antony. Especially have we this infirmity of faith

thing,

in

contemporary genius.

We

fear that Allston

and Greenough did not foresee and design all the

Our arts are happy
effect they produce on us.
on the lake, whose
musician
like
the
are
We
hits.
melody

is

sweeter than he knows, or like a trav-

by a mountain echo, whose trivial

him in romantic thunders.
these facts, I say that the power of

eller surprised

word returns

to

In view of
Nature predominates over the human

works of even the

will in all

fine arts, in all that respects

ART.
their material

51

and external circumstances.

Nature

paints the best part of the picture, carves the best

part of the statue, builds the best part of the house,

and speaks the best part of the

For

oration.

all

the advantages to which I have adverted are such

He

re-

he put himself in the way to

re-

as the artist did not consciously produce.

lied

on their

aid,

from some of them

ceive aid

but he saw that his

planting and his watering waited for the sunlight

of Nature, or

were vain.

Let us proceed

stated in the beginning of this essay, as

the purely spiritual part of a

As, in useful

work

strictly

so as to

become a

it

affects

of art.

art, so far as it is useful,

must be

the

work

subordinated to the laws of Nature,

sort of continuation

wise a contradiction of Nature

at beauty

law

to the consideration of the

and

in

no

so in art that aims

must the parts be subordinated

to Ideal

Nature, and everything individual abstracted, so

that

it

The

soul.
is

shall

be the production of the universal

artist

who

is

by

to be admired, not

to

produce a work which

his friends or his towns-

people or his contemporaries but by

which

is

tion to

to
its

all

men, and

be more beautiful to the eye in proporculture,

must disindividualiz e himselfg

and be a man of no party and no manner and no

age, but one through
culates as the

whom

common

air

the soul of all

men

through his lungs.

cir-

.He

ART.

52

must work

which we conceive a

in the spirit in

prophet to speak, or an angel of the Lord to act

that

is,

he

is

own works,
to

own words,

not to speak his

or think his

own

or do his

thoughts, but he

is

be an organ through which the universal mind

acts.

In speaking of the useful

fact that

we do not

arts,

I pointed to the

dig, or grind, or

hew, by our

muscular strength, but by bringing the weight of

the planet to bear on the spade, axe, or bar.

Pre-

cisely analogous to this, in the fine arts, is the

ner of our intellectual work.

We

our individuality from acting.

So much

aim

man-

to hinder

as

we can

shove aside our egotism, our prejudice and

will,

and bring the omniscience of reason upon the subThe wonject before us, so perfect is the work.
ders of Shakspeare are things which he saw whilst

he stood aside, and then returned to record them.

The poet aims

at getting observations without

aim

to subject to tliought things seen without (volun-

tary) thought.

In eloquence, the great triumphs of the art are

when

the orator

is lifted

abovejiimself

when

con-

makes himself the mere tongue of the

occasion and the hour, and says what cannot but
be said. Hence the term abandonment, to describe
sciously he

the self-surrender of the orator.

the principle on which he

is

Not

his will, but

horsed, the great con-

ART.

63

nection and crisis of events, thunder in the ear of

the crowd.

In poetry, where every word

is

free,

Good poetry could

written than it is.
The

necessary.

is

otherwise

hear

it, it

sounds rather as

composed by the

time you

first

copied out of some

if

mind, than as

invisible tablet in the Eternal

bitrarily

every word

not have been

poet.

The

if ar-

feeling of all

They found
The muse brought it to

great poets has accorded wdth this.

made

the verse, not

it.

them.

In sculpture, did ever anybody

fancy piece

be different

mind a

Or

call the

say of the Laocoon

how

Apollo a

might

it

masterpiece of art has in the

fixed place in the chain of being, as

much

as a plant or a crystal.

The whole language

of

men, especially of

artists,

in reference to this subject, points at the belief

that every

work

of art, in proportion to its excel-

lence, partakes of the

was there for

moment
form

no play for fancy

or in the successive

w^as seen, the iron lids

closed,

The

choice,

precision of fate
;

no room

for in the

moments when
of

that

Reason were un-

which ordinarily are heavy with slumber.

individual

mind became

for the

moment

the

vent of the mind of humanity.

There

is

world

but one Reason.

is

The mind

that

not one mind, but the mind.

made

And

ART.

64
every work of art

clusion,

which I

a more or less pure manifesta-

is

Therefore we arrive at this con-

tion of the same.

offer, as

a confirmation of the whole

view, that the delight which a

work

of art affords,

seems to arise from our recognizing in

it

the

mind

that formed Nature, again in active operation.

differs

are

from the works

organically

spiritually

it

Nature in

of

by

is prolific

they

this, that

This

reproductive.

is

It

but

not,

powerful action on

its

the intellects of men.

Hence

it

follows that a study of admirable works

of art sharpens our perceptions of the beauty of

Nature; that a certain analogy reigns throughout

the wonders of both

work
which
all

that the contemplation of a

of great art draws us into a state of

may

be called religious.

mind

It conspires with

exalted sentiments.

Proceeding from absolute mind, whose nature

goodness as

much

as truth, the great

always attuned to moral nature.

sea conspire with virtue

masterpieces of

art.

ture in Naples and

tion into the

The

works are

and

If the earth

more than

vice,

is

so do the

galleries of ancient sculp-

Rome

strike

mind than the

no deeper convic-

contrast of the purity,

the severity expressed in these fine old heads, with

the frivolity and grossness of the

and the mob that gazes

mob

at them.

countenances of the first-born,

that exhibits

These are the

the

face of

man

ART.
in the

55

No mark

morning of the world.

on these

is

lofty features of sloth, or luxury, or meanness,

and

they surprise you with a moral admonition, as they

speak of nothing around you, but remind you of

and the purest

the fragrant thoughts

resolutions of

your youth.

Herein

is

the explanation of the analogies which

exist in all the arts.

They

one mind, working in

many

Phidias carves

builds

it,

many

materials to

tem-

Eaphael paints wisdom, Handel sings

porary ends.
it,

are the reappearance of

Columbus

Washington arms

Shakspeare writes

it,

it.

sails

it,

Wren

Luther preaches

it,

Watt mechanizes

it.

it,

Paint-

ing was called " silent poetry, " and poetry "speak-

The laws

ing painting."
ible into the

of each art are convert-

laws of every other.

Herein we have an explanation of the necessity

that reigns in all the

kingdom

of eternal Reason, one

and

of Art.

Arising out

perfect,

whatever

is

beautiful rests on the foundation of the necessary.

Nothing
It

is

arbitrary, nothing

is

insulated in beauty.

depends forever on the necessary and the useful.

The plumage

of the bird, the

mimic plumage

of the

insect, has a reason for its rich colors in the consti-

tution of the animal.

Fitness

accompaniment of beauty, that

it.

The most

far beautiful.

perfect

form

to

is
it

so inseparable

an

has been taken for

answer an end

is

so

We feel, in seeing a noble building,

ART.

56

which rhymes
song, that

well, as

it is

we do

necessity, in nature, for being

sible

in hearing a perfect

spiritually organic

that

is,

had a

was one of the pos-

forms in the Divine mind, and

discovered and executed by the

rily

is

artist,

now only

not arbitra-

composed by him.

And

so every genuine

work

of art has as

reason for being as the earth and the smi.

much
The

gayest charm of beauty has a root in the constitution of tilings.

The

Homer, the songs

Iliad of

of

David, the odes of Pindar, the tragedies of ^schylus,

the Doric temples, the Gothic cathedrals, the

plays of Shakspeare,

all

and each were made not

for sport but in grave earnest, in tears

of suffering

and loving men.

Viewed from
comes

and smiles

this point the history of

intelligible,

Art be-

and moreover one of the most

We see

agreeable studies.

how each work

of art

sprang irresistibly from necessity, and, moreover,

took

its

form from the broad hint of Nature. Beau-

tiful in this

known

wise

is

the obvious origin of all the

orders of architecture

namely, that they

were the idealizing of the primitive abodes of each

people.

There was no wilfulness in the savages in

this perpetuating of their first

first

form in which they

first

form of

their public

rude abodes.

built a house

and

The

would be the

religious edifice also.

This form becomes immediately sacred in the eyes

ART,
of their children,

round

it,

67

and as more

traditions cluster

imitated with more splendor in each

is

succeeding generation.

In

like

manner

it

has been remarked by Goethe

that the granite breaks into parallelopipeds, which

broken in two, one part would be an obelisk

Upper Egypt the inhabitants would

mark a memorable spot by setting up so
in

Again, he suggested, we

ous a stone.

any stone

wall,

that

naturally
conspicu-

may

see in

on a fragment of rock, the project-

ing veins of harder stone which have resisted the

and water which has decomposed

action of frost

This appearance certainly gave the hint

the rest.

of the hieroglyphics inscribed

on their

amphitheatre of the old Romans,

see its origin

who

obelisk.

any

one

The

may

looks at the crowd running to-

gether to see any fight, sickness, or odd appearance

in the street.
circle,

The

first

comers gather round in a

those behind stand on tiptoe, and farther

back they climb on fences or window-sills, and so

make a cup

of

which the object of attention occu-

pies the hollow area.

in this,

The

architect put benches

and enclosed the cup with a

wall,

and

be-

hold a Coliseum
It

would be easy

to

show

the world, in the customs

of

many

fine things in

of nations, the etiquette

of courts, the constitution of governments,

origin in quite simple local necessities.

the

Heraldry

ART.

58

for example, and the ceremonies of a coronation, are

a dignified repetition of the occurrences that might

dragoon and his footboy.

befall a

The College

of Cardinals were originally the parish priests of

The leaning towers

Rome.

civil discords

tower.

and for
was

originated from the

which induced every lord

Then it became a point

more pride the novelty

to build

of family pride,

of a leaning tower

built.

This

strict

dependence of Art upon material and

adamantine necessity which un-

ideal Nature, this

derlies

it,

made

has

all its

past and

may

foreshow

It never

was in the power of

any man or any community

to call the arts into

its

future history.

They come

to serve his actual wants, never

to please his fancy.

Thes^' arts have their origin

being.

always in some enthusiasm, as

or religion.

Who

man, who wished

carved marble

love,
?

patriotism,

The

believing

to symbolize their gods to

the

when

the

waiting Greeks.

The Gothic

cathedrals

were

built

builder and the priest and the people were over-

Love and fear laid every

The Madonnas of Raphael and Titian were

powered by their
stone.

made

to

faith.

be worshipped.

for the like purpose,

Tragedy was

instituted

and the miracles of music

all

sprang out of some genuine enthusiasm, and never

out of dilettanteism and holidays.

Now

they Ian-

ART.

59

guish, because their purpose

Who

cares,

is

merely exhibition.

who knows what works of art our govto be made for the Capitol ?

ernment have ordered

They are a mere flourish to please the eye of persons who have associations with books and galleries.
But in Greece, the Demos of Athens divided
into political factions upon the merits of Phidias.
In

arts,

than

this country, at this time, other interests

religion

and patriotism are predominant, and the

the daughters of enthusiasm, do not flourish.

The genuine
behold.

ing-room,

our ruling passions

offspring of

Popular
the

we

institutions, the school, the read-

the post-office,

telegraph,

the

ex-

change, the insurance-compan}^ and the immense

harvest of economical inventions, are the fruit of
the equality and the boundless liberty of lucrative
callings.

These are superficial wants

fruits are these superficial institutions.

and

their

But, as far

as they accelerate the end of political freedom

and

national education, they are preparing the soil of

man

for fairer flowers

For beau^,

truth,

and

fruits in

and goodness are not obsolete

they spring eternal in the breast of

man

as indigenous in Massachusetts as in

the Isles of Greece.

triple face

And

and

they are

Tuscany or

that Eternal Spirit whose

they are, moulds from them forever, for

his mortal child, images to

finite

another age.

Fair.

remind him of the In-

ELOQUENCE.

ELOQUENCE.

It

the doctrine of the popular music-masters

is

So probably

that whoever can speak can sing.

every

man

eloquent once in his

is

peraments

life.

differ in capacity of heat, or,

different degrees.

One man

is

Our temwe boil at

brought to the

boil-

ing-point by the excitement of conversation in the

The

parlor.

He

waters, of course, are not very deep.

has a two-inch enthusiasm, a patty-pan ebulli-

Another requires the additional

tion.

caloric of

a multitude and a public debate

a third needs an

antagonist, or a hot indignation

a fourth needs a

revolution

and a

fifth,

nothing

less

than the grand-

eur of absolute ideas, the splendors and shades of

Heaven and

Hell.

man is an orator, how long

may have been a mute, an assembly of
much more susceptible. The eloquence

But, because every

soever he

men

is

so

of one stimulates all the rest,

ing-point

and

them good

all

some up

to the speak-

others to a degree that

receivers

and

conductors,

makes

and they

avenge themselves for their enforced silence by

creased loquacity on their return to the fireside.

in-

ELOQUENCE.

64

The

plight of these phlegmatic brains

than that of those who prematurely

boil,

is

better

and who

impatiently break silence before their time.

Our

county conventions often exhibit a small-pot-soonhot style of eloquence.

We are too much reminded

of a medical experiment where a series of patients

are taking nitrous-oxide gas.

exhibits similar symptoms,

Each

patient in turn

redness

in the face,

volubility, violent gesticulation, delirious attitudes,

occasional stamping, an alarming loss of perception

of the passage of time, a selfish enjoyment of his

and

sensations,

loss of perception of the sufferings

of the audience.

Plato says that the punishment which the wise

f
/
^

suffer
is,

who

refuse to take part in the government,

to live under the

and the

like regret is suggested to all the auditors,

that they
\y

Vshall hear worse orators than themselves.

this lust to

speak marks the universal

feel-

ing of the energy of the engine, and the curiosity

men

feel to

touch the springs.

instruments on which
is

men

Of

all

the musical

play, a popular assembly

that which has the largest compass and variety,

and out

of which,

wonderful

effects

by genius and
can be drawn.

study, the most

An

audience

is

not a simple addition of the individuals that compose

it.

government of worse men

as the penalty of abstaining to speak,

But

Their sympathy gives them a certain

so-

ELOQUENCE,
cial

organism,

degree,

battery

wliicli fills

and most of
is

each member, in his

own

the orator, as a jar in a

charged with the whole electricity of the

No

battery.

all

65

one can survey the face of an excited

new opportuhuman thought, and being

How many orators sit mute

assembly, without being apprised of

nity for painting in fire

agitated to agitate.

there below

They come

to

get justice done to

that ear and intuition which no

Demosthenes has begun to

Chatham and no

satisfy.

say, " Many are the friends of

The Welsh Triads

Who

the golden tongue."

can wonder at the

at-

tractiveness of Parliament, or of Congress, or the

bar, for our ambitious

young men, when the highest

bribes of society are at the feet of the successful

He

orator?

has his audience at his devotion.

other fames must hush before his.

He

is

All

the true

who sit on thrones,

govern. The definitions

potentate ; for they are not kings

but they

who know how

of eloquence describe

to

its

young men.

attraction for

Antiphon the Rhamnusian, one of Plutarch's ten

orators, advertised in

Athens " that he would cure

distempers of the mind with words."

No man

has

a prosperity so high or firm but two or three words

can dishearten

There

it.

is

no calamity which

right words will not begin to redress.

Isocrates

described his art as " the power of magnifying

what was small and diminishing what was great,"

VOL. vn.

ELOQUENCE.

66

an

acute

but partial definition.

Among

the

Spartans, the art assumed a Spartan shape, namely,

of the sharpest weapon.

Socrates says

" If any

one wishes to converse with the meanest of the

first find him despicawhen a proper opportunity

Lacedaemonians, he will at
ble in conversation, but

same person,

offers, this

will hurl a sentence

like a skilful jaculator,

worthy of attention, short and

who

contorted, so that he

converses with

him

will

appear to be in no respect superior to a boy."

Plato's definition of rhetoric

the minds of men."

may change
it

not

place, but a

its

his disposition

" the art of ruling

is,

The Koran

says,

man

will not

" yet the end of eloquence

to alter in a pair of hours,

half -hours' discourse, the convictions

Young men,

years.

too, are

sense of added power and

The

existence.

"A mountain
change
is,

is

perhaps in a

and habits of

eager to enjoy this

enlarged sympathetic

orator sees himself

the organ of

a multitude, and concentrating their valors and

powers

" But

now

Blushed

the blood of twenty thousand

in

my

men

face."

That which he wishes, that which eloquence ought

to reach, is not a particular skill in telling a story,

or neatly

summing up

evidence, or arguing logically,

or dexterously addressing the prejudice of the com-

pany,

no, but a taking sovereign possession of

ELOQUENCE.
tlie

Him we

audience.

men

will, to

to his audience,

artist

who

shall

as a master

on the

who, seeing the people

furious,

and compose them,

shall soften

when he

an

call

play on an assembly of

keys of the piano,

67

shall

draw them,

Bring him
who they may,

laughter and to tears.

and, be they

coarse or refined, pleased or displeased, sulky or

savage, with their opinions in the keeping of a con-

with their opinions in their bank-safes,

fessor, or

he

have them pleased and humored as he

will

chooses

and they

This

is

carry and execute that

shall

which he bids them.

yi

which poets have

that despotism

brated in the " Pied

music drew like the power of gravitation,

soldiers

and

and boys,

priests, traders

rats

and mice

Meudon, who made the

This

the bier.

is

cele-

Piper of Hamelin," whose

and

feasters,

drew
women

or that of the minstrel of

pall-bearers dance around

a power of

many

degrees and

requiring in the orator a great range of faculty and

experience, requiring a large composite man, such
as Nature rarely organizes

ence

we

are forced to gather

so that in our experi-

up the

figure in frag-

ments, here one talent and there another.

'

The audience

is

a constant meter of the orator.

There are many audiences in every public assembly,

each one of which rules in turn.

and coarse

is

If anything comic

spoken, you shall see the emergence

ELOQUENCE.

68

and rowdies,

of the boys

and vivacious that

so loud

you might think the house was

If

new

roisters recede

with thepa.

filled

topics are started, graver

and higher, these

a more chaste and wise attention

You would think the boys slept, and

men have any degree of profoundness. If

takes place.
that the

the speaker utter a noble sentiment, the attention

deepens, a

new and

of the understanding are all

There
ence,

is

orator,

listens,

facts

and

and awed.

in every audi-

They are ready to

much more than the

of virtue.

They know

and are

of

silenced

also something excellent

the capacity

be beatified.

now

highest audience

and the audiences of the fun and

so just

so

There

is

a tablet there

for every line he can inscribe, though he should

mount

Humble

to the highest levels.

conscious of

new

illumination

pand with enlarged

affections

persons are

narrow brows ex-

delicate spirits,

long unknown to themselves, masked and muffled

in coarsest fortunes,

language for the

But

who now hear

first

all these several

time,

and

topic,

same persons

native

to hear

it.

to greet the variety of

are really composed out of

the

nay, sometimes the same individual

will take active part in

This range of
speaker, and of

own

audiences, each above each,

which successively appear

style

their

and leap

them

all, in

turn.

many powers in the consummate

many audiences in one assembly,

leads us to consider the successive stages of oratory.

ELOQUENCE.
Perhaps
orator, but

portance,

health

it is,

lowest of the qualities of an

many

on so

shall

When

heat.

tlie

occasions, of chief im-

a certain robust and radiant

I say great volumes

or,

is

it

69

physical
of animal

each auditor feels himself to

too large a part of the assembly,

make

and shudders with

cold at the thinness of the morning audience,

with fear

lest all will

and

heavily fail through one bad

mere energy and mellowness are then

speech,

in-

Wisdom and learning would be harsh

estimable.

and unwelcome, compared with a substantial cordial

man, made of milk as we
warmer, with
ing,

who

say,

his obvious honesty

and a hue-and-cry

is

a house-

and good meanharangue, which

style of

inundates the assembly with a flood of animal

spirits,

and makes

and every

sort of

before

the best,

yet, as we must be fed and

we can do any work well,
even

so is this semi-animal exuberance, like

a good stove, of the

Climate has

first

much

to

necessity in a cold house.

do with

it,

climate and

Set a New-Engiander to describe any acci-

dent which happened in his presence.

tation

at once

and

warmed

race.

and secure, so that any

I do not rate this animal eloquence

practicable.

very highly

all safe

good speaking becomes

and reserve in

difficulty

some

can to the

his narrative

particulars,

result, and,

What
He tells

and gets as

hesi-

with

fast as

he

though he cannot describe,

ELOQUENCE.

70

hopes to suggest the whole scene.

Now

listen to

a poor Irishwoman recounting some experience of

Her speech

hers.

flows like a river,

so uncon-

sidered, so humorous, so pathetic, such justice done

to all the parts

It is a true trans-ubstantiation,

warm and colored

Our Southern people are

the fact converted into speech, all

and

alive, as it fell out.

almost
the
that

said

't is

and have every advantage over

speakers,

all

New England

very wide.

people, whose climate

we do not

like to

is

so cold

open our mouths

But neither can the Southerner

United States, nor the

Irish,

lively inhabitant of

south of Europe.

traveller in

the

in the

compare with the

The

no gayer melodramatic

Sicily needs

exhibition than the table cVhote of his inn will af-

ford

him

in the conversation of the joyous guests.

They mimic the

voice

and manner

they describe; they crow, squeal,

and scream like mad, and, were

ical strength

table in
stitution

it

of the person

hiss, cackle,

bark,

only by the phys-

exerted in telling the story, keep the

unbounded excitement.
some large degree

But

in every con-

of animal vigor

is

neces-

sary as material foundation for the higher qualities

of the art.

But eloquence must be

The

virtue of books

tors to

be interesting

is
;

attractive, or

to be readable,

and

it

is

none.

and of ora-

this is a gift of

Nature

as Demosthenes, the most laborious student in that

ELOQUENCE.

71

kind, signified his sense of this necessity

wrote, "

Good Fortune,"

As we know,

have no lasting

to

fascination,

Some

effect.

The

must intermingle.

shield.

It

though

it

may

portion of this sugar

right eloquence needs

bell to call the people together,

keep them.

when he

on his

the power of discourse of certain in-

amounts

dividuals

as his motto

no

and no constable to

draws the children from their play,

the old from their arm-chairs, the invalid from his

warm chamber
away

ory, that

he shall not depart

belief,

that he shall not

opposing considerationso
it

in semi-barbarous ages,

aims

ers in

steals

mem-

at.

It is said that the

Ispahan and other

admit any

The pictures we have of

when it has some advan-

tages in the simpler habit of the people,

it

his

he shall not remember the most pressing

his

affairs;

holds the hearer fast

it

his feet, that

Khans

cities of

show what

or story-teU-

the East, attain

a controlling power over their audience, keeping

them
ful

for

many hours

attentive to the most fanci-

and extravagant adventures.

knows pretty well the

and how fascinating they

the " Arabian Nights."
stories to save

her

life,

are, in

in childhood

it.

our translations of

Scheherezade

tells

and the delight

of

Europe and young America

she fairly earned

The whole world

style of these improvisators,

these

young

them proves that

And who does not remember
in

some white or black or yellow Sche-

ELOQUENCE.

72

herezade, who, by that talent of telling endless feats

and magicians and kings and queens, was

more dear and wonderful to a circle of children
of fairies

than any orator in England or America

The more
the

now?

indolent and imaginative complexion of

Eastern nations makes them

j)ressible

is

by these appeals

much more

These legends are only exaggerations of real

and every

currences,

im-

to the fancy.
oc-

literature contains these high

compliments to the art of the orator and the bard,

from the Hebrew and the Greek down to the Scottish Glenkindie,

who

" harpit a fish out

o'

saut-water,

Or water out of a stone,

Or milk out of a maiden's breast

Who bairn

Homer
figure.

had never none."

specially delighted in

For what

is

drawing the same

the Odyssey but a history

of the orator, in the largest style, carried through

a series of adventures furnishing brilliant opportunities to

See with what care and

his talent ?

pleasure the poet brings

is

him on

the stage.

Helen

pointing out to Priam, from a tower, the different

Grecian

chiefs.

dear child, who

"
is

The

old

man

asked

that man, shorter

'

Tell me,

by a head than

Agamemnon,

yet he looks broader in his shoulders

and

His arms

breast.

like a leader,

lie

on the ground, but he,

walks about the bands of the men.

He

seems to

me

ELOQUENCE.

73

like a stately

ram, who goes as

a master of the

Him

flock.'

daughter of Jove, 'This

of Laertes,

who was

knowing

Ithaca,

answered Helen,

the wise Ulysses, son

is

reared in the state of craggy

and wise

all wiles

you have spoken

truly.

To

counsels.'

her the prudent Antenor replied again

'

woman,

For once the wise Ulysses

came hither on an embassy, with Menelaus, beloved

by Mars.

my

I received

house.

them and entertained them

became acquainted with the genius

and the prudent judgments

mixed with the assembled
the broad shoulders of

other

When

When

of both.

and

Trojans,

they

stood,

Menalaus rose above the

but, both sitting, Ulysses

at

was more majestic.

they conversed, and interweaved stories and

opinions with

all,

Menelaus spoke

but very sweet words, since he

succinctly,

few

not talkative

v>^as

nor superfluous in speech, and was the younger.

But when the wise Ulysses arose and stood and

looked down, fixing his eyes on the ground, and

moved

neither

but held
say

it

it still,

his sceptre
like

backward nor forward,

an awkward person, you would

was some angry or

foolish

man

but when he

sent his great voice forth out of his breast,

words

fell like

and we, behold-

wondered not afterwards so much

pect.' "

his

the winter snows, not then would

any mortal contend with Ulysses

ing,

and

Thus he does not

1

fail to

Hiad, III. 191.

at his as-

arm Ulysses

at

ELOQUENCE.

74

with this power of overcoming

first

opposition

all

by the blandishments of speech. Plutarch tells us

that Thucydides, when Archidamus, king of Sparta,
asked him which was the best wrestler, Pericles
or he, replied, "

When

throw him, he says he

was never down, and he persuades the very spectators to believe him."

Macedon

Philip of

said of

Demosthenes, on hearing the report of one of his

Had

orations, "

suaded

me

I been there, he would have per-

to take

up arms against myself " and

;

Warren Hastings said of Burke's speech on

impeachment, " As I listened to the orator, I
for

more than half an hour

as

his
felt

I were the most

if

culpable being on earth."

In these examples, higher qualities have already

entered, but the

power

of detaining

the ear

by

pleasing speech, and addressing the fancy and imagination, often exists without higher merits.

Thus

separated, as this fascination of discourse aims only

at

amusement, though

tary

effect,

power.

It is

through the

is

it

be decisive in

it

its

heard like a band of music passing

streets,

gers into poets, but

which converts

all

the passen-

forgotten as soon as

is

turned the next corner

and unless

this oiled

could, in Oriental phrase, lick the sun

away,

it

brandy.

must
I

momen-

yet a juggle, and of no lasting

take

its

place

know no remedy

it

has

tongue

and moon

with opium and

against

it

but cotton-

ELOQUENCE.
wool, or the

wax which Ulysses

75
stuffed into the

ears of his sailors to pass the Sireiis safely.

There are

all

degrees of power, and the least

are interesting, but they must not be confounded.

There

is

the glib tongue

the salesman

and

cool self-possession of

in a large shop, which, as

well

is

known, overpower the prudence and resolution of

housekeepers of both sexes.
yer's fluency,

him who
so

many

is

which

is

There

a petty law-

is

sufficiently impressive

devoid of that talent, though

cases,

to

be, in

it

nothing more than a facility of ex-

pressing with accuracy and speed what everybody

thinks and says more slowly

tion, or precision of thought,

neither less nor more.

It

without

new informa-

but the same thing,

requires no special in-

Yet

sight to edit one of our country newspapers.

whoever can say

by sentence,

off currently, sentence

matter neither better nor worse than what

printed,

will

be very impressive

pleased population.

who

to

our

easily

These talkers are of that

class

prosper, like the celebrated schoolmaster,

being only one lesson ahead of the pupil.

little

there

is

by

Add

sarcasm and prompt allusion to passing oc-

currences,

and you have the mischievous member

of Congress.

A spice

his rhetoric, will

of malice, a ruffian touch in

do him no harm with

his audience.

These accomplishments are of the same kind, and

only a degree higher than the coaxing of the auc-

ELOQUENCE.

76

tioneer, or the vituperative style well described in

the street-word "jawing."

These kinds of public

and private speaking have

their use

ience to the practitioners

but we

may

and convensay of such

collectively that the habit of oratory is apt to dis-

them

qualify

One

for eloquence.

of our statesmen said, "

country

is

eloquent men."

And

The curse

of this

one cannot wonder

sometimes manifested by trained

at the uneasiness

statesmen, with large experience of public affairs,

when they observe

the disproportionate advantage

suddenly given to oratory over the most solid and

accumulated public

In a Senate or other

service.

business committee, the solid result depends on a

few men with working-talent.

They know how

to

deal with the facts before them, to put things into

a practical shape, and they value

there

who has no

is insignificant,

only as they

capacity for helping them at

and nobody

has a talent for speaking.

printed and read

all

all,

in the committee, but

In the debate with open

doors, this precious person

is

men

But a new man comes

can forward the work.

makes a speech which

over the Union, and he at

once becomes famous, and takes the lead in the

public

mind over

all these

executive men, who, of

course, are full of indignation to find one v/ho has

no tact or

skill

them by means
despise.

and knows he has none, put over

of this talking-power

which they

ELOQUENCE.

77

Leaving behind us these pretensions, better or

worse, to

come a

quence

attractive as

is

personal ascendency,
rare, because

nearer to the verity,

little

total

requires

it

elo-

an example of the magic of

and resultant power,

a rich

coincidence of

powers, intellect, will, sympathy, organs, and, over

all,

We

good fortune in the cause.

We

poise all other persons.

may

be a

man who

is

whom

other

of inexhaustible

give you any odds

and

really wish for is a mind--*-^"

equal to any exigency.

district, or

one

who can

What we

who
men

a match for events, one

being dashed are broken,

beat you.

counter-

believe that there

never found his match, against

personal resources,

have a half-

who can

belief that the person is possible

You

are safe in your rural

in the city, in broad daylight, amidst

the police, and under the eyes of a hundred thou-

sand people.
storm,

But how

is

on the Atlantic, in a

it

do you understand how

son into

men

then

self off safe

to infuse

your rea-

disabled by terror, and to bring your?

how among

thieves, or

an infuriated populace, or among cannibals

to face with

tion

among
Face

a highwayman who has every tempta-

and opportunity for violence and plunder, can

you bring yourself

through speech ?

by your wit exercised

easy enough to Cae-

Whenever a man of that stamp

highwayman has found a master. Wliat

sar or Napoleon.
arrives, the

off safe

a problem

ELOQUENCE.

78

a difference between men in power of face

man

succeeds because he has more power of eye

than another, and so coaxes or confounds him.

The newspapers, every week,

report the adventures

some impudent swindler, who, by steadiness

of

carriage,
ter.

duped those who should have known

Yet any swindlers we have known are novices

and bunglers,
'

of

bet-

as is attested

by

their

ill

name.

greater power of face would accomplish anytliing,

and, with the rest of their takings, take away the

A greater power of carrying the

bad name.
loftily

thing,-*^^

and with perfect assurance, would confound

merchant, banker, judge,

men

of

influence

and

power, poet and j)resident, and might head any

;

any sovereign, and abrogate any con-

party, unseat

Europe and America.

stitution in

man

It

was said that

has at one step attained vast power,

who

has renounced his moral sentiment, and settled

it

with himself that he will no longer stick at anything.

was said

It

of the worthies of

of Sir

New

William

England,

PejDperel, one

that, "

put him

where you might, he commanded, and saw what he

willed

come

to pass."

Julius Caesar said to Metel-

when that tribune interfered to hinder him

from entering the Roman treasury, " Young man,

lus,

it is

easier for

that I will

"

me

to put

you

and the youth

days, he was taken

by

to death than to say

yielded.

pirates.

What

In earlier
then ?

He

ELOQUENCE.
threw himself into their

he

speeches,

them

told

them with hanging,

threatened

which he performed afterwards,

was master of

time,

who cannot be

his last card, but has

it

men

affects

and

in a short

man

this

is

so can never play

a serene face, he subverts

told of

is

him

The confidence

so.

is

miraculous

of

men

in

him

is lavish,

and he changes the face of the world, and

histories,

poems, and new philosophies arise to ac-

count for him.

his passions

ruling

is

and

supreme commander over

affections

higher than that.

all

but the secret of his

It is the

power of Na-

ture running without impediment from the brain

Men and women are his

Where they are, he cannot be without resource.
"Whoso can speak well," said Luther,
" is a man."
It was men of this stamp that the

and

will into the hands.

game.

Grecian States used to ask of Sparta for generals.

They did not send

they said,
nias,

"Send

to

Lacedsemon for

us a

troops, but

commander;" and Pausa-

or Gylippus, or Brasidas, or Agis, was de-

spatched by the Ephors.

It is easy to illustrate this
ality

a reserve of power when he /

With

What

a kingdom.

and,

on board,

all

disconcerted,

has hit his mark.

de-

stories,

they did not applaud his

if

most

ship, established the

extraordinary intimacies,

claimed to them

79

by these examples

overpowering person-

of soldiers

and kings

but

ELOQUENCE.

80

men

there are

of the

peaceful principle,

most peaceful way of

who

December

as sensibly as a July sun or a

men

who,

if

life

and

are felt wherever they go,

frost,

they speak, are heard, though they

speak in a whisper,

who, when

they

act,

act ef-

and these

fectually,

and what they do

is

examples

may be found on

very humble platforms

imitated

as well as on high ones.

In old countries a high money-value

is

set

on

men who have achieved a personal

He who has points to carry must hire,

the services of
distinction.

not a skilful attorney, but a

barrister in

England

is

commanding person. A
made thirty

reputed to have

or forty thousand pounds per

annum

in represent-

ing the claims of railroad companies before commit-

Commons. His clients pay not

manly accomplishments,
for courage, conduct, and a commanding social position, which enable him to make their claims heard

tees of the

much

so

House

and respected,
I

of

for legal as for

know very

well that

among our

culating people, where every

cool

and

cal-

man mounts guard

over hiQiself, where heats and panics and abandon-

ments are quite out of the system, there

deal of scepticism

To

is

a good

as to extraordinary influence.

talk of an overpowering

mind rouses the same

jealousy and defiance which one

may

observe round

a table where anybody is recounting the marvellous

ELOQUENCE.
anecdotes of mesmerism.
stroke to the discourse

me F "

mesmerize

81

Eacli auditor puts a final

"

by exclaiming,

So each man inquires

Ms

orator can change

Can

lie

any

if

convictions.

But does any one suppose himself to be quite

impregnable ? Does he think that not possibly a

man may come

most

of his

good sedate
him,

him who

to

shall persuade

settled determination ?
citizen as

or, if

he

he

to

is,

for

make a

fanatic of

penurious, to squander

is

some purpose he now

least thinks of,

him out
example

money

or, if

for

he

is

a i^rudent, industrious person, to forsake his work,

and give days and weeks

to a

he defies any one, every one.

/

of resistance,

But what

mind

if

as his

and

new

Ah

interest ?
!

of a different turn

he

from

No,

thinking^
his

own.

one should come of the same turn of

'

own, and who sees much farther on his]

own way than he ? (A man who has

is

mine, but in greater power, will rule

tastes like

me any

day,/

and make me love

Thus

it is

my

ruler.

not powers of speech that we primarily

consider under this word eloquence^ but the power

that

being present, gives them their perfection,

and being absent, leaves them a merely

value.

Eloquence

is

superficial

the appropriate organ of the

highest personal energy.

Personal ascendency

may-

exist with or without adequate talent for its expression.

It is as surely felt as a

VOL. VII.

mountain or a planet

ELOQUENCE,

82
but when

seems

it is

first to

weaponed

a power of speech,

witli

become truly human, works

in all directions,

it

activel}^

and supplies the imagination with

fine materials.

This circumstance enters into every consideration of the

power of

their effects.

orators,

and

is

the key to all

In the assembly, you shall find the

orator and the audience in perpetual balance

the predominance
choice of topic.

of

either

indicated

is

and

by the

If the talents for sjieaking exist,

but not the strong personality, then there are good

speakers
of

who

perfectly receive

the audience, and

flattered

by hearing

its

and express the

will

commonest populace

is

low mind returned to

it

the

with every ornament which happy talent can add.

But
of

if

there be personality in the orator, the face

things changes.

The audience

is

thrown into

the attitude of pupil, follows like a child

ceptor,
if,

and hears what he has

to say.

its

pre-

It is as

amidst the king's council at Madrid, Ximenes

urged that an advantage might be gained of France,

and Mendoza that Flanders might be kept down,

and Columbus, being introduced, was interrogated

whether his geographical knowledge could aid the
cabinet

and he can say nothing

the other, but he can show

how

to

one party or to

all

Europe can be

diminished and reduced under the king, by annexing to Spain a continent as large as six or seven

Europes.


ELOQUENCE.

83

This balance between the orator and the audience

is

expressed in what

There

of the speaker.

is

called the J2ertinnce_

is

always a rivalry between

demands

the orator and the occasion, between the

of the hour

and the prepossession of the individual.

The emergency which has convened the meeting is

usually of more importance than anything the debaters have in their minds, and therefore becomes

imperative to them.
thing of

But

commanding

one of them have any-

if

plause of the assembly

the time

when

and with the ap-

it,

This balance

Poor

in the privatest intercourse.

I

how

necessity in his heart,

speedily he will find vent for

is

observed

Tom never knew

the present occurrence was so trivial

that he could tell what was passing in his

mind

without being checked for unseasonable speech ; but

let

Bacon speak and wise men would rather

listen
|

though the revolution of kingdoms was on

I have heard

whose voice

it

is

foot.

reported of an eloquent preacher,

not yet forgotten in this

city, that,

on occasions of death or tragic disaster which overspread the congregation with gloom, he ascended
the pulpit with

more than

his usual alacrity,

and

turning to his favorite lessons of devout and jubilant thankfulness,

" Let us

praise the Lord,"

carried audience, mourners, and

with him, and swept away

mourning along
the

impertinence

of private sorrow with his hosannas

and songs of

all

ELOQUENCE.

84

Pepys says

praise.

" he

mad

is

of

Lord Clarendon (with whom

in love ")

on

from a con-

his return

ference, " I did never observe

how much

man do

all

speak when he knows

be below him, than in him

easier a

company

the

to

though he spoke

for,

indeed excellent well, yet his manner and freedom

of doing

it,

ing only
pretty."

as if he played with

all

it,

and was inform-

the rest of the company, was mighty

This rivalry between the orator and the occasion

is

inevitable,

and the occasion always

yields to the

eminence of the speaker; for a great

greatest of occasions.

Of

man

is

the

course the interest of the

audience and of the orator conspire.

It is

with them only when his influence

complete

then only they are well pleased.

consults his power

Especially he
of taking his

If he should attempt to instruct the people

theme.
in that

by making instead

is

well

which they already know, he would

but by making them

wise in that

fail

which he knows,

he has the advantage of the assembly every moment.

Napoleon's tactics of marching on the angle

of an army,

numbers,

The

is

and always presenting a superiority of

the orator's secret also.

several talents which the orator employs, the

splendid weapons which went to the equipment of

Demosthenes, of ^schines, of Demades the natural

1

Diary,

I.

169.

ELOQUENCE.

85

orator, of Fox, of Pitt, of Patrick

Henry, of Adams,

We

of Mirabeau, deserve a special enumeration.

must not quite omit

The

orator, as

of statement,
it.

name

we have
Then,

tial personality.

to tell

to

the principal pieces.

must be a substan

seen,

first,

he must have power

must have the

and know how

fact,

In any knot of men conversing on any

subject, the person

who knows most about

have the ear of the company

if

he wishes

lead the conversation, no matter what

distinction other

in

men

there present

and

may have

can and will state them, people will listen

is

will

genius or

any public assembly, him who has the

he

it
it,

otherwise ignorant, though he

is

and

facts

and

though

to,

hoarse and

ungraceful, though he stutters and screams.

In a court of justice the audience are impartial

they really wish to

what the truth

is.

sift

And

the statements

and know

in the examination of wit-

nesses there usually leap out, quite unexpectedly,

three or four stubborn words or phrases which are

the pith and fate of the business, which sink into

the ear of
cause.

tlie

ing

all parties,

and

All the rest

stick there,
is

and determine

repetition

and

and the court and the county have

qualify-

really

come

together to arrive at these three or four memorable

expressions which betrayed the

mind and meaning

of somebody.

In every company the

man

with the fact

is

like

ELOQUENCE.

86

the guide you hire to lead your party up a

moun-

He may

tain, or through a difficult country.

not

compare with any of the party in mind, or breeding, or courage, or possessions, but he is much

more important to the present need than any of

them. That is what we go to the court-house for,

the

statement of the fact, and of a general fact,

the real relation of all the parties

and

any

certainty with which, indifferently in

that

the

is

it

affair

well handled, the truth stares us in the face

is

through

all

the disguises that are put

piece of the well-known

human

life,

upon

that

it,

makes

the interest of a court-room to the intelligent spectator.

remember long ago being attracted, by the disand the local importance
The prisoner's
the cause, into the court-room.

tinction of the counsel

of

counsel were the strongest and cunningest lawyers

in the

Commonwealth.

They drove

the attorney

for the State from corner to corner, taking his rea-

sons from under him, and reducing

him

to silence,

but not to submission.

When

hard pressed, he

re-

venged himself, in

turn, on the judge, by

re-

his

quiring the court to define what scdvage was.

court,

The

thus pushed, tried words, and said every

could think of to

the time, supposing

thing

it

cases,

and describing duties of insurers, captains,

pilots,

and miscellaneous

fill

sea-officers

that are or

ELOQUENCE.
might

be,

87

by a hard

like a sclioolmaster puzzled

But

sum, who reads the context with emphasis.

not serving the cuttle-fish to get away

all this flood

the horrible shark of the district-attorney being

in,

there, grimly awaiting with his

still

must

define,"

ority.

The

the

The court

*'

poor court pleaded

its inferi-

superior court must establish the law

and it read away piteously the decisions

Supreme Court, but read to those who had
no pity. The judge was forced at last to rule something, and the lawyers saved their rogue under the
for this,

of the

fog of a definition.

The

and discriminated that

it

parts were so well cast

was an interesting game

to watch.

The government was

resented.

It

and

was

possession,

stupid, but

it

and stood on that

well enough rep-

had a strong
to the last.

will

The

judge had a task beyond his prej)aration, yet his

position remained real

great reality,

the

he was there to represent a

justice of states,

which we could

well enough see beetling over his head, and which

his trifling talk nowise affected,

and did not im-

pede, since he was entirely well-meaning.

The statement

of the fact, however, sinks before

the statement of the law, which requires immeasur-

ably higher powers, and

all

is

a rarest

gift,

being in

great masters one and the same thing,

in

lawyers nothing technical, but always some piece

of common-sense, alike

interesting to

laymen as

ELOQUENCE.

88

Lord Mansfield's merit is tlie merit of

It is the same quality we admire

to clerks.

common-sense.

Samuel

in Aristotle, Montaigne, Cervantes, or in

Franklin.

Jolmson, or

seems quite accidental.

mous

application

Its

sentence or two

decisions contains a level

wliicli hit

law

to

Eacli of Mansfield's fa-

His sentences are not always

the mark.

finished to the eye, but are finished to the mind.

The sentences

are involved, but a solid proposition

They come

drawn.

forth, a true distinction is

is set

from and they go to the sound human understanding; and I read without surprise that the black-

lawyers of the day sneered at his " equitable

letter

decisions," as

indeed,

ment

is

and

if

they were not also learned.

what speech
all

that

of little use for the

is

is for,

to

make

This,

the state-

me

called eloquence seems to

most part

to those

who have

it,

but inestimable to such as have something to say.

Next

knowledge of the

to the

fact

and

its

law

is

method, which constitutes the genius and efficiency

of all

remarkable men.

Faneuil Hall

they are

A
all

crowd of men go up

pretty well acquainted

with the object of the meeting

they have

the facts in the same newspapers.

sesses

no information which

to

The

his hearers

all

read

orator pos-

have not,

yet he teaches them to see the thing with his eyes.

By

the

solidity

new

placing, the circumstances acquire

and worth.

Every

new

fact gains consequence

ELOQUENCE.

89

become important.

naming

it,

and

His expressions

fix

themselves in men's memories,

by

his

from mouth

and

fly

new

principle of order.

to

trifles

mouth.

His mind has some

Where he

looks, all things

What will he say next ? Let

and this man only. By applying

fly into their places.

this

man

speak,

the habits of a higher style of thought to the com-

mon

affairs of this world,

he introduces beauty and

magnificence wherever he goes.

Such a power was

we have had some brilland legal men.

political
own
in
our
iant examples
Imagery. The orator must be, to a certain exBurke's, and of this genius

tent,

We

a poet.

are such imaginative creatures

that nothing so works on the human mind, barbaCondense some daily exrous or qivil, as a trope.

perience into a glowing symbol, and an audience

electrified.

They

feel as

is

they already possessed

if

some new right and power over a

fact

which they

can detach, and so completely master in thought.

It is a

wonderful aid to the memory, which carries

away the image and never loses it.

sembly, like the House of Commons,
Chamber, or the American Congress,
by these two powers,

first

by a

A popular asor the

is

fact,

French

commanded

then by

skill

Put the argument into a concrete

some hard phrase, round
shape, into an image,
and solid as a ball, which they can see and handle

of statement.

and carry home with them,

won.

and the cause

is

half


ELOQUENCE.

90

Statement, method, imagery, selection, tenacity

of

memory, power of dealing with

facts, of illumi-

nating them, of sinking them by ridicule or by

diversion of the mind, rapid generalization, humor,
pathos, are keys which the orator holds

these fine gifts are not eloquence,

der a man's attainment of

and do often

And

it.

power

man
give

to

communicate

man

if

man

a sane

is

hin-

we come

we should

the heart of the mystery, perhaps

that the truly eloquent

and yet

his sanity.

say

with

you arm the

If

with the extraordinary weapons of this

him a grasp

to

art,

of facts, learning, quick fancy, sar-

casm, splendid allusion, interminable illustration,

all these talents,

so potent

and charming, have an

equal power to insnare and mislead the audience

and the

orator.

his horses run

His talents are too miich for him,

away with him

and people always

perceive whether you drive or whether the horses

take the bits in their teeth and run.

ents are quite something else

dinated and serve him

But these

when they

and we go

to

tal-

are subor-

Washington,

or to "Westminster Hall, or might well go round

the world, to see a

away

with,

signs, has

man who

a man

drives,

and

is

not run

who, in prosecuting great de-

an absolute command of the means of

representing his ideas, and uses them only to express these

placing facts, placing

inconceivable levity of

human

men

amid the

beings, never for

ELOQUENCE.
an instant warped from
for every

man

which he

is

ment

is

a statement possible of that truth

possible, so

or die of

There

his erectness.

most unwilling to receive,

state-

broad and so pungent that he

cannot get away from

it

91

it,

but m.ust either bend to

Else there would be no such word

it.

as eloquence, which

means

this.

The

listener can-

not hide from himself that something has been

shown

and the whole world which he did not

hiili

wish to see

and

The

poses of him.
fairs in

as he cannot dispose of

America

history of public

it, it

men and

will readily furnish tragic

disaf-

exam-

ples of this fatal force.

For the triumphs

of the art

somewhat more must

be required, namely a reinforcing of

still

man from

events, so as to give the double force of reason

destiny.

some
the

such as could deeply engage

crisis in affairs,

man

and

In transcendent eloquence, there was ever

he pleads, and draw

to the cause

wide power to a point.

eruptions, there

all this

For the explosions and

must be accumulations of heat

somewhere, beds of ignited anthracite at the centre.

And

in cases

where profound conviction has been

wrought, the eloquent

ful speaker, but

tain belief.

who

man

he who

is

no beauti-

inwardly drunk with a cer-

is

It agitates

is

and

tears him,

and perhaps

almost bereaves him of the power of articulation.

Then

it

rushes from

him

as in short, abrupt screams,

ELOQUENCE.

92

The

in torrents of meaning.

has of his mind

of expression

and

is

possession the subject

so entire that it insures

which

is

an order

the order of Nature

so the order of greatest force,

itself,

and inimitable

And the main distinction between

by any art.
him and other well-graced actors is the conviction,
communicated by every word, that his mind is contemplating a whole, and inflamed by the contemplation of the whole, and that the words and sentences uttered

him

as

unregarded parts of that terrible whole

wliich he sees
see.

by him, however admirable, fall from

Add

and which he means that you

shall

to this concentration a certain regnant

calmness, which, in

the

all

tumult,

never utters

a premature syllable, but keeps the secret of

^'^ means and method; and

^

its

the orator stands before

the people as a demoniacal power to whose miracles

they have no key.

This terrible earnestness makes

/good the ancient superstition of the hunter, that

'

the bullet will hit

its

mark, which

is first dij)i3ed

in

the marksman's blood.

Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest

Afterwards,

narrative.

it

may warm

itself until it

exhales symbols of every kind and color, speaks

only through the most poetic forms

last, it

of fact.

must

still

The

but, first

and

be at bottom a biblical statement

orator

is

keeps his feet ever on a

thereby an orator, that he

fact.

Thus only

is

he

in-

ELOQUENCE.

No

vincible.

gifts,

no graces, no power of wit or

learning or illustration will

want of

Fame

93

make any amends

for

All audiences are just to this point.

this.

of voice or of rhetoric will carry people a

few times to hear a speaker

to ask, "

What

but they soon begin

he driving at

is

"

and

man

if this

does not stand for anything, he will be deserted.

A good upholder of

anything which they believe, a

^act-speaker of any kind, they will long follow

but a pause in the speaker's

own character is very

The preacher enu-

properly a loss of attraction.

men and

merates his classes of

place therein

Everything

is

cousin

things, I feel that he

tions,

and I

then that no

I suspect

my
am

is

I do not find

man

lift

my

rela-

but whilst he deals in

words we are released from attention.

v/ould

does.

and whilst he speaks

touching some of

uneasy

my

you

If

me you must be on higher ground. If

me you must be free, (if you

you would liberate

would correct

me

my

false

view of

facts,

hold up

the same facts in the true order of thought,

I cannot go back from the

The power

of

new

Chatham, of

to

and

conviction.
Pericles, of Luther,

rested on this strength of character,(which, because

it

did not and could not fear anybody,

ing of

their

antagonists, land

exquisitely provoking
these.

and

made

noth-

became sometimes

sometimes

terrific

to

ELOQUENCE.

94

We

with anecdotes of

are slenderly furnished

men, nor can we help ourselves by those

these

heavy books in which their discourses are reported.

Some
of

of

them were

them were

to their
lost,

not,

writers, like

fame remains.

the

fiery life

Burke

and no record
(^Besides,

of the

but most

at all adequate

what

is

best

is

moment.N But the con-

ditions for eloquence always exist.

It is always

dying out of famous places and appearing in cor|Wlierever the polarities meet, wherever the

ners.

fresh moral sentiment, the instinct of freedom and

duty,

come

in direct opposition to fossil conserva-

tism and the thirst of gain, the spark will passj/

The

resistance to slavery in this country has been

a fruitful nursery of orators.

tion

by which

it

drew

The natural connec-

to itself a train of

moral

re-

forms, and the slight yet sufficient party organization

it

new blood
Wild men, John

offered, reinforced the city with

from the woods and mountains.

Baptists,

Hermit Peters, John Knoxes,

utter the

savage sentiment of Nature in the heart of commercial capitals.

They send us every year some

of aboriginal strength,

man who

is

not to be silenced or insulted or intimi-

dated by a mob, because he

one who
man, on

piece

some tough oak-stick of a

mobs

whom

the mob,

is

more mob than

they,'^

some sturdy country-

neither money, nor politeness, nor

hard words, nor eggs, nor blows, nor brickbats,

ELOQUENCE.
make any impression.
room wits and bullies
self,

He
;

he

and something more

95
to

is fit

is

meet

tlie

bar-

a wit and a bvdly him-

he

is

a graduate of the

plough, and the stub-hoe, and the bushwhacker;

knows

all

the secrets of

swamp and snow-bank, and

has nothing to learn of labor or poverty or the

rough of farming.j His hard head went through,

in childhood, the drill of Calvinism, with text

and

New EngNew England than

He
right and left.

mortification, so that he stands in the

land assembly a purer bit of

any, and flings his sarcasms

has not only the documents in his pocket to answer

all cavils

and

to prove all his positions,(but

the eternal reason in his head.j This

man

fully renounces your civil organizations,

or city, or governor, or

and

He

if

of ideas

/ He who

is

county,
own navy

recommended

to

the gauntlet of the mobs.)

will train himself to master}^ in this

/ science of persuasion

must lay the emphasis of ed-

ucation, not on popular arts, but

i

his

the pupil be of a texture to bear

the best university that can be

man

is

has learned his lessons in a bitter

school.) (^Yet,
it,

scorn-

judge and jury, legislature and exec-

artillery,

utive.

army

he has

nsight. vJLet

him

enced from action

on

cliaracter

and

see that his speech is not differ;

that

when he has spoken he has

not done nothing, nor done wrong, but has cleared

1^

his

own

skirts,

has engaged himself to wholesome

ELOQUENCE.

96
exertion. ^
nitj.
is

He

Let

on oppositio n as opportu-

liim look

cannot be defeated or put down.

a principle of resurrection in

Men

of purpose.

are averse

There

liim,

an immortality

and

hostile, to give

It is not the people that

value to their suffrages.

are in fault for not being convinced, but he that

cannot convince them. (He should mould them,

armed

as he is with the reason

ize their opposition,

fiery apostles
/

The

but he

sentiment.

not to neutral-

to convert

of the

It is

what

is

them

into

same wisdom.j
is

the moral

called affirmative truth,

of invigorating the hearer;

conveys a hint of our eternity, when he

it

on grounds which

feels himself addressed

main when everything

no trace

else is taken,

down

will re-

and which have

of time or place or party.

hostile is stricken

timents

is

highest platform of eloquence

and has the property

and

is

and publishers

and love which are

He

also the core of their nature.

) Everything

in the j^resence of the sen-

their majesty is felt

by the most obdurate.

It is observable that as soon as

one acts for large

masses, the moral element will and must be allowed

for, will

and must work

and the men

least accus-

tomed to appeal to these sentiments invariably recall

them when they address nations.

must accept and use it as he can.

even,

/ It is only to
power belongs,

Napoleon,
>

these simple strokes that the highest

when a weak human hand

touches,

"

ELOQUENCE.
by

point

97

beams and

point, the eternal

on

rafters

which the whole structure of Nature and society

laid.

) In this tossing sea of delusion we

our feet the adamant

we

in this

feel

is

with

dominion of chance

find a principle of permanence./^

For I do not

accept that definition of Isocrates, that the office of

make

his art is to

great

the great small 'and the small

but I esteem this to be

when the

orator sees through all

its

perfection,

masks

to the eter-

nal scale of truth, in such sort that he can hold up

men

before the eyes of

the fact of to-day steadily

to that standard, thereby

and the^mall
ish

and

to

small,

making the great

great,

way to

aston-

which

the true

is

reform mankind.

All the chief orators of the world have been

One thought
Demosthenes's own time found

grave men, relying on this reality.

the philosophers of

running through

all his

orations,

that " virtue secures

its

on one's own

Heeren

feet

own

this

"

success."

namely,

To stand

finds the key-note^

the discourses of Demosthenes, as of Chatham.

v..

Eloquence, like every other

art, rests

on laws the

most exact and determinate.

It is the best speech

may well

stand as the exponent

of the best soul.

of all that
it

is

It

grand and immortal in the mind.\. If

do not so become an instrument, but aspires

somewhat
false

of itself,

and weak."^ In

and
its

to glitter for show,

right exercise,

to

be

it

is

it Is' an elas-

ELOQUENCE.

98
tic,

unexhausted power,

has estimated

it ?

of our interests

who

has sounded,

expanding with

and

affections.

whilst they valued every help to

who

the expansion

Its great masters,

its

attainment, and

thought no pains too great which contributed in

any manner

to further

warrior of fame,
his belt,

it,

resembling the Arabian

who wore seventeen weapons

and in personal combat used them

casionally,

(yet

subordinated

neither
power, anecdote, sarcasm

permitted any talent

etic

all

means

voice,

in

all oc-

nejver

rhyBim, po-

to appear for

show|^

but were grave men, who preferred their integrity

,,

/
j

II
I

and esteemed that object for which

the^ *2itei whether the prosperity of their country,

or the laws, or a reformation, or liberty of speech

to their talent,

or of the press, or letters, or morals, as above the /

whole world, and themselves

also.

DOMESTIC

LIFE.

DOMESTIC LIFE.

The

perfection of the providence for childhood

The

care which covers the

seed of the tree under tough husks and stony cases

is easily

acknowledged.

human

provides for the

and the

plant the mother's breast

father's house.

comic, and

The

tiny beseeching weakness

its

size of the nestler is

is

compen-

sated perfectly by the happy patronizing look of

the mother,

who

is

a sort of high reposing Provi-

Welcome

to the parents the

puny

struggler, strong in his weakness, his little

arms

dence toward

more

it.

irresistible

than the

soldier's, his lips

touched

with persuasion which Chatham and Pericles in

manhood had not. His imaffected lamentations

when he lifts up his voice on high, or, more beautiful,

the sobbing child,

as he

tries to

the face

all liquid grief,

swallow his vexation,

soften

all

hearts to pity, and to mirthful and clamorous com-

The small despot asks

passion.

reason and

all

more charming than

ranee

is

little

sins

so little that all

nature are on his side.

all

His igno-

knowledge, and his

more bewitching than any

virtue.

His

DOMESTIC

102

flesh is angels' flesh,

Coleridge, " presents

body

is all

all

LIFE.

animated."

"Infancy^

alive.

body and

spirit in unity

said
:

the

All day, between his three

or four sleeps, he coos like a pigeon-house, sputters

and spurs and

and when he

i3uts

fasts,

on his faces of importance

the

Pharisee

little

By

sound his trumpet before him.

by

delights in shadows on the wall;

fails

daylight, in

Carry him out of doors,

yellow and scarlet.

not to

lamplight he

he

is

overpowered by the light and by the extent of natural objects, and

is

his use of his fingers,

First

in

tastes.

tic

it

Out

But

of

blocks,

thread-

will build his pyra-

With an

of Palladio.

apparatus of whistle and

laws of sound.

les-

appears in no great harm,

and checkers, he

spools, cards,

mid with the gravity

presently begins

and he studies power, the

son of his race.

architectural

Then

silent.

rattle

acous-

he explores the

chiefly, like his senior country-

men, the young American studies new and speedier

modes

of transportation.

Mistrusting the cmniing

of his small legs, he wishes to ride on the necks

and shoulders of
nothing can

withstand, no

gravity of character;

grandams,
Jaody, all

The small enchanter

all flesh.

fall

'

seniority of age,

aunts,

uncles,

an easy prey

conform to him

he conforms to no^
all

mouths and babble and chirrup

strongest shoulders he rides,
laurelled heads.

no

grandsires,

and

caper and
to him.

make

On

the

pulls the hair of

DOMESTIC
"
as

The

LIFE.

chilcLbood," said Milton, " shows the

The

morning shows the day."

man

every

103

own

his

man,

child realizes to

remembrance, and so

earliest

supplies a defect in our education, or enables us to

live

over the unconscious history with a sympathy

so tender as to be almost personal experience.

almost too

Fast

fast for the wistful curiosity of

the parents, studious of the witchcraft of curls and

dimples and broken words

He

to a boy.

the

little

talker grows

walks daily among wonders

moon, the

light, darkness, the

stars,

fire,

the furniture of

the house, the red tin horse, the domestics,

who

like

rude foster-mothers befriend and feed him, the faces

that claim his kisses, are all in turn absorbing

warm,

little

cheerful,

and

sovereign subdues

new knowledge

is

them without knowing

taken up into the

and becomes the means

rose

is

Eden
ice,

new

event

is

the

trusted abroad

What

yet

the

to-day

The blowing

the garden full of flowers

make epochs
first

it

life of

more.

of

over again to the small

the frost,

holiday

life

good appetite the

Avith

snow

in

Adam

in

is

the rain, the

his life.

What

which Twoshoes can be

art can paint or gild

any object in

after-

with the glow which Nature gives to the

baubles of childhood

St. Peter's

first

can not have the

magical power over us that the red and gold covers

of our first picture-book possessed.

How

the im-

DOMESTIC

104

warm

agination cleaves to the

even now

old as Nature

their

fine

life

things in

dresses all

His fears adorn the dark parts with

best.

poetry.

make every day

The street

freshman

the persons all have their sacred-

His imaginative

ness.

glories of that tinsel

entertainments

and short for the

brifrht
is

What

LIFE.

He

has heard of wild horses and of bad

boys, and with a pleasing terror he watches at his

gate for the passing of those varieties of each species.

The

ride into the country, the first bath

first

in running water, the first time the skates are put

on, the first

game out

of doors in moonlight, the

books of the nursery, are new chapters of

" Arabian Nights'

Champions
and the

Entertainments,"

of Christendom,"

" Pilgrim's

joy.

the

The

" Seven

"Robinson Crusoe,"

Progress,"

what

mines of

thought and emotion, what a wardrobe to dress the

whole world withal, are in this encyclopaedia of

young thinking

And

so

by beautiful

traits,

which

without art yet seem the masterpiece of wisdom,

provoking the love that watches and educates him,

the

little

pilgrim prosecutes the journey through

nature which he has thus gaily begun.

up the ornament and joy

to his glee, to rosy

"^-The household
as of the child.

more near and

of the house,

He

grows

which rings

boyhood.
is

the

The

home

of the

man, as well

events that occur therein are

affecting to us than

those which

DOMESTIC
are

LIFE.

105

sought in senates and academies/

Domestic

What

are called

events are certainly our affair.

public events

may

or

may

not be ours.

If a

man

wishes to acquaint himself with the real history of

the world, with the spirit of the age, he must not

go
X

first to

Mt

is

what

constitution, in the

fact.

is

must be sought

temperament, in the personal

has the profoundest interest for us.

better than fiction,

Do

in facts nearer.

done and suffered in the house, in the

is

history, that

Fact

The

the state-house or the court-room*

subtle spirit of life

if

only

we could

get pure

you think any rhetoric or any romance

would get your ear from the wise gypsy who could
on the real fortunes of the

tell straight

man

who

could reconcile your moral character and your natural history

who could explain your

misfortunes,

your fevers, your debts, your temperament, your

habits of thought, your tastes, and, in every explanation, not sever
to

it ?

Is

it

you from the whole, but unite you

not plain that not in senates, or courts,

or chambers of commerce, but in the dwelling-house

must the true character and hope

of the time be

be

sure, harder to

consulted
read.

These facts

are, to

It is easier to count the census, or

compute

the square extent of a territory, to criticise

ity,

books, art, than to

dwellings of

hope in their

come

to the

its pol-

persons and

men and read their character and

way of life. Yet we are always hov-

DOMESTIC

106

LIFE.

ering round this better divination.

In one form or

another we are always returning to it. The physiognomy and phrenology of to-day are rash and mechanical systems enough, but they rest on everlast-

We are

ing foundations.
of

man

sinister

sure that the sacred form

and

masks (masks which we wear and which

not seen in these whimsical,

is

we meet),

these bloated

and

shrivelled bodies, bald

puny and precarious

heads, bead eyes, short winds,

ruins.

The great

facts are

account of the body

The

We

and early deaths.

healths,

is

to

pitiful,

amidst

live ruins

the

The

near ones.

be sought in the mind.

history of your fortunes

is

written

first

in your

life.

Let us come then out of the public square and

Let us go

enter the domestic precinct.

to the sit-

ting-room, the table-talk and the expenditure of our

contemporaries.
soul,
if it

you

An

increased consciousness of the

say, characterizes the period.

Let us see

has not only arranged the atoms at the circum-

Does the house-

ference, but the atoms at the core.

hold obey an idea

Do you

form, genius, and aspiration,

see the man,

in

that translucent, thorough-lighted

his

Ms

economy?

Is

There should

be nothing confounding and conventional in econ-

omy, but the genius and love of the

uously marked in

man

all his estate that

knew him should read

so conspic-

the eye that

his character in his property,

DOMESTIC
in

LIFE.

107

grounds, in his ornaments, in every expense.

Ills

A man's

money

his neighbor's

sliould not follow the direction of

money, but should represent to him

the things he would willingliest do with

not one thing and

expenditure

character are twain,

We
stalls,

it.

expenditure another.

am

My

That our expenditure and our

me.

is

my
is

the vice of society.

many things in shops and

man buys without hes-

ask the price of

but some things each

itation

if it

were only

letters at the post-office, con-

veyance in carriages and boats, tools for his work,

^

books that are written to his condition,

him never buy anything

^

else

etc.

Let

than what he wants,

never subscribe at others' instance, never give unwillingly.

Thus, a scholar

All his expense

is

is

a literary foundation.

for Aristotle, Fabricius, Eras-

Do not ask him to help with

young drapers or grocers to stock their

mus, and Petrarch.

his savings

shops, or eager agents to lobby in legislatures, or

join a

company

to build a factory or a fishing-craft.

-These things are

as he.

How

also to

be done, but not by such

could such a book as Plato's Dia-

logues have

come down, but

of scholars

and

them

their

for the sacred savings

fantastic

appropriation of

Another man

is

a mechanical genius, an inventor

of looms, a builder of ships,

dation,

a ship-building foun-

and could achieve nothing

if

he should

dissi-

DOMESTIC

108
I

LIFE.

Another

pate himself on books or on horses.

farmer, an agricultural foundation

another

and the same rule holds

chemist,

for

all.

is
is

a
a

We

must not make believe with our money, but spend

\

and buy

heartily,

am

tip

and not doicn.

afraid that, so considered, our houses will

not be found to have unity and to express the best

The household,

thought.

ships, of the

citizen are

the calling, the friend-

His

not homogeneous.

house ought to show us his honest opinion of what

makes

his well-being

and forgets

dred,

even exertion of

when he

will.

He

among

rests

his kin-

compliance, and

all affectation,

brings

home whatever

commodities and ornaments have for years allured

his pursuit,

and

his character

But what idea predominates

first,

must be seen in them.

in our houses ?

then convenience and pleasure.

the roofs, from street to street, and

find the temple of

The progress
liness,

in

countless

we

Thrift

Take

off all

shall

seldom

any higher god than Prudence.

of domestic living has been in clean-

ventilation,

means

in

health,

in

decorum, in

and arts of comfort, in the concen-

tration of all the utilities of every clime in each

house.
I
j

They are arranged

for low benefits.

houses of the rich are confectioners' shops,

get sweetmeats and wine

The

where we

the houses of the poor

are imitations of these to the extent of their ability.

With

these ends housekeeping

is

not beautiful

it

DOMESTIC

LIFE.

109

cheers and raises neither the husband, the wife, nor

the child
presses

dence

neither the host nor the guest

A house

women.

is

laborious without joy

end of display

impossible to all but a few

is

We need all the force

/ dangerous.

this load, for the

The

mates.

it

women,

becomes

of an idea to

northern

us, especially in

lift

cli-

shortest enumeration of our wants in

rugged climate appalls us by the multitude of

things not easy to be done.

And

if

you look at

the multitude of particulars, one would say

housekeeping

is

impossible

thing to dwell with

lies

op-

wealth and multiplication of con-

V^veniences embarrass

this

it

a house kept to the

and^eir success is dearly bought.

/"If we look at this matter curiously,
/

kept to the end of pru-

where there

is

order

Good

is

too precious a

men and women.

See, in fami-

both substance and

expense any favorite punctuality

is

taste, at

wha

maintained.

If

the children, for example, are considered, dressed,

dieted, attended, kept in proper

and

at

home

fostered

company, schooled,

by the parents,

then

does

the hospitality of the house suffer; friends are less

carefully bestowed, the daily table less catered.

If

the hours of meals are punctual, the apartments are

slovenly.
fine

If the linens

and hangings are clean and

and the furniture good, the yard, the garden,

the fences are neglected.

If all are well attended,

then must the master and mistress be studious of

DOMESTIC

110

LIFE.

particulars at the cost of tlieir

ments and^growth

own

or persons

accomplisl^,

are

treated

as

things.

The

be overcome must be freely

difficulties to

admitted

many and

they are

to be disposed of

by any

Nor are they

amendment of

great.

criticism or

by the

particulars taken one at a time, but only

arrangement of the household to a higher end than

those to which our dwellings are usually built

And

furnished.

there any calamity

is

and

more grave,

or that more invokes the best good-will to remove

it,

than this ?

and
aim

see
;

go from chamber to chamber

to find in the

criticise
;

housemates no

for

what

is

what
wise

genial culture,

be

and

to

is
:

a great price to pay for sweet bread and

being defrauded

to

to hear only to dissent

to find no invitation to

and no receptacle

lodging,
of

an endless chatter and blast

to hear

compelled to

is

to

no beauty

be disgusted
in us,

good

this

warm

of affinity, of repose,

and the inmost presence

of

beauty.
It is a sufficient accusation of our

and

ways of

living,

certainly ought to open our ear to every good-

minded reformer, that our idea

being

now needs wealth

of domestic well-

to execute

it.

Give

me

the

means, says the wife, and your house shall not an-

noy your
this

taste nor waste

we understand how

your time.

On

these iMeans have

hearing

come

to

DOMESTIC

Ill

LIFE.

And

be so omnipotent on earth.

indeed

love of

tlie

wealth seems to grow chiefly out of the root of the

The

love of the Beautiful.

and household-stuff.

We

benefit.

stint or limit

pendents

scorn shifts
;

we

we

of freedom

desire the ele-

desire at least to put

on our parents,

we

means

It is the

gance of munificence

not for

is

much wheat and wool

It is not the love of

gold.

and

desire of gold

no

relatives, guests or de-

desire to play the benefactor

and the

prince with our townsmen, with the stranger at the

gate, with the

woman

bard or the beauty, with the

who

of worth

can we do

this, if

alights at our door.

.

man or
How\

the wants of each day imprison

us in lucrative labors, and constrain us to a contin-/

we be betrayed into expense ?

Give us wealth, and the home shall exist. But

ual vigilance lest

that

a very imperfect and inglorious solution of

is

the problem, and therefore no solution.

You

tvealthJ^

but

and

and often

wealth at

answer
is

Men

in getting wealth the

ficed,

is

man

sacrificed

The

wealth,

are not born rich

is

generally sacri-

without

acquiring

Besides, that cannot be the right

last.

there are objections

shift.

Few have

ask too much.

must have a home.

all

" Give us

wise

and with no meaner

man
bait.

Our whole

needs revision and reform.

consist in giving

money

to wealth.

Wealth

angles with himself only,

use of wealth

Generosity does not

or money's worth.

These

DOMESTIC

112

To

goods are only the shadow of good.

so-called

money

give

LIFE.

to a sufferer is only a come-off.

It is

only a postponement of the real pa5maent, a bribe

paid for silence, a credit-system in which a paper

promise to pay answers for the time instead of

We owe to man higher succors than food

^e owe to man man^ If he is sick, is

dation.

and

liqui-

fire,

unable,

is

mean-spirited and odious,

it

is

there

so

much

is

unlawfully

is

of his nature

withholden from him.

He

which

because

should be visited^in this

his prison with rebuke to the evil demons, with

manly encouragement, with no mean-spirited

of condolence because
offer of

money

offer

you have not money, or mean

as the utmost benefit, but

heroism, your purity, and your faith.

bring with you that spirit which

To

is

by your

You

are to

understanding,

him money in lieu

of these is to do him the same wrong as when the
bridegroom offers his betrothed virgin a sum of
money to release him from his engagements. The

health and self-help.

offer

great depend on their heart, not on their purse.

\,

7 Genius and
set,

>

in history

^-captains
rates,

virtue, like diamonds, are best plain-

set in lead, set in poverty.

was the

poorest.

How

The
was

greatest
it

man

with the

and sages of Greece and Rome, with Soc-

with Epaminondas?

Aristides was

made

general receiver of Greece, to collect the tribute

which each

state

was

to furnish aecainst the barba-

DOMESTIC

LIFE.

113

" Poor, " says Plutarch, "

when he set about

when he had finished it." How was it
with ^milius and Cato ? What kind of a house
was kept by Paul and John, by Milton and Marrian.
it,

poorer

by Samuel Johnson, by Samuel Adams in

vell,

Boston, and Jean Paul Richter at Baireuth ?

I think

and

ages,

plain that this voice of communities

it
'

Give us wealth, and the good household

shall exist,' is vicious,

and leaves the whole

culty untouched.

is better,

form,

It

diffi-

certainly, in this

Give us your labor, and the household be-

'

how

I see not

gins.'

and every day,

is

serious labor, the labor of all

to be avoided

and many things

betoken a revolution of opinion and practice in

may go far
Another age may

to aid our

regard to manual labor that

practical inquiry.

manual labor

memb ers

of the world

of ^society,

and

divide

more equally
so

make

the

onfall the

the labors of a

few hours avail to the wants and add to the vigor

But the reform that applies itseK to

the household must not be partial. It must correct
the whole system of our social living. It must come
man.

of the

with plain living and high thinking

it

must break

up caste, and put domestic service on another foundation.

It

must come in connection with a true

acceptance by each

man

of

his

chosen by his parents or friends,

with earnestness and love.
VOL.

VII.

vocation,

but by

not

his genius,

DOMESTIC

114
.

Nor

is this

LIFE.

redress so hopeless as

we begin by reforming

/tainly, if

it

Cer-

seems.

particulars of our

present system, correcting a few evils and letting

[

the rest stand,

we

For our

social

forms are very far from truth and

equity.

But the way

the tree

is to raise

shall soon give

up

in despair.

I
!

to set the axe at the root of

Let us understand

our aim.

then that a house should bear witness in

economy that human culture

is

built

and garnished.

is

all

its

the end to which

sun and moon to ends analogous, and not

less

than

theirs.

is

sleep

It is not for festivity,

it

under the

It stands there

it

noble

not for

but the pine and the oak shall gladly descend

from the mountains to uphold the roof of men

as faithful

and necessary

shelter always

hall
quil,

as themselves

to be the

open to good and true persons

which shines with

sincerity,

brows ever tran-

and a demeanor impossible

to

disconcert

whose inmates know what they want ; who do not

ask your house how theirs should be kept.

have aims

they cannot pause for

trifles.

They
The diet

of the house does not create its order, but knowl-

edge, character, action, absorb so

yield so

much

life

and

entertainment that the refectory has

ceased to be so curiously studied.

of

much

aim has followed a change

With

a change

of the whole scale

by

which men and things were wont to be measured.

Wealth and poverty

are seen for what they are.

DOMESTIC
j/lt begins to be seen that
\j

who
The

feel poor,
rich, as

very

rich,

of

all,

115

poor are only theyX

tlie

and poverty

consists in feeling

poor.y

we reckon them, and among them

in a true scale

the indifference o f circumstances.

call into activity the

the

would be found very

The great make us

indigent and ragged.

first

LIFE.

feel,

They

higher perceptions and sub-

due the low habits of comfort and luxury

but the

higher perceptions find their objects everywhere

only the low habits need palaces and banquets.

Let a man, then,

say,

My

house

here in the

is

county, for the culture of the county

an eating-

house and sleeping-house for travellers

but

it

shall

be

much

more.

it

I pray you,

cmnber yourself and me

lent wife, not to

rich dinner for this

man

These things,

if

excel-

But

looks, in

and

let

this

\
\

has

made ready

they are curi-

ous in them, they can get for a dollar at any

lage.

be

to get

woman who

or this

alighted at our gate, nor a bedchamber

at too great a cost.

shall

'

vil-

stranger, if he will, in your

your accent and behavior, read your heart

earnestness, your thought

and

will,

which he

cannot buy at any price, in any village or city

and which he may well

travel fifty miles,

and dine

sparely and sleep hard in order to behold.

tainly, let the

board be spread and

dressed for the traveller

of hospitality

lie

but

let

let

'

the bed be

not the ^emphasis

in these things;,

Cer-

Honor

to the

DOMESTIC

116

LIFE.

house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is

awake and reads

the laws of the universe, the soul worships truth

and

love,

honor and courtesy flow into

all

deeds.

There was never a country in the world which

could so easily exhibit this heroism as ours

any where the State has made such

never

efficient provis-

ion for popular education, where intellectual enter-

tainment

is

so within reach of youthful ambition.

The poor man's son

humble house
and

talent

educated.

There

is

many a

taste

where

and sometimes genius dwell with

poverty and labor.

see

is

in every city, in every town,

Who

unmoved, under a low

has not seen, and

who can

roof, the eager, blushing

boys discharging as they can their household chores,

and hastening

into the sitting-room to the study of

to-morrow's merciless lesson, yet stealing time to

read one chapter more of the novel hardly smuggled

into the tolerance of father

for the

smith

and mother,

atoning

same by some pages of Plutarch or Goldthe

warm sympathy

with which they kindle

each other in school-yard or in barn or wood-shed

with scraps of poetry or song, with phrases of the
last oration, or

criticism,
',

mimicry of the orator

the youthful

on Sunday, of the sermons

the school

declamation faithfully rehearsed at home, sometimes to the fatigue, sometimes to the admiration

^of

sisters; the first solitary joys of literary vanity,

DOMESTIC
when

LIFE.

117

the translation or the theme has been com-

pleted, sitting alone near the top of the house

the

cautious comparison of the attractive advertisement

of the arrival of Macready, Booth, or

Kemble, or

of the discourse of a well-known speaker, with the

expense of the entertainment

light with

which they greet the return of each one

after the early separations

require

the affectionate de-

which school or business

the foresight with

during such

which,

absences, they hive the honey which

offers, for

opportunity

the ear and imagination of the others

and the unrestrained

glee with which they disbur-

den themselves of their early mental treasures when

the holidays bring

band

What

them again together ?

the hoop that holds

them stanch

It

is

is

the iron

of poverty, of necessity, of austerity, which,

excluding them from the sensual enjoyments which

make

other boys too_.fia^l^old^ has directed their

activity in safe

and right channels, and made them,

despite themselves, reverers of the grand, the beautiful,

of books, of Nature,

they

Ah

and the good.

know

short-sighted

and of man

their advantages.

students

too happy, could

They pine

dom from that mild parental yoke

for free-

they sigh for

fine clothes, for rides, for the theatre,

and prema-

ture freedom and dissipation, which others possess.

Woe

to

them

if

their wishes

angels that dwell with

were crowned

them and are weaving

The
lau-

DOMESTIC

118

LIFE.

rels of life for their youthful brows, are Toil

Want, and Truth, and Mutual

and

Faith.')

In many parts of true economy a cheering lesson

may be

learned from the

of the later

Romans,

mode

of life

and manners

as described to us in the letters

of the younger Pliny.

Nor can

I resist the temp-

tation of quoting so trite an instance as the noble

housekeeping of Lord Falkland in Clarendon " His

:

house beino; within

little

more than ten miles from

Oxford, he contracted familiarity and friendship

with the most polite and accurate
versity,

men

of that Uni-

who found such an immenseness of wit and

such a solidity of judgment in him, so infinite a

fancy,

bound in by a most logical

ratiocination, such

a vast knowledge that he was not ignorant in anything, yet such

known

an excessive humility, as

if

he had

nothing, that they frequently resorted and

dwelt with him, as in a college situated in a purer

air;

so that his house

was a university

volume, whither they came, not so

as study,

and

to

examine and

propositions which laziness

much

in a less

for repose

refine those grosser

and consent made

cur-

rent in vulgar conversation."

I honor that

man whose

ambition

it is,

not to win

laurels in the state or the army, not to be a jurist

or a naturalist, not to be a poet or a commander,

but to be a master of living well, and to administer

the offices of master or servant, of husband, father,

DOMESTIC
and

But

friend.

power for

that

it

of

as

the reason for the failure

is

I think the vice of our housekeeping

is

this as for those other functions,

much, or more,
the same.

much breadth

requires as

it

119

LIFE.

and

does not hold

man

The

sacred.

vice of gov-

ernment, the vice of education, the vice of religion,

is

one with that of private

life.
^

In the old fables we used

tp read of

a cloak

brought from fairy-land. as- tTgifif for the fairest and

purest in Prince Al^roir'^'court.^ It was to be her
prize

whom

try

on, but

it

it

would

it

Every (me was eager

fit.

wtuld

fit.

nobody

a world too wide, for the next

ground, and for the third

it

for one

it,

it

to

was

dragged on the

shrunk i-. a

scarf.

They, of course, said that the devil was4ri the mantle,

for really the truth

was in the

maiitle,

and was

exposing the ugliness Vhich each would fain con-

All drew back with terror from the gar^ient.

ceal.

The innocent Genelas

alone could wear

it.

,>In like

man is prodded in liistliought with

a measure of man which h^pplies to every passenUnhappily, not one in many thousands comes
ger.

manner, every

up

to the stature

and proportions

of the model.

Neither does the measurer himself, neither do the

people in the street
uals

whom

When

neither do the select individ-

he admires,

he inspects them

the heroes
critically,

of

the race.

he discovers that

their aims are low, that they are too quickly satis-

DOMESTIC

120

He

fied.

LIFE.
with which

observes the swiftness

life

culminates, and the humility of the expectations of

To each occurs,

the greatest part of men.

soon after

the age of puberty, some event or society or

of living, which

becomes the

chief fact in their history.

marriage (which

an unfolding

life

life

In woman,

it is

more reasonable)

and measure

pitiful to date

of

is

crisis of

love

and yet

the facts

all

way

and the

and
it is

and sequel

from such a youthful and gen-

erally inconsiderate period as the age of courtship

and marriage.

In men,

it

is

their place of educa-

an emplojrment, settlement in a town,

tion, choice of

or removal to the East or to the West, or some

which makes the meridian

other(magnified

trifle.)

moment, and

the after years and actions only

all

derive interest from their relation to that.

it

Hence

comes that we soon catch the trick of each man's

conversation,

and knowing

facts, anticipate

that rises.

his

two or three main

what he thinks of each new topic

It is scarcely less perceivable in edu-

cated men, so called, than in the uneducated.

have seen finely endowed

ten,

men

twenty years after they had

turning, as

away.
tickled

thither

masks

left the halls, re-

seemed, the same boj^s who went

The same jokes pleased, the same straws

the manhood and offices they brought
at

it

at college festivals,

this

return

seemed

mere ornamental

underneath they were boys

yet.

We

never

DOMESTIC
come

to be^itizens of_tlie

gers,

who think

is

little

121

LIFE,

wo]^^ but

are

that every thing in their petty

town

same thing anywhere

else.

superior to the

In each the circumstance signalized

differs,

each

made

is

it

In one,

tism.

still villa-

it

but in

the coals of an ever-burning ego^

was

his going to sea

in a second,

the difficulties he combated in going to college

in

a third, his journey to the West, or his voyage to

Canton

in a fourth, his

Society

in a fifth, his

sixth, his

tions
is

coming out

new

diet

of the

Quaker

and regimen

in a

coming forth from the abolition organiza-

and

life of

in a seventh, his going into them.

toys

and

trinkets.

We

It

are too easily

pleased.

I think this sad result appears in the manners.

The men we see in each other do not give us

image and likeness of man. The men we
are whipped through the world

wrinkled, anxious ; they

invisible riders.

How

all

the
see

they are harried,

seem the hacks of some

seldom do we behold tran-

We

We

do
have never yet seen a man.
Vquillity
not know the majestic manners that belong to him,
!

which appease and exalt the beholder.

and the multitude do not

no divine persons with

us,

hasten to be divine.

And

yet

we hold

our lives long, a faith in a better

men, in clean and noble

There are

life,

fast, all

in better

relations, notwithstanding

our total inexperience of a true society.

Certainly

DOMESTIC

122

LIFE.

A
was not

this

tlie

intention of nature, to produce,

with all this immense expenditure of means and

The

power, so cheap and humble a result.

tions in the heart after the
better,

aspira-

good and true teach us

nay, the men themselves suggest a better

life.

Every individual nature has

One is struck in every company,

its

own

beauty.

at every fireside,

many

with the riches of nature, when he hears so

new

tones, all musical, sees in each person original

manners, which have a proper and peculiar charm,

and reads new expressions

of face.

He

perceives

that nature has laid for each the foundations of

a divine building,

There

is

no

if

the soul will build thereon.

no form, which one cannot in

face,

fancy associate with great power of intellect or

with generosity of
sure,

of

beauty

man and

Beauty

In our experience, to be

soul.

is

not, as it

of

woman

ought to be, the dower

as invariably as sensation.

even in the beautiful, occasional,

is,

moment, before which

which

it is

on the wane.

absent from our eyes.

suggests

its

own

right

friends are not their

it is

unripe,

But beauty
Every

is

and

after

never quite

face, every figure,

and sound

own

or,

and perfect only a

as one has said, culminating

single

estate.

highest form.

Our

But

let

the hearts they have agitated witness what power

has lurked in the

traits of these structures of clay

DOMESTIC
that pass

and repass us

123

LIFE.

The

secret

power of form

over the imagination and affections transcends

The

our philosophy.
isfy us that

than

matter

is

first

glance

we meet may

all

sat-

the vehicle of higher powers

own, and that no laws of line or surface

its

can ever account for the inexhaustible expressive-

We

ness of form.

see heads that turn

on the pivot

of the spine,

no

seem

on a pivot as deep as the axle of the

to turn

world,

We

see

so slow,

on the

more

and

lip of

and we

lazily,

and

see heads that

great, they

move.

our companion the presence

or absence of the great masters of thought and

poetry to his mind.

We read in his brow, on meet-

many years, that he is where we

he has made great strides.

ing him after

him, or that

left

Whilst thus nature and the hints we draw from

man

suggest a true and lofty

to the beauty

we

life,

and grandeur of

a household equal

this world, especially

learn the same lesson from those best relations

men which the heart is always promptform. Happy will that house be in which

to individual

ing us to

the relations are formed from character

highest,

and not

after the lowest order

in which character marries,

after the

the house

and not confusion and

a miscellany of unavowable motives.

Then

shall

marriage be a covenant to secure to either party

the sweetness and honor of being a calm, continuing, inevitable benefactor to the other.

Yes, and

DOMESTIC

124

LIFE.

who doubts

the sufficient reply to the sceptic

competence of
in that desire

man

to elevate

and power

and

the

to be elevated is

and en-

to stand in joyful

nobling intercourse with individuals, which makes

the faith and the practice of all reasonable men.
'he

quent

ornament of a house
There

it.

is

is

who

the friends

no event greater in

life

fre-

than the

appearance of new persons about our hearth, except

it

be the progress of the character which draws

It has been finely

them.

definition of the great

man, "

together the most select

him."

added by Landor to his

It is

verse of the old

To
is

is

court us with perpetual treats,

not on these

So much
It

Not on the store of sprightly wine,

Nor plenty of delicious meats,
Though generous Nature did design
'T

we

as on the

pleases

it

Greek Menander

mains, which runs in translation

"

he who can call

company when

re-

for content depend,

shadow of a Friend."

the happiness which, where

it

is

truly

known, postpones all other satisfactions, and makes

For
politics and commerce and churches cheap.

do we not that when

meet,
should,

we figure to ourselves,
men shall meet as they

as states

each a benefactor, a shower of falling

with deeds, with thoughts, with so

ment,

it

shall

stars, so rich

much

accomplish-

be the festival of nature, which

all

DOMESTIC
things symbolize

LIFE.

125

and perhaps Love

highest symbol of Friendship, as

seem symbols of
man's character,

love.

all

is

only the

other things

In the progress of each

his relations to the best

men, which

at first seem only the romances of youth, acquire a

graver imj)ortance
lesson of life

who

and he

is skilful

will

have learned the

in the ethics of friend-

ship.

Beyond its primary ends of the conjugal, parenand amicable relations, the household should
cherish the beautiful arts and the sentiment of ven-

tal,

eration.

1.

Whatever brings the dweller

what educates
purifies

And

into a finer

and enlarges him, may well

yet let

life,

his eye, or ear, or hand, whatever

him not think

fuid place there.

that a property in beauti-

ful objects is necessary to his apprehension of them,

and seek
let

to turn his house into a

museum.

Rather

the noble practice of the Greeks find place in

our society, and

let the creations of

the plastic arts

be collected with care in galleries by the piety and

taste of the people,
light to all.
artists

and yielded as

Meantime, be

ourselves,

it

freely as the sun-

remembered, we are

and competitors, each

one, with

Phidias and Raphael in the production of what

graceful or grand. (The fountain of beauty
heart,

and every generous thought

is

is

the

illustrates the

DOMESTIC

126

Why

/ walls of your cliamber.

^

power

we convert

should

showmen and appendages

of art?
If by

ourselves into

to our fine houses

we owe our

Why

cameos and architecture?

vases, to

love

should

our friends to pictures and

attracting

of

LIFE.

and our works

and nobleness we take up into ourselves the

beauty we admire, we shall spend

aU/

again on

it

woman, needs not the

embellishment of canvas and marble, whose every
act is a subject for the sculptor, and to whose eye
around

The man,

us.

the gods and

know by

the

nymphs never appear

ancient, for they

heart the whole instinct of majesty.

I do not undervalue the fine instruction which

statues

and pictures

museum

But I think the public

give.

town

in each

one day relieve the

will

private house of this charge of owning

ing them.

I go to

Rome and

see

and

exhibit-

on the walls of

by Ra-

the Vatican the Transfiguration, painted

phael, reckoned the first picture in the world

in the Sistine

Chapel I see the grand

sibyls

or

and

by Michel Angelo,
which have every day now for three hundred years
inflamed the imagination and exalted the piety of

prophets, painted in fresco

what vast multitudes of men

to bring

home

to

of all nations

my children and my

of these admirable forms,

shops of the engravers

ation of owning them.

I wish

friends copies

which I can find in the

but I do not wish the vexI wish to find in

my own

DOMESTIC

LIFE.

town a library and museum

wHch

127
tlie

is

property

of the town, where I can deposit this precious treas-

where I and

ure,

my

hundreds of

it

from time

among
such donations from other citizens who

and where

to time,

children can see

has

it

its

proper place

have brought thither whatever

articles

they have

judged to be in their nature rather a public than a

private property.

A collection

of this kind, the property of each

town, would dignify the town, and

we should

and respect our neighbors more.

love

Obviously,

would be easy for every town to discharge

truly municipal

Every one

duty.

gladly contribute his share

the

more considerable the

2.

Certainly,

not

from

gladly,

had become.

institution

aloof

would

of us

and the more

it

this

homage

this

to

beauty, but in strict connection therewith, the house

will

come

to

The

be esteemed a Sanctuary.

lan-

guage of a ruder age has given to common law the

maxim

that every man's house

progress of truth will

Will not man one day open

dear he
to

him

is

Will he not

Law

see,

prevails for ever

heart

and

all

how

see

it is

he miscalls

and ever

that

the

shrine.

how near

through

his private being is a part of it

own unsounded

his castle

his eyes

to the soul of Nature,

accident, that

in his

is

make every house a

its

that

home

is

that his economy, his

DOMESTIC

128

LIFE.

good and bad fortune,

and
manners are all a curious and exact demonstration in
labor, his

bis health

miniature of the Genius of the Eternal Providence

When

he perceives the Law, he ceases to despond.

Whilst he sees

it,

and becomes an

act of religion.

every thought and act

is

raised,

Does the consecra-

Sunday confess the desecration of the entire

week? Does the consecration of the church confess the profanation of the house?
Let us 'read
the incantation backward.
Let the man stand on
his feet.
Let religion cease to be occasional and

( tion of

the pulses of thought that go to the borders of the

universe, let

them proceed from the bosom

of the

Household.

These are the consolations,

to which the household

is

these are the ends

instituted

and the rooftree

If these are sought

and in any good degree

attained, can the State, can

commerce, can climate,

stands.

can the labor of

or half

as

weak and

many for

good?

one, yield anything better,

Beside these aims. Society

the State an intrusion.

is

I think that the

heroism which at this day would make on us the

impression of Epaminondas and Phocion must be
that of a domestic conqueror.

and gracefully subdue

this

He who shall bravely

Gorgon of Convention

and Fashion, and show men how

handsome, and heroic

ments of our

cities

and

life

to lead a clean,

amid the beggarly

villages

whoso

ele-

shall teach

DOMESTIC

me

liow to eat

my

LIFE.

meat and take

129

my repose

and

deal with men, without any shame following, will

restore the life of

own name dear

VOL. VII.

man

to splendor,

to all history.
9

and make

his

FAKMING.

FAKMING.

The

glory of the farmer

of labors,
last

it is

The

The food which was

first

farmer was the

toric nobility rests

Men

stands* close to

he obtains from the earth the bread and

the meat.
be.

He

activity.

in the division

All trade rests at

his part to create.

on his primitive

nature

is that,

not,

first

he causes to

man, and

all his-

on possession and use of land.

do not like hard work, but every

man

has an

exceptional respect for tillage, and a feeling that

this is the original calling of his race, that
self is

only excused from

it

which made him delegate

hands.

If

mends him

it

for a time to other

he have not some

to the farmer,

he him-

by some circumstance
skill

which recom-

some product for which

him corn, he must himseK redue place among the planters. And

the farmer will give

turn into his

the profession has in all eyes

standing nearest to God, the

Then

its

first

ancient charm, as
cause.

the beauty of nature, the tranquillity

and

innocence of the countryman, his independence, and

his pleasing arts,

the care of

bees, of poultry, of

FARMING.

134

sheep, of cows, the dairy, the care of hay, of fruits,

of orchards

and

and the reaction of these on

forests,

workman, in giving him a strength and plain

all
dignity like the face and manners of nature,

the

men

All

acknowledge.

men keep

the farm in

reserve as an asylum where, in case of mischance,

to hide their poverty,

not succeed in society.

or

a solitude,

glances of remorse are turned this

bankrupts of
courts

and

and pleasure
vices, the

whom

trade,

senates, or

they do

way from

the

from mortified pleaders in

from the victims of idleness

Poisoned by town

if

And who knows how many

sufferer resolves

and town

life

my

Well,

'

children,

I have injured, shall go back to the land, to

be recruited and cured by that which should have

been
T"

my

nursery, and

The farmer's

now

be their hospital.'

shall

office is precise

and important, but

you must not try to paint him in rose-color

cannot

make

tation,

whose minister he

necessities.

pretty compliments to fate

It is the

of the world that

is.

He

you

and gravi-

represents the

beauty of the great economy

makes

He

his comeliness.

bends

to the order of the seasons, the weather, the soils

and

He
out,

crops, as the sails of k ship

bend

to the wind.

represents continuous hard labor, year in, year

and small

to nature,

gains.

and not

He

is

a slow person, timed

to city watches.

He

pace of seasons, plants, and chemistry.

takes the

Nature

FARMING.
never hurries

atom by atom,

achieves her work.

The

135
little

by

little,

manners

ing, yachting, hunting, or planting, is the

of Nature; patience with the delays of

sun, delays of the seasons,

lack of water,
feet,

patience

wind and

bad weather, excess or

with the slowness of our

with the parsimony of our strength, with the

largeness of

sea

and land we must

The farmer times himself

to Nature,

traverse, etc.

and acquires

that livelong patience which belongs to her.

narrow man, his rule

and

she

lesson one learns in fish-

clothe

him

is

and he must wait

His entertainments, his

grow.

spending must be on a farmer's

merchant's.

It

Slow,

that the earth shall feed

for his crop to

liberties
scale,

and

his

and not on a

were as false for farmers to use a

wholesale and massy expense, as for states to use a

minute economy.

But

if

thus pinched on one side,

he has compensatory advantages.

He is

clings to his land as the rocks do.

where I

live,

settlers (in

generations

and most of the

1635), should they reappear on

the farms to-day, would find their

names

still

In the town

farms remain in the same families for

seven and eight

first

permanent,

in possession.

And

own blood and

the like fact holds

in the surrounding towns.

This hard work will always be done by one kind

of

man

diers,

not by scheming speculators, nor by

nor professors, nor readers of Tennyson

sol-

but

FARMING.

136

by men

of endurance

deep-cliested, long-winded,

tough, slow and sure, and timely.

a great

means

wood

health,

to his

end

and the appetite

;

he has broad lands for his home,

burn great

to

milk at least

is

fires,

plenty of plain food

unwatered

and

cheaper and better and more of

He

The farmer has

of health, and

it

his

for sleep, he has

than

citizens.

has grave trusts confided to him.

In the

great household of Nature, the farmer stands at

the door of the bread-room, and weighs to each
his loaf.

It is for

marry or

not.

him

to

or, as

shall

Early marriages and the number

of births are indissolubly connected with

of food

men

say whether

Burke

said, "

Man

abundance

breeds at the

Then he is the Board of Quarantine.

The farmer is a hoarded capital of health, as the
farm is the capital of wealth and it is from him
mouth."

and intellectual,
The city is always recruited
The men in cities who are the"!

that the health and power, moral

of the cities came.
(

from the country.

centres of energy, the driving-wheels of trade, pol-

itics,

and genius, are the children or grandchildren of

or practical arts, and the

women

of beauty

farmers, and are spending the energies which their'

fathers' hardy, silent life

accumulated in frosty fur-

>^rows, in poverty, necessity,

He

is

and darkness.

the continuous benefactor.

He who

^
digs

a well, constructs a stone foimtain, plants a grove

FARMING.

137

by the roadside, plants an orchard, builds

of trees

much

a durable house, reclaims a swamp, or so

so far lovely

and

makes a fortune which

desirable,

he cannot carry away with him, but which

to his

works

home

is

useful

The man

country long afterwards.

at

as

makes the land

puts a stone seat by the wayside,

that

helps society at large with some-

what more of certainty than he who devotes himself to charities.

If

by the eternal laws

of political parties but

ical

be true that, not by votes

it

of polit-

economy, slaves are driven out of a slave State

as fast as

it is

surrounded by free States, then the

true abolitionist

is

the farmer, who, heedless of

laws and constitutions, stands

day in the

all

investing his labor in the land,

field,

and making a prod-

uct with which no forced labor can compete.

We

commonly say

that the rich

man

can speak

the truth, can afford honesty, can afford indepen-

dence of opinion and action

ory of nobility.

But

it

the rich

is

sense, that is to say, not the

and large expenditure, but

outlay

is less

tie

the thread
is

man

is

the the-

in a true

of large income

solely the

factories, the

dicate that a thread

And

man

than his income and

In English
loom, to

and that

is

man whose

steadily kept so.

boy that watches the

when the wheel

broken,

is

stops to in-

called a minder.

in this great factory of our Coi^ernican globe,

shifting

its slides,

rotating

its constellations,

times.

FARMING.

138

and

tides,

bringing

now

the day of planting, then

of watering, then of weeding, then of reaping, then

of curing

and

His machine

storing,

the farmer

of colossal proportions

is

eter of the water-wheel, the

arms

power of the battery, are out of

ure

and

and

it

takes

working.

its

him long
This

to

pump

wear

and

the vat

out,

Who

but are

all

mechanic meas-

understand

its

parts

is

and

piston, wheels

never out of
never

tires,

self -repairing.

Not the

Irish,

but Geology and Chemistry, the

coolies,

quarry of the

the diam-

never " sucks ;" these

are the farmer's servants ?

nor the

of the levers, the

screws are never loose; this machine

gear

the minder.

is

air,

the water of the brook, the light-

ning of the cloud, the castings of the worm, the

plough of the

frost.

Long

before he was born, the

sun of ages decomposed the rocks, mellowed his

land, soaked

it

with light and heat, covered

it

with

vegetable film, then with forests, and accumulated

the

sphagnum whose decays made the peat

of his

meadow.
Science has shown the great circles in which

nature works

the

manner

in

which marine plants

balance the marine animals, as the land plants supply the oxygen which the animals consume, and
the animals the carbon which the plants absorb.

These

activities

a method of

all

are incessant.

Nature works on

for each and each for alL

The

FARMING.
strain that

is

made on one

139

point bears on every

arch and foundation of the structure.

perfect

from
ity,

its

You

solidarity.

There

is

cannot detach an atom

holdings, or strip off from

the electric-

it

gravitation, chemic affinity, or the* relation to

light

and

heat,

brings with

and leave the atom bare.

No,

it

it itso universal ties.

Nature, like a cautious testator,

so as not to bestow

it all

up her

ties

estate

on one generation, but has

a forelooking tenderness and equal regard to the

next and the next, and the fourth and the fortieth
age.

There

lie

eternal rocks, as

we

call

them, have held their oxy-

gen or lime undiminished,

particle of

The

the inexhaustible magazines.

No

entire, as it was.

oxygen can rust or wear, but has the

same energy

as

on the

first

the sacred power as

we

failed of our trust,

and now,

mense day the hour

is

received

at last

we have hoarded, mingle

it

The good

morning.

rocks, those patient waiters, say to

him

it.

'

We

We have
have not

when our imstruck take the gas

in

with water, and

let it

be free to grow in plants and animals and obey the

thought of man.'

The earth works

for

him

the earth

which yields almost gratuitous service

plication of intellect.

turer of

ment

soil.

begins.

Every plant

is

is

a machine

to every ap-

a manufac-

In the stomach of the plant develop-

The

tree can

draw on the whole

air,

FARMING.

140

the whole earth, on all the rolling main.

is all suction-j^ipe,

root,

its

The plant

imbibing from the ground

from the

air

by

its

by-

leaves, with all its

might.

The

air

works for him. The atmosphere, a sharp

solvent, drinks the essence

globe, a

on the

mountains into

As

the sea

the air

is

spring,

and

is

it.

and

sj)irit

of every solid

menstruum which melts the

is matter subdued by heat.

Air

the grand receptacle of all rivers, so

the

from which

receptacle

into

which they

all return.

things

all

The

invisj

ible

and creeping

Our

senses are sceptics,

air takes

form and

solid mass.

and believe only the im-

pression of the moment, and do not believe the

chemical fact that these huge mountain-chains are

made up

of gases

as subtle as she

day by day

seem

But Nature

She turns her

is

capital

All things are flowing, even those

immovable.

passing into smoke.

rials

rolling wind.

strong.

deals never with dead, but ever with

quick subjects.
that

and
is

The

The adamant

is

always

plants imbibe the mate-

which they want from the

air

and the ground.

They burn, that is, exhale and decompose their

own bodies into the air and earth again. The animal burns, or undergoes the like perpetual con-

The earth burns, the mountains burn

and decompose, slower, but incessantly. It is almost inevitable to push the generalization up into
sumption.

FARMING.

141

higher parts of nature, rank over rank into sen-

Nations burn with internal

tient beings.

thought and affection, which wastes while

We

shall find finer

tellect is

fire

combustion and finer

rash and pitiless

derful bone-house which

even, as

it is

Whilst

all

is

is

the

of

fire

works.

fuel.

In-

melts this won-

man.

called

the greatest good,

thus burns,

it

it

Genius

the greatest harm.

universe in a blaze

kindled from the torch of the sun,

it

needs a per-

petual tempering, a phlegm, a sleep, atmospheres

of azote, deluges of water, to check the fury of the

conflagration

a hoarding to check the spending,

a centripetence equal to the centrifugence

and

this is invariably supplied.

The
there

railroad dirt-cars are good excavators, but

is

no porter

like Gravitation,

who- will bring

down any weights which man cannot

if

he wants

laborers.

aid,

knows where

Water works

in masses,

and

transports vast boulders of rock in

thousand miles.

'

its

talent of

But

its

far greater

becoming

smallest holes and pores.

little,

By

and

sets its ir-

your mills or your

resistible shoulder to

/on

carry,

to find his fellow

its

shij)s,

or

iceberg a

power depends

and entering the

this agency, carrying

in solution elements needful to every plant, the

vegetable world exists.

But

as I said,

rose -color.

we must not paint the farmer

in

Whilst these grand energies have

FARMING.

142

wrought for him and made

is

his task possible, he

habitually engaged in small economies, and

taught thepower^that lurks in petty things.

is

the force of a few simple arrangements

stance, the

powers of a fence.

On

At

for in-

the prairie you

wander a hundred miles and hardly

a stone.

is

Great

find a stick or

rare intervals a thin oak-opening has

been spared, and every such section has been long

But the farmer manages

occupied.

from

far,

puts up a rail-fence, and at once the seeds

sprout and the oaks

and

trees

by the roadside, and

allowed to ripen.

and for

fifty

Draw

Plant

fruit-

their fruit will never

Nature

There

is

a great deal of enchant-

suggests

every

it

economical

scale.

expedient

Set out a pine-tree,

dies in the first year, or lives a poor spindle.

But Nature drops a pine-cone

lives fifteen centuries,

feet high,

in Mariposa,

and

the tree

and thirty in diameter,

how

it

was done.

ridge, but in a basin,

it

grows three or four hundred

grows

grove of giants, like a colonnade of Thebes.

where

It did not
it

in a

Ask

grow on a

found deep

enough and dry enough for the pine

self

be

a pine fence about them,

in a chestnut rail or picketed pine boards.

somewhere on a great

and

was only browsing

years they mature for the owner their

delicate fruit.

ment

It

rise.

which had kept them down.

fire

wood

to procure

soil,

cold

defended

it-

from the sun by growing in groves, and from

FARMING.

143

The

the wind by the walls of the mountain.

roots

that shot deepest, and the stems of happiest exposure,

drew the nourishment from the

less thrifty perished

stronger,

rest, until

and manured the

soil for

and the mammoth Sequoias rose

enormous proportions. The

remembered

his orchard at

traveller

the

the

to their

who saw them

home, where every year,

in the destroying wind, his forlorn trees pined like

In September, when the pears

suffering virtue.

hang heaviest and are taking from the sun

gay

colors,

their

comes usually a gusty day which shakes

down the

the w^hole garden and throws

fruit in bruised heaps.

The planter took

of the Sequoias, built a high wall, or

heaviest

the hint
better

surrounded the orchard with a nursery of birches

Thus he had the niountain basin

and evergreens.
in miniature

and

his pears

melons, and the vines beneath

But

of a mile.

The wall

grew

to

the size of

them ran an eighth

this shelter creates

that keeps off the strong

a new climate.

wind keeps

off

the cold wind.

The high wall

back on the

gives that acre a quadruple share

of sunshine,

soil

reflecting the heat

" Enclosing in the garden square

A dead and standing pool

and makes a
out

IS

little

Cuba within

it,

of air,"

whilst all with-

Labrador.

The chemist comes

to his aid every year

by

fol-

FARMING.

144

lowing out some new hint drawn from nature, and

now

affirms that this dreary space occupied

farmer

is

by the

needless ; he will concentrate his kitchen-

garden into a box of one or two rods square,

will

take the roots into his laboratory; the vines and

stalks

and stems may go sprawling about in the

fields outside,

he will attend to the roots in his tub,

gorge them with food that

is

As he nursed

the larger the crop.

The

good for them.

smaller his garden, the better he can feed

it,

and

his Thanksgiv-

ing turkeys on bread and milk, so he will pamper

his peaches

and grapes on the viands they

If they have

an appetite for potash, or

like best.

salt,

now and then

them. They keep

or iron,

or ground bones, or even

for a dead

hog, he will indulge

the secret

well,

and never

their sunset

tell

on your table whence they drew

complexion or their delicate

flavors.

See what the farmer accomplishes by a cartload

of tiles

he

alters the climate

by

letting off water

which kept the land cold through constant evaporation,

and allows the warm rain

to bring

down

into

the roots the temperature of the air and of the surface-soil

and he deepens the

soil,

"since

the dis-

charge of this standing water allows the roots of

his plants to penetrate

below the surface to the sub-

and accelerates the ripening of the crop. The

town of Concord is one of the oldest towns in this
soil,

country, far on

now

in its third century.

The

se-

FARMING.
lectmen have once in every

145
years f>erambulate(i

five

the boundaries, and yet, in this very year, a large

quantity of land has been discovered and added to

the town without a

By

quarter.

murmur

of complaint

drainage w^e went

down

we did not know, and have found

cord under old Concord, which we
the best crops from

sex

and, in

ment

story

from any

to a subsoil

there
are

is

now

Massachusetts has a base-

more valuable and that promises

all

the superstructure.

These

tiles

to

pay

But these

have acquired by association a new

tiles

getting

a Middlesex under Middle-

fine, that

a better rent than

a Con-

interest.

are political economists, confuters of

Malthus and Ricardo

many Young

they are so

more bread.

Americans announcing a better

era,

They drain

sw^eet

the land,

make

it

and

friable

have made English Chat Moss a garden, and will

now do
yond
ions

as

much

for the

this benefit

Dismal Swamp.

But

be-

they are the text of better opin-

and better auguries for mankind.

There has been a nightmare bred in England of

indigestion and spleen
lords,

among

namely, the dogma that

for the powers of the soil

a geometrical

ratio, whilst

an arithmetical
ous

we

limits:

and hence

are, the faster

landlords and loom-

men breed too fast

men multiply in

that

corn multiplies only in

that, the

we approach

nay, the plight of every

VOL. VU.

10

more prosper-

these frightful

new generation

FARMING.

146
is

worse than of the foregoing, because the

comers take up the best lands

ond best
is

first

the next, the sec-

and each succeeding wave of population

driven to poorer, so that the land

is

ever yield-

ing less returns to enlarging hosts of eaters.

Carey of Philadelphia replied

"

Not

so,

Henry-

Mr. Mal-

thus, but just the opposite of so is the fact."

The

planter, the savage, without helpers,

first

without

enemy,

tools,

looking chiefly to safety from his

man or

beast,

takes

The

poor land.

better lands are loaded with timber, which he can-

not clear

they need drainage, which he cannot

He cannot plough, or fell trees, or

swamp. He is a poor creature he

tempt.
rich

on

lives

trail

their flesh

fruits

a cave or a hutch, has

stick, lives in

no road but the

and

when he

moose or bear

of the

when he can

He

cannot.

he coughs, he has a stitch in his

and
kill

scratches

with a sharp

chills;

and

when he

eat a bear,

the bear eats him.

plants at

all,

is

is

falls,

side,

he

is

lame

of war,

sometimes

long before he digs or

is

himself, works

Later he

better than hunting;

that the earth works faster for

for

and

on roots

he has a fever

and then only a patch.

learns that his planting

work

kill one,

hungry, he cannot always

chances
'T

at-

drain the

for

him than he can

him when he is

when it rains, when heat overcomes him.

The sunstroke which knocks him down brings his

asleep,

FARMING.

com

As Ms

up.

147

family thrive, and other planters

come

u])

clear

good land; and when, by and by, there

more

and roads, the new generaare strong enough to open the lowlands, where

tions

the

around him, he begins to

skill,

and

fell trees

and
is

tools

wash of mountains has accumulated the best

soil,

which yield a hundred-fold the former crops.

The

last

lands are the best lands.

and great numbers

It needs science

and
Thus true political economy
is not mean, but liberal, and on the pattern of the
sun and sky. Population increases in the ratio of
to cultivate the best lands,

in the best manner.

morality

credit exists in the ratio of morality.

Meantime we cannot enumerate the incidents

and agents of the farm without reverting to their
influence on the farmer.

He

carries out this cu-

mulative preparation of means to their last

This crust of

soil

which ages have refined he

fines again for the feeding of

people.

The

effect.

civil

re-

and instructed

great elements with which he deals

cannot leave him unaffected, or unconscious of his

ministry; but their influence somewhat resembles
that which the same Nature has on the child,

subduing and silencing him.

We

of

see the farmer

with pleasure and respect when we think what powers

and

utilities are so

every secret of labor

landscape.

meekly worn.

He knows

he changes the face of the

Put him on a new planet and he would

FARMING.

148

know where

to begin

yet tliere

is

no arrogance in

The farmer

his bearing, but a perfect gentleness.

stands well on the world.

Plain in manners as in

dress,

he would not shine in palaces

lutely

unknown and

he

is

abso-

inadmissible therein ; living or

dying, he never shall be heard of in

them

yet the

drawing-room heroes put down beside him would

shrivel in his presence

he solid and unexpressive,

they expressed to gold-leaf.

the world,

as

Adam

But he stands well on

did, as

an Indian does, as

Homer's heroes, Agamemnon or Achilles,

is

a person

whom

a poet of any clime

Firdusi, or Cervantes

would

appreciate as being

really a piece of the old Nature,

and moon, rainbow and flood

He

do.

Milton,

comparable to sun

because he

is,

as all

natural persons are, representative of Nature as

much

as these.

uncorrupted behavior which we admire in

'hat

animals and in young children belongs to him, to

the hunter, the sailor,

presence of Nature.

men

talkative

them

artificial.

the man

Cities force

who

lives in the

growth and make

and entertaining, but they make

What

possesses interest for us

is

the naturel of each, his constitutional excellence.

This

is

forever a surprise, engaging and lovely

cannot be satiated with knowing

and

it

is

cherishes

this

it,

and about

we
it

which the conversation with Nature

and guards.

WORKS AND DAYS.

WOKKS AND

Our

nineteenth century

grow out

all things," said Aristotle

ment

of instruments,

forms."

is

the age of tools.

"

of our structure.
;

DAYS.

Man

" the hand

and the mind

The human body

tions, the patent office,

is

is

the instru-

the form of

is

the magazine of inven-

where are the models from

All the tools and

which every hint was taken.

engines on earth are only extensions of

and

One

senses.

They

the meter of

is

definition of

gence served by organs."

man

its

limbs

" an intelli-

is

Machines can only

ond, not supply, his unaided senses.

sec-

The body

is

The eye appreciates finer differences than

can expose. The apprentice clings to his foot-

a meter.
art

rule;

a practised mechanic will measure by his

thumb and

his

arm with equal

precision

and a good

surveyor will pace sixteen rods more accurately

than another

man can measure them by

tape.

The

sympathy of eye and hand by which an Indian or

a practised slinger hits his mark with a stone, or a

wood-chopper or a carpenter swings his axe to a

hair-line

on his

log, are

examples

and there

is

no

WORKS AND DAYS.

152

sense or organ wliich

not capable of exquisite

is

performance.

Men

love to wonder,

science

and such

of our age,

and

is

and that

is

the seed of our

the mechanical determination

so recent are our best contrivances,

that use has n6t dulled our joy

and we pity our fathers

and pride

in

them

for dying before steam

and

galvanism, sulphuric ether and ocean telegraphs,

photograph and spectroscope arrived, as cheated

out of

haK

their

human

These arts open

estate.

great gates of a future, promising to

world plastic and to

lift

human

make

out of

life

its

the
beg-

gary to a god-like ease and power.

Our century
press,

to be sure

We

apparatus.

had inherited a

had the compass, the

watches, the spiral

tolerable

printing-

spring, the barometer,

many

the telescope.

Yet

added that

seems almost made over new

life

so

inventions have been

;

and

as Leibnitz said of Newton, that "if he reckoned

all that

had been done by mathematicians from the

beginning of the world down to Newton, and what

had been done by him,

half," so one

his

would be the better

might say that the inventions of the

last fifty years counterpoise those of the fifty cen-

turies before them.

For the vast production and

manifold application of iron

mon and
are

new

is

new

and our com-

indispensable utensils of house and farm

the sewing-machine, the power-loom, the

WORKS AND DAYS.

McCormick

reaper,

lucifer matches,

153

mowing-machines, gas-light,

tlie

and the immense productions

the laboratory, are

new

of

and one

in this century,

worth of coal does the work of a laborer

franc's

for twenty days.

Why need

enemy of space
and time, with its enormous strength and delicate
applicability, which is made in hospitals to bring a
bowl of gruel to a sick man's bed, and can twist
beams of iron like candy-braids, and vies with the
I speak of steam, the

upheaved and doubled over the geo-

forces which

Steam

logic strata?

is

shouldered fellow, but

work.

and

It

will

crops,

our

an apt scholar and a strongit

has not yet done

abeady walks about the

field like

do anything required of

Babbage,

it

It

must sew

taught by Mr.

interest

and logarithms.

must drive our gigs

must calculate

It irrigates

it.

and drags away a mountain.

shirts, it

all its

a man,

Lord Chancellor Thurlow thought it might be made

draw bills and answers in chancery. If that

to

were

satire, it is yet

coming

to render

many

services of a mechanico-intellectual kind,

higher

and

will

leave the satire short of the fact.

How

excellent are the mechanical aids

applied to the

human

we have

body, as in dentistry, in vac-

cination, in the rhinoplastic treatment

in the beau-

tiful aid of ether, like a finer sleep

and in the

boldest promiser of

all,

the

transfusion of the

WORKS AND DAYS.

154
blood,

wMch,

in Paris,

it

was claimed, enables a

man to change bis blood as often as his linen

What of this dapper caoutchouc and gutta-perwhich make water-pipes and stomach-pumps,

cha,

and diving

belting for mill-wheels,

proof coats for

all climates,

bells,

and

rain-

which teach us to defy

man on a footing with the

crocodile ? What of the grand tools

the wet, and put every

beaver and the

with which we engineer, like kobolds and enchanters,

tunnelling Alps, canalling the American Isth-

mus, piercing the Arabian desert

we

setts

In Massachu-

fight the sea successfully with beach-grass

and broom, and the blowing sand-barrens with pine

plantations.

The

soil of

populous in Europe,

now,

it is

said,

and planted

The
of

sea.

three thousand years,

fell for

thanks Mehemet Ali's irrigations

forests

for

late

Hebrew king

said, "

to praise him."

And

old

man

below the level of the

is

Egypt, where no rain

Holland, once the most

returning showers.

He makes
there

is

the wrath

no argument

of theism better than the grandeur of ends brought

about by
railroads
cities

paltr}'-

means.

from Chicago

and

The chain

of

Western

to the Pacific has planted

civilization in less

time than

it

costs to

bring an orchard into bearing.

What

shall

we say

of the ocean telegraph, that

extension of the eye and ear, whose sudden per-

formance astonished mankind as

if

the intellect

WORKS AND DAYS.

were taking the brute earth
shooting the

itself into training,

and

and thought through

first thrills of life

the unwilling brain

155

There does not seem any limit

new

to these

infor-

mations of the same Spirit that made the elements

at

Art

and now, through man, works them.

first,

and power

make day

go on as they have done,

will

will

out of night, time out of space, and space

out of time.

No

invention breeds invention.

very material
is

sooner

is

the

telegraph devised than gutta-percha, the

electric

requires,

it

is

The aeronaut

found.

provided with gun-cotton, the very fuel he wants

for

his balloon.

When

commerce

vastly en-

is

larged, California and Australia expose the gold

When

needs.

Europe

and Australia crave

to

is

over-populated,

be peopled

and

so through-

out, every chance is timed, as if Nature,

the lock,

knew where

is

who made

to find the key.

Another result of our

which

it

America

arts is the

surprising us with

new

new

intercourse

solutions of

the

The intercourse
new. Our selfishness

embarrassing political problems.

is

not new, but the scale

is

would have held slaves or would have excluded

from a quarter of the planet
on the
gusting

soil of that quarter.

;

all

that are not born

Our

politics are dis-

but what can they help or hinder when

from time

to

time the primal instincts are im-

WORKS AND DAYS.

156

pressed on masses of mankind,

are in exodus and flux

when the

nations

Nature loves to cross her

and

German, Chinese, Turk, Russ, and

Kanaka were

putting out to sea, and intermarry-

stocks,

ing race with race

and ships were

and commerce took the

built capacious

hint,

enough to carry the

people of a county.

This thousand-handed art has introduced a new

element into the

The

state.

power

science of

forced to remember the power of science.

mounts and climbs.

tion

is

Civiliza-

Malthus, when he stated

that the mouths went on multiplying geometrically

and the food only

the

arithmetically, forgot to say that

human mind was

also a factor in political econ-

omy, and that the augmenting wants of society

would be met by an augmenting power of invention.

Yes,

we have a

pretty artillery of tools

as our fathers
plant,

till,

did

travel,

grind, weave, forge,

to

We

better.

and gimlets

have new

we have

we have the newspaper, which does

make every square acre of land and sea

culus

account of

itself at

your breakfast-table

money, and paper money

the finest tool of

jN^uch

will

in

ride four times as fast

and excavate

shoes, gloves, glasses,

now

we

our social arrangements

all,

have more.

the calits

best

give an

we have

we have language,

and nearest

Man

flatters

to the mind.

himself that

WORKS AND DAYS.

his

command

over nature must increase.

We

begin to obey him.

yet,

and the next war

We

may

changing from

American
Tantalus,

Things

are to have the balloon

will be fought in the air.

wash the

yet find a rose water that will

nesrro white.

of

157

He

sees the skull of the Eno^lish race

its

Saxon type under the exigencies

Kfe.

who

in old times

was seen vainly

try-

ing to quench his thirst with a flowing stream which

ebbed whenever he approached

again

He

shall reach
It is

He

lately.

"Boston.

it

is

yet

is

now

in

has been seen

it,

New

Paris, in

in great

spirits

York, in
thinks he

thinks he shall bottle the wave.

however getting a

have an ugly look

still.

doubtful.

little

No

'

Things

many
new man

matter how

centuries of culture have preceded, the

always finds himself standing on the brink of chaos,

Can anybody remember when

and money not scarce?
Can anybody remember when sensible men, and the
always in a

crisis.

the times were not hard,

right sort of

men, and the right

were plentiful?

sort of

Tantalus begins

lo

women,

think steam

a delusion, and galvanism no better than

it

should

be.

[any facts concur to show that

we must look

deeper for our salvation than to steam, photographs,

balloons

or

astronomy.

questionable properties.

These

tools

They are

have some

reagents.

Ma

WORKS AND DAYS.

158

The weaver becomes a web,

cliinery is aggressive.

tFe maeliinist a machine.

use^you.

tools, jthey

housfe
life

and dangerous.

edge-tools,

is to

and

A man
ceeds,

man

man

builds a fine

and now he has a master, and a task

he

furnish, watch,

is

no longer

makes a

free,

show

repair, the rest of his days.

tion,

you do not use the

If

All tools are in one sense

and keep

it,

man

in

has a reputa-

but must respect that.

picture or a book, and,

if

suc-

it

I saw a brave

often the worse for him.

't is

for

it

the other day, hitherto as free as the

hawk

or

the fox of the wilderness, constructing his cabinet

of drawers for shells, eggs, minerals,

and mounted

to see that he

was amusing

birds.

It

himself

was easy

own

with making pretty links for his

limbs.

Then
ful

if all

the political economist thinks "

't is

doubt-

the mechanical inventions that ever existed

have lightened the day's

The machine unmakes

toil of

one

human

Now

the man.

being."

that the

is

nobody.

Every new step in improving the engine

restricts

machine

is

so

perfect,

the

engineer

one more act of the engineer,

Once

it

took Archimedes;

fireman, and a boy to

the handles or

mind

know

unteaches

now

it

him.

only needs a

up
But when

the coppers, to pull

the water-tank.

the engine breaks, they can do nothing.

What

sickening details in the daily journals

WORKS AND DAYS.

159

believe tliey have ceased to publish the "

Calendar "

Own Book

and the " Pirate's

family newspapers, namely the "

une "

the "

and

Newgate

" since the

New York

Trib-

London Times " have quite super-

seded them in the freshness as well as the horror of

their records of crime.

corrupt and brutal

Politics

were never more

and Trade, that pride and dar-

ling of our ocean, that educator of nations, that ben-

efactor in spite of

Of
arts

itself,

we

course

But

if,

all

over the world.

resort to the enumeration of his

and inventions

man.

ends in shameful default-

and bankruptcy,

ing, bubble,

with

as a

measure of the worth of

is

a felon,

we

skill or

chemical

re-

all his arts,

cannot assume the mechanical

he

Let us try another

sources as the measure of worth.

gauge.

What

have these arts done for the character, for

the worth of

Are men

mankind ?

better ?

'T

is

sometimes questioned whether morals have not de-

Here are great

clined as the arts have ascended.

arts

and

little

paltriness.

men.

Here

greatness begotten of

is

We cannot trace the triumphs of civilwe

ization to such benefactors as

est meliorator of the

is

The

wish.

selfish,

to

man

the worth of his nature.

one wonders who did

inventors.

Each has

all this

his

to recom-

But now

Look up

good.

own knack

great-

huckstering

Every victory over matter ought

Trade.

mend

world

the

his genius is

WORKS AND DAYS.

160
in veins

and

spots.

But the

sym-

great, equal,

metrical brain, fed from a great heart, you shall not

Every one has more

find.

show, or

is

than he has to

to hide

lamed by his excellence.

'T

too

is

plain that with the material power the moral progress has not kept pace.

not

made a

It appears that

judicious investment.

were offered

us,

we have

Works and

days

and we took works._

The new study

origin of the old

of the Sanskrit has

names

Zeus, Zeu pater, Jupiter,

of

shown us the

God, Dyaus,

names of

Deus,

the sun,

still

recognizable through the modifications of our ver-

nacular words, importing that the

vine

Power and Manifestation, and

Day

is

the Di-

indicating that

those ancient men, in their attempts to express

the

Supreme Power

Day, and that

this

him
name was accepted by all

of the universe, called

the

the

tribes.

Hesiod wrote a poem which he called " Works

and Days,"

Greek

in

which he marked the changes of the

year, instructing the

husbandman

at the ris-

ing of what constellation he might safely sow, when

to reap,

when

to

gather wood,

when

the

sailor

might launch his boat in security from storms, and

what admonitions of the planets he must heed.

is

full of

economies for Grecian

life,

It

noting the

proper age for marriage, the rules of household

thrift,

and

of hospitality.

The poem

is f

uU

of piety

WORKS AND DAYS.

and

as well as prudence,
ians

by adding the

But he has not

is

161

adapted to

ethics of

merid-

all

works and of days.

j)ushed his study of days into such

inquiry and analysis as they invite.

farmer said " he should like to have

the

Bonaparte, who had the

land that joined his own."

same

all

endeavored to make the Mediter-

appetite,

Czar Alexander was more

ranean a French lake.

expansive, and wished to call the Pacific

and the Americans were obliged

tempts to make

a close

it

But

sea.

my

ocean ;

to resist his atif

he had the^

earth for his pasture and the sea for his pond he

would be a pauper

the^ay.

There

demon who

He

still.

is

only

is

rich wlio

no king, rich man,

power as

possesses such

are ever divine as to the

of the least pretension

first

and

of anything that exists.

that.

Aryans.

owns

fairy, or

The days
They are

of the greatest capacity

They come and go

like

muffled and veiled figures, sent from a distant

friendly party

but they say nothing, and

not use the gifts they bring, they carry

silently

away.

How
round

Any
wear

we do
them as

if

it

the day

fits

itself to

the mind, winds itself

like a fine drapery, clothing all its fancies

color.

We

favors in our humor.

Re-

holiday communicates to us
its

cockade and

member what boys think

in the

its

morning of " Elec-

tion day," of the Fourth of July, of Thanksgiving

VOL. VII.

11

WORKS AND DAYS.

162

The very

Christmas.

or

wink
and

to

them

of nuts

jack-knives, where
;

in their

courses

and cakes, bonbons, presents,

Cannot memory

fire-works.

old school-house and

bles

stars

its

still

descry the

porch, somewhat hacked

by

you spun tops and snapped mar-

and do you not

recall that life

endared by moments, threw

was then

cal-

nervous

into

itself

knots of glittering hours, even as now, and. not

spread

abroad an equable

itself

In college

felicity ?

terms, and in years that followed, the young graduate,

when

the

Commencement anniversary

returned,

though he were in a swamp, would see a

light

and find the

academic thunders.
try,

festive

air faintly echoing with plan si ve

In solitude and in the coun-

what dignity distinguishes the holy time

The

old Sabbath, or Seventh Day, white with the religions of

unknown thousands

of years,

lowed hour dawns out of the deep,

when

this hal-

clean page,

which the wise may inscribe with truth, whilst the

savage scrawls
sic of

it

with fetishes,

the cathedral mu-

history breathes through

it

a psalm to our

solitude.

So, in the

weather

fits

common

experience of the scholar, the

his moods.

A thousand tunes the vari-

able wind plays, a thousand spectacles

and each
I

is

the frame or dwelling of a

used formerly to choose

for each favorite book.

my time

it

new

brings,
spirit.

with some nicety

One author

is

good for

WORKS AND DAYS.

163

The

and one for the dog-days.

winter,

scholar

must look long for the right hour for Plato's Ti-

At

mseus.

morning

last the elect

a few

dawn,

arrives, the early-

lights conspicuous in the heaven, as

of a world just created

in its wide leisure

and

we dare open

that book.

There are days when the great are near

there

even

when they take us by

The

nival of the year.

the hand, and

excited

The imagination

and rushes on every

Yesterday not a bird peeped

peaked, and pining
ulous

creation

The days

to-day

are

the world was barren,

't

inconceivably pop-

is

made on a loom whereof

dressed, as

by which we are
and

if

every god brought a

'T

rich or poor,

is

pitiful the things

a matter

more or

carpets, a little

the warp
They are

of coins,

less stoiie, or

wood, or paint, the fashion of a cloak or hat

the luck of naked Indians, of
in the possession of a glass

and the

of the

swarms and meliorates.

thread to the skyey web.

coats,

share

side into forms.

and woof are past and future time.

majestically

we

angels assume flesh, and

repeatedly become visible.

is

when

There are days which are the car-

their thought.

gods

us,

no frown on their brow, no condescension

is
;

and

becoming,

still

whom

one

is

like

bead or a red feather,

rest miserable in the

want of

it.

But the

treasures which Nature spent itself to amass,

secular, refined, composite

proud

the

anatomy of man, which

WORKS AND DAYS.

164
all strata

go to form, wliich the prior races, from

infusory and saurian, existed to ripen;

rounding plastic natures

the earth with

the intellectual, temperamenting air

its

invitations

the surits

foods

the sea with

the heaven deep with worlds

and

the answering brain and nervous structure replying

to these

the eye that looketh into the deeps, which

again look back to the eye, abyss to abyss

these,

not like a glass bead, or the coins or carpets, are

given immeasurably to

This miracle

The blue sky

is

is

all.

hurled into every beggar's hands.

a covering for a market and for

the cherubim and seraphim.

The sky

the var-

is

nish or glory with which the Artist has washed the

whole work,
spirit.

the verge

or confines of matter

Nature could no farther go.

and

Could our

happiest dream come to pass in solid fact,

could

a power open our eyes to behold " millions of

spirit-

ual creatures walk the earth," I believe I should

find that mid-plain

on which they moved floored

beneath and arched above with the same web of

blue depth which weaves

trudge the streets on

It is singular

my

that

itself

over

me

now, as I

affairs.

our rich English language

should have no word to denote the face of the

world.

Kinde was

however,

filled

word, with

the old English term, which,

only half the range of our fine Latin

its delicate

future tense,

natura^ about

WORKS AND DAYS.

to he horn^ or

165

what German philosophy denotes as

But nothing expresses that power

The Greek

a hecoming.

which seems to work for beauty alone.

Kosmos

did

Humboldt

and

therefore, with great propriety,

entitles his book,

/ Such are the days,

is

which

the

earth

is

the cup, the

the cover, of the immense bounty of nature

offered us for our daily aliment

is

a force of illusion begins

We

us to the end!

are

but what""

with us and attends

life

coaxed, flattered, and

duped, from morn to eve, from birth to death

where

last

Cosmos.

results of science.

^sky

which recounts the

the old eye

is

deception

The Hindoos

and

that ever saw through the

represent Maia, the

illu-

sory energy of Yishnu, as one of his principal attri-

As

butes.

which

man

life is, it

life as

to the

if,

in this

warring elements

of

was necessary to bind

mast and bulwarks of a

rattle,

ship,

illusions as her ties

a doll, an apple, for a child

will not begin to

name

that all

many

falls

is

one

and the pupil

stuff,

straps,

skates, a river,

boy

and I

those of the youth and

adult, for they are numberless.

mask

and Nature

and

a boat, a horse, a gun, for the grooving

the

souls to hu-

mariners in a tempest lash themselves

employed certain
a

gale

Seldom and slowly

is

permitted to see

cooked and painted under

counterfeit appearances.

Hume's

doctrine

was that the circumstances vary, the amount of

WORKS AND DAYS.

166

happiness does not

that the beggar cracking fleas

under a hedge, and the duke

in the sunshine

ing bj in his chariot

ball,

the girl equipped for her

rollfirst

and the orator returning triumphant from the

debate,

had

different means, but the

same quantity

of pleasant excitement.

This element of illusion lends

all its force to

Who

the values of present time.

is

hide

he that does

not always find himself doing something less than

his

task

best

nothing

now

you never

juggler,

What

are

you doing

am

only

out of the

slip

never

"

" O,

"

Ah

web

woven

their blue glory

to-day and us these passing hours shall

The

between

-glitter

and

romance and the homes of

as the wildest

How

beauty and poetry?

with them!

poor dupe,

of the master

learn that as soon as the irrecov-

erable years have

draw us

I have been doing thus, or I shall do so

or so, but
will

"

difficult to

deal erect'

events they bring, their trade,

entertainments, and gossip, their urgent work, all

throw dust
is

a strong

in the eyes

man who

and

distract attention.

He

can look them in the eye, see

through this juggle, feel their identity, and keep

his

own

who can know

surely that one will be like

another to the end of the world, nor permit love, or

death, or politics, or money, war, or pleasure, to

draw him from

The world

is

his task.

always equal to

itself,

and every

WORKS AND DAYS

167

man

in

he

repeating the experiences of the people in the

is

moments

streets of

Now

of deeper tliought

is

apprised that

An

Thebes or Byzantium.

everlastings

reigns in nature, which hangs the same roses

on our bushes which charmed the

Roman and

Chaldaean in their hanging gardens.

end, then,' he asks,

'

'

should I study languages, and

traverse countries, to learn so simple truths

History of ancient
of books
beautiful,

and

art,

recovery

cities,

works were

yes, the

What journeys and

measurements,

Layard,

Troy and Nimroud town

much

Nie-

to identify the

And

your hom-

sailing

and

ascertain the discoverers of

America needs

voyaging as the discovery

cost.

flexile clay of

and

claims of the old

settle the

age to Dante costs you so

as

Poor child

to

much
!

that

which these old brothers moulded

their admirable symbols

was not Persian, nor Mem-

phian, nor Teutonic, nor local at

mon

'

and the history worth knowing

buhr and Miiller and

plain of

excavated

inscriptions,

academies convene to
schools.

the

To what

all,

but was com-

lime and silex and water and sunlight, the heat

of the blood

and the heaving of the lungs

that clay which thou heldest but

now

it

was

in thy foolish

hands, and threwest away to go and seek in vain

in sepvdchres,

mummy-pits, and old book-shops of

Asia Minor, Egypt, and England.

deep to-day which

all

men

scorn

It

was the

the rich poverty

WORKS AND DAYS.

168

men hate the populous, all-loving solitude

which men quit for the tattle of towns. He lurks,
he hides,
he who is success, reality, joy, and
30wer.
One of the illusions is that the present^
whicli

-^Ahour

not the

is

No man

year.

is

is

Doomsday.

old secret of the gods that they

with gold and jewels.

come

'T
in

the

is

low dis-j

who come dizened

Real kings hide away their
affect

a plain and

In the Norse legend of our an-

exterior.

a boat.

Odin dwells in a
In the Hindoo

peasant

among

cestors,

on

'Tis the vulgar great

crowns in their wardrobes, and

130or

it

the best day in the

has learned anything rightly until

he knows that every day

guises.

Write

hour.

critical, decisive

your heart that every day

hut and patches

fisher's

legends, Hari dwells a

In the Greek legend,

peasants.

Apollo lodges with the shepherds of Admetus, and

Jove liked to rusticate among the poor Ethiopians.

So, in our history, Jesus

is

twelve peers are fishermen.

born in a barn, and his

'T

is

the very principle

of science that Nature shows herself best in leasts

it

in

was the maxim

modern

mann.

of Aristotle

times, of

The order

mines the age of

and Lucretius

Swedenborg and

of

and,

Halme-

of changes in the egg deter-

fossil strata.

So

it

was the rule

of our poets, in the legends of fairy lore, that the

fairies largest in

power were the

least in size.

the Christian graces, humility stands highest of

In
all.

WORKS AND DAYS.

in the

form of the Madonna

We

the secret of the wise.

169

and in

owe

life, this is

to genius always

the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the com-

mon, and showing us that

I
\

divinities are sitting dis-

'

guised in the seeming gang of gypsies and pedlers.

In daily

life,

what distinguishes the master

is

the ^

using those materials he has, instead of looking

j

about for what are more renowned, or what others

have used
*'

well.

"

general," said

always has troops enough,

employ those he

to

Do

Bonaparte,

he only knows how

if

and bivouacs with them."

has,

not refuse the employment which the hour

brings you, for one more ambitious.

heaven of wisdom

alike near

is

and thou must find

at

it, if

all,

The highest

from every

point,

by methods native

to thyself alone.

That work

is

ever the more pleasant to the imagi-

nation which

is

not

now

required.

How

wistfully,

when we have promised to attend the working

we look at the distant hills and their

committee,
seductions

The use
hour and
to

me my

terials,

of history

its

my

duty^

country,

is

to give value to thejDresent

That

my

is

good which commends

climate,

my

means and ma-

I knew a man in a certain

who "thought it an honor to

associates.

religious exaltation

own face." He seemed to me more sane

than those who hold themselves cheap.
wash

his

WORKS AND DAYS.

170
Zoologists

may deny that

liorse-hairs in the

change to worms, but I find that whatever

and the past turns

corrupts,

to snakes.

ence for the deeds of our ancestors

old

rever-

a treacherous

is

but to honor the present moment

falsely

is

The

Their merit was not to reverence the

sentiment.
old,

water

make them

and we

excuses of the very habit which

they hated and defied.

Another

illusion is that there is not time

Yet we might

for our work.

many

reflect that

though

creatures eat from one dish, each, according

to its constitution, assimilates

what belongs

to

it,

meadow

from the elements

whether time, or space, or

light,

A snake converts whatever prey

or water, or food.

the

enough

yields

him

into snake; a fox, into fox;

and Peter and John are working up

all existence

A poor Indian

chief of the

into Peter

and John.

Six Nations of

New York made

any philosopher,

to

had not enough

time.

some one complaining that he

" I suppose you have

a wiser reply than

" Well," said

all

Eed

Jacket,

there is."

third illusion haunts us, that a long duration,

as a year, a decade, a century,

an old French sentence

ments, "

" Jn peu

ask for long

life,

but

ments, that signify.

spiritual,

is

d'heiire
't is

Dieu

deep

But

valuable.

God works

says, "

laheure.^^

life,

in

mo-

We

or grand mo-

Let the measure of time be

not mechanical.

Life

is

unnecessarily

WORKS AND DAYS.

Moments

long.

tion, a smile,

of insight, of fine personal rela-

a glance,

eternity they are

trates

what ample borrowers

of

Life culminates and concen-

and Homer

171

said, "

The gods ever

give to

mortals their apportioned share of reason only on

one day."

am

that " there

intellect

is

and

that " whilst

no real happiness in

virtue."

we

am

are musing on these things,

opinion of Glauco,
Socrates,

is,

but in

this life

of the opinion of Pliny,

adding to the length of our

Wordsworth,

of the opinion of the poet

who

said, "

we

am

lives."

The measure

are

of the
of

life,

with the wise, the speaking and

hearing such discourses as yours."

He
me

only can enrich

me who

can recommend to

the space between sun and sun,

ure of a man,

'T

we do not listen with the best regard

of a man who is only a poet, nor to
if

he

is

only an algebraist

but

if

is

the meas-

o|a^^

his apprehension

For

to the verses
his problems

man

is

at once

acquainted with the geometric foundations of things

and with
and

their festal splendor, his poetry

his arithmetic musical.

most learned

scholar, not

And him I

is

exact

reckon the

who can unearth

for

me

the buried dynasties of Sesostris and Ptolemy, the

Sothiac era, the Olympiads and consulships, but\

/who can unfold the theory of this particular Wed- /
\ nesday.
Can he uncover the ligaments concealedJ

WORKS AND DAYS.

172

from

all

things

but piety, which attach the dull

we know

men

ing fifteen minutes,

nity

ory

are low
that

is,

Cause ?

to the "First

men and

These pass-

think, are time, not eter-

and subaltern, are but hope or memthe

but not welfare.

way to or the way from welfare,

Can he show their tie ? That

interpreter shall guide us from a menial and"eiee-

mosynary existence into riches and

dignifies the place

America,

where^e

Ho

stability.

This mendicant

is.

this curious, peering, itinerant, imitative

America, studious of Greece and Rome, of England and Germany, will take

dusty shoes,

off its

will take off its glazed traveller's - cap

home with repose and deep

joy on

and

sit

its face.

at

The

world has no such landscape, the aeons of history

no such hour, the future no equal second opportunity.

Now

let poets sing

now

let arts

unfold

One more view remains. But life is good only

when it is magical and musical, a perfect timing
and consent, and when we do not anatomize

You must

treat the days respectfully,

a day yourself, and not interrogate

professor.
said,

The world

is

literally,

like a college

everything
done, and mu3t

enigmatical,

and everything known or

not be taken

it

it.

you must be

but genially.

We must be

at the top of our condition to understand anything

rightly.

You must

attempting to render

hear the bird's song without

it

into nouns

and verbs. Can-

WORKS AND DAYS.

not we be a
not we

let

little

173

abstemious and obedient

the morning be

Can-

Everything in the universe goes by indirection.

remember well the

foreign scholar who made a week of my youth
happy by his visit. " The savages in the islands,"
There are no straight

he

said, " delight to

on the top of the

and repeat the

human

Well,

play with the surf, coming in

rollers,

then swimming out again,

delicious

life

lines.

manoeuvre

made up

is

of

for

such

hours.

transits.

There can be no greatness without abandonment./But here your very astronomy

is

moon and

dare not go out of doors and see the

stars,

l^them
isle.

my

tasks, to

ask

lines or pages are finished since I

saw

but they seem to measure

how many

an espionage.

Not so, as I told you, was it in BelleThe days at Belleisle were all different, and

last.

only joined by a perfect love of the same object.

Just to

fill

the hour,

that

is

happiness.

Fill

my

hour, ye gods, so that I shall not say, whilst I have

done
gone,'

this,

'Behold, also, an hour of

but

rather,

We do not want

'

my

have lived an hour.'

factitious

life

is

"

men, who can do any

literary or professional feat, as, to write

poems, or

advocate a cause, or carry a measure, for money

or turn their ability indifferently in any particular
direction

by the strong

effort of will.

has been best done in the world,

the

No, what

works of

WORKS AND DAYS.

174
genius,

cost nothing.

but

is

the spontaneous flowing of the thought.

it

Ther e is_noj^ainf uljegorj;..

Shakspeare made his Hamlet as a bird weaves

Poems have been written between

irresponsibly.
Fancy defines

nest.

and waking,
"

masters painted for joy, and

virtue

had gone out

wrote their songs

cence of fine powers

of the
their

herself

am

Frenchwoman,

that

They could not paint

The masters of English

so.

as

It

was a

fine efflores-

was said of the

letters

" the charming accident of

Then

more charming existence."

never the poorer for his song.

unless the circumstance
singer sing from

I."

knew not

of them.

the like in cold blood.

lyric

sleeping

Forms that men spy

With the half -shut eye
In the beams of the setting sun,

The

its

is

free

is

is

no song

fine.

If the

song

and

the poet

from seeing no

a sense of duty or

way of escape, I had rather have none. Those only

^an sleep who do not care to sleep and those only
write or speak best who do not too much respect
;

the writing or the speaking.

The same

rule holds in science.

often an amateur.
to the

legs

he

is

Academy on

The savant is
is a memoir

His performance

fish-worms, tadpoles, or spiders'

he observes as other academicians observe

on

finished

stilts

at a microscope,

and

and read and printed, he

his

memoir

retreats

into

WORKS AND DAYS.

routmary existence, whicli

his

from

But

his scientific.

as easy as breathing

moon

the

he used the same wit to weigh

and

wise,

always

in Archimedes,

no

stilts,

it

like sweetness

and

all

was

the sky.

self-same, like

no tiptoe

and

So

majestic.

In Linnaeus, in Franklin, the

equality,

separate

quite

is

Newton, science was

that he used to buckle his shoes

was simple,

his life

in

175

and

their results

are wholesome and memorable to all men.

In stripping time of
find

what

is

its illusions,

the heart of the day,

in seeking to

we come

to the

quality of the moment, and drop the duration alto-

all

depth at which we

It is the

gether.

live

the surface extension that imports.

and not

at

We pierce

to the eternity, of which time is the flitting sur-

face

and, really, the least acceleration of thought

and the

it

least increase of

seem and

life to

time

to

power of thought, make

We

be of vast duration.

call

but when that acceleration and that deep-

ening take

effect, it

acquires another and a higher

name.

There are people who do not need much experi-

menting; who, after years of

laiew

all this

before;

hate at

first

sions

who do not

sight

who

say.

We

sight

and

activity,

love at

first

discern the affinities and repulcare so

much

for conditions as

others, for they are always in one condition

enjoy themselves

who

dictate to

others

and

and are

176

WORKS AND DAYS.

not dictated to

who

in their consciousness of de-

serving success constantly slight the ordinary means

of attaining it;

who

who have

self-existence

who

are great in the present

or care not to have

who have no

them, being

before talent, and shall be after

seems only a tool: this

talent

highest
/-

'T

is

name

at

is.

talents,

that which

is

was

and of which

it,

how the hero

What

gesture and syllable.

self-

ch aracter, the

which philosophy has arrived.

not important

but what he

and

are suffered to be themselves in society

help

he

In

does this or this,

is will

this

way

appear in every
the

moment and

the character are one.

It is

a fine fable for the advantage of character

over talent, the Greek legend of the strife of Jove

and Phoebus.
said, "

Zeus

Who

Phoebus challenged the gods, and

will outshoot the far-darting

said, " I

wiU."

Mars shook

Apollo ?

"

the lots in his

helmet, and that of Apollo leaped out

first.

Apollo

bow and shot his arrow into the extreme west. Then Zeus arose, and with one stride
cleared the whole distance, and said, " Where shall
So the bowman's^
I shoot? there is no space left."
prize was adjudged to him who drew no bow.
stretched his

And

this is the progress of every earnest

mind

from the works of man and the activity of the

hands to a delight in the faculties which rule them
;

from a respect

to the

works to a wise wonder at

this

WORKS AND DAYS.

mystic element of time in

from
the

wHch

he

177
is

conditioned

and the economy which reckons

local skills

amount of production per hour

to

the finer

economy which respects the quality of what

done, and the right
fidelity

to the

with which

we have
it

flows

depth of thought

it

to the

is

work, or the

from ourselves

then

betrays, looking to its

universality, or that its roots are in eternity, not in

time.
/

Then

it

flows from character, that sublime

health jwhich values one

makes us great

deflnition
VOL. VII.

in all conditions,

we have

moment

12

of freedom

as another,

and

and as the only

and power.

BOOKS.

BOOKS.

It

is

easily

easy to accuse books, and bad ones are

found

and

not the things recorded

and

best are but records,

tlie
;

and certainly there

is

di-

lettanteism enough, and books that are merely neutral

and do nothing for

Socrates says

garb near the

"

In Plato's Gorgias,

us.

The shipmaster walks

sea, after

in

a modest

bringing his passengers

from ^gina or from Pontus

not thinking he has

done anything extraordinary, and certainly knowing that his passengers are the same and in no
respect better than

So

it is

no redemption in
tainly

know

that his customers are in no respect

better for the

wares.

when he took them on board."

they work
The bookseller might cerus.

with books, for the most part

purchase and consumption of his

The volume

is

dear at a dollar, and after

reading to weariness the lettered backs, we leave

the shop with a sigh, and learn, as I did without
surprise of a surly

bank

parlors they estimate

rubbish.

aU

director, that in

stocks of this

bank

kind as

BOOKS.

182

But

it is

not less true that there are books which

are of that importance in a man's private experi-

ence as to verify for him the fables of Cornelius

Agrippa, of Michael Scott, or of the old Orpheus of

books which

Thrace,

take rank in our

with

life

parents and lovers and passionate experiences, so

medicinal, so stringent, so revolutionary, so authoritative,

books which

are the

work and the proof

of faculties so comprehensive, so nearly equal to

the world which they paint, that though one shuts

them with meaner

ones, he feels his exclusion

them

way

to accuse his

from

of living.

Consider what you have in the smallest chosen

library.

A company of the wisest and wittiest men

that could be picked out of all civil countries in a

thousand years have

their learning

set in best

and wisdom.

were hid and inaccessible,

interruption, fenced

by

order the results of

The men themselves

impatient of

solitary,

etiquette

but the thought

which they did not uncover to their bosom friend

is

here written out in transparent words to us, the

strangers of another age.

We

owe

to

books those general benefits which

come from high

we

often

ity.

to

intellectual action.

Thus, I think,

them the perception

of immortal-

They impart sympathetic activity to the moral

power.
is

owe

mean.

Go

with

mean people and you think

Then read

Plutarch, and the world

life
is


BOOKS.

183

proud place, peopled with men of positive quality,

with heroes and demigods standing around us,

ination

They become

only poetry inspires poetry.

College education

the organic culture of the time.

is

who

Then, they address the imag-

will not let us sleep.

the reading of certain books which the

common

sense of all scholars agrees will represent the

ence already accumulated.

for instance in geometry,

If
if

you know

sci-

that,

you have read Euclid

your opinion has some value if

and Laplace,
you do not know these, you are not entitled to give
;

any opinion on the

tic

subject.

Whenever any

skep-

of bigot claims to be heard on the questions of

intellect

and morals, we ask

if

he

is

familiar with

the books of Plato, where all his pert objections

have once for

all

been disposed

no right to our time.

If not, he has

of.

Let him go and find himself

answered there.

'^Meantime the

they provide us

colleges, whilst

with libraries, furnish no professor of books

we

are

is

in these paper
us,

and

so

by an enchanter

friends, but they are imprisoned

know

much wanted. In a library

surrounded by many hundreds of dear

I think no chair

and leathern boxes

and though they

and have been waiting two,

centuries for us,

to give us a sign

some

of them,

ten, or

and

twenty

are eager

and unbosom themselves,

it is

the

law of their limbo that they must not speak until

BOOKS.

184
spoken to

and as the enchanter has dressed them,

like battalions of infantry, in coat

one

cut,

and jacket of

by the thousand and ten thousand, your

chance of hitting on the right one

is

to

be com-

puted by the arithmetical rule of Permutation and

Combination,

not

a choice out of three caskets,

but out of haK a million caskets,

all alike.

happens in our experience that in

this lottery there

But

it

are at least fifty or a hundred blanks to a prize^

It

seems then as

if

some charitable

soul, after losing

a great deal of time among the false books and

alighting

upon a few true ones which make him

wise, would do a right act in naming

happy and

those which have been bridges or ships to carry

him

safely over dark morasses

into the heart of

temples.

sacred

and barren oceans,

cities,

into palaces

and

This would be best done by those great

masters of books who from time to time appear,

the Fabricii, the Seldens, Magliabecchis, Scaligers,

Mirandolas, Bayles, Johnsons, whose eyes sweep

the whole horizon of learning.

But private

readers,

reading purely for love of the book, would serve

us by leaving each the shortest note of what he
found.

There are books; and

it is

practicable to read

them, becaiise they are so few.

We look over with

a sigh the monumental libraries of Paris, of the

Vatican, and the British

Museum.

In 1858, the

BOOKS.

185

number

of printed books in the Imperial Library

at Paris

was estimated

at eight

hundred thousand

vokimes, with an annual increase of twelve thou-

sand volumes

so that the

may

extant to-day

number

of printed books

easily exceed a million.

It is

easy to count the number of pages which a diligent

man

can read in a day, and the number of years

which human
to reading

in favorable circumstances allows

life

and

demonstrate that though he

to

dawn

should read from

he must die in the

till

dark, for sixty years,

first alcoves.

But nothing can

be more deceptive than this arithmetic, where none

but a natural method
occasionally the

is

really pertinent.

I visit

Cambridge Library, and I can

seldom go there without renewing the conviction

that the best of

walls of

my

it all

is

already within the four

study at home.

catalogue brings

me

The

inspection of the

continually back to the few

standard writers who are on every private shelf;

and

to these it

can afford only the most slight and

casual additions.

The crowds and

centuries of

books are only commentary and elucidation, echoes

and weakeners

The

of these

few great voices of time.

best rule of reading

mil be a method from

nature,

and not a mechanical one of hours and

pages.

It holds

each student to a pursuit of his

native aim, instead of a desultory miscellany.

him read what

is

Let

proper to him, and not waste his

BOOKS.

186

memory on a crowd

of

As whole

mediocrities.

nations have derived their culture from a single

book,

Bible has been the literature as

as the

well as the religion of large portions of Europe

*as

Hafiz was the eminent genius of the Persians, Confucius of the Chinese, Cervantes of the Spaniards

perhaps, the

so,
if

all

gainer

say, in

the secondary writers were

England,

all

lost,

but Shakspeare, Milton, and Bacon,

through the

profounder study so drawn to those

With

wonderful minds.

pilot of

this

genius, let the student read one, or let

many, he
said

*'

human mind would be a

will read advantageously.

his own
him read

Dr. Johnson

Whilst you stand deliberating which book

another boy has read both :

your son shall read

first,

read anything

hours a day, and you will soon

five

be learned."

Nature
is

is

much our friend

in this matter.

filtration

can be so perfect.

No

She does the same

thing by books as by her gases and plants.

is

Nature

always clarifying her water and her wine.

There

always a selection in writers, and then a selection

from the

selection.

In the

first

place, all

books

that get fairly into the vital air of the world were

written by the successful class, by the affirming and

advancing
feel

class,

who

utter

though they cannot

what tens of thousands

say.

There has already

been a scrutiny and choice from

many hundreds

of

j
/

BOOKS.

187

young pens before the pamphlet or

political chapter

which you read in a fugitive journal comes

to

your

All these are young adventurers, who pro-

eye.

duce their performance to the wise ear of Time,

who

sits

and weighs, and, ten years hence, out of a

Again

million of pages rej)rints one.

it is

what
it

winnowed by
terrific

all

the winds of

it is

selection has not passed on

can be reprinted after twenty years

printed after a century

is

it

as

Rhadamanthus had indorsed the

therefore an

books.

economy of time

judged

and

oj)inion,

it

before

and

re-

Minos and

if

'T

writing.

to read old

is

and famed

Nothing can be preserved which

is

not

good; and I know beforehand that Pindar, Martial,

Terence, Galen, Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Eras-

mus, More, will be superior to the average

In contemporaries,

it

is

intellect.

not so easy to distinguish

betwixt notoriety and fame.

Be

sure then to read no

spa^vTi of the press

mean

books.

Shun

the

Do

on the gossip of the hour.

not read what you shall learn, without asking, in

the street and the train.

Dr. Johnson said " he

always went into stately shops

lers stop at the best hotels

more, they do not cost

"

and good

travel-

for though they cost

much more, and

there

is

the

good company and the best information. In like

manner the scholar knows that the famed books
contain, first

and

last,

the best thoughts and facts.

"

BOOKS.

188

Now

and then, by

Street
\s>

is tlie

rarest luck, in

gem we

the best information.

amount

But

want.
If

of your reading

some

foolisli

Grub

in the best circles

you should transfer the

day by day from the news-

paper to the standard authors

But who dare

speak of such a thing ?

The

three practical rules, then, which I have to

offer, are,

year old.
3.

1.

Never read any book that

Never read any but what you

No
In

profit goes
brief, sir,

Montaigne

says,

where

is

leavins: the reader

like

or, in

no pleasure ta'en

Shak-

study what you most affect."

"Books

are a languid pleasure;

and spermatic, not

but I find certain books vital

what he was

he shuts the book

I would never willingly read any

a richer man.

And

others than such.

of inditing a

not a

Never read any but famed books.

2.

speare's phrase,
"

is

list

I will venture, at the risk

of old primers

and grammars,

to

count the few books which a superficial reader must

thanlifuUy use.

Of

the old

Greek books, I think there are five

1. Homer, who in spite of

which we cannot spare

Pope

and all the learned uproar of centuries, has

really the true fire

and

the true and adequate

is

good for simple minds,

is

germ of Greece, and occupies

that place as history which nothing can supply.

It

189

BOOKS.

holds through all literature that our best history

poetry.

still

It

is

Hebrew,

so in

Shakspeare;

how much through

Merlin, Robin

is

Hood, and the Scottish ballads

roic translation,
is

the

though the most

the best of

all.

German,

the Spanish, through

Of Homer, George Chapman's

the Cid.

and

known through

through the Nibelungenlied

sion

in Sanskrit,

best

English history

in Greek.

is

the he-

literal prose ver-

Herodotus, whose history

2.

contains inestimable anecdotes, which brought

with the learned into a sort of disesteem

these days,

is

when

found that what

it is

orable of history

is

is

but in

most mem-

we

a few anecdotes, and that

need not be alarmed though we should find

dull, it is regaining credit.

3.

it

it

not

^Eschylus, the grand-

who has given us under

a thin veil the first plantation of Europe. The
" Prometheus " is a poem of the like dignity and
scope as the Book of Job, or the Norse Edda.

est of the three tragedians,

4.

Of

Plato I hesitate to speak, lest there should

be no end.

You

already found

in

find in

the poet converted

strains of musical

Homer
man yet
if

song,

him

that which you have

Homer, now ripened

to

to thought,

a philosopher, with

loftier

wisdom than Homer reached

as

were the youth and Plato the finished

with no less security of bold and perfect

when he

strings fetched

cares to use

it,

and with some harp-

from a higher heaven.

He

contains

BOOKS.

190
the future, as he

came out

all that in

him

thought, which the history of

finds himself

seed,

Europe

The well-informed

anticipated.

Plato

up with

is

Every new

Nothing has escaped him.

too.

and

in its causes

embodies or has yet to embody.

man

In Plato

of the past.

you explore modern Europe

crop in the fertile harvest of reform, every fresh

suggestion of modern humanity,

student wish to see both

to the
ants,

man

is

justice

and the supremacy of truth and the

not young

would

shall

be contented also.

men be

done

their understanding,

that which

religious

Why should

educated on this book?

suffice for the tuition of

is

If the

there.

and

of the world, pitiless exposure of ped-

sentiment, he

Here

sides,

and
is

the race

It

to test

to express their reason.

so attractive to all

men,

the

the literature of aristocracy shall I call

it ?

picture of the best persons, sentiments,

and man-

ners,

by the

first

master, in the best times ; portraits

of Pericles, Alcibiades, Crito, Prodicus, Protagoras,

Anaxagoras, and Socrates, with the lovely back-

ground of the Athenian and suburban landscape.

Or who

can overestimate the images with which

Plato has enriched the minds of men, and which

pass like bullion in the currency of

Eead

all

nations ?

the " Phsedo," the " Protagoras," the " Phae-

drus," the " Tim^us," the

" Apology of Socrates."

" Republic," and the

5.,

Plutarch cannot be

"

BOOKS.

191

spared from the smallest library

is

so

readable, which

much

is

then that he

The

medicinal and invigorating.

because he

first

LycurgTJs, Alexander, Demosthenes, Phocion,

cellus,

But

and the

this

what history has of

rest, are

book has taken care of

opinion oE the world

am

" Lives."

make

writing to can

He

best.

and the

itself,

as accessible as

it

"

But Plutarch's " Morals

as

will read in

it

is less

Yet such a reader

known, and seldom reprinted.

as

Mar-

expressed in the innumer-

is

able cheap editions, which

a newspaper.

is

Cimon,

lives of

spare

ill

it

the essays "

as the

On

the

Progress in Virtue,"

On Isis and Osiris," " On

" On Garrulity," " On Love

and thank anew the

art of printing

Daemon

of Socrates," "

domain of ancient thinking.

ful

by the

facility of his associations

fies little

at the

tables.

Isthmian Games, where

Greece was assembled

by

so that

it

signi-

all

is

like the

that was excellent in

and you are stimulated and

lyric verses,

ship of the gods,

and

His memory

by philosophic sentiments,

by the forms and behavior

ley

Plutarch charms

where you open his book, you find yourself

Olympian

recruited

and the cheer-

of heroes,

and by the passing

of

by the worfillets,

pars-

laurel wreaths, chariots, armor, sacred cups,

An inestimable trilogy of
"
ancient social pictures are the three " Banquets

and

utensils of sacrifice.

respectively of

Plato,

Xenophon, and Plutarch.

BOOKS.

192
Plutarch's lias

racy
is

tlie least

approacli to historical accu-

but the meeting of the Seven Wise Masters

a charming portraiture of ancient manners and

discourse,

and

is

as clear as the voice of a

lineation of

Plato,

Athenian manners

and supplies

the wisdom

than Aristophanes

in

all

a repertory of

on the subject of love

wits, not less descriptive

and, lastly, containing that iron-

ical eulogy of Socrates which

which

de-

an accessory to

is

being

of the ancients

a picture of a feast of

and

Socrates ; whilst Plato's

traits of

has merits of every kind,

fife,

Xenophon's

entertaining as a French novel.

is

the source from

the portraits of that philosopher current

Europe have been drawn.

Of

course a certain outline should be obtained of

Greek history, in which the important moments

and persons can be rightly set down but the shortest is the best, and if one lacks stomach for Mr.
Grote's voluminous annals, the old slight and pop;

ular

summary

The

valuable part

of

Goldsmith or of Gillies
is

will serve.

the age of Pericles and the

And here we must read the

next generation.
" Clouds " of Aristophanes, and what more of that
master we gain appetite

for, to learn

the streets of Athens, and to

of Aristophanes, requiring

know

our

in

the tyranny

more genius and some-

times not less cruelty than belonged to the

commanders.

way

Aristophanes

is

now

official

very accessible,

"

BOOKS.
with

much

193

vakiable commentary, through the

bors of Mitchell and Cartwright.

popular book
the "Life

is

A.

J.

St.

An

excellent

John's "Ancient Greece

Winckelmann, a Greek born out

essential to

The

Attic genius.

German and
.to

and Letters" of Niebuhr, even more

than his Lectures, furnish leading views

become

la-

and

of due time, has

an intimate knowledge of the

secret of the recent histories in

in English is the discovery,

owed

first

Wolff and later to Boeckh, that the sincere

Greek history

of that period

must be drawn from

Demosthenes, especially from the business

tions

If

and from the comic

we come down a

ora-

poets.

little'

by natural

steps

from

we have, six or seven

Platonists, who also cannot be

the master to the disciples,

centuries later, the

skipped,

Plotinus, Porphyry, Proclus, Synesius,

Of Jamblichus

Jamblichus.

the

Emperor Julian

said that " he was posterior to Plato in time, not

in genius."

Of

Plotinus,

we have

eulogies

by Por-

phyry and Longinus, and the favor of the Emperor

Gallienus, indicating the respect he inspired
his contemporaries.

interest the " Isis

If

and Osiris "

of Plutarch should

then read a chapter called " Providence,"

nesius, translated into

he will find

it

VII.

by Sy-

English by Thomas Taylor,

one of the majestic remains of

ature, and, like one

VOL.

among

any one who had read with

13

liter-

walking in the noblest of tem-

BOOKS.

194

new

pies, will conceive

and a new estimate

gratitude to his fellow-men,

of their nobility.

The

imagi-

native scholar will find few stimulants to his brain

like these writers.

Fields

He

has entered the Elysian

and the grand and pleasing

and daemons and dsemoniacal men,

figures of gods
"
of the " azonic

and the " aquatic gods," daemons with fulgid

and

all

The
at

the rest of the Platonic rhetoric, exalted a

under the African sun,

little

eyes,

acolyte has

Delphi

sail

before his eyes.

mounted the tripod over the cave

his heart dances, his sight is quickened.

These guides speak of the gods with such depth

and with such

pictorial details, as if they

bodily present at the Olympian feasts.

of these books

own mind

Jamblichus's

had been

The reader

makes new acquaintance with

new

his

regions of thought are opened.

" Life of Pythagoras " works

more

directly on the will than the others ; since Pythago-

ras

was eminently a practical person, the founder

of a school of ascetics
colonies,

and

socialists,

and nowise a man

of

a i^lanter of

abstract

studies

alone.

The

respectable and sometimes excellent transla-

tions of Bohn's Library have

what railroads have done

I do not hesitate to read

named, and
is really

all

done for literature

for internal intercourse.

all

the books I have

good books, in translations.

best in any

book

is

translatable,

What

any

BOOKS.
real insight or broad liiiman

195
Nay, I

sentiment.

observe that, in our Bible, and other books of lofty

moral tone,

seems easy and inevitable to render

it

and music of the original

the rhytlun

The

of equal melody.

translators,

into phrases

have a fling at

Italians

traditori traduttori ; but I thank

them.

I rarely read any Latin, Greek, German,

Italian,

sometimes not a French book, in the

nal,

to

which I can procure in a good version.

I like

be beholden to the great metropolitan English

speech,

the

sea

which receives tributaries from

every region under heaven.

of

origi-

swimming

go to Boston, as of reading

when

nals

I should as soon think

across Charles River

I have

all

my

them rendered

when

I wish to

books in
for

me

origi-

in

my

mother-tongue.

For history there

is

great

choice of ways to

bring the student through early Rome.

If he

can

read Livy, he has a good book; but one of the

short English compends,

some Goldsmith or Fergu-

son, should be used, that will place in the cycle the

The poet Horace

bright stars of Plutarch.

eye of the

Augustan age

historians

and Martial

ners,

and

him

to

will give

the

him Roman man-

some very bad ones,

days of the Empire

read at

is

Tacitus, the wisest of

in the

early

but Martial must be read,

if

own tongue. These will bring

Gibbon, who will take him in charge and
all,

in his

BOOKS.

196

Mm with

convey

with notice of

on the way

abundant entertainment down

remarkable objects

all

He

through fourteen hundred years of time.

can-

not spare Gibbon, with his vast reading, with such

wit and continuity of mind, that, though never pro-

found, his book

zation, like the

and, I
"

his

new

Memoirs

civili-

railroad from ocean to ocean,

Himself,"

of

and the " Extracts

my

Journal," and " Abstracts of

which

ings,"

one of the conveniences of

think, will be sure to send the reader to

my

from

is

Read-

will spur the laziest scholar to emula-*

tion of his prodigious performance.

Now

having our idler safe down as far as the

fall of

Constantinople in 1453, he

courses

The

for here are trusty

in very

good

cardinal facts of European history are soon

There

learned.

Dante's poem, to open the Ital-

is

ian Republics of the Middle

Nuova,"

to explain

caccio's " Life of

M.

Age

Dante's " Vita

Dante and Beatrice

Dante," a great

man

and Boc-

to describe

help us, perhaps a volume or two

Sismondi's " Italian Republics " will be as

To

a greater.
of

is

hands waiting for him.

good as the

entire

sixteen.

When we

come

to

Michael Angelo, his Sonnets and Letters must be

by Vasari, or, in our day, by

Herman Grimm. Eor the Church and the Feudal
Institution, Mr. Hallam's "Middle Ages" will fur-

read, with his Life

nish, if superficial, yet readable

outlines.

and conceivable

BOOKS.

The

" Life of the

useful Robertson,

197

Emperor Charles Y.," by the

is still

the key of the following

Ximenes, Columbus, Loyola, Luther, Eras-

age.

mus, Melanchthon, Francis

beth,

and Henry IV.

I.,

It is a time of seeds

poraries.

whereof our recent civilization

If
fairs

Henry YIIL,

now

the relations of

is

and expansions,

the fruit.

England

European

to

bring him to British ground, he

the very

moment when modern

proportions.

He

and mythology

Eliza-

of France, are his contem-

is

af-

arrived at

history takes

new

can look back for the legends

to the "

Younger Edda

"

and the

" Heimskringla " of Snorro Sturleson, to Mallet's

" Northern Antiquities,"

to Ellis's

mances," to Asser's " Life of

able Bede,

and

AKred" and Vener-

to the researches of

Hume

and Palgrave.

" Metrical Ro-

will serve

Sharon Turner

him

for

an

gent guide, and in the Elizabethan era he

richest' period of the

men

of action

and

is

intelli-

at the

English mind, with the chief

of thought

which that nation has

produced, and with a pregnant future before him.

Here he has Shakspeare, Spenser, Sidney, Raleigh,

Bacon, Chapman, Jonson, Ford, Beaumont and
Fletcher, Herbert,

Donne, Herrick

and Milton,

Marvell, and Dryden, not long after.

In reading history, he
individuals.
to

Bacon,

He

not

is

to prefer the history of

he gives
he read the " Advancement of

will not repent the time

if

BOOKS.

198

Learning," the " Essays," the " Novum Organum,"

the " History of Henry VII.," and then all the
" Letters " (especially those to the Earl of Devonshire, explaining the

Essex business), and aU but

his " Apophthegms."

The task

is

aided by the strong mutual light

which these men shed on each

works of Ben Jonson are a

these fine persons together,

He

they belong.

Thus, the

other.

sort of

hoop

bind

to

and to the land

to

has written verses to or on

his notable contemporaries

and what with

so

all

which
all

many

occasional poems, and the portrait sketches in his

" Discoveries," and the gossiping record of his

Drummond

opinions in his conversations with

Hawthornden, he has
of his time,

if

really illustrated the

not to the same extent yet

the same way, as

of

England

much

in

Walter Scott has celebrated the

persons and places of Scotland.

Walton, Chap-

man, Herrick, and Sir Henry Wotton write

also

to the times.

Among
phies

the best books are certain Autobiogra-

Cellini's Life

of Cherbury's

de Retz
ary

Augustine's Confessions

; as, St.

Montaigne's Essays

Memoirs

Memoirs

Rousseau's Confessions

Benvenuto

Lord Herbert

of the Cardinal
Linriseus's Di-

Gibbon's, Hume's, Franklin's, Burns's, Al-

fieri's,

Goethe's, and Haydon's Autobiographies.

Another

class of

books closely allied to these, and

BOOKS.
of like interest, are those

Table- Talks

Table -Talk;

Luther's

listan;

Spence's anecdotes;

Lives;

Aubrey's

Selden's Table -Talk;

Bos-

Johnson; Eckermann's Conversa-

well's Life of

tions with

which may be called

which the best are Saadi's Gru-

of

199

Goethe; Coleridge's Table -Talk; and

Hazlitt's Life of Northcote.

There

is

Favorites

as

such

whose value I should designate

class

as

Chronicles

^roissart's

Southey's Chronicle of the Cid

Cervantes; Sul-

Izaak WalAubrey;
Browne;
Thomas
Evelyn; Sir
ton
Sterne Horace Walpole Lord Clarendon Doctor

Memoirs

ly's

Rabelais

Montaigne

Johnson; Burke, shedding floods of light on his

times

Lamb Landor and De

;

of course, that

may

on individual

caprice.

and

easily

Quincey ;

list,

be swelled, as dependent

Many men

are as tender

irritable as lovers in reference to these predilec-

tions.

Indeed, a man's library

is

a sort of harem,

and I observe that tender readers have a great pudency in showing their books to a stranger.

The annals

of bibliography afford

of the delirious extent to

when

many examples

which book-fancying can

the legitimate delight in a book

is

trans-

ferred to a rare edition or to a manuscript.

This

go,

mania reached

its

present century.

one hmidred and

height about the beginning of the

For an autograph
fifty-five

of

Shakspeare

guineas were given.

In

BOOKS.

200

May, 1812, the

was sold. The

library of

Duke

tlie

abridge the story from Dibdin,

many

curiosities

was a copy

by Yaldarfer,

at Venice, in

copy of

edition.

this

Devonshire,

Roxburgh

two days,

of Boccaccio published

1571

Among

company which attended the

of

of

we
and among the

sale lasted forty

the only perfect

distinguished

the

Duke

were the

sale

Earl Spencer, and the Duke of

The

Marlborough, then Marquis of Blandford.

"

bid stood at five hundred guineas.

guineas," said Earl Spencer
the Marquis.

You might hear a

least

ate a biscuit,

now made a

And

thousand

added

ten,"

All eyes

pin drop.

Now

were bent on the bidders.

now

"

they talked apart,

bet,

but without the

thought of yielding one to the other.

some

to pass over
until the

the

details,

said, "

Marquis

Two

But

contest proceeded

thousand pounds."

Earl Spencer bethought him like a prudent general

and waste

of useless bloodshed

of powder,

and had

paused a quarter of a minute, when Lord Althorp

with long steps came to his
father a fresh lance

and son whispered

claimed,

"Two

pounds "

An

assembly.

"

fall,

renew the

together,

bring his

fight.

Father

and Earl Spencer

thousand two hundred and

electric

And

There ended the

to

side, as if to

shock went through the

ten," quietly

strife.

ex-

fifty

added the Marquis.

Ere Evans

let

the

hammer

he paused; the ivory instrument swept the

BOOKS.
air

201

the spectators stood dumb,

The

fell.

stroke of

its fall

when

hammer

the

sounded on the farthest

The tap of that hammer was

libraries of Rome, Milan, and Venice.

shores of Italy.

heard in the

Boccaccio stirred in his sleep of five hundred years,

and M. Van Praet groped

in vain

among

alcoves in Paris, to detect a copy of the

the royal

famed Val-

darfer Boccaccio.

Another
laries.

book of great

Anatomy of Melancholy " is a

learning.
To read it is like reading
'T

in a dictionary.

how many

an inventory

is

and

classes

in observing into

is

is

no cant

remind us

what strange and multiplex byto infer our opulence.

a dictionary a bad book to read.

in

it,

There

no excess of explanation, and

full of suggestion,

poems and

to

species of facts exist, and,

ways learning has strayed,

Neither

by the term Vocabu-

class I distinguish

Burton's "

the

histories.

raw material

Nothing

is

it

is

of possible

wanting but a

lit-

sorting, ligature, and cartilage.

Out
hundred examples, Cornelius Agrippa " On the

tle shuffling,

of a

Vanity of Arts and Sciences "

scribatiousness which

grew

is

to

gluttonous readers of his time.

Germans, they read a

read a few books.

topic, as

be the habit of the

Like the modern

literature while other mortals

They read

disburden themselves

a specimen of that

voraciously,

so they take

and must

any general

Melancholy, or Praise of Science, or Praise

BOOKS.

202

and write and quote without method or

Now and then out of that affluence of their

of Folly,

end.

learning comes a fine sentence from Theophrastus,

or Seneca, or Boethius, but no high method, no inspiring efflux. But one cannot afford to read for a
few sentences ; they are good only as strings of suggestive words.

There

is

another

class,

more needful

to the pres-

ent age, because the currents of custom run

now

in

another direction and leave us dry on this side;

mean

the Imaginative.

right metaphysics

should do justice to the co-ordinate powers of Imag-

ination. Insight, Understanding,

with

aids of

its

and Will.

Poetry,

Mythology and Romance, must be

well allowed for an imaginative creature.

are

Men

ever lapsing into a beggarly habit, wherein

everything that

is

not ciphering, that

not serve the tyrannical animal,

sight.

Our

poverty,

and

orators

which does

and writers are of the same

awakening power, nor the Morals,

creative of genius

and of men, are addressed.

though orator and poet be of

the capacities remain.

We

The

story,

child asks

meaning.

is,

hustled out of

in this rag-fair neither the Imagina-

tion, the great

the poorest.

is

you for a

It is not

this

But

hunger party,

must have symbols.

and

is

thankful for

poor to him, but radiant with

The man asks

for a novel,

that

is,

asks leave for a few hours to be a poet, and to

BOOKS.

203

The youth asks

The very dunces wish to go to the
What private heavens can we not open,

paint things as they ought to be.

for a poem.
theatre.

by yielding

to all the suggestion of rich

must have
/

and verge
cramped

idolatries,

mythologies,

for the creative

music

some

We

swing

power lying coiled and

here, driving ardent natures to insanity

If

and crime

^J
\

Without the

great arts which speak to the sense of beauty, a

if

man seems

it

do not find vent.

me

to

These are

^ture.

warm and adorn

a poor, naked, shivering crea- /

his

him.

becoming draperies, which

Whilst the prudential and

economical tone of society starves the imagination,

affronted Nature gets such indemnity as she may.

The novel

is

tion finds.

that allowance

Everything

and

frolic the

else pins it

library

and the

neglected

is

Dumas,

and Reade.

Sand, Balzac, Dickens, Thackeray,

Their education

imagina-

down, and men

redress to Byron, Scott, Disraeli,

flee for

but the circulating-

theatre, as well as the trout-fishing,

the Notch Mountains, the Adirondack country, the

tour to

Ghauts,

Mont Blanc, to the White Hills and

make such amends as they can.

The imagination
intoxication.

infuses a certain volatility

It has a flute

which

sets the

of our frame in a dance, like planets

liberated, the
sic,

whole

man

reeling

the

and

atoms

and once so

drunk

to the

mu-

they never quite subside to their old stony state.

BOOKS.

204

But what is the imagination ? Only an arm or

weapon of the interior energy only the precursor
;

And

of the reason.

books that treat the old ped-

antries of the world, our times, places, professions,

customs, opinions, histories, with a certain freedom,

and
ica

distribute things, not after the usages of

and Europe but

and with

Amer-

after the laws of right reason,

as daring a

freedom as we use in dreams,

put us on our feet again, enable us to form an

judgment of our

original

duties,

and suggest new

thoughts for to-morrow.

"Lucrezia Floriani," "Le Pdche de M. Antoine,"

" Jeanne," and " Consuelo," of George Sand, are
great

steps

which we
off

from

still is

know

from the novel

all

one termination,

lies

about us

dumb

has not yet found a tongue.

it,

Yet how far

and manners and motives the novel

life

Life

of

read twenty years ago.

are to the plots of real

life

what the

we

the day, as

These

stories

figures in "

La

Belle Assemblee," which represent the fashion of

the month, are to portraits.

way

find the

to

But the novel

will

our interiors one day, and will not

always be the novel of costume merely.

I do not

So much novelrreading cannot leave the young men and maidens untouched and doubtless it gives some ideal dignity
The young study noble behavior and
to the day.

think

inoperative now.

it

as the player in " Consuelo " insists that he and his

BOOKS.

205

colleagues on the boards have taught princes the

and strokes of grace and dignity which

fine etiquette

they practise with so

and among

and

their villas

young midshipmen,

brilliancy of
clerks.

effect in

French novel in the courtesy

of the Scotch or the

and

much

their dependents, so I often see traces

Indeed,

when one

observes

collegians,

how

ugly people make their loves and quarrels,

they should not read novels a
the fine generosities
wliich are as
tions

and the

't is

and
pity

more, to import

clear, firm conduct,

becoming in the unions and separa-

which love

palaces and

little

ill

effects

among

under shingle roofs as in

illustrious personages.

In novels the most serious questions are begin-

What made the popularity

"Jane Eyre," but that a central question was
answered in some sort?
The question there anning to be discussed.
of

swered in regard to a \dcious marriage will always

be treated according to the habit of the party.

person of commanding individualism will answer

it

Cleopatra, as Milton,
magnifying the exception

as Rochester does,

George Sand

do,

as

a rule, dwarfing the world into an exception.

person of less courage, that

will

is

of less constitution,

answer as the heroine does,

fate, to

conventionalism, to the

doings of

as

into

giving
actual

way

state

to

and

men and women.

For the most

part, our novel-reading is a passion

BOOKS.

206

We admire parks, and liigh-born beau-

for results.
ties,

and the homage

of drawing-rooms

They make us

ments.

skeptical,

and

parlia-

by giving promi-

nence to wealth and social position.

I remember when some peering eyes of boys dis-

covered that the oranges hanging on the boughs

of an orange-tree in a gay piazza were tied to the

twigs by thread.

the

so with the novelist's

't is

Nature has a magic by which she

prosperities.
fits

I fear

man

by making them the

to his fortunes,

But the

fruit of his character.

novelist plucks this

event here and that fortune there, and

ties

them

rashly to his figures, to tickle the fancy of his

readers with a cloying success or scare them with

shocks of tragedy.

And

so,

on the whole,

'tis

juggle.

We

by

which only oddly combine acts that we

feats

are cheated into laughter or

There

do every day.

no furtherance.
raising of

new

inventions.

Money, and

is

wonder

no new element, no power,

'Tis only confectionery, not the

corn.

Great

is

the poverty of their

She was heautiful and he fell in love.

and the Wandering Jew, and

killing,

persuading the lover that his mistress

betrothed

new names,
men and women. Hence

to another, these are the main-springs

but no new qualities in the

is
;

the vain endeavor to keep any bit of this fairy gold

which has rolled

like a

brook through our hands.

thousand thoughts awoke

great rainbows seemed

BOOKS.
to span the sky, a

207

morning among the mountains

but we close the book and not a ray remains in the

memory
and

But

of evening.

this passion for

and pure poetry

real elevations

show

us, in

tains

and

morning and night, in

in

all

romance,

show how much we need

this disappointment,

that which shall

stars

and moun-

the plight and circumstance of

men, the analogous of our own thoughts, and a like

imj)ression

made by a

just

book and by the face of

Nature.

If our times are sterile in genius,

us with books of rich and believing

we must cheer
men who had

atmosphere and amplitude about them.

good

fable, every

Every

mythology, every biography from

a religious age, every passage of love, and even

philosophy and science,

when they proceed from

an

and are not detached and

intellectual integrity

fables, the Persian history (Firdusi),

Edda"

The Greek
the " Younger

have the imaginative element.

critical,

of the Scandinavians, the "Chronicle of the

Cid," the

poem

of Dante, the Sonnets of

Michel

Angelo, the English drama of Shakspeare, Beau-

mont and Fletcher, and Ford, and even the prose

of Bacon and Milton,
in our time the Ode of
Wordsworth, and the poems and the prose of
Goethe, have this enlargement, and inspire hopo

afid

generous attempts.

There

is

no room

left,

and yet I might

as well

;;

BOOKS.

208

not have begun as to leave out a class of books

which are the best

mean

the Bibles of the world,.-^

or the sacred books of each nation, which express

for

each the supreme result of their experience.

Hebrew and Greek

After the

Scriptures, which

constitute the sacred books of Christendom, these

are, the Desatir of the Persians,

trian Oracles

and the Zoroas-

the Vedas and Laws of Menu

the Upanishads, the Vishnu Purana, the Bhagvat

Geeta, of the Hindoos

the books of the Buddhists

the " Chinese Classic,"- of four books, containing

the

wisdom

Also such

and Mencius.

of Confucius

other books as have acquired a semi-canonical authority in the world, as expressing the highest sen-

timent and hope of nations.

Such are the " Her-

mes Trismegistus," pretending

mains

Antoninus

the " Yishnu

the " Gulistan " of Saadi

of

to

be Egyptian

the " Sentences " of Epictetus

Thomas

Kempis

Sarma

of

" of the

Hindoos

the " Imitation of Christ,"

and the " Thoughts

re-

Marcus

"

of

Pascal.

All these books are the majestic expressions of

the universal conscience,

and are more

to our daily

purpose than this year's almanac or this day's newspaper.

But they are

on the bended knee.

for the closet,

and

to

be read

Their communications are

not to be given or taken with the lips and the end

of the tongue, but out of the

glow of the cheek, and

BOOKS.

Friendship should give

with the throbbing heart.

and

take, solitude

and time brood and

They

absorb and enact them.

by

letters printed

tongue and form of

them on lichens and bark

waves on the beach

worms

ripen, heroes

are not to be held

on a page, but are living charac-

ters translatable into every

I read

209

they

I watch

they creep

fly in birds,

them

life.

them on

in laughter

and blushes

and eye-sparkles of men and women.

These are

in

I detect

Scriptures which the missionary might well carry

over prairie, desert, and ocean, to Siberia, Japan,

Timbuctoo.
is

in

Yet he

them journeys

on his

arrival,

he goes in vain.

We

in these things?

them

it,

and

find

it

any geography

Is there

call

is

by

carried

them primeval but perhaps that

Nature

and greets him

faster than he,

was there already long before him.

The missionary must be

there, or

which

will find that the spirit

Asiatic,

is

we

call

only optical, for

always equal to herself, and there are as

good eyes and ears now in the planet as ever were.

Only these ejaculations

of the soul are uttered one

or a few at a time, at long intervals, and

millenniums to

make a

it

takes

Bible.

These are a few of the books which the old and

the later times have yielded us, which will reward
the time spent on them.

In comparing the num-

ber of good books with the shortness of

might well be read by proxy,

VOL. VII.

14

if

life,

many

we had good

BOOKS.

210
proxies

men

to

and

it

would be well for sincere yonng

borrow a hint from the French Institute

and the British Association, and

as they divide the

whole body into sections, each of which

and reports of certain matters confided

sits

upon

it,

so let

to

each scholar associate himself to such persons as he

can rely on, in a literary club, in which each shall

undertake a single work or series for which he

For example, how

qualified.

whole literature of the "

attractive

Koman

is

is

the

de la Eose," the

"Fabliaux," and the gaie science of the French

Yet who in Boston has time for

But one of our company shall undertake it,

Troubadours
that

and master

shall study

and

shall report

on

it

as

shall give us the sincere result as

it

it,

under oath

lies in his

mind, adding nothing, keeping nothing

back.

Another member meantime

search,

sift,

and as truly

report,

shall as honestly

on British mythol-

Round Table, the histories of Brut, Merlin,

and Welsh poetry a third on the Saxon Chroniogy, the

Eobert of Gloucester, and William of Malmesbury a fourth, on Mysteries, Early Drama, " Gesta
cles,

Eomanorum,"
Society.

Collier,

Each

shall give us his grains of gold,

after the washing

cide whether this

also.

and Dyce, and the Camden

and every other

is

shall then de-

a book indispensable to him

CLUBS.

CLUBS.

We are delicate macliines, and require nice treatment

to get

from us the maximum of power and

We

pleasure.

that cost

need
or no

little

tonics,

but must have those

The flame

reaction.

of life

burns too fast in pure oxygen, and nature has tem-

So thought

pered the air with nitrogen.

tive air of the

mixed

mind, yet pure

constitution,

it

is

is

the na-

a poison to our

and soon burns up the bone-

house of man, unless tempered with affection and

coarse practice in the material world.
climates, beautiful objects,

and

Varied foods,

especially the al-

ternation of a large variety of objects,

necessity of this exigent system of ours.
tonics,

are

the

But our

our luxuries, are force-pumps which exhaust

the strength they pretend to supply^ and of all the

cordials

known

to us, the best, safest,

exhilarating, with the least harm,

is

and most

society;

and

every healthy and efficient mind passes a large

part of

We

life in

the

company most easy

to him.

seek society with very different aims, and

the staple of conversation

is

widely unlike in

its

CLUBS.

214

Sometimes

circles.

facts,

it is

running from those

of daily necessity, to the last results of science,

and has

sometimes

and makes the balm of our early and

love,
latest

son

degrees of importance

all

days

who

is

sometimes

it is

a mind only

of our

thought, as from a per-

sometimes a singing, as

the heart poured out all like a bird

With some men

experience.

it is

a debate; at

is

it

if

sometimes

the approach of a dispute they neigh like horses.

Unless there be an argument, they

is

Some

doing.

thiix!.

nothing

talkers excel in the precision with

which they formulate their thoughts, so that you

get from

them somewhat

criticism asleep

to

use words that are not words,

are not steps,

they speak of

remember

by a charm.

but

others lay-

Especially

women

as steps in a dance

reproduce the genius of that

as the sound of

some

bells

makes us

think of the bell merely, whilst the church-chimes

in the distance bring the church and

memories before
people,

us.

have a poverty-stricken

air.

companion enough

speaker

is

dogma

is

but opinion native to the

sweet and refreshing, and inseparable

from his image.

ways go

serious

A man valu-

ing himself as the organ of this or that

dull

its

Opinions are accidental in

Neither do we by any means

to people for conversation.

say nothing,

and

yet

must go

How

al-

often to

as a child will

long for his companions, but among them plays by

CLUBS,
'T

himself.

215

we want.

only presence which

is

But

at some rate, intercourse we

The experience of retired men is positive,
that we lose our days and are barren of
thought for want of some person to talk with. The
understanding can no more empty itself by its own

one thing

is

certain,

must have.

action than can a deal box.

The clergyman walks from house

all

to house all

day

the year to give people the comfort of good talk.

The physician helps them mainly in the same way,

by healthy talk giving a right tone to the patient's
The

mind.

dinner, the wallc, the fireside, all have

that for their

main end.

See how Nature has secured the communication

of knowledge.

more burn

money does not

'Tis certain that

in a boy's pocket than a piece of

burns in our

memory

until

news

we can tell it. And

new perception

higher activity of mind, every

attended with a
ing of

it

/Thought
\

is

in
is

and the impart-

thrill of pleasure,

to others is also attended with pleasure.

is

the child of the intellect, and this child

conceived with joy and born with joy.

Conversation
the

student.

is

the laboratory and workshop of

The

affection

or

sympathy

helps.

The wish to speak to the want of another mind

sists to clear

us which

time we

we

your own.
in all

A certain

ways

as-

truth possesses

strive to

say a thing in conversation,

utter.

we

Every

get a me-

CLUBS.

216

chanical advantage in detaching

erly.

pulley and lever and screw.

the mass, and send
der,

it

well and deliv-

I prize the mechanics of conversation.

a block

To

'T

is

fairly disengage

jingling down, a good boul-

it

of quartz

and

gold, to be

at leisure in the useful arts of life,

worked up

is

a wonder-

ful relief.

memory? Those
in which we met a companion who was truly such.
How sweet those hours when the day was not long

What

are the best days

in

enough to communicate and compare our

ual jewels,

the

intellect-

favorite passages of each book,

the proud anecdotes of our heroes, the delicious

verses

we had hoarded

our solitary days

friend

still left

How

some

What

a motive had then

the countenance of our

light after he

remember the time when the best

of fortune

was

to fall in with

in a ship's cabin, or

had gone!

gift

We

we could ask

a valuable companion

on a long journey in the old

stage-coach, where, each passenger being forced to

know every

and other employments being

other,

out of question, conversation naturally flowed, people

became rapidly acquainted, and,

more intimate

in a

day than

if

if

well adapted,

they had been

neighbors for years.

In youth, in the fury of curiosity and acquisition,

the day

is

too short for books and the crowd of

thoughts, and

we

are impatient of interruption.

CLUBS.

217

Later,

when books

flow

and the days come when we are alarmed, and

thought has a more languid

tire,

say there are no thoughts.

pate

mine

is

'

What

the student says

'

learn whether I have lost

intelligent persons,

my

a barren- witted
I will go and

'

He

reason.'

whether more wise or

seeks

less wise

than he, who give him provocation, and at once and

easily the old

motion begins

humors flow

fancies,

broadens; and the

again shown him.

be observed.

in his brain

the cloud

infinite

lifts

thoughts,

the horizon

opulence of things

is

But the right conditions must

Mainly he must have leave

to be

Sancho Panza blessed the man who

himself.

invented sleep.

So I prize the good invention

whereby everybody
is

is

provided with somebody

who

glad to see him.

If

men

alone,

are less

when together than they are

they are also in some respects enlarged.

They kindle each other

and such

is

the power of

suggestion that each sprightly story calls out more

and sometimes a
recesses of

daylight,

fact that

memory

had long

hears the voice,

and proves

is

slept in the

welcomed to

Every meta-

of rare value.

physician must have observed, not only that no

thought

is

alone, but that thoughts

commonly go

pairs; though the related thoughts

in his

mind

in pairs

first

appeared

Things are

at long distances of time.

a natural fact has only half

in

its

value imtil

CLUBS.

218

a fact in moral nature,

counterpart,

its

Then they confirm and adorn each

is

matched by another

And

story.

thing, he immediately tells

that

when a gentleman has

the reason why,

stated.

is

other

story-

may be
good

told a

again.

it

Nothing seems so cheap as the benefit of conversation

nothing

is

more

you are balked and

'T

rare.

plenty of in-

is

but serious, happy

reading, curiosity;

telligence,

wonderful how

is

There

baffled.

discourse, avoiding personalities, dealing with results, is rare

and I seldom meet with a reading

were

and thoughtful person but he

me, as

tells

his exceptional mishap, that he has

Suppose such a one

as

to

rates

are

is

exclude

Amidst
fane

and genial counter-

he might inquire far and wide.

tion in society

and the

saint,

so often to

out.

The

mind,

seasonable I cannot say

which I can say

who can

the

science,

and venture

comes

now

Conversa-

found to be on a platform so low^

poet.

the gay banter, sentiment cannot pro-

all

itself

go out explormg dilferent

to

circles in search of this wise

part,

if it

no companion.

it

resist the

letters loves

is

not

charm

power

too.

now

reply of old Isoc-

" The things which

;

and for the things

the time."

of talent ?

Among

the

The

Besides,
lover of

men

of wit

and learning, he could not withhold his homage

from the gayety, grasp of memory, luck, splendor,
and speed

such exploits of discourse, such feats of

!;

CLUBS.

219

society
What new powers, what mines of wealth
But when he came home, his brave sequins were
!

dry leaves.

He

found either that the fact they

had thus dizened and adorned was

that he already
told him.
so

much

He

of

no value, or

knew all and more than

all

they had

could not find that he was helped by

as one thought or principle, one solid fact,

one commanding impulse

great was the dazzle,

He

but the gain was small.

uses his occasions;

he seeks the company of those who have convivial

But the moment they meet,

talent.

to

be sure

they begin to be something else than they were

they play pranks, dance

pun,

tell stories,

try

jigs,

many

run on each other,

fantastic tricks,

under

some superstition that there must be excitement

and elevation;
I

once.

know

and

they

kill

conversation

at

well the rusticity of the shy hermit.

No doubt he does not make allowance enough for

men of more active blood and habit. But it is
only on natural ground that conversation can be
It

rich.

Let

it

must not begin with uproar and

keep the ground,

with the battery.

let it feel the

Men must

not be

violence.

connection
off

their "^

centres.

-Some men love only to talk where they are

ters.

They

like to

into the shops

go to

mas-

school-girls, or to boys, or

where the sauntering people gladly

lend an ear to any one.

On

thse terms they give

CLUBS.

220

information and please themselves by

which are admired by the

cliat

talker

is

at his ease

and

jolly, for

when he

without ceremony

They go rarely
own con-

pleases.

their

much
new whim

venience simply, making too

duce and impart their

listen badly or

do not

listen to the

the thought by which the company

them

rather, as soon as their

Then

whom

on which

heady men, the

or discovery;

comment
strive to

own speech

is

or to

repay
done,
\

't is

no matter

they fight for victory;

then the

always a battle

it is

side,

haste to intro-

there are the gladia-

they take their hats.

tors, to

he can walk out

and then as for

to their equals,

and
and the

sallies

idlers

egotists, the

monotones, the

steriles,

'|

and the impracticables.

It does not help that

man

than yourself,

The

you.

if

you find as good or a better

he

is

not timed and fitted to

greatest sufferers are often those

have the most to

say,

men

of a delicate

who

a^

sympa-

dumb in mixed company. Able peoknow how to make allowance for J

them, paralyze them. One of those conceited prigs
thy,

who

pie, if

are

they do not

who value nature only as

is

it

feeds and exhibits

equally a pest with the roysterers.

be large reception as well as giving.

them

There must

How delight-

ful after these disturbers is the radiant, playful wit

of

one whom

I need not name,

society there is his representative.

for

in every

Good-nature

is

CLUBS.

His conversation

stronger than tomahawks.

pictures

he

tells

221
all

is

he can reproduce whatever he has seen

and

the best story in the county,

of such

is

genial temper that he disposes all others irresistibly

to

good-humor and discourse.

He was

Abbe

Galiani

and

the cabinet-makers

if

"

Diderot said of the

a treasure in rainy days

made such

things, every-

body would have one in the country."

One

we learn

lesson

We

early,

men

seeming difference,

that

in spite of

are all of one pattern.

readily assume this with our mates,

and are

we

are pre-

disappointed and angry

we

if

find that

mature, and that their watches are slower than

In fact the only sin which we never forgive

ours.

in each other is difference of opinion.

beforehand that yonder

Has he

not two hands,

Does he not

eat,

me

from

dissent

conclusion
of love.

is

is

man must

two
bleed,

laugh, -^ cry

His

the ground of our indignation

on himself.

opinion, as the cross

He

This

and

his eye

But

come a

say that there

from
little

may

our

checks the flow of his

and

ours.

nearer

easily

is

some wilfulness he

is

cow holds up her milk.

into his eye,

and hides
to

hair and nails?

at once the logic of persecution

And

and we look

know
we do.

the veriest affectation.

conviction that his dissent

practises

feet,

We

think as

see that he

^
to my

Yes,

knows

mark, I

am

it

to

be obstacles in the way

CLUBS.

222
of finding

we

wlien

pure

tlie

find

article

it it is

are in search

of,

but

comfort as medicine and cordial, once in the

its

right company,

appear.

new and

All that

man

this

Our

game.

man who

cannot.

Is

curiosity

to

it

man

is to

be

fortunes in the world are as our

mental equipment for

a

vast values do not fail to

can do for

There are great prizes in

found in that market.

is

we

worth the pursuit, for beside

this competition

is.

Yonder

can answer the questions which I

so ?

know

Hence comes
his

to

me

boundless

experiences and his wit.

Hence competition for the stakes dearest to man.

What is a match at whist, or draughts, or billiards,
or chess, to a match of mother-wit, of knowledge,
and of resources? However courteously we conceal it, it is social rank and spiritual power that
are compared

whether in the parlor, the courts,

the caucus, the senate, or the chamber of science,

which

are only less or larger theatres for this

competition.

He

that can define, he that can answer a ques-

tion so as to admit of

best man.

the Sphinx.

no further answer,

is

the

This was the meaning of the story of

In the old time conundrums were sent

from king to king by ambassadors. The seven wise

masters at Periander's banquet spent their time in

answering them.

pounding and

The

life

of Socrates

a solution of these.

is

a pro-

So, in the hagi-

CLUBS.

223

ology of each nation, the lawgiver was in each case

some man of eloquent tongue, whose sympathybrought him face to face with the extremes of
ety.

Menu, the

Jesus,

soci-

Buddhist, Mahomet,

first

Zertusht, Pythagoras, are examples.

Jesus spent his

on

peoj)le

life

life

humble

in discoursing with

and duty,

in giving wise answers,

showing that he saw at a larger angle of vision,

and

at least silencing those

enough
life so

"

who were not generous

Luther spent

to accept his thoughts.

and

it

is

Commentary on

not his

his
his

the Galatians," and the rest, but

his " Table-Talk," w^hich

is still

read by men.

Johnson 'was a man of no profound mind,

of English limitations, English

Church, Oxford philosophy

heart, mother-wit,

theologic works,

politics,

yet,

Dr.

full

English

having a large

and good sense which impatiently

overleaped his customary bounds, his conversation

as reported

versation

thought

is

by Boswell has a

the vent of character as well as of

and Dr. Johnson impresses

Con-

lasting charm.

his

company,

not only by the point of the remark, but also,

the point
relig'ion

fails,

because he makes

His obvious

or superstition, his deep wish that they

should think so or
is

it.

when

so,

weighs with them,

so rare

depth of feeling, or a constitutional value for a

thought or opinion,

among

and women who make u^

the light-minded

society

men

and though they

CLUBS.

224

know that

there

is

in the speaker a degree of short-

coming, of insincerity, and of talking for victory,

and habitual

rever-

ence for principles over talent or learning,

is felt

yet the existence of character,

by the

frivolous.

One

of the best records of the great

master who towered over

the

first

all his

century,

thirty years of this

versations as recorded

by Eckermann

" Table-Talk " of Coleridge

is

German

contemporaries in
is

his con-

and the

one of the best

re-

mains of his genius.

In the Norse legends, the gods of Valhalla, when

they meet the Jotuns, converse on the perilous

terms that he who cannot answer the other's questions forfeits

his

own

Odin comes

life.

the

to

threshold of the Jotun Waftrhudnir in disguise,

calling himself

and

Gangrader

told that he cannot

invited into the hall,

is

go out thence unless he

can answer every question Wafthrudnir shall put.

Wafthrudnir asks him the name of the god of the

sun,

and of the god who brings the night

river separates the dwellings of the

giants

from those of the gods

what

sons of the

what plain

lies be-

tween the gods and Surtur, their adversary,

all

which the disguised Odin answers

Then

it is

his turn to interrogate,

etc.

satisfactorily.

and he

swered well for a time by the Jotun.

At

is

an-

last

he

puts a question which none but himself could an-

CLUBS.
swer

"

What

225

did Odin whisper in the ear of his

son Balder, when Balder

mounted the funeral

"

The startled giant replies " None of the

gods knows what in the old time thou saidst in
the ear of thy son with death on my mouth have
pile ?

I spoken the fate-words of the generation of the

iEsir

with Odin contended I in wise words.

Thou

must ever the wisest be."

And
still

still

the gods and giants are so known, and

they play the same game in

mansions of heaven and of earth

clubs,

and

tete

tetts^ the

all

the million

at all tables,

lawyers in the court-

house, the senators in the capitol, the doctors in the

academy, the wits in the hotel.

Best

is

he who

gives an answer that cannot be answered again.

Omnis

definitio periculosa est,

and only wit has

The same thing took place when Leibnitz came to visit Newton
when Schiller came to
Goethe when France, in the person of Madame
de Stael visited Goethe and Schiller when Hegel
was the guest of Victor Cousin in Paris; when
the secret.

Linnaeus was the guest of Jussieu.

many

It

happened

years ago that an American chemist carried

a letter of introduction to Dr. Dalton of Manchester,

England, the author of the theory of atomic

proportions, and was coolly enough received by the

Doctor in the laboratory where he was engaged.

Only Dr. Dalton scratched a formida on a scrap

VOL. VII.

15

CLUBS.

226
of paper and pushed

seen that

lie

"

towards the guest,

it

The

visitor scratched

" Had

on another

paper a formula describing some results of his own

with sulphuric acid, and pushed

" Had

he seen that

"

it

The

across the table,

attention of the

English chemist was instantly arrested, and they

became rapidly acquainted.

To answer a
is

question so as to admit of no reply,

the test of a man,

to touch

bottom every time.

Hyde, Earl of Rochester, asked Lord-Keeper Guilford, "

Do you

not think I could understand any

business in England in a

month?"

"Yes,

lord," replied the other, " but I think

understand

ward

I.

better in two months."

it

my

you would

When

Ed-

claimed to be acknowledged by the Scotch

(1292) as lord paramount, the nobles of Scotland

replied, "

No answer

vacant."

is

can be made while the throne

When Henry

ress against his people

III.

(1217) plead du-

demanding confirmation and

execution of the Charter, the reply was

were admitted,

civil

" If this

wars could never close but by

the extirpation of one of the contending parties."

What
dents ?

No

can you do with one of these sharp respon-

What

can you do with an eloquent

rules of debate,

sions,

no contempt

of court,

man ?

no exclu-

no gag-laws can be contrived that his

syllable will not set aside or overstep

You can

shut out the light,

it

may

first

and annul.

be, but can

you

CLUBS.
shut out gravitation

227

You may condemn

but can you fight against his thought

his book,

That

is

always too nimble for you, anticipates you, and

Can

breaks out victorious in some other quarter.

you stop the motions of good sense

What

can

you do with Beaumarchais, who converts the censor

whom

the court has appointed to

an ardent advocate

who

censor,

The

shall crush

it

persuades him to defend

stifle

Beaumarchais

this time.

it.

his play into

court appoints another

The court

appoints three more severe inquisitors

chais converts

them

of the play which

Who

all into
is

to

Beaumar-

triumphant vindicators

bring in the Revolution.

can stop the mouth of Luther,

of Franklin,

successively

of

Newton ?

of Mirabeau, of Talleyrand

These masters can make good their own place,

Every variety

and need no patron.

of gift

sci-

ence, religion, politics, letters, art, prudence, war,

or love
tion.

has

its

vent and exchange in conversa-

Conversation

is

the Olympic

games whither

every superior gift resorts to assert and approve

itself,

ful

and,

of course, the inspirations of power-

and public men, with the

this class,

whom

rest.

But

it

not

is

the splendor of their accomplish-

ment almost inevitably guides

into the vortex

of

makes them chancellors and commanders

council and of action, and makes them at last

ambition,
of

fatalists,

not these whom we now consider.

We

CLUBS.

228
consider those

who

are interested in thoughts, their

own and other men's, and who delight in comparing

them; who think it the highest compliment they
can pay a man to deal with him as an intellect, to
expose to him the grand and cheerful secrets per-

haps never opened to their daily companions, to

share with

him the sphere

-^

freedom and the sim-

of

plicity of truth.

But the

best conversation

Society seems

is rare.

/to have agreed to treat fictions as realities,

realities as fictions

especially if

and the simple lover

and

of truth,

on very high grounds, as a religious

or intellectual seeker, finds himself a stranger

and

alien.

It is possible that the best conversation is be-

tween two persons who can talk only to each other.

Even Montesquieu
if

confessed that in conversation,

he perceived he was listened to by a third

person,

it

seemed to him from that moment the

whole question vanished from his mind.

known persons

of rare ability

to

good

how

to

draw out others

social

who were heavy com-

men who knew

pany

of

retiring

moreover, were heavy to intellectual

to

have known them.

that
seen,

we perhaps

scale of

live

And

I have

does

well enough

habit; and,

men who ought

it

never occur

with people too superior to be

as there are musical notes too high for the

most ears ?

There are mfen who are great

229

CLUBS.

only to one or two companions of more opportunity,

or

more adapted.
was

It

to

meet these wants that

tions attempts

sation

have been made

to organize conver-

by bringing together cultivated people under

the most favorable conditions.

was

in all civil na-

liberal

'Tis certain there

and refined conversation in the Greek,

Roman, and in the Middle Age. There was

a time when in France a revolution occurred in
domestic architecture when the houses of the nobility, which, up to that time, had been constructed
in the

on feudal

necessities,

in a

hollow square,

the

ground-floor being resigned to offices and stables,

and the

floors

ing-rooms,

above to rooms of state and to lodg-

were

new purpose. It was

Rambouillet who first got the

rebuilt with

the Marchioness of

horses out of and the scholars into the

having constructed her hStel with a view to

palaces,
society,

with superb suites of drawing-rooms on the same

floor,

and broke through the morgue

by inviting
as well as

to her

men

house

of rank,

men

of wit

of etiquette

and learning

and piqued the emulation

of Cardinal Richelieu to rival assemblies,

to the

founding of the French Academy.

tory of the H6tel Rambouillet

and

its

and so

The

his-

brilliant cir-

makes an important date in French civilization.

And a history of clubs from early antiquity,
cles

tracing the efforts to secure liberal

and

refined con-

CLUBS.

230

Greek and Eoman

versation, throngli the

to the

Middle Age, and thence down through French,

German memoirs,

English, and

and

coteries in each country,

We

tant chapter in history.

maid Club,

tracing the clubs

would be an impor-

know

Mer-

well the

London, of Shakspeare, Ben Jon-

in

Chapman, Herrick, Selden, Beaumont and

Fletcher
its " Rules " are preserved, and many
son,

allusions

to

Herrick,

and

many

their

in

suppers are found in Jon son,

Anthony

Aubrey.

Wood

Dr. Bentley's

details of Harrington's Club.

Club held Newton, Wren, Evelyn, and Locke

we owe

has

and

knowledge of the club of

to Boswell our

Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke, Gibbon, Reynolds,

Garrick, Beauclerk and Percy.

And we

have

rec-

ords of the brilliant society that Edinburgh boasted

in the first decade of this century.

Such

societies

are possible only in great cities, and are the com-

pensation which these can

for depriving

Nature.

them

Every scholar

men than he

if

make

to their dwellers

the free intercourse with

of

is

surrounded by wiser

they cannot write as well.

Can-

not they meet and exchange results to their mutual

benefit

and delight ?

when a

genial and accomplished person said to me,

It

was a pathetic experience

looking from his country

home

New

a town of two hundred

England, " There

is

to the capital of

thousand people, and not a chair in

it

for me."

If

CLUBS.

231

he were sure to find at No. 2000 Tremont Street

what scholars were abroad

after the

morning stud-

New

were ended, Boston would shine as the

ies

Jerusalem to his eyes.

Now

want

this

The man

adapted society

of

man

of thought, the

mutual.

is

man

of letters, the

of science, the administrator skilful in affairs, the

man

manners and

of

wish to

find,

each

Each wishes

culture,

whom you

open his thought, his knowledge,

to

his social skill to the daylight in

affection,

the

first

and

much

so

of these is wishing to be found.

exchange his

to

your company and

gifts for

hint of a select and intelligent

yours

and

company

is

welcome.

But the club must be

self-protecting,

There are people who

stacles arise at the outset.

cannot well be cultivated

down and

quiet

if

whom you must

it

out,

a club would be,

who

sink

to talk,

and those who

right rule for

both are bad.

It requires people

not surprised and shocked,

who

against any lighted

Admit no man whose presence

excludes any one topic.

let be,

fly

marplots and contradictors.

There are those who go only

go only to hear

keep

There are those who

you can.

have the instinct of a bat to

candle and put

and ob-

trifles

who do and

and know

let

who

are

do and

and

solid values,

take a great deal for granted.

It is always a practical difficulty with clubs to

CLUBS,

232
regulate

tlie

laws of election so as to exclude per-

emptorily every social nu isance.

Nobody wishes

We must have loyalty and character.

bad manners.

The poet Marvell was wont

not drink wine with any one with

not trust his

A man of

superfine.

whom

But neither can we

life."

he " would

to say that

he could

afford to be

irreproachable behavior and

excellent sense preferred on his travels taking his

chance at a hotel for company, to the charging

himself with too

He
fact

many

select letters of introduction.

confessed he liked low company.

was incontestable that the

was more

attractive than that of bishops.

deserts the parlor for the kitchen

wharf.

He

said the

society of gypsies

The

girl

the boy, for the

Tutors and parents cannot interest him like

the uproarious conversation he finds in the market

or the dock.
in camps,
tell

who

knew a

scholar, of

some experience

said that he liked, in a bar-room, to

a few coon stories and put himself on a good

company

footing with the

silent as

then he could be as

A scholar

he chose.

always pumping his brains

black-coats are good

does not wish to be-'"^

he wants gossips.

company only

The

for black-coats

but when the manufacturers, merchants, and ship-

how much they have

masters meet, see

to say,

and

They have come

how long the conversation lasts
from many zones they have traversed wide countries they know each his own arts, and the cunning
!

CLUBS.
artisans of his craft

233

they have seen the best and

Their knowledge contradicts

the worst of men.

own on many

the popular opinion and your

points.

Things which you fancy wrong they know

and

right

profitable

superstitious

they

things

know

to

which you reckon

They have

be true.

found virtue in the strangest homes

rich store of

be

to

their adventures

are

and

in the

instances

and

examples which you have been seeking in vain for

and which they suddenly and unwittingly

years,

offer you.

remember a

wherein

tion,

social

experiment in this direc-

appeared that each of the members

it

fancied he was in need of society, but himself un-

On

presentable.

trial

they

all

found that they

could be tolerated by, and could tolerate, each

Nay, the tendency to extreme

other.

which hesitated
idly

down

to join in a club

to abject admiration of each other,

the club was broken up by

The use

of

Men are

and I remember

a Southern

city,

public charity on

that

it

it

when

new combinations.

the hospitality of the club

needs explanation.
table

self-respect

was running rap-

unbent and

was explained

was impossible

hardly

social at

to

me, in

to set

any

foot unless through a tavern din-

I do not think our metropolitan charities

would plead the same necessity but to a club met
for conversation a supper is a good basis, as it dis-

ner.

CLUBS.

234

arms

all parties

and puts pedantry and business

to

All are in good humor and at leisure,

the door.

which are the

conditions of discourse

first

the or-

experienced

men

meet with the freedom of boys, and, sooner or

later,

dinary reserves are thrown

impart

The

No

all

that

off,

singular in their experience.

is

hospitalities of clubs are easily exaggerated.

doubt the suppers of wits and philosophers

quire

much

lustre

by time and renown.

ac-

Plutarch,

Xenophon, and Plato, who have celebrated each a

banquet of their
of the viands

set,

and

have given us next to no data

to be believed that

it is

different tavern dinner in such society

relished

When we such clusters had

As made us nobly wild, not mad;
And

yet,

each verse of thine

Outdid the meat, outdid the

Such friends make the

it

Ben Jonson

Herrick's verses to

no doubt paint the fact

that

in-

by the convives than a much better one in

worse company.

*'

an

was more

frolic wine."

feast satisfying

and I notice

was when things went prosperously, and the

company was

full of honor, at the

Cid, that " the guests

in one thing,

that

all

were

banquet of the

joyful,

and agreed

they had not eaten better for

three years."

I need only hint the value of the club for bring-

ing masters in their several arts to compare and ex-

CLUBS.
panel their views, to

come

235

on

to a*n understanding

these points,

and

have

influence on public questions of edu-

its just

cation

and

so that their united opinion shall

politics.

It is agreed that in the sec-

tions of the British Association

more information

is

mutually and effectually communicated, in a few

many months

hours, than in

of

ordinary corre-

spondence and the printing and transmission of

ponderous reports.
lettres is

but there

seed-corn;

his

draw him

out,

We

know

that

Vhomme de

wary, and not fond of giving away

little

is

an

infallible

way

to

namely, by having as good as he. If

you have Tuscaroora and he Canada, he may exchano'e kernel for kernel.
curable,

and he dare not speak

will yet tell

men

principal purpose also

club, as a

is in-

of fairy gold, he

what new books he has found, what old

ones recovered, what

If his discretion

means

of

write and read abroad.

is

the hospitality of the

receiving a worthy foreigner

with mutual advantage.

Every man brings

into

thought and local culture.

alternation of topics
likes in a

umph

society

We

some partial

need range and

One

and variety of minds.

companion a phlegm which

to disturb, and, not less, to

it

make

in

is

tri-

an old

acquaintance unexpected discoveries of scope and

power through the advantage of an inspiring subject.

Wisdom

is

like electricity.

There

is

no per-

CLUBS.

236

manently wise man, but men capable of wisdom,

who, being put into certain company, or other
favorable conditions, become wise for a short time,
as glasses

rubbed acquire

power

electric

for a while.

But while we look complacently at these obvious

pleasures and values of good companions, I do not
forget that Nature

and that her great

stern.

When we

is

always very

gifts

much

in earnest,

have something serious and

look for the highest benefits of

conversation, the Spartan rule of one to one

usually enforced.

and searches

mood

Discourse,

deepest,

when

when
it

it rises

lifts

is

highest

us into that

out of which thoughts come that remain as

stars in our firmament, is

between two.

COURAGE.

COUEAGE.

OBSERVE

that there are three qualities which

conspicuously attract the wonder and reverence of

mankind

Disinterestedness, as

1.

the ordinary bribes

shown

in indifference to

and influences

of conduct,

purpose so sincere and generous that

it

cannot be

tempted aside by any prospects of wealth or other

private advantage.

SeK-love

is,

in almost all

!i^LEL2II^^y-^sJi.tJ^l^^* t^^^y ^^'

men,

incredulous of a

man's habitual preference of the general good to

his

own

but when they see

of ease, wealth, rank,

and

it

no limit to their admiration.

power of the

proved by

.of life

saints of the

itself,

there

This has made

is

tl

East and West, who

have led the religion of great nations.

is

sacrifices

Self-sacrifice

the real miracle out of which all the reported

miracles grew.

This makes the renown of the he-

roes of Greece andT

and Phocion
ulus

of

Rome,

of Socrates, Aristides,

of Quintus Curtius, Cato,

Hatem

Tai's

hospitality

of

and RegChatham,

whose scornful magnanimity gave him immense

COURAGE.

240
popularity

of Wasliington, giving his service to

the public without salary or reward.

Men

Practic^jDowei^

2.

admire the

man who

can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and

the man who can build

steel and brass,
who has the impiety to make the rivers
way he wants them who can lead his tele-

wood and
the boat,

run the

graph through the ocean from shore

sitting in his closet,

to shore

who,

can lay out the plans of a cam-

paign, sea-war and land-war, such that the best

generals and admirals,

when

all is

they must thank him for success

ter combination

whether

more

it

and

loftily,

game

done, see that

the power of bet-

however exhibited,

foresight,

only plays a

of chess, or whether,

a cunning mathematician, penetrating

the cubic weights of stars, predicts the planet which

eyes had never seen;

or whether, exploring the

chemical elements whereof we and the world are

made, and seeing their

the lightning in his

a wiser geology shall

less

Franklin draws

off

suggesting that one day

make

the earthquake harm-

and the volcano an agricultural resource.

here

how

secret,

hand

Or

one who, seeing the wishes of men, knows

is

to

come

at their

argues

down

that adversary, moulds society to his

purpose,

takes

and looks

command

as the

of

end

whispers to this friend,

at all

men

them

as the

mother does of the

as

wax for

his

hands

wind does of clouds,

child, or the

man

that

COURAGE.
knows more does

them

leads

man

of the

241

that

knows

less,

in glad surprise to the very point

they would be

this

man

and

where

followed with acclama-

is

tion.
3.

The

third excellence

is courao:e,_

wiU, which no terrors can shake, which

by frowns or
these to

is

all its

awake and fan

extreme

is
;

its

reserved energies into a

never quite

then

itself until

the haz-

serene and fertile, and

it is

There

powers play well.

Achilles, a

attracted

is

threats or hostile armies, nay, needs

pure flame, and

ard

the perfect

is

a Hercules, an

Rustem, an Arthur or a Cid in the

mythology of every nation

tory, a Leonidas, a

and in authentic

Scijiio,

his-

a Caesar, a Richard

CcEur de Lion, a Cromwell, a Nelson, a Great

Conde, a Bertrand du Guesclin, a Doge Dandolo, a

Napoleon, a Massena, and Ney.

'T

is

said courage

common, but the immense esteem in which it is

Animal resistance, the
it to be rare.
when cornered, is no
animal
male
instinct of the
is

held proves

doubt

common

but the pure

article,

courage with

eyes, courage with conduct, self-possession at the

cannon's mouth, cheerfulness in lonely adherence

to_the right,
ters.

is

the

endowment

I need not show

of elevated charac-

how much

it

is

esteemed,

They forgive
for the people give
everything to it. What an ado we make through
it

the

first

rank.

two thousand years about Thermopylae and SalavoL. vn.

16

COURAGE,

242
mis

What

Bunker

Hill,

memory

and Crecy, and

and Washington's endurance

any man who puts

is

of Poitiers

And

his life in peril in a cause

which

men.

The

esteemed becomes the darling of

all

very nursery-books, the ballads which delight boys,

the romances which delight men, the favorite topics of eloquence, the

thunderous emphasis which

orators give to every martial defiance

of arms,

and which the people

How short
morning

may

testify.

to read or to hear the traits of courage of

weary of the theme

men who,

We

field,

and was never

have had examples of

for showing effective courage on a single

occasion, have
tions,

and passage

a time since this whole nation rose every

sons and brothers in the

its

greet,

become a

favorite spectacle to na-

and must be brought

in chariots to every

mass meeting.

Men

are so charmed with valor that they have

pleased themselves with being called lions, leopards, eagles,

and dragons, from the animals contemBut

porary with us in the geologic formations.

the animals have great advantage of us in precoc-

Touch the snapping-turtle with a stick, and

Cut off his head, and
it with his teeth.
Break the egg
the teeth will not let go the stick.
of the young, and the little embryo, before yet the
ity.

he

seizes

eyes are open, bites fiercely

tures

contriving,

shall

we

these vivacious crea-

say

not

only to

COURAGE,

243

but also to bite before

bite after they are dead,

they are born.

But man begins

and

alone,

it

The babe

life helpless.

paroxysms of fear the moment

its

is

nurse leaves

comes so slowly to any power of

in
it

self-

protection that mothers say the salvation of the life

and health
j
/

of a

young child

is

a perpetual miracle.

The

terrors of the child are quite reasonable,

and

add

to his loveliness

for his utter ignorance

and

weakness, and his enchanting indignation on such

a small basis of capital compel every by-stander to

^take

his part.

awake he
and

feet,

gers,

But

Every moment

as long as he is

studies the use of his eyes, ears, hands,

learning

how

to

meet and avoid his dan-

and thus every hour

loses

one terror more.

this education stops too soon.

ity of

men

early to be occupied day

of safe industry, never

ences that

A large major-

being bred in families and beginning

make

by day with some routine

come

to the

rough experi-

the Indian, the soldier, or the

frontiersman self-subsistent and fearless.

Hence

the high price of courage indicates the general

midity.

tardly

"Mankind,"

said

when they meet with

Franklin,

ti-

"are das-

opposition."

In war

even generals are seldom found eager to give bat-

Lord Wellington said, " Uniforms were often

masks " and again, " When my journal appears,
many statues must come down." The Norse Sagas
tle.

COURAGE.

244
relate that

when Bishop Magne reproved King

Sigurd for his wicked divorce, the priest who

at-

tended the bishop, expecting every moment when

the savage king would burst with rage and slay his
superior, said that he "

saw the sky no bigger than

And I remember when a pair of

who had been run away with in a wagon
by a skittish horse, said that when he began to
a calf-skin."

Irish girls

rear, they

were so frightened that they could not

see the horse.

^ Cowardice shuts the eyes

/

/
j

larger than a calf-skin

till

the

sky

not

is

shuts the eyes so that

cannot see the horse that

is

we

running away with us

mind and chills the

The political
have been reigns of madness and

worse, shuts the eyes of the

Fear

heart.

is

reigns of terror

malignity,
is

total perversion of opinion

upside down, and

bad

Then

to live.

and mean.

cruel

its

best

men

and property, even the

accumulation of savings gives, go in

Those

taint

what white

nals,

if

first

times to

respectable

classes.

well-dis-

the

posed portion of the community,

ignoble

all

which gather-in the

of

political parties

defensive, as

society

the protection which a house, a

family, neighborhood

generate this

are thought too

lips

how infirm and

they have

always on the

the lead were intrusted to the jour-

often written in great part

by women and

boys, who, without strength, wish to keep

up the

ap-

COURAGE.
They can do the

pearance of strength.

and

placarding, the flags,

fair

will

day

245
hurras, the

the voting,

if it

is

men who

but the aggressive attitude of

have right done, will no longer be bothered

with burglars and ruffians in the streets, counterfeiters in public offices,

and thieves on the bench

that part, the part of the leader

and soul

of the

vigilance committee, must be taken by stout and

sincere

men who

are really angry

and determined.

In ordinary, we have a snappish criticism which

We

watches and contradicts the opposite party.

want the

we
it

will

which advances and

get an advantage, as in Congress the other day,

is

because our adversary has committed a fault,

not that

we have taken the

initiative

not defend

not be defended.

itself shall

ing never so loud and with never so

no

ties

and given the

Nature has made up her mind that what can-

law.

of

When

dictates.

use.

One heard much

Complain-

much

reason

is

cant of peace-par-

long ago in Kansas and elsewhere, that their

strength lay in the greatness of their wrongs,

dissuading all resistance, as

But were

greater.

their

negro's?

And what

ever give

him?

tyrant,

It

if

to

make

and

this strength

wrongs greater than the

kind

of strength did they

was always invitation

to the

and bred disgust in those who would pro-

tect the victim.

What

cannot stand must

the measure of our sincerity

fall

and therefore

and

of the

:!

COURAGE.

246
respect of men,

we

old farmer,

ask him
"

No

is

the

amount

of health

hazard in the defence of our

will

if

't is

my

he

is

no use

not going to town-meeting, says

balloting, for

support,

your help

means

by

is

it

will not stay

will stay so."

has charged every one with his

own

An

right.

neighbor across the fence, when I

what you do with the gun

his

and wealth

and the only

but

Nature

own

defence as with

title

I can have to

when I have manfully put

forth all the

I possess to keep me, and being overborne

odds, the by-standers have a natural wish to in-

terfere

and

see fair play.

But with this pacific education we have no readiI am much mistaken if every
ness for bad times.
man who went to the army in the late war had not
a lively curiosity to know how he should behave in
Tender, amiable boys, who had never en-

action.

countered any rougher play than a base-ball match

or a fishing excursion, were suddenly drawn up to

Of

face a bayonet charge or capture a battery.

course they must each go into that action with a

certain despair.

Each whispers

to himself

"

My

exertions must be of small account to the result;

only will the benignant Heaven save

gracing myself and

yes, I

behave

my friends

can well die

and

me from

my State.

dis-

Die

but I cannot afford to mis-

and I do not know how I

shall feel."

So

great a soldier as the old French Marshal Montluc

COURAGE

247

acknowledges that he has often trembled with fear,

and recovered conrage when he had said a prayer

for the occasion.
I knew a young soldier who

who confided

died in the early campaign,

sister that

" I have not," he said, " any proper

for the war.

courage, but I shall never let any one find

And

to his

he had made up his mind to volunteer

out."

it

he had accustomed himself always to go into

whatever place of danger, and do whatever he was

afraid to do, setting a dogged resolution to resist
this

an anecdote of
told

Coleridge has preserved

natural infirmity.

him

an

officer in the British

when

that

Navy who

he, in his first boat expedition,

a midshipman in his fourteenth year, accompanied

Sir Alexander Ball, " as
vessel

we were

ketry, I

we were rowing up

to attack,

amid a discharge

was overpowered with

and I was ready

fear,

to the

of

my knees

musshook

Lieutenant Ball

to faint away.

seeing me, placed himself close beside me, took hold

of

my hand and whispered,

you

will recover in

same when I
if

first

an angel spoke

'

Courage,

a minute or so

went out in
to me.

my dear boy

I was just the

this way.'

From

that

It

was as

moment

I was

as fearless and as forward as the oldest of the

boat's crew.

But I dare not think what would

if, at that moment, he had

have become of me,

scoffed

and exposed me."

Knowledge

is

the antidote to fear,

Knowledge,

COURAGE.

248

Use, and Reason, with

is

as

much

in danger

higher aids.

its

from a

The

grate, or a bath-tub, or a cat, as the soldier

cannon or an ambush.

child

staircase, or the fire-

Each surmounts

from a

the fear

as fast as he precisely understands the peril

means

learns the

panic, which

exactly, the

is,

Each

of resistance.

terror of

surrendered to the imagination.

and

is liable

to

ignorance

Knowledge

is

the

encourager, knowledge that takes fear out of the

heart,

knowledge and

which

use,

is

\They can conquer who

knowledge in

can^
who does not
shrink from attempting it again. It is the groom
who knows the jumping horse well who can safely
practice.

It is he

who has done

ride him.

It

is

believe they

the deed once

Use makes a

from the path of

familiarity

with

danger enabling him to estimate the danger.

He

how much

is

the risk,

and

is

not afflicted with

imagination ; knows practically Marshal Saxe's rule,

that every soldier killed costs the

enemy

his weight

in lead.

The

mand

sailor loses fear as fast as

of sails

he acquires com-

and spars and steam

man, when he has a perfect

a sure aim.

'

better soldier than the mosfr^"^^

urgent considerations of duty,

sees

the veteran soldier, who, seeing the

flash of the cannon, can step aside

the ball.

To

rifle

the frontiers-

and has acquired

the sailor's experience every

new

The

ter-

circumstance suggests what he must do.

COURAGE.
rific

chances which

make

249

the hours and the minutes

long to the passenger, he whiles away by incessant

application of expedients

and

repairs.

leak, a hurricane, or a water-spout is so

no more.

The hunter

is

To him a
much work,

not alarmed by bears,

catamounts, or wolves, nor the grazier by his bull,

nor the dog-breeder by his bloodhound, nor an Arab

by the simoon, nor a farmer by a fire in the woods.

The forest on fire looks discouraging enough to a
citizen

the farmer

mop

The

trench, confine to a patch the fire

little

which would

hundred

easily spread over a

acres.

short, courage consists in equality to the prob-

lem before
his tutor

The

us.

school-boy

by a question

command

does not yet

tion which the

once seen, he

problem, in
or in action

agents with

daunted before

is

of arithmetic, because he

the simple steps of the solu-

boy beside him has mastered.

is

as cool as Archimedes,

Courage

proceeds a step farther.

is

These

and cheerily

equality to the

affairs, in science, in trade, in council,

;

consists in the

whom you

conviction that the

contend are not superior in

strength of resources or spirit to you.

must stimulate the mind

Knowledge, yes

The general

of his soldiers to the per-

ception that they are men, and the

more.

it.

with pine boughs they can

out the flame, and by raking with the hoe a

long but

In

to fight

skilful

is

neighbors run together

enemy

is

no

for the danger of dangers

COURAGE.

250

and the

is illusion.

The eye

drums,

shining helmets, beard, and moustache

flags,

is

daunted

easily

of the soldier have conquered

you long before

his

sword or bayonet reaches you.

But we do not exhaust the subject in the slight

analysis
we must not forget the variety of temperaments, each of which qualifies this power of re;

It is observed that

sistance.

nation are less fearful

whilst others of

more

they wait

with

till

little

imagi-

they feel pain,

sensibility anticipate

suffer in the fear of the

the pang.

men

it,

and

pang more acutely than in

'T is certain that the threat

is

sometimes

more formidable than the stroke, and 't is possible

that the beholders suffer more keenly than the victims.

Bodily pain

is

superficial, seated usually in

the skin and the extremities, for the sake of giving

us warning to put us on our guard

not in the

where the rupture that produces death is

perhaps not felt, and the victim never knew what
vitals,

hurt him.

Pain

and therefore fear

martyrdoms are probably most

is superficial,

The torments of
The torments are
felt by the by-standers.
last suffering,
is
the
suffering
first
The
illusory.
Our afthe later hurts being lost on insensibility.

is.

keenly

and wishes for the external welfare of the

hero tumultuously rush to expression in tears and
fections

outcries ; but we, like him, subside into indifferency

and defiance when we perceive how

longest

arm

of malice,

how

serene

is

short

is

the

the sufferer.

COURAGE.

251

no separate essence called

It is plain that there is

courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in

make

the heart containing drops or atoms that

give this virtue

of every

but

the right or healthy state

it is

man, when he

or

free to do that which is

is

It is directness,

the

instant performing of that which he ought.

The

him

constitutional to

thoughtful

man

says,

to do.

You

differ

from

me in opinion

and methods, but do you not

see that I cannot think

or act otherwise than I do

that

is

organic

And

my way

to be really strong

On

adhere to our own means.

of living

we must

organic action

all

Hear what women say of doing

it costs them a fit of
sickness.
Plutarch relates that the Pythoness who
tried to prophesy without command in the Temple
strength depends.

a task by sheer force of will

at Delphi,

though she performed the usual

rites,

and inhaled the air of the cavern standing on the

tripod, fell into convulsions

there

is

and

died.

Undoubtedly

a temperamental courage, a warlike blood,

which loves a

fight,

does not feel

itself

except in a

quarrel, as one sees in wasps, or ants, or cocks, or

cats.

and

The

like vein appears in certain races of

in individuals of every race.

there are certain fighting boys

contradicting

men

bullies, better or

of the cock-pit

in

men

In every school

in every society, the

every town, bravoes and

worse dressed, fancy-men, patrons

and the

ring.

Courage

is

temper-

'

COURAGE.

252
amental,

record of his king

not

Swedenborg has

scientific, ideal.

" Charles XII. of

know what that was which

Sweden did

others called fear, nor

what that spurious valor and daring that

by

left this

excited

is

inebriating draughts, for he never tasted

Of him we may

liquid but pure water.

he led a

more remote from death, and

life

lived more, than

the Prince of

man

furious

turbs

any other man."

Conde

command

in

just to

make him

words of great obligation

judgment or

as his

own

spirit."

talent

more

danger in fight never dis-

and men, and without any the

his

in fact

was told of

that " there not being a

in the world,

him more than

It

any-

say that

civil,

and to

to his officers

least disturbance to

Each has

his

own

courage,

but the courage of the tiger

is

The dog that scorns

The llama that
master.

one, and of the horse another.

to fight, will fight for his
will carry a load if

and

die

and

of

if

you caress him,

The fury

he is scourged.

calm endurance another.

will refuse food

of onset

There

is

is

onCj'X

a courage

of the cabinet as well as a courage of the field

courage of manners in private assemblies, and an;

other in public assemblies

one

man

to

a courage which enables

speak masterly to a hostile company,

man who can easily

mouth dares not open his own.

whilst another

There

is

his trade,

face a cannon's

a courage of a merchant in dealing with

by which dangerous turns

of affairs are

COURAGE.
met and prevailed

much

253

Merchants recognize as

over.

gallantry, well judged too, in the conduct

of a wise

and upright man

of business in difficult

times, as soldiers in a soldier.

-There

is

a courage in the treatment of every art

by a master

in architecture, in sculpture, in paint-

ing, or in poetry,

each cheering the mind of the

by true strokes

spectator or receiver as

of genius,

which yet nowise implies the presence of physical

valor in the artist.

in every kind.

This

is

the courage

power be-

certain quantity of

The beau-

longs to a certain quantity of faculty.

church goes sounding on, and covers

tiful voice at

up

in its volume, as in a cloak, all the defects of

the choir.

and

The

singers, I observe, all

so the fair singer indulges

peld

to

and dares, because she knows she can.

dares,

edge to every profession.

It gives the cutting

The judge puts

his

mind

to the tangle of contradic-

tions in the case, squarely accosts the question,

by not being afraid

of

it,

by dealing with

ness which must be disposed

that

common

ply to this
peculiarity,

of,

arithmetic and

affair.

it

it

and

as busi-

he sees presently

common methods

Perseverance strips

and ranges

other business.
chess

it,

her instinct, and

it

ap-

of all

on the same ground as

Morphy played

a daring

game

in

the daring was only an illusion of the spec-

tator, for the player sees his

move

to

be well

forti-

COURAGE.

254
fied

and

safe.

You may

see the

same dealing in

new book astonishes for a few days,

out of common jurisdiction, and nobody

criticism; a

takes itself

knows what to say of it but the scholar is not deThe old principles which books exist to
ceived.
express are more beautiful than any book and out
:

an expert judge how far

of love of the reality he is

the book has approached

In

short.

it

all applications

and where

't is

it

has come

the same power,

the habit of reference to one's own^mindj as the

home

and counsel, and which can

of all truth

dispose of any

without

all

book because

books.

When

it

easily

can very well do

a confident

man comes

company magnifying this or that author he

has freshly read, the company grow silent and
ashamed of their ignorance. But I remember the
old professor, whose searching mind engraved every
word he spoke on the memory of the class, when

into a

if he had read this or that shining novNo, I have never read that book " instantly

we asked
elty, "

the book lost credit, and was not to be heard of

again.

Every creature has a courage

fit

for his duties

of his constitution

Archimedes, the

courage of a

geometer to stick to his diagram, heedless of the

siege

and sack

of the city

and the Roman

his faculty to strike at Archimedes.

relying on his own, and each

is

Each

is

soldier

strong, ^

betrayed when he

seeks in himself the courage of others.

COURAGE,

255

Captain Jolm Brown, the hero of Kansas, said

to

me

in conversation, that " for a settler in a new-

country, one good, believing, strong-minded

men

worth a hmidred, nay, a thousand

character

and that the right men

manent direction

made

the belief that courage

He

cerning themselves.

my men

on such a man, I

much

a per-

As

'11

'

recruits."

small-pox,

He

held

chastity are silent con-

said, "

Ah,

let

As soon as I hear
me only get my eye

bring him down,' I don't expect

aid in the fight from that talker.

quiet, peaceable

make

say,

and

is

which armies are

up, he thought cholera,

and consumption as valuable

one of

will give

to the fortunes of a state.

for the bullying drunkards of

usually

man

without

'T

is

the

men, the men of principle, that

the best soldiers."

" 'T is

Who

still

observed those

True courage
to inspire terror

cowards.

men most

are most modest ere they

Why

is

valiant are

came

not ostentatious

to war."

men who wish

seem thereby to confess themselves

do they rely on

it,

but because

know how potent it is with themselves ?

The true temper has genial influences. It makes

they
^^

a bond of union between enemies.

Governor Wise

of Virginia, in the record of his first interviews

with his prisoner, appeared to great advantage;

Governor Wise

is

If

a superior man, or inasmuch as

COURAGE.

256
he

is

As

a superior man, he distinguishes John Brown.

they confer, they understand each other swiftly

each respects the other.

If opportunity allowed,

they would prefer each other's society and desert

Enemies would become

their former companions.

Hector and Achilles, Eichard and

affectionate.

Saladin, Wellington

and

Daumas

Soult, General

and Abdel Kader, become aware that they are

nearer and more alike than any other two, and, if
their nation
apart,

and circumstance did not keep them

would run into each other's arms.

See too what good contagion belongs to

erywhere

it

finds its

Courage of the

man.

own with magnetic

soldier

it.

Ev-

affinity.

awakes the courage of wo-

Florence Nightingale brings lint and the

blessing of her shadow.

Heroic

women offer them-

selves as nurses of the brave veteran.

The troop

had marched to guard

John Brown ask leave to pay their
Poetry and eloquence
respects to the prisoner.
catch the hint, and soar to a pitch unknown beof Virginian infantry that

the prison of

fore.

Everything

feels the

new breath except

the

old doting nigh-dead politicians, whose heart the

trumpet of resurrection could not wake.

The charm

of the best courages

is

that they are

inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.

The hero

coidd not have done the feat at another hour, in a

lower mood.

The

best act of the marvellous genius

COURAGE.'
of Greece

was

its first

act

257

not in the statue or the

Parthenon, but in the instinct which, at Thermopheld Asia at bay, kept Asia out of Europe,

ylge,

Asia ^\dth its antiquities and organic slavery,

from corrupting the hope and new morning of the

The

West.

and

statue, the architecture,

inferior creation of the

of this

moment

same genius.

we

of history,

were the later

Napoleon

prophetic instinct, better than wisdom.

said well, "

my

My hand is

until

it

timent.
as

immediately connected with

head " but the sacred courage

The head

with the heart.

is

In view

recognize a certain

is

is

connected

a half, a fraction,

enlarged and inspired by the moral sen-

For

it is

not the means on which we draw,

health or wealth, practical skill or dexterous

but

talent, or multitudes of followers, that count,

the aims only.

The aim

reacts

back on the means.

The meal

great aim aggrandizes the means.

and water that are the commissariat of

lio][)e

the, forlorn

that stake their lives to defend the pass are

sacred as the

Holy

Grail, or as if one

see in chemistry the fuel that

is

had eyes

to

rushing to feed the

sun.

There
he

is

is

a persuasion in the soul of

here for cause, that he was put

place by the Creator to do the

inspires him, that thus he

is

work

man

down

for which he

an overmatch for

antagonists that could combine against him.

VOL. VII.

17

that

in this

all

The

COURAGE.

258

pious Mrs. Hutchinson says of. some passages in

the defence of Nottingham against the Cavaliers,

" It was a great instruction that the best and high-

beams

est courages are

firmed,
as

adequately

is

must be with dazzling courage.

it

As

af-

long

cowardly insinuated, as with the wish to

is

it

And

of the Almighty."

whenever the religious sentiment

succor some partial and temporary interest, or to

make

it

affirm

some pragmatical tenet which our

parish church receives to-day,

and cannot

inspire or create.

leads and surprises, and

it

For

not imparted,

is

always new,

it is

practice never comes

up

There are ever appearing in the world

with

it.

men

who, almost as soon as they are born, take a

bee-line to the rack of the inquisitor, the axe of

the

tyrant,

Giordano Bruno, Yanini, Huss,

like

Look

Paul, Jesus, and Socrates.

at Fox's Lives

of the Martyrs, Sewel's History of the Quakers,

Southey's

Book

of the Church, at the folios of the

Brothers BoUandi, who collected the lives of twenty-five

thousand martyrs, confessors,

fact.

is much of fable, but a

The tender skin does not

shrink from bayonets, the timid

scared by fagots

rope ignominious.

the rack

is

The poor

sons, at the stake, tied straw

fire

and

There

self-tormentors.

broad basis of

ascetics,

approached him, and

woman

is

not

not frightful, nor the

Puritan,

Antony Par-

on his head when the

said, "

This

is

God's hat."

COURAGE.

259

Sacred courage indicates that a

man

better than all things in the world

loves

an idea

that he

is

aim-

ing neither at pelf or comfort, but will venture^

all to

put in act the invisible thought in his mind.

He

everywhere a liberator, but of a freedom that

is

is

ideal

not seeking to have land or

money

or

conveniences, but to have no other limitation than

that which his

own

free to speak truth

constitution imj)oses.

he

is

not free to

wishes to break every yoke

which hinders

his brother

all

lie.

He is
He

over the world

from acting

after his

thought.

-N

There are degrees of courage, and each step upward makes us acquainted with a higher virtue.
"^Let us say then frankly that ^e education of the
will is the object of our existence.

prison, the rack, the

fire,

Poverty, the

the hatred and execra-

tions of our fellow-men, appear trials

endurance of

whose

common humanity

intellect is

but to the hero

aggrandized by the

measures these penalties against

beyond the

soul,

tlie

and so

good which

his thought surveys, these terrors vanish as dark-

ness at sunrise.

We have little

right in piping times of peace to

pronounce on these rare heights of character

there

vate

is

no assurance of

life, difficult

duty

we must think with

security.

is

but

In the most

pri-

never far

courage.

off.

Therefore

Scholars and think-

'

260

ers are prone to

if

COURAGE.
an effeminate habit, and shrink

a coarser shout comes up from the

brutal act
ical

is

College piles up in

sters of

street, or

its

museum

its

The Med-

recorded in the journals.

grim mon-

morbid anatomy, and there are melancholy

sceptics with a

taste for

carrion

the hideous facts in history,

sitions, St.

who

batten on

persecutions, inqui-

Bartholomew massacres, devilish

Nero, Caesar, Borgia, Marat, Lopez

men

in

lives,

whom

every ray of humanity was extinguished, parricides,

matricides,

and whatever moral monsters.

These

are not cheerful facts, but they do not disturb a

healthy mind

they require of us a patience as ro-

bust as the energy that attacks us, and an unrest-

ing exploration of final causes.

Wolf, snake, and

crocodile are not inharmonious in nature, but are

made

useful as checks, scavengers,

and we must have a scope

and pioneers

as large as Nature's to

deal with beast like men, detect what scullion function

assigned them, and foresee in the secular

is

melioration of the planet

how

these will become

unnecessary and will die out.

He

has not learned the lesson of

not every day surmount a fear.

put myself or any

or urge

Have
There

him

man

life

who does

I do not wish to

into a theatrical position,

to ape the courage of his comrade.

the courage not to adopt another's courage.

is

scope and cause and resistance enough for

COURAGE.
us in our proper
there

is

261

work and circumstance.

And

no creed of an honest man, be he Chris-

Turk, or Gentoo, which does not equally

tian,

preach

If you have

it.

power above you, but

no faith in beneficent

an adamantine fate

see only

and man, then

coiling its folds about nature

that the best use of fate

is

reflect

to teach us courage, if

only because baseness cannot change the appointed

event.

If

you accept your thoughts

as inspirations

from the Supreme Intelligence, obey them when

they prescribe

because they come

difficult duties,

only so long as they are used

or, if

your

scepti-

cism reaches to the last verge, and you have no

confidence in any foreign mind, then be brave, be-

cause there

is

one good opinion which must always

be of consequence to you, namely, your own.

am

my

permitted to enrich

chapter by adding

an anecdote of pure courage from real

rated in a ballad

by a lady

to

ulars of the fact are exactly

whom

life,

all

known.

GEORGE NIDIVER.
Men have
And

done brave deeds,

bards have sung them well:

I of good George Nidiver

Now

the tale will

tell.

as nar-

the partic-

COURAGE.

262

In Californian mountains

A hunter bold was he

Keen his eye and sure his aim

As any you should see.

A little

Indian boy

Followed him everywhere,

Eager

The

to share the hunter's joy,

hmiter's meal to share.

And when

the bird or deer

Fell by the hunter's skill,

The boy was always near

To help with right good-will.
One day

as through the cleft

Between two mountains

Shut in both right and

steep,

left,

Their questing way they keep,

They see two grizzly bears

With hunger fierce and fell

Rush

at

them unawares

Right down the narrow

dell.

The boy turned round with screams,

And
One

ran with terror wild

of the pair of savage beasts

Pursued the shrieking

The hunter
He knew

cliild.

raised his gun,

one charge was

all,

And through the boy's pursuing

He sent his only ball.

foe

COURAGE.

263

The other on George Nidiver

Came on

Avith

dreadful pace:

The hunter stood unarmed,

And met him face to face.
I say unarmed he stood.

Against those frightful paws

The

rifle butt,

or club of wood,

Could stand no more than straws.

George Nidiver stood

And

still

looked him in the face

The wild beast stopped amazei,

Then came with slackening pace.
Still

firm the hunter stood.

Although

his heart beat

high

Again the creature stopped,

And gazed

with wondermg eye.

The hmiter met his gaze,

Nor yet an inch gave way;

The bear turned slowly round,

And slowly moved away.

What
It

thoughts were in his mind

would be hard to

What

spell

thoughts were in George Nidiver

I rather guess than

But sure that

rifle's

tell.

aim.

Swift choice of generous part,

Showed in its passing gleam

The depths of a brave heart.

SUCCESS.

SUCCESS.

Our American

people

cannot be taxed with

slowness in performance or in praising their per-

The earth

formance.

shaken by our engineries.

is

We are feeling our youth and nerve and bone.

We have the power of territory and of sea-coast,
and know the use of these. We count our cenwe read our growing

sus,

valuations,

we survey
Our

our map, which becomes old in a year or two.

eyes run approvingly air)ng the lengthened lines of

railroad

nent.

We have gone nearest to

and telegraph.

We have

the Pole.

discovered the Antartic conti-

We interfere in Central and South America,

at Canton,

and

in

Japan

we are adding to an alOur political constituworld, and we value our;

ready enormous territory.

tion

is

selves

the hope of the

on

all these feats.

'Tis the

way

of the world;

youth, and of unfolding strength.

each

with

some triumphant

'tis

the

Men

law of

are

superiority,

made

which,

through some adaptation of fingers or ear or eye

ttt::3e^jJbfidifig=zei:^ggilis|i!&

or musical or literary

SUCCESS.

268
craft, enriches tlie

not only we, but

these certificates.
cle

Erwin

community with a new

men

all

European

of

art

and

stock, value

Giotto could draw a perfect

cir-

of Stoinbach could build a minster

Olaf, king of

Norway, could run round

his galley

on the blades of the oars of the rowers when the

ship was in motion

Ojeda could run out

swiftly

on a plank projected from the top of a tower, turn

round swiftly and come back

Rome

Evelyn writes from

" Bernini, the Florentine sculptor, architect,

painter and poet, a

Rome, gave a public

before

little

my

opera, wherein he painted the

com-

scenes, cut the statues, invented the engines,

posed the music, writ the comedy and built

the/

theatre."

"There

is

nothing

" which I cannot do by

war"

in

my own

said

hands.

Napoleon,
If there is

make gunpowder, I can manufacture it.

The gun-carriages I know how to construct. If it
is necessary to make cannons at the forge, I can
make them. The details of working them in batnobody

to

tle, if it

is

necessary to teach, I shall teach them.

In administration,

it is

I alone

who have arranged

the finances, as you know."

among many proofs of

when the timber in the

It is recorded of Linnaeus,

his beneficent skill, that

ship-yards of

coming to ^

Sweden was ruined by

was desired by the government

rot,

to find

Linnaeus

a remedy.

SUCCESS.

He

269

studied the insects that infested the timber, and

found that they laid their eggs in the logs within

certain days in April, and he directed that during
ten days at that season the logs should be immersed

under water in the docks

timber was found

Columbus

which being done, the

be uninjured.

to

Yeragua found plenty

at

of gold

but

leaving the coast, the ship full of one hundred and

fifty skilful

much

with too

ery to him,
record

seamen,

of

some

them old

of

pilots,

and

experience of their craft and treach-

the

wise admiral kept his private

homeward

his

path.

And when

he

reached Spain he told the King and Queen that

" they

may

where

is

they

ask

all

the pilots

Veragua.

who came with him

Let them answer and say

know where Yeragua

lies.

if

I assert that they

can give no other account than that they went to

lands where there was abundance of gold, but they

do not know the way to return thither, but would

be obliged to go on a voyage of discovery as
as

if

they had

mode

never been there before.

of reckoning,"

from astronomy, which

\.]yj

understands

is

he proudly adds, "derived

is

sure and safe to any one

it."

Hippocrates in Greece knew

^

much

There

how

to stay the de-

curing plague which ravaged Athens in his time,

and

his skill died with him.

Dr. Benjamin Rush,

in Philadelphia, carried that city heroically through

SUCCESS.

270

the yellow fever of the year 1793.

ried the Copernican system

where

to look for the

an Aniericaji

woman

new

m his

Leverrier car-

knew

head, and

We

planet.

have seen

write a novel of which a mill-

ion copies were sold, in all languages, and which

had one

merit, of speaking to the universal heart,

and was read with equal

interest to three audiences,

namely, in the parlor, in the kitchen, and in the

nursery of every house.

We have

seen

women who

We

could institute hospitals and schools in armies.

have seen a

woman who by

pure song could melt

And

the souls of whole populations.

limit to these varieties of talent.

These are arts to be thankful

it is

new

,/

for,

each

since
selves

one as

human power. We cannot

them. Our civilization is made
For

of a million contributions of this kind.

cess, to

no

is

direction of

choose but respect

up

there

be sure we esteem

it

suc-

a test in other people,

we do first in ourselves. We respect our-,

more if we have succeeded. Neither do we

grudge to each of these benefactors the

]'ralse or

the profit which accrues from his industry.

Here are already

quite different degree

merit in these examples.

I don't

;f

moral

know but we and

our race elsewhere set a higher value on wealth,

victory,

and coarse superiority

other men,

have

easily contented.

of all kinds, than

less tranquillity of

The Saxon

is

mind, are

less

taught from his

in-

SUCCESS.
fancy to wish to be

first.

The Norseman was a restThe ancient Norse

rider, fighter, freebooter.

less

him

ballads describe

as afflicted with this inextin-

The mother

guishable thirst of victory.

son

271

" Success shall be

iii

thy courser

Success in thyself, which

tall,

best of

is

says to her

all.

Success in thy hand, success in thy foot,

In struggle with man, in battle with brute

The holy God and Saint Drothin dear

Shall never shut eyes on thy career

Look

out, look out,

Svend Vonved

"
!

These feats that we extol do not signify so much

as

we

origin.

really

These boasted arts are of very recent

say.

They are
add

local

conveniences, but do not

The

to our stature.

greatest

men

world have managed not to want them.

was a great man, without telegraph, or

of the

Newton
gas, or

'steam-coach, or rubber shoes, or lucifer-matches, or

ether for his pain

so

was Shakspeare, and Alfred,

and Scipio, and Socrates.

iences, but

how

where not only

easy to go
all

they are despised.

These are

now

much

The Arabian

a brave and

sheiks, the

most

do not want them

and
Frenchman or the

self-respect as the English,

are easily able to impress the

American who

world

these arts are wanting, but where

dignified people in the planet,

yet have as

local conven-

to parts of the

visits

sufficient

them with the respect due

man.

to

272

SUCCESS.

These feats have to be sure great difference of

merit,

and some

them involve power

of

of a high

But the public values the invention more

than the inventor does. The inventor knows there
is much more and better where this came from.
kiiid.

The

public sees in

it

Men

a lucrative secret.

see

the reward which the inventor enjoys, and they

How

we win that ? Cause and effect

are a little tedious how to leap to the result by
short or by false means ?
We are not scrupulous.
What we ask is victory, without regard to the cause
think,

'

shall

'

"

after the

Eob Eoy

Napoleon

rule, after the

rule, to

be the strongest to-day,^- the way of the Talleyrands, prudent people, whose

watches go faster

than their neighbors', and who detect the

ment

first

mo-

and throw themselves on the instant

of decline

on the winning

side.

I have heard that Nelson

used to say, "Never mind the justice or the impudence, only let

me

gle duty of coui^sel

Fuller says

't is

Lord Brougham's

succeed."
is,

sin-

" to get the prisoner clear."

maxim

of lawyers that

"a crown

once worn cleareth all defects of the wearer thereof."

Iiie?i

ne reussit mieux que

Americans are tainted with

le

succes.

bankruptcies and our reckless politics

We

are great

Our

success takes

by

exclusion, grasping,

from

all

And we

this insanity, as our

what

it

may

show.

and egotism.
gives to one.

'Tis a haggard, malignant, careworn running for

luck.

SUCCESS.
Egotism

is

273

a kind of buckram that gives momen-

tary strength and concentration to men, and seems

to be

much used

in nature for fabrics in

and spasmodic energy

men

required.

is

which local

I could point to

in this country, of indispensable importance to

American

the carrying on of

whom we coidd
a national

loss.

ill

spare

But

it

will not try conclusions

thrusting this

pampered

life,

any one of them would be

They

with you.

are ever

between you and them.

self

undergo

and plain - dealing, which are

simplicity

what a wise man mainly cares for in

Nature knows how

of

show-men,

is

good

Nature

egotists, to ac-

but we must not think better

The passion

the foible for that.

success

his companion.

to convert evil to

utilizes misers, fanatics,

complish her ends

They

spoils conversation.

It is plain they have a long education to

to reach

humor,

of this

for

sudden

rude and puerile, just as war, cannons,

and executions are used

to clear the

ground of bad,

lumpish, irreclaimable savages, but always to the

damage

of the conquerors.

I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to

knowledge by raps on

get rich

by

midnight

tables, to learn the

credit, to get

by phrenology, or

skill

economy

of the

mind

without study, or mastery

without apprenticeship, or the sale of goods through

pretending that they

sell,

or

power through making

believe you are powerful, or through a packed jury

VOL.

VII.

18

SUCCESS.

274

or caucus, bribery and "repeating" votes, or wealth

by

fraud.

They think they have got

have got something

else,

a crime

but they

it,

which

calls for

another crime, and another devil behind that ; these

are steps to suicide, infamy, and the harming of

mankind.

We

countenance each other in this

life

show, puffing advertisement, and manufacture

of

of public opinion

and excellence

in the hunger for sudden performance

There was a wise man, an Italian

Angelo, who writes thus of himself
the Cardinal Ij^polito, in

whom

sight of

is lost

all

and

praise.

artist,

Michel

"

Meanwhile

my

best hopes

were placed, being dead, I began to understand that

the promises of this world are for the most part

vain phantoms, and that to confide in one's

become something

and

safest

of

course."

worth and value,

self,

and

the best

Now, though I am by no

means sure that the reader

we

propositions, yet I think

rule for success,

is

that we

will assent to all

my

shall agree in

shall

my
first

drop the brag and

the advertisement, and take Michel Angelo' s course,

" to confide in one's

self,

and be something

of worth

and value."

Each man has an

your work.
says
all

it

Do

I have to say this often, but nature

oftener.

with one's

build his

aptitude born with him.

'Tis clownish to insist on doing

own hands,

own clumsy

as if every

house, forge his

man

should

hammer, and

SUCCESS.
bake

dough

liis

can do best

but he

is

275
do what he

to dare to

not help others as they would direct

To

him, but as he knows his helpful power to be.

do otherwise

to neutralize all those extraordinary-

is

special talents distributed

among men.

Yet whilst

this seK-truth is essential to the exhibition of the

world and to the growth and glory of each mind,

is

or

man who

rare to find a

believes his

it

own thought

who speaks that which he was created to say. As

men so much as common-sense

nothing astonishes

and plain dealing,

man

so nothing is

more rare

Any work

than an act of his own.

looks

derful to him, except that which he can do.

own thought

in

any

wonT

We do

we must serve somebody; we must quote somebody we dote on the old

and the distant we are tickled by great names we
not believe our

we quote their
The gravest and

import the religion of other nations

opinions

we

cite their

lav/s.

learnedest courts in this country shudder to face a

new

question,

and

will wait

months and years for a

case to occur that can be tortured into a precedent,

and thus throw on a bolder party the

oiiics

of an

Thus we do not carry a counsel in our

breasts, or do not know it; and because we cannot shake oif from our shoes this dust of Europe
and Asia, the world seems to be born old, society
is under a spell, every man is a borrower and a
initiative.

mimic,

life is theatrical

and

literature a quotation

SUCCESS.

276

and hence that depression

care, said to

mark

of spirits, that furrow of

every American brow.

Self-trust is the first secret of success, the belief

that

if

you are here the authorities of the universe

put you here, and for cause, or with some task

appointed you in your constitution, and so

strictly

long as you work at that you are well and successful.

by no means consists in rushing prema-

It

turely to a

showy

feat that shall catch the eye

satisfy spectators.

right direction.

enough

It is

So

ing the real success,

if

and

you work in the

far

from the performance

be-

it is

clear that the success

was

much earlier than that, namely, when all the feats

that make our civility were the thoughts of good
heads. The fame of each discovery rightly attaches
to the mind that made the formula which contains
all the details, and not to the manufacturers who
now make their gain by it although the mob uni;

formly cheers the publisher, and not the inventor.

It

is

the dulness of the multitude that they cannot

see the house in the ground-plan

the model of the projector.

though

were a new

it

creation of agriculture,

mera

but when

it is

Whilst

fuel, or
it is

the working, in
it is

a thought,

a new food, or the

cried down,

it is

a chi-

a fact, and comes in the shape

of eight per cent, ten per cent, a hundred per cent,

they cry,

'

It is the voice of God.'

ough the sculptor said

to

me

Horatio Green-"^

of Robert Fulton's

'

SUCCESS.
visit to

Paris

277

" Fulton knocked at the door of Na-

poleon with steam, and was rejected

enough

lived long

to

know

that he

and Napoleon

had excluded a

greater power than his own.''^^'

no loving of knowledge, and of

Is there

,|

of our design, for itself alone ?

Cannot we please

ourselves with performing our work, or

gaining

truth and power, without being praised for

my

gain

and

art,

it ?

point, I gain all points, if I can reach

my

companion with any statement which teaches him

his

own worth^ The sum

time

is

never Tost that

good workman never

but,

'

There, that

work on

'

it,

his

own

design,

and come again,

it signifies little

man happy who

acquired the
willingly

skill

is

occasion of

work

is

will

well

that he

I pronounce

and waits

at,

making

ated shall arrive, knowing well that

ter.

it

content with having

which he had aimed

when the

The

There, that will do

does not yet find orders or customers.

that young

that the

is,

devoted to workj

is

says,

try

wisdom

If the artist, in whatever art,

last always.'

at

is it

of

it

it

appreci-

will not loi-

The time your rival spends in dressing up his

for effect, hastily, and for the market, you

spend in study and experiments towards real knowledge and

efficiency.

ture or machine, or

pointment

He
won

has thereby sold his picthe prize, or got the ap-

but you have raised yourself into a

higher school of

art,

and a few years

will

show the

SUCCESS.

278

advantage of the real master over the short popu-

showmaD.

larity of the

know

to discriminate this self-trust,

part which

But

it

is

is

the pledge

and performance, from the

of all mental vigor

ease to which

a nice point

it is

which

it is allied,

we can play
know
;

dis-

the exaggeration of the

yet they are two

sanity to

things.

my

that, over

talent or

knack, and a million times better than any talent,

is

the central intelligence which subordinates and

uses all talents

and

it is

only as a door into

that any talent or the knowledge

value.

He

ligence, in

be,

gives

this,

of

is

into this central intel-

which no egotism or exaggeration can

comes into

My next
is

who comes

only

it

self-possession.

point

is

that in the scale of powers

not talent but sensibility which

is

best

it

talent

confines, but the central life puts us in relation to

all.

How

often

it

seems the chief good to be born

with a cheerful temper and well adjusted to the

tone of the

human

in harmony,

race.

feels himself

his receptivity of

an

Like Alfred, " good fortune

ac-

and conscious by

infinite strength.

companies him like a

gift of

and be not daunted by

man

Such a man

Feel yourself,

God."

things.

'T

that runs over into objects,

is

the fulness of

and makes

his

Bibles and Shakspeares and Homers so great. The

joyful reader borrows of his
faulty outline,
gives.

own

ideas to

fill

their

and knows not that he borrows and

SUCCESS.
There

We

279

something of poverty in our criticism.

is

assume that there are few great men,

rest are little

that there

is

all

the

but one Homer, but

But

one Shakspeare, one Newton, one Socrates.

the soul in her beaming hour does not acknowledge

We

these usurpations.

should

know how

to praise

Socrates, or Plato, or Saint John, without impov-

In good hours we do not find Shak-

erishing us.

speare or

Homer

over -great, only to have been

translators of the

happy

and woman divine

present,

and every man

'Tis

possibilities.

good

the

reader that makes the good book ; a good head can-

not read amiss, in every book he finds passages

which seem confidences or asides hidden from

else

and unmistakably meant for

The

light

by which we

all

his ear.

see in this world

comes

Wherever any
made the faces and

out from the soul of the observer.

noble sentiment

dwelt,

houses around to shine.

it

Nay, the powers of this

busy brain are miraculous and

are the rules

illimitable.

Therein

and formulas by which the whole em-

pire of matter

is

worked.

There

is

no prosperity,

trade, art, city, or great material wealth of

kind, but

if

you trace

in a thought of
Is all life

it

home you

will

('

iCi

it

any

rooted

some individual man.

a surface affair?

'Tis curious, but

our difference of wit appears to be only a

differ-

ence of impressionability, or power to appreciate

SUCCESS.

280

and

faint, fainter,

When

ions.

and

infinitely faintest voices

his brain for thoughts

and

verses,

vis-

pumped

the scholar or the writer has

and then comes

abroad into Nature, has he never found that there

is

a better poetry hinted in a boy's whistle of a

tune, or in the piping of a sparrow, than in all

his literary results ?

We call

it

What

health.

is

with

his

long days because his eyes are good, and brisk

cir-

so admirable as the health of

culations keep

him warm

youth?

in cold rooms,

loves books that speak to the imagination

and he
and he

can read Plato, covered to his chin with a cloak in

a cold upper chamber, though he should associate
the Dialogues ever after with a woollen smell.

'T is

the bane of life that natural effects are continually

and artificial arrangements substiremember when in early youth the

when an
earth spoke and the heavens glowed
evening, any evening, grim and wintry, sleet and
crowded

out,

We

tuted.

snow, was enough for us

air.

and

Now

lights to

What
and

it

is it

costs

the houses were in the

a rare combination of clouds

overcome the common and mean.

we look

for in the landscape, in sunsets

sunrises, in the sea

and the firmament

what

but a compensation for the cramp and pettiness of

human performances?
the

mind

ture all

is

finds

We

bask in the day, and

somewhat as great as

large massive repose.

itself.

In Na-

Kemember what

SUCCESS.
befalls a city

boy who goes for the

He

the October woods.

pomp and

first

time into

suddenly initiated into

is

him the

glory that brings to pass for

He

dreams of romance.
he was

281

is

the king he

dreamed

he walks through tents of gold, through

bowers of crimson, porphyry and topaz, pavilion

on pavilion, garlanded with

vines, flowers

beams, with incense and music, with so

to his astonished senses

pique and

and sun-

many

hints

the leaves twinkle and

him, and his eye and step are

flatter

tempted on by what hazy distances to happier

soli-

All this happiness he owes only to his finer

tudes.

The owner

perception.

of the wood-lot finds only

a number of discolored trees, and says,

They
ought to come down they are n't growing any bet'

ter

they should be cut and corded before spring.'

Wordsworth
Nature

writes of the delights of the boy in

" For never will

Of splendor

But I have
spoke
for

of,

come back the hour

in the grass, of glory in the flower."

just seen

who

him; that

told

a man, well knowing what he

me

his eyes

that the verse was not true

opened as he grew older,

and that every spring was more beautiful

than the
V

We live

among gods

of our

own

creation,

that deep-toned bell, which has shortened

night of

to

him

last.

ill

Does

many a

nerves, render to you nothing but acous-

SUCCESS.

282

the

first

which gave you

Is the old cliurch

tic vibrations ?

lessons of religious

or the village

life,

or the college where you

school,

first

knew

the

dreams of fancy and joys of thought, only boards

or brick and mortar

Is the house in

which 30U

were born, or the house in which your dearest

friend lived, only a piece of real estate ^dniasi^^Ee

You walk

iSrfiai^estd-by the--iIfaifoi'd insina

on the beach and enjoy the animation of the

Scoop up a

ture.

palm, take up a handful of shore sand

What

are the elements.

sand? what
a

little

is

is

well, these

the beach but acres of

the ocean but cubic miles of water?

more or

less signifies

that this brute matter

brute.

pic-

water in the hollow of your

little

is

sand

It is that the

No,

nothing.

it

is

part of somewhat not

floor is held

by spheral

gravity, and bent to be a part of the round globe,

under the optical sky,

part

tronomy, and existing at

of the astonishing as-

last to

moral ends and

from moral causes.

The world
that

is,

is

not

only half

made up to the eye of figures,

How
also made of color.

it is

that element washes the universe with

ing waves

The

sculptor

had ended

its

his work,

behold a new world of dream-like glory.

last

In

stroke of Nature
like

manner,

life is

only, but of love also.

enchant-

'T

and

is

the

beyond color she cannot

go.

made

up, not of knowledge

If thought

is

form, senti-

SUCCESS.

ment

space, variety,
life

great

and

of cottage
filling

and glow. The hues

so the affections

The fundamental
tution

so that every

mind.

make some

make
web

little

in our history.

fact in our metaphysic consti-

the correspondence of

is

of sunset

populous, important, and

fireside

main space

the

world with

It clothes the skeleton

color.

is

283

man

to the world,

change in that writes a record in the

The mind

sympathetically to the

yields

tendencies or law which stream through things and

make

the order of nature; and in the j)erfection

of this correspondence or expressiveness, the health

and force

of

man

If

consist.

into our intellectual education,

is

we follow this hint

we shall find that it

new dogmas and a

not propositions, not

exposition of the world that are our

logical

first

need

but to watch and tenderly cherish the intellectual

and moral

sensibilities,

thought, and

home with

woo them

us.

not think amiss.

talent.

those

to stay

yond our

Our

skill to teach.

wise than their speaking

mind

shall

to the highest lessons

and of poetry out of

is

their

perception far outruns our

hearing and sympathy of

sympathy

and make

Whilst they abide with us we

We bring a welcome

of religion

fountains of right

And,

men
is

all

proportion be-

further, the great

is

wont

more true and

to be.

deep

what we require for any student of the

for the chief difference between

man and

SUCCESS.

284

man

a difference of impressionability.

is

Aristotle

Bacon or Kant propound some maxim which

or

the key-note of philosophy thenceforward.

am more

interested to

know

when

that

have hurled out their grand word,

familiar experience of every
it

be not,

Ah
and

if

in the

it

will never be

But I

at last they

it is

only some

in the street.

If

heard of again.

one could keep this

happy

its

man

is

and

live

find the

day

sensibility,

and

sufficing present,

cheap means contenting, which only ask

receptivity in you,

and no strained exertion and

cankering ambition, overstimulating to be at the

head of your
to

class

and the head

of society,

We are
by our

not strong by our power to penetrate, but

relatedness.

The world

is

enlarged for us,

not by new objects, but by finding more

and potencies

^ This

in those

we

affinities

have.

sensibility appears in the

which exalts the

faculties of

homage

youth

to beauty

see eyes that are a

said

which I have
them,

things

about

though I know nothing of

music, poetry, and love."

tors of this science are the greatest

Petrarch, Michel

when

Phidian sculpture.

" There are three

curiosity,

compliment to the human

race, features that explain the

Fontenelle

power

in the

which form and color exert upon the soul

we

and

have distinction and laurels and consumption!

The

great doc-

men,

Dante,

Angolo and Shakspeare.

The

SUCCESS.
wise

Socrates treats

am

matter with a certain

tKis

archness, yet with very

marked

"I

more

in this confident

hard to

measured by

Who

manner

They may

manner

detect, so
its skill

well speak

of their knowledge,

and

of their will, for the secret

deep

it is

and yet genius

in this science.

he in youth or in maturity or even in

is

old age,
bilities

relating

any one man

skilled than

of the past or present time."

in this uncertain

trifle

yet in that kind of learning I

lay claim to being

it is

mere

say, nothing but a

to matters of love

of

expressions.

always," he says, " asserting that I happen to

know, I may

is

285

who does not

like to hear of those sensi-

which turn curled heads round

at church,

and send wonderful eye-beams across assemblies,

from one

to one, never

The keen

crowd?
hundreds

slipper that

missing in the thickest

reckons by tens and

statist

the genial

man

interested in every

is

comes into the assembly.

alike everywhere, CD^eeps

The

dinavia, under the fires of the equator,

in the seas of Polynesia.
divinity in the Norse

passion,

under the snows of Scan-

Lofn

Edda

as

is

and swims

as puissant a

Camadeva

in the

red vault of India, Eros in the Greek, or Cupid in

the Latin heaven.

And what

is

specially true of

a state of extreme impressionabil-

love

is

ity

the lover has more senses and finer senses than

that

it is

others; his eye and ear are telegraphs; he reads

SUCCESS.

286

omens on the

flower,

and

and reads them

gesture,

and
and

prise at the sudden

and

cloud,

face,

and form,

In his

aright.

sur-

entire understanding that

is

between him and the beloved person,

to

him

that they might

dently of time and place.

it

occurs

somehow meet indepen-

How

delicious the belief

that he could elude all guards, precautions, cere-

monies, means, and delays, and hold instant and

In

sempiternal communication!

solitude, in

ban-

ishment, the hope returned, and the experiment

was eagerly
uttered

by

The supernal powers seem

tried.

take his part.

What was

on his

When

his friend.

lips to

say

to
is

he went abroad, he

met, by wonderful casualties, the one person he

sought.

If in his

his friend

walk he chanced to look back,

And

was walking behind him.

happened that the

artist

it

has

has often drawn in his

pictures the face of the future wife

whom

he had

not yet seen.

But

also in complacencies nowise so strict as this

of the passion, the

man

of sensibility counts

it

delight only to hear a child's voice fully addressed

to him, or to see the

youth of either
remote,

how

sex.

manners of the

beautiful

When

insignificant

the event

is

past and

the greatest compared

with the j)iquancy of the present

To-day at the

school examination the professor interrogates Syl-

vina in the history class about Odoacer and Alaric.

SUCCESS.

287

Sylvina can't remember, but suggests that Odoacer was defeated

and the professor

" No, he defeated the Romans."

the visitor that

Odoacer and

plain to

't is

of no importance at all about

a great deal of importance about

'tis

and

Sylvina,

'tis

tartly replies,

But

she says he was defeated,

if

why he

had better a great deal have been defeated than

give her a moment's annoy.

Odoacer,

if

there was

a particle of the gentleman in him, would have

said,

Let

And
gives a

me

be defeated a thousand times.

tenderness for youth and beauty

as our

new and

just importance to their fresh

and

manifold claims, so the like sensibility gives wel-

come

to all excellence, has eyes

merit in corners.
acter

and

talent,

An

and hospitality for

of marked charwho had brought with him hither

Englishman

one or two friends and a library of mystics, assured

me

that

was

left in

nobody and nothing of possible

England,

I was forced to reply

alive away.

to

he had brought
:

all

interest

that was

" No, next door

you probably, on the other side of the partition

in the

same house, was a greater

had seen."
ing, if

"

man

than any you

Every man has a history worth knowtell it, or if we could draw it from

he could

him^) Character and wit have their own magnetism.

Send a deep man

find another deep

his neighbors.

man

That

is

into

any town, and he

there,

unknown

will

hitherto to

the great happiness of

life,

SUCCESS.

288

add

to

The very

to our liigh acquaintances.

law of averages might have assured you that there

will be in every

hundred heads, say ten or

five

good

Morals are generated as the atmosphere

heads.

is.

'Tis a secret, the genesis of either; but the springs

and courage do not

of justice
salt or

any more than

fail

sulphur springs.

The world

always opulent, the oracles are

is

never silent; but the receiver must by a happy

temperance be brought to that top of condition,

that frolic health, that he can easily take
these fine communications.
of wisdom,

and the sign

is

Health

cheerfulness,

The

not the heart in the right place.

Pons Capdueil, wrote,

" Oft have I heard, and

lasting

old trouveur,

deem the witness true,

God delights in too."
is

a sign of health,

and the favor of God.

and

marked with

fit

an open

delights in,

All beauty warms the heart,

prosperity,

and give

the condition

There was never poet who had

and noble temper.

Whom man

is

for

this

men

stamp.

the

Everything

Divine Power has

What

delights,

emancipates, not what scares and pains us

and good

in speech

and

in the arts.

is

what
wise

For, truly, the

heart at the centre of the universe with every throb

hurls the flood of happiness into every artery, vein,

and

veinlet, so that the

whole system

is

inundated

SUCCESS.
with the tides of
place

too great

is

is

The plenty

joy.

of the poorest

the harvest cannot be gathered.

Every sound ends

surface

289

The edge

in music.

tinged with prismatic rays.

One more

The good mind

trait of true success.

chooses what

is

positive,

what

is

advancing,

Our system

braces the affirmative.

is

Shakspeare, one Homer, one Jesus,

is

but one

not

that all

But we must begin by

are or shall be inspired.

firming.

em-

one of pov-

'Tis presumed, as I said, there

erty.

of every

af-

Truth and goodness subsist forevermore.

and good, night and day

The day is great and

It is true there is evil

but these are not equal.

The night

final.

is

for the day, but the

What

for the night.

is tliis

more, which belongs to our constitution

mous

There

ideal?

is

to content us.
tice,

no such

No

as this terrible Soul.

We know the

the sufficiency of truth.

its

ity,

what

mind he
tant

or

critic

new pretender

me

in ?

enor-

and beggar

We know the answer

We know the Spirit
are

tests to ap-

amount and

does he add ? and what

leaves

? this

satisfactoriness of jus-

The searching

victorious tone.

ply to every

not

is

historical person begins

that leaves nothing to ask.

by

day

immortal demand for

is

Your theory

qual-

the state of
is

unimpor-

but what new stock you can add to humanity,

how high you can

only as he makes
VOL. vn.

life
19

carry

life ?

A man

and nature happier

is

man

to us.

SUCCESS.

290

I fear the popular notion of success stands in direct opposition in all points to the real

some

One

success.

and whole-

adores public opinion, the other

one fame, the other desert

private opinion

feats, the other

humility

one

one lucre, the other love

one monopoly, and the other hospitality of mind.

We may apply this affirmative

manners, to
etc.

art, to

law to

letters, to

the decorations of our houses,

I do not find executions or tortures or lazar-

houses, or grisly photographs of the field on the day

after the battle,

fit subjects for cabinet pictures.

I
think that some so-called " sacred subjects " must

be treated with more genius than I have seen in the

masters of Italian or Spanish art to be right pictures for houses

and churches. Nature does not

of each creature accurately, sternly

functions; then veils

carefully she covers

not see

it

weaves her

it

up the

fit

for all his

scrupulously.

See how

skeleton.

The eye

the sun shall not shine on

tissues

in-

Nature lays the ground-plan

vite such exhibition.

and integuments of

shall

it.

She

flesh

and

skin and hair and beautiful colors of the day over

it,

and forces death down underground, and makes

haste to cover

it

up with leaves and

wipes carefully out every trace by

Who

and

creation.

and what are you that would lay the ghastly

anatomy bare
[

vines,

new

Don't hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do

SUCCESS.

291

not daub with sables and glooms

your conversaX

Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher.^

tion.

Don't bewail and bemoan.

Don't waste

Omit

j^ourself in rejection,

negative/

the

Nerve us with incessant

propositions.

affirmatives.

When

spoken which has a right to be spoken,

the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

that

is

the chatter and the criticism will stop.

nothing that will not help somebody

" For every

The
is

love to

upon by Hope's perpetual breath."

perception.

mind

Set down/

affirmative of affirmatives

much

gift of noble origin

Is breathed

love, so

so

it

As

is

love.

As much

caloric to matter, so

and

enlarges,

so

it

empowers

Good-will makes insight, as one finds his

it.

to the sea

by embarking on a

way

I have seen

river.

who can silence me, but I seek one

make me forget or overcome the frigidiand imbecilities into which I fall. The painter

scores of people

who
ties

shall

Giotto, Yasari tells us, renewed

pa't

because he put

more goodness into his heads. To awake

and to raise the sense of worth, to educate

in

man

his feel-

ing and judgment so that he shall scorn himself

for a

bad

action, that is

the only aim.

'Tis cheap and easy to destroy.

a joyful boy or an innocent

girl

There

is

not

buoyant with

fine

^ purposes of duty, in all the street full of eager

and rosy faces, but a cynic can chill and dis-

nor bark against /

SUCCESS.

292

/ hearten

Despondency comes

with a single word.

The

readily enough to the most sanguine.

cynic

has only to follow their hint with his bitter con-

and they check that eager courageous

pace and go home with heavier step and premaThey will themselves quickly enough
ture age.
firmation,

Which

give the hint he wants to the cold wretch.

of

them has not

failed to j)lease

where they most

wished it? or blundered where they were most

ambitious of success

or found themselves

awkward

or tedious or incapable of study, thought, or hero-

and only hoped by good sense and

ism,

do what they could and pass unblamed

/ witty malefactor makes their

hope

less

Yes, this

endeavor.

is

easy

add energy, inspire hope and blow the

into

a useful flame

thought, by firm action, that

..

work

of divine

"We
is

live

to

is

not easy, that

all

is

the

men.

life,

which

is

him

the boy can get, urging

forward, to

make

fold his talents, shine, conquer

life

taught to

to put

him-

himself useful and agreeable

in the world, to ride, run, argue

But the inner

There

educated at school,

taught to read, write, cipher, and trade

self

coals

redeem defeat by new

on different planes or platforms.

an external

grasp

with

but to help the young

soul,

''

this

and scepticism, and slackens the springs of

satire
,

*little

fidelity to

And

sits at

and contend, un-

and

possess.

home, and does not

SUCCESS.

293

learn to do things, nor value these feats at

'Tis a quiet, wise perception.

cause

it is itself

ing else

our

but

real

it

loves right,

makes no progress

memory of

first

in maturity

We

it

it

as

now

all.

It loves truth, be-

is just

and hereafter in age,

it

knows noth-

was as wise in

it

the same

now

was in youth.

have grown to manhood and womanhood

we

have powers, connection, children, reputations, professions

this

makes no account

lives in the great present

great.

soul
it

is

it

them

all.

It

This .tranquil, well - founded, wide - seeing

no express-rider, no attorney, no magistrate:

lies in

the sun and broods on the world.

son of this temper mice said to a

tivity,

of

makes the present

man

of

A permuch

ac-

" I will pardon you that you do so much,

and you me that I do nothing."

says that

And

Euripides

"Zeus hates busybodies and those who

do too much."

OLD AGE.

OLD AGE.

On

the anniversary of the Phi Beta

Cambridge

ciety at

dent Quincy, senior

as senior

Kappa

So-

in 1861, the venerable Presi-

member

of the Society, as well

alumnus of the University, was received

at the dinner with peculiar demonstrations of respect.

He replied

to these

compliments in a speech,

and, gracefully claiming the privileges of a literary

some length into an Apology for

Old Age, and, aiding himself by notes in his hand,

society, entered at

made a

sort of

chapter "

De

running commentary on Cicero's

The character

Senectute."

of

the

speaker, the transparent good faith of his praise and

blame, and the naivete of his eager preference of

Cicero's opinions to

King

David's, gave unusual in-

terest to the College festival.

full of dignity,

who heard.
The speech
easy task

was a discourse

honoring him who spoke and those

led

me

to look over at

Cicero's famous

uniform rhetorical merit

cepts, with a

It

Roman

essay,

home

an

charming by

its

heroic with Stoical pre-

eye to the claims of the State

OLD AGE,

298

happiest perhaps in his praise of

and

on the farm

life

But

rising at the conclusion to a lofty strain.

he does not exhaust the subject

rather invites the

attempt to add traits to the picture from our broader

modern

life.

Cicero makes no reference to the illusions which

cling to the element of time,

What masks

said, "

cowards

and in which Nature

Wellington, in speaking of military men,

delights.

"

are these uniforms to hide

I have often detected the like decep-

tion in the cloth shoe,

wadded

pelisse, wig, spec-

and padded chair of Age.

tacles

and adds dim

herself to these illusions,

ness, cracked voice,

snowy

hair, short

These also are masks, and

sleep.

wears them.

Nature lends

Whilst we yet

all is

sight, deaf-

memory and
not Age that

call ourselves

young

and our mates are yet youths with even boyish

re-

mains, one good fellow in the set prematurely sports

a gray or a bald head, which does not impose on us

who know how innocent

he

is,

who

of sanctity or of Platonism

but does deceive his juniors and the public,

presently distinguish

respect

and

him with a most amusing

this lets us into the secret that the

venerable forms that so awed our childhood were

just such imposters.

now

Nature

is full

of freaks,

and

puts an old head on young shoulders, and then

a young heart beating under fourscore winters.

For

if

the essence of age

is

not present, these

OLD AGE.
signs,

299

whether of Art or Nature, are counterfeit

and ridiculous and the essence of age is intellect.

/Wherever that appears, we call it old. If we look
:

into the eyes of the youngest person

discover that here

is

we sometimes

one who knows already what

you would go about with much pains to teach him

there

that in

is

around him

him which

which fact the Indian Yedas express

say, "

when they

He

that can discriminate

father of his father."

And

legends of Arthur and the

Table, his friend

river-side, and,

an infant of only a few days, speaks

those

and

who

babe

is

a thousand years

is

is

is

and

you that

tell

to a century

elastic.

illu-

The mind

and dwarfs an age

Saadi found in a mosque at Damascus

an old Persian of a hundred and

was dying, and was saying

coming into the world by
self for

Don't be

age.

curls.

old.

so ductile

an hour

an hour.

there

indeed the theatre and seat of

nothing

stretches
to

history,

presently foretells the fate of the by-standers.

^me
/

though

articulately to

name and

discover him, tells his

Wherever there is power,

deceived by dimples and

sion

tho^

our old British

in

Round

exposed in a basket by the

is

counsellor, Merlin the Wise, is a babe found

and

the ancestor of all

is

a few moments.'

birth,

Alas

table of life I partook of a few

'

who

fifty years,

to himself,

"I

said,

I will enjoy

my-

at the variegated

mouthf uls, and the

OLD AGE.

300
Fates said,

decay

is

'

Enough /

long as one

is

"

That which does not

and controlling in us, that, as

so central

'

alone by himself, he

is

not sensible

of the inroads of time, which always begin at the

surf ace - edges.

on a winter day, you should

If,

stand within a bell-glass, the face and color of the

afternoon clouds would not indicate whether

it

were

we did not

find the reflec-

tion of ourselves in the eyes of the

young people,

June or January

and

we could not know

if

that the century-clock

struck seventy instead of twenty.

had

How many men

habitually believe that each chance passenger with

whom

they converse

was

ently find

it

whom

knew

they

But not

is

of their

his father

own

age,

and not

and

pres-

his brother

hard on these deceits and

to press too

illusions of Nature,

which are inseparable from

our condition, and looking at age under an aspect

more conformed to the common-sense, if the question be the felicity of age, I fear the first popular

judgments will be unfavorable.

of sensuous experience, seen

From

from the

the point

streets

and

markets and the haunts of pleasure and gain, the

estimate of age

is

Frankly face the

low, melancholy

and

facts,

and

sceptical.

see the result.

To-

bacco, coffee, alcohol, hashish, prussic acid, strychnine, are

weak

dilutions

This cup which Nature

the surest poison

piits to

our

lips,

is

time.

has a won-

OLD AGE.

301

derf ul virtue, surpassing that of any other draught.

It

opens the senses, adds power,

which we

alted dreams,
science

especially,

it

us with ex-

fills

call hope, love, ambition,

creates a craving for larger

But they who take the larger

draughts are drunk with it, lose their stature,
draughts of

itself.

and

strength, beauty,

We

delirium.

senses,

have more ripeness and

day discover

and end

in folly

and

postpone our literary work until we

skill to write,

thatl^our literary talent

effervescence which

we have now

and we one

was a youthful

lost.

We

had a

judge in Massachusetts who at sixty proposed to

resign, alleging that he perceived a certain decay

in his faculties

he was dissuaded by his friends,

on account of the public convenience at that time.

At

seventy

retire

it

was hinted

but he

judgment

now

as robust

to

him

that

and

was time to

all his faculties as

But besides the

ever they were.

it

replied that he thought his

good as

self-deception, the

strong and hasty laborers of the street do not

well with the chronic

everywhere in place.

/fit surroundings.

/ churches,

Age

Age,
is

in chairs of state

like

comely in coaches, in

and ceremony,

cil-chambers, in courts of justice

cieties.

"7 the

Age

is

work
[Youth is
woman, requires

valetudinarian.

and

historical so-

becoming in the country.

rush and uproar of Broadway,

the faces of the passengers there

is

if

in coun-

But

in

you look into

dejection or in-

OLD AGE.

302

dignation in the seniors, a certain concealed sense

and the

of injury,

lip

mination not to mind

by the

tion enjoyed

made up with a

Few envy

it.

heroic deter-

the considera-

Wedo

oldest inhabitant.

not

count a man's years, until he has nothing else to

The

count.
tality

was

vast inconvenience of animal immor-

ful,

is,

Old Age

and they

we

shall all

Life

well

is

be glad to get out of

will all be glad to

^~~This is odious

short,

not disgrace-

is

but immensely disadvantageous.

^X enough, but
,

In

told in the fable of Tithonus.

the creed of the street

have

on the face of

victions are not to be shaken

it,

us.

Universal con-

it.

by the whimseys

of

overfed butchers and firemen, or by the sentimental

who would keep the infantile bloom

on their cheeks. We know the value of experiLife and art are cumulative and he who
ence.

fears of girls

has accomplished something in any department

alone deserves to be heard on that subject.

used to assure

me

that he did not think a

worth anything until he was sixty

smacks a

A man

employments and excellent performance

of great

little

although this

of the resolution of a certain " Young

Men's Republican Club," that

held eligible

man

who were under

all

men

seventy.

should be

But

in all

governments, the councils of power were held by

the old

and patricians or 2^citres^ senate or

seigneurs

or

seniors,

gerousia,

the

senes^

senate

of

OLD AGE.

303

Sparta, the presbytery of the Cliurcli, and the like,

simply old men.

all signify

The

cynical creed or lampoon of the market

refuted by the universal prayer for long

is

is

which

life,

the verdict of Nature and justified by all history.

We

have,

true,

is

it

pace by which young

as

the

in

examples of an accelerated

men

achieved grand works

Macedonian Alexander,

in

Shakspeare, Pascal, Burns, and Byron

but these

Nature, in the main, vindi-

are rare exceptions.

cates her law.

Raffaelle,

Skill to

do comes of doing

knowl-

edge comes by eyes always open, and working

hands; and there

we

no knowledge that

live long."

have quite

And

if

the

life

be true and noble,

another sort of seniors than the

frowzy, timorous, peevish dotards

old,

namely, the

whom

not

is

Beranger said, " Almost all the good work-

power.

men

is

cities

stand

men who
;

who

are falsely

fear no city, but

who appearing

in

any

by

street,

the people empty their houses to gaze at and obey

them: as
Toledo

at

"My

Cicl,

with the fleecy beard," in

or Bruce, as Barbour reports

blind old Dandolo, elected

Doge

at

him

years, storming Constantinople at ninety-four,

after the revolt again victorious

as

and

and elected at the

age of ninety-six to the throne of the Eastern

pire,

eighty -four

Em-

which he declined, and died Doge at ninety-

seven.

We

still

feel the force of Socrates, "

whom

";

OLD AGE.

304

well-advised the oracle pronounced wisest of

men

of Archimedes, holding Syracuse against the Ro-

mans by
nation

and himself better than

his wit,

of architecture, sculpture, painting,

Galileo, of
blest eye

is

whose blindness

and poetry

Castelli said, "

eye that hath seen more than

all

him

after

" of Newton,

The

darkened that Nature ever made,

of

no-

an

that went before

him, and hath opened the eyes of

come

all their

of Michel Angelo, wearing the four crowns

all

that shall

who made an impor-

tant discovery for every one of his eighty-five years

of Bacon,

who

" took all knowledge to be his prov-

" of Fontenelle, " that precious porcelain vase

ince

laid

up in the centre

of

France to be guarded with

the utmost care for a hundred years

lin,

Jefferson,

statesmen

" of

Frank-

and Adams, the wise and heroic

of Washington, the perfect citizen

Wellington, the
all-knowing poet

perfect
;

of

soldier

of

of

Goethe, the

Humboldt, the encyclopaedia

of science.

Under the general assertion of the well-being of

age, we can easily count particular benefits of that
condition.

It

has weathered the perilous capes

and shoals

in

the sea whereon

is

grounds of

The insurance

fear.

as she enters the harbor at

if

man

we

sail,

and the

taken away in removing the

chief evil of life

home.

of a ship ex]3ires
It

were strange

should turn his sixtieth year without a

OLD AGE.
feeling of

immense

relief

Take care

replies,

will not

am

yielding to a

had heard

add a pang

it

off the

was unhealthy

to the prisoner

who

thief

blew

of beer at the gallows

froth because he
it

'

The humorous

surer decomposition.'

drank a pot

the old wife says,

tumor in your shoulder, perhaps

he

cancerous,'

is

it

of that

from the number of dan-

When

gers he has escaped.

'

305

but

marched out

be shot, to assure him that the pain in his knee

to

When

threatens mortification.

monia

the pleuro-pneu-

of the cows raged, the butchers said that

though the acute degree was novel, there never was a

time when this disease did not occur among

All

men

all

distempers through

and we die without developing them

latent,
is

carry seeds of

cattle.

the affirmative force of the constitution

but

you are enfeebled by any cause, some of these

ing seeds start and open.

we

At

lose a foe.

is

if

sleep-

Meantime, at every stage

fifty years,

citizens lose their sick-headaches.

gira

life

such

'tis

said, afflicted

I hope this he-

not as movable a feast as that one I an-

nually look for,

when

the horticulturists assure

me

that the rose-bugs in our gardens disappear on the

tenth of July

But be

it

as

it

they stay a fortnight later in mine.

may

with the sick-headache,

certain that graver headaches

lulled once for all as

of time.
VOL.

vii.

The

't is

and heart-aches are

we come up with

certain goals

passions have answered their pur20

OLD AGE.

306
pose

that slight but dread overweight with which

in each instance Nature secures the execution of

her aim, drops

off.

To keep man

she impresses the terror of death.

in the planet,

To

perfect the

commissariat, she implants in each a certain rapacity to get the supply,

To

his wants.

and a

little

oversupply, of

insure the existence of the race, she

reinforces the sexual instinct, at the risk of disorder, grief,

and pain.

cruel hunger
their office,

and

and

To

secure strength, she plants

thirst,

which so easily overdo

invite disease.

But these tempo-

rary stays and shifts for the protection of the young

animal are shed as fast as they can be replaced by

We

nobler resources.

live in

youth amidst this

rabble of passions, quite too tender, quite too hun-

gry and

irritable.

Later, the interiors of

mind and

We learn

heart open, and supply grander motives.

the fatal compensations that wait on every act.

Then, one after another,

this riotous time-destroy-

ing crew disappear.

I count

it

another capital advantage of age,

that a success
tle

by

that

it

it will.

little

more or

it

less signifies nothing.

its

I chanced to meet the

when
poet Wordscredit

worth, then sixty-three years old, he told

" he had just had a
his

Lit-

has amassed such a fund of merit

can very well afford to go on

When

this,

fall

and

lost

me

a tooth, and

that

when

companions were much concerned for the mis-

OLD AGE.

307

chance, he had replied that he was glad

care

we

tliat

the

lawyer argued a cause yesterday in

Supreme Court, and

air of levity

whether

was struck with a certain

and defiance which vastly became him.

Thirty years ago

was a serious concern

it

his pleading

was good and

importance to his

of

it is

our organs forty years

shall not lose

too soon.

had not

it

Well, Nature takes

happened forty years before."

client,

and

can do and cannot do,

what he

his reputation does not

gain or suffer from one or a dozen

ances.

If he should

beyond

his

mark and

Now

but of none to

It has been long already fixed

himself.

him

to

effective.

new perform-

on a new occasion

rise

quite

achieve somewhat great and

extraordinary, that, of course, would instantly

but he

may go below

people will say,

his sleep for

ance,

two

O, he had headache,' or
nights.'

tell

mark with impunity, and

What

'

He

lost

a lust of appear-

what a load of anxieties that once degraded

him he
this

'

his

is

Every one

thus rid of!

is

sensible of

All the good

cumulative advantage in living.

who speak for him

him when he has no

days behind him are sponsors,

when he

is

silent,

pay for

money, introduce him where he has no

work

for

him when he

third felicity of age

pression.

The youth

ficd desires,

letters,

and

sleeps.
is

that

it

has found ex-

suffers not only

from ungrati-

but from powers untried, and from a

OLD AGE.

308
picture in

outward
of

Ms mind

of a career

He

reality.

is

wWcli has as yet no

tormented with the want

correspondence between things and thoughts.

Michel Angelo's head

is

full

masculine and

of

gigantic figures as gods walking, which

make him

savage until his furious chisel can render them into

marble

and

of architectural dreams, until a hun-

dred stone-masons can lay them in courses of trav-

There

ertine.

head in which

is

is

continue until the child

is

The

planted.

the like tempest in every good

some great benefit for the world

throes

Every faculty new

born.

him and

drives

him out

finds proper vent.

duty

and chiding,

man

thus goads

into doleful deserts until

All the functions of

it

human

and lash him forward, bemoaning

irritate

friends,

to each

until they are performed.

He

wants

employment, knowledge, power, house and

land, wife

and children, honor and fame

he has

religious wants, aesthetic wants, domestic, civil, hu-

mane

wants.

One by

one,

day

to coin his wishes into facts.

after day, he learns

He

has his calling,

homestead, social connection and personal power,

and

thus, at the

end of

fifty years, his soul is ap-

peased by seeing some sort of correspondence be-

tween his wish and his possession.

the value of age, the satisfaction

every craving.

He

is

serene

it

who

This makes

slowly offers to

does not feel

himself pinched and wronged, but whose condition,

OLD AGE.
in particular

and

we

in general, allows the utterance

In old persons, when thus fully ex-

of his mind.

pressed,

S09

often observe a fair, plump, perennial,

waxen complexion, which indicates

ment of earlier days has subsided

that all the ferinto serenity of

thought and behavior.

,The compensations of Nature play in age as in

In a world so charged and sparkling with

fouth.

)ower, a

man

does not live long and actively with-

lout costly additions of experience, which,

!

What to the

not spoken, are recorded in his mind.

/outh

is

only a guess or a hope,

digested statute.

He

is

in the veteran a

beholds the feats of the jun-

with complacency, but as one

f^iors

though

who having long

ago known these games, has refined them into

sults

and morals.

The Indian Red

young braves were boasting

the

" But the sixties have

^n

all

Jacket,

re-

when

their deeds, said,

the twenties and forties

them."

For a fourth
and

benefit,

finishes its works,

supreme pleasure.
ity,

age

sets its

which

house in order,

to every artist is a

Youth has an excess

of sensibil-

before which every object glitters and attracts.

We

leave one pursuit for another,

man's year

is

a heap of beginnings.

of a twelvemonth, he has nothing to

not one completed work.

Our

and the young

But the time

instincts drove us to hive

At

show
is

the end

for

not

it,

lost.

innumerable experi-

OLD AGE.

310

ences, that are yet of

we may

no

visible value,

and which

keep for twice seven years before they

The best things are of secular

The instinct of classifying marks the wise

shall be wanted.

growth.

and healthy mind.

and

Linnaeus projects his system,

lays out his twenty-four classes of plants, be-

fore yet he has found in Nature a single plant to

justify certain of his classes.

His seventh

In process of time, he

has not one.

class

finds with de-

light the little white Trientalis^ the only plant with

seven petals and sometimes seven stamens, which

constitutes a seventh class in conformity with his

The

system.

conchologist builds his cabinet whilst

He

as yet he has few shells.

classes, cells for species

But every year

ing speed as

fills

all

labels shelves for

but a few are empty.

some blanks, and with

accelerat-

he becomes knowing and known.

An

old scholar finds keen delight in verifying the impressive anecdotes

and

citations

he has met with in

miscellaneous reading and hearing, in all the years

of

We

youth.

dotes,

and have

carry in
lost all

memory important

anec-

clew to the author from

whom we had them. We have a heroic speech from

Rome or Greece, but cannot fix it on the man who

We

have an admirable line worthy of

anon resounding in our mind's
and
Horace, ever
ear, but have searched all probable and improbable
said

it.

books for

it

in vain.

We consult the reading men

OLD AGE.
but, strangely enough, tliey

know

not

But

this.

311

who know everythhig

we have a certain

especially

insulated thought, which haunts us, but remains insulated and barren.
this

Well, there

but patience and tmie.

is

nothing for

Time, yes, that

is

all

the

finder, the unweariable explorer, not subject to casualties,

omniscient at

The day comes when

is found
when the
straight to the hero who said
last.

the hidden author of our story

brave speech returns

it

when

whom

it

the admirable verse finds the

belongs

and best

of

when

all,

poet to

the lonely

thought, which seemed so wise, yet half-wise, half-

thought, because

matched

in our

it

cast

no light abroad,

mind by

or next related

its

twin,

by

is

its

analogy, which gives

it

suddenly
sequence,
insta^itly

radiating power, and justifies the superstitious instinct with

which we have hoarded

member our

old

Greek Professor

an ancient bachelor, amid

this

at

it.

We

re-

Cambridge,

his folios, possessed

by

hope of completing a task, with nothing to

break his leisure after the three hours of his daily

classes, yet ever restlessly stroking his leg

and

as-

suring himself " he should retire from the University

and read the authors."

In Goethe's Romance,

Makaria, the central figure for wisdom and

ence, pleases herself

with withdrawing into

influsoli-

tude to astronomy and epistolary correspondence.

Goethe himself carried

this completion of studies

OLD AGE.

312

Many

to the highest point.

of his

works hung on

the easel from youth to age, and received a stroke

in every

month

or year.

literary astrologer, he

never applied himself to any task but at the happy

moment when

all

enough

'''Et

Much

live till fourscore,

to read everything that

magna mei sub

tunc

wider

is

Bentley

the stars consented.

thought himself likely to

long

was worth reading,

terris ihit

imago^
men

spread the pleasure which old

take in completing their secular

affairs,

the in-

ventor his inventions, the agriculturist his experi-

ments, and

old

all

rounding their

men

in finishing their houses,

estates, clearing their titles, reduc-

ing tangled interests to order, reconciling enmities,

and leaving

all

in the best posture for the future.

must be believed that there is a proportion between the designs of a man and the length of his
It

life

there

is

a calendar of his years, so of his per-

formances.

America
full of

is

the country of young men, and too

work hitherto

for leisure

and

tranquillity

yet we have had robust centenarians, and examples

I have lately found in an
of dignity and wisdom.
old note-book a record of a visit to ex-President

John Adams,

in 1825, soon after the election of his

son to the Presidency.

It is but

a sketch, and

nothing important passed in the conversation

it

reports a

moment

but

in the life of a heroic person.

OLD AGE.

313

who, in extreme old age, appeared

erect

still

and

worthy of his fame.

brother,

The

To-day at Quincy, with

Feh., 1825.

my

by

invitation of

Mr. Adams's family.

old President sat in a large stuffed arm-chair,

dressed in a blue coat, black small-clothes, white

stockings

We made

a cotton cap covered his bald head.

our compliment, told him he must

let

us

join our congratulations to those of the nation

on

He

the happiness of his house.

said

am

" I

The time

and

and congratulations

gratulation

nearly over with

now

us,

rejoiced, because the nation is haj)py.

of

lived to see

thanked

me

am

and know of

nearly a century

lowing October

is

astonished that I have

this event.

I have lived

[he was ninety in the

fol-

a long, harassed, and distracted

I said, "

The world thinks a good deal of

" The world does
joy has been mixed with it."
"
"
not know
he replied,
how much toil, anxiety,
life."

and sorrow I have suffered."

Adams's

letter of acceptance

" Yes,"
political

he

effect

his

and added, "

prudence than any

has existed in

guard

said,

my

time

and I hope he

age

may work

asked

had been read

man

My

to him.

know who

that I

he never was put

:

in diminishing the
;

it

Mr.

son has more

will continue such

mind, I do not know

if

off his

but what

power of

has been very

much

"
OLD AGE.

314
on

tlie stretch,

He

ever since he was born.

has

al-

ways been laborious, child and man, from infancy."

When
he

said, "

Mr.

He

is

Q. Adams's age was mentioned,

J.

now fifty-eight,

and remarked that "

same age
eight,

General Washington was about

fifty-eight,

when he expected

inquired
said

" Never

Quincy but

come on

my

whom

mere,

come down

me

to see

Mr. Adams

my

to

satisfaction to

to

the Presidents were of the

all

and I was about

and Mr.

fifty-

Jeffer-

We
Mr. Adams.

and Mr. Madison, and Mr. Monroe."

son,

He

or will be in July

funeral.

It

will not

come

would be a great

to see him, but I don't wish

account."

He

to

him

Mr. Lech-

sj^oke of

he " well remembered to have seen

daily, at a great age, to

town-house," adding, "

And

He was

as well as he did.

walk

in the old

I wish I could walk

Collector of the Cus-

toms for many years under the Royal Government."

E. said

" I suppose,

sir,

you would not

have taken his place, even to walk as well as he."

" No, " he replied, " that was not what I wanted."

He talked

of Whitefield,

and remembered when

he was a Freshman in College to have come into

town

to the

Old South church,

[I think,] to liear

him, but could not get into the house

"I how-

ever, saw him," he said, " through a window, and

distinctly

heard

all.

He had a voice
He cast it

never heard before or since.

such as I
out so that

OLD AGE.
you might hear

it

315

at the meeting-house," [pointing

towards the Quincy meeting-house,] " and he had

the grace of a dancing-master, of an actor of plays.

His voice and manner helped him more than his

" And
sermons. I went with Jonathan Sewall."

you were pleased with him,

" " Pleased

We asked

sir ?

was delighted beyond measure."

if

I
at

Whitefield's return the same popularity continued.

" Not

the same fury," he said, " not the

same

wild enthusiasm as before, but a greater esteem, as

he became more known.

He

did not terrify, but

was admired."

We spent

about an hour in his room.

He

speaks

very distinctly for so old a man, enters bravely into

long sentences, which are interrupted by want of
breath, but carries

them invariably

to

a conclusion,

without correcting a word.

He

spoke of the new novels of Cooper, and

" Peep at the Pilgrims,"

praise,

and " Saratoga," with

and named with accuracy the characters

in them.

He

likes to

have a person always read-

company talking in his room, and is

better the next day after having visitors in his
chamber from morning to night.
ing to him, or

He
tion,

received a premature report of his son's elec-

on Sunday afternoon, without any

excite-

ment, and told the reporter he had been hoaxed,

for

it

was not yet time for any news

to arrive.

The

316

OLD AGE.

informer, something

damped

in

liis

heart, insisted

on repairing to the meeting-house, and proclaimed

it

who were

aloud to the congregation,

so over-'

joyed that they rose in their seats and cheered

The Reverend Mr. Whitney dismissed

thrice.

them immediately.

When

Vhat

life

has been well spent, age

But the

in infancy,

is

mind

purified
is

and
in

wise.

name

trine of immortality is

constitution.

happy

subjects the

I have heard that who-

no condition

that whenever the

was old

in fourscore years, and, drop-

off obstructions, leaves in

ever loves

strength, or-

central wisdom, which

young

a loss of

and works that belong

gi'oss bulk,

to these.

ping

muscular

can well, spare,

it

ganic instincts,

is

of

is

announced

The mode

of

it

I have heard

old.

man

spoken, the docit

baffles

cleaves to his

our wit, and

\no whisper comes to us from the other

side.

But

the inference, from the working of intellect, hiving

,

knowledge, hiving
ready to be born,

fection

skill,

at the

end of

life just

affirms the inspirations of af-

and of the moral sentiment.