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here the older one being very rare an poem ih three books by r h home author of de price one from certain from this it better than some of the late but in its price it is grateful to notice a second edition of s poems a d i announced di man the of mary from the succeeded a work from the king and the or the throne the church and the people in the century translated by jane has been published in france the monstrous undertaking of the of the from to is nearly complete since of thirty two volumes of which it will consist already twenty nine have appeared twenty five volumes contain the history of three great the the states general and the four volumes are devoted to the the dial vol iv january no iii the youth of the poet and the painter from p of last number letter x to james hope i have been reading with some attention on these cold evenings in my chimney corner having no better book i cannot understand how he engaged so large a share of praise or how he can be set among illustrious poets yet tlie age places him among the first i suspect he and owe part of their renown to the quantity of verse they have written these heavy volumes bearing such immense of decent poetry their readers from on finding pure gold and the few really good lines scattered in many places gleam like jewels and the rest with light did not make a radical mistake to write verses on a plan i have no conception of any thing which has a right to be called poetry unless it come living out of the poet s nature like the stream from the rock free and clear it demands life from the depths of character and must be written necessarily i have tried many people in the hope of finding among them some one with whom i can fully i have the part of the left to play and begin seriously to think i will attempt it i do with you but it is as men feel for each other rather in than sentiment i wish some woman to come such as i picture in my dreams i feel i was born for intimate sympathy yet find little except with trees and fields i peep into the vol iv no ill youth of the poet and the painter windows of the cottages where families sit around bright wood fires all bound together by a circle of so that no can form in the centre of their being but i cannot enter for how bare are the walls and how square the rooms i the hearth on chill evenings but my roof must be open to the sky and the keen rays of the stars shine for my candle i can feel soft arms willing to clasp me the steel of strength do not glitter round their wrists i must have something more than affection it is tiresome to wander in society knock at every door gain and find the old arrangement of coal centre tables and carpets o for a lofty hall with the sun shining crimson and purple through its dome while on the walls hang pictures and statues stand in the with some music from a sounding and no need of artificial warmth but the sun always i would have the windows and let the winds rush through on dizzy storms and rain and snow enter as they please and the stars glow dazzling i have found decency everywhere and what they call a respectable appearance without a spark of you seem better than the rest but as one of my own sex i cannot come to you as i would to the other you are only half the sphere as well as i i am fortunate to foresee my path among these sands of time i now feel desolate like the bird who has neither mate nor nest and am wild and proud as if would not resign myself to solitude without war yet this day of tempest will pass and i shall walk calm and resigned and build myself a hut if i have nothing in it except a broken branch of some last year s tree there if i secure quiet with some smiling fields from the window i can whistle as if content i delight to catch glimpses of sunlight in others fortunes and it makes me smile to see others glad these bending cheerful natures which sing as gaily as the little birds on the bough after a shower in the bright golden sunshine come and alight on the bare walls of my existence and the rays of their light blue are reflected for a second in the surface of my solitary lake whose grey waves melt on some side into the radiance yet these passing of brightness fade soon and seem to leave a darker tint behind as after the autumn charged as they youth of the poet and the painter are with splendid the woods in hard outlines i don t know that i am better for these i only see what these soft sunny characters enjoy i met a little child who among the moving her large wild eyes dark as the s yet bright in their depths gracefully from tree to rock a silent motionless mirth and a smile about her small crimson mouth though i never heard her laugh i saw her passing before me like a with its shadow and one day she came to my and we sailed far up the river i love children yet they never satisfy me for i must have some toil and some defeat to cling to yet this child seems more than any being i have met she is not yet remains to my memory | 37 |
a figure moving among the woods and i have been pleased to find these solitary places haunted by a creature so genial childhood is a painting set in health and and a time cut out of existence that we can parallel with nothing beside for we cannot bring it back and see it afar as we do heaven it is like a bower or a desert made of the trees and planted inside with flowers while about its leafy walls are rude not even moss covered bare sands where no blade of grass grows and heat that life in the midst a clear spring of delicious water rises where swim gold and silver fish and the light from them tints the air to the door of the delightful place the sound of the fountain dances gaily and sends a of music into the roof no wonder the old people talk so much about the time when they were young this little child brought me a bunch of and hung them over the kitchen fire and sat herself down in the corner gazing with her large dark motionless eyes i did not speak and when the played with its changing red over her low forehead and brown cheeks i seemed to have some creature out of the world of she was sent away somewhere the next day and i shall not see her again but then one meets such children often if they came once and then would stay a day i believe they would form such sunny memories we should have gold beams for our recollections e a of the poet and the letter xl to s hope mt i send some of my journal as i promised i know you will procure little from it yet it will furnish some picture of the life i lead it is not a record of what i do but what i feel how cold came the wind from the misty sea with its sad grey clouds yet i love thee autumn even if thy looks are sorrowful a joy dwells within thy grief i feel that nature has her sorrows and i am not alone in mine even if my autumn continues through the year my spring is forming in the depths of my chill heart the flowers if concealed are sown and one sunny day will warm them into life i long for that to throw myself into the joy a human soul ever knew i sat in the pine woods upon the red carpet of dropping and for a century and above waved the trees while the sailed over mingling hoarse cries with the gentle whispers of the forest as the painful sounds of life flow among the sweet songs of heaven night dwells in these while the ocean s music murmurs and carries me to the of the blue floor of the moving sea i remember the waves as the memories of a better world stand with folded arms in the sunny of childhood i should love to build my cottage in the pine woods yet it would be too solitary i am reflected from the forms of nature yet their graceful aspects do not adorn my figure and see myself as i am a poor wanderer seeking shelter in the tempest of the world from the winds and cold rains i blame myself and not the world for the image i have come to myself late perhaps if i had been shaped when a little child by the beautiful thoughts of the poet and in the sea of lovely forms i should never have entered this sandy desert whose end flies as i advance and whose entrance i find equally inaccessible yet i cannot of the poet the painter my history more than my companions for they are all satisfied as i am no one of them is perfect ihey have some flaw some speck and their great endeavor is to hide this from themselves i in exposing mine i am desirous to see my solitude in its true proportion to know how much i can trust others and how far depend on myself if my fail when i seek to express my life let me at least have the satisfaction of knowing the origin of my ill success give me light even if it be a torch to my errors i would try every thing every art every man no failure can prevent a new trial though i have taken the wrong so many times that i can hardly tread the right during these ill fashioned days of time let me be great enough to stand resigned till death s golden key opens the gate of the next eternity the bird s song i heard the song of a forest bird sweet was the note in my grateful ear it came like the tone of a friendly word it was finished and gentle and clear yet the singer i saw not though near i hear the bird s song wherever i go for it echoes my inward desire but the i deem does not venture below the far clouds his world is a higher his altar is lit by a purer ere sing on thou sweet to me though thou a tone that one day shall come in full melody and the singer be near and my own even if now i wander alone i grow more attached to this beautiful place each day it is fitted for a home to some wanderer like me and though i feel i must before many days set my sails to the wind and dash through the green far from the sheltered i shall remember these green spots which should make the earth a heaven sweet river fair groves and peaceful fields receive thanks from a spirit folded for a few flying moments in your tender arms receive the of the poet and the painter assurance | 37 |
that if it were mine i should delight to your gifts in strains how i feel when i return to the house after one of my long walks with the beauty yet standing in my eyes because i can give none of it away and know that presently it will fade even from my consciousness i am a wanderer from a distant land there the clouds glow in crimson and the flames of a perpetual summer fill the air noon never falls into dull twilight trees swell in their foliage and no hand cold and regardless the endless bloom shadows fall deep red and yellow softening mists robe the white temple s pillars with rich gold no tears are shed among those sunny years for the high day walks with love letter richard to edward mt ned i wrote some days since an unfortunate letter i suppose under a severe of as i learn you put an upon correspondence between us what if an will not go far enough to cover the whole ground for in the first place you must me from writing then the general from sending my letters after they are written and then further your own heart which i know is as soft as lamb s wool from opening and reading them after they are written sent and have reached you an old head like mine through whose hair the storms have blown in three of the globe can afford to have a few of these inland winter in its locks and yet ned why you severely me from sending an occasional i cannot understand this however shall be the final blast of your uncle s trumpet and would it might prove a horn and down the grey walls of which yesterday and tomorrow have built round your existence finally i have of the poet and the painter s worked upon your mother s reason and she has agreed with herself and heaven to leave you in stillness by which i mean she has constituted me with your consent of your pecuniary unless you prefer taking them into your hands in the mean time i an account of your property so far as i have obtained it by several and of the lawyer and mr penny who has long been captain of your mother s purse in the first place i find ten shares in the rotten company originally valued at one hundred dollars per share purchased by mr penny for seventy dollars per share worth as i see by the chronicle which serves me for paper fifty dollars per share my notion is that as the rotten company has broke three times it will break again so with your leave and without mr penny s i shall sell the ten shares next a farm in originally bought for fifteen hundred dollars by skilful mr penny at your mother s request they both considering the earth solid and good to buy i have made inquiries into its present price and find it will sell for near one thousand dollars and have had an by a neighbor who sees the wood waving from his window and the red grass and in the fields and who as he needs and sheep pasture like many another country thinks he will lay out his now in the bank earning him his six upon land which every year will run him more than six per cent in debt then twenty shares in the railroad which will yield the say in ten years after all expenses paid including their own newspaper dinners cow killing and cart breaking eight per cent yearly interest ned the railroad affords amusement for these with its wine roast beef and turkey dinners but what could have led mr penny to pay two thousand dollars and get so little for his pains neither of us can see unless it was because mr penny was a with your consent shall sell the hey railroad with the rope and company the next of mr penny is three thousand dollars in eastern lands and i have much mud and to say nothing of good clean drinking water out of mr penny and the lawyer but i can say that neither of these will make a of the land or give me any youth of the poet and the point to steer by i shall with your permission enter into correspondence with all persons in and find where these lands lie what they are worth and who will buy them and proceed to sell them for cash mr penny s next purchase was three shares in the which cost one hundred dollars per share and is now offered for five dollars this has yearly produced two visits to the family under the escort of mr penny who had each time to exhibit his of stock and his own right to enter which ho under a greasy ticket that he was an original life i advise you with mr penny s consent to hold fast to these shares for you may one day like to see in yourself you have a share in the library worth originally two hundred dollars and have the right of taking out three books once a month by paying six per cent yearly on the cost of your share and a farther trifle of three dollars which goes straight into the of poor peter the as you never took out books nor went to the library and as your mother to mrs s library whose whole volumes you might purchase with your one share in the and further as the share would not bring fifty dollars perhaps it would be well to transfer it to mrs and enable her to let the waste water of the marsh into her own basin there are in the bank two thousand dollars belonging to you which will yield six per cent like a good cow that gives a certain quality and | 37 |
quantity of milk my notion is that we sell all and sundry your other stocks and and lump them in this bank if you only make six per cent a year you will never lose ten the i have watched the last three years with open eyes and conclude they are fellows who love money too well to part with one and consider whatever is in the bank theirs so far as it them to make their six you may expect six hundred dollars clear a year if you will put your money in this bank which i expect will support you or keep your head above water which is considered necessary now a days i live on two hundred a year and have for the last ten years so with me living on a small means is no experiment i purchase my clothes on the same day with some other at my house and of the poet and the painter find after four seasons he has renewed his eight times while mine are yet wearing as well as ever thus i never spend any money for clothes now because mine are all bought i consider i have purchased the articles i require in this line in winter i spend every day but sunday out of my room in this way i save all my fuel except a seventh part and this i borrow i sit from nine in the morning till one at which time i dine by the bar room fire and read the paper and talk with the landlord in the afternoon i have a round of ten stores i visit spend part of an hour in each and away my evenings in the parlor so i spend nothing for lights i board on an original plan as i consider it thus i do not agree to eat any one meal at any one particular place and by not am always prepared to accept every invitation if none of my acquaintance remember me at the hour for meals i purchase one cent s worth of and dine that or drink tea or take breakfast off of it or s small waters i never purchase as my stomach turns sour on every such introduction of drink i resolve never to more than six cents any one day for food you may ask where my money goes to which i reply that i live on two hundred dollars a year but actually on one hundred dollars i something on books music and tobacco three i value beyond clothes food and but then my tobacco only costs me three dollars a year and as i buy cigars by the and pipe tobacco by the barrel i get as much as i want for a series of years for a five dollar bill i pay no tax no minister s tax no school tax and no s tax because i from to according to the visits of the tax and am thus a citizen of no place and belong generally your uncle dick letter xiii to james hope i have thought more of your letter respecting edward and not only that but have had an interview with mrs vol iv no iii youth of the and the she found i was interested in her son who of course is the interesting subject which she has for i tl ink i enlightened her in the premises and trust our melancholy poet will be left to the enjoyment of his reflections undisturbed she was with difficulty persuaded that a young man left to his own inclinations could become any thing but an and a in addition it was inconceivable to her that any young man could have the least pretence to sally into a new country out of the formal path which his ancestors followed five hundred years and was for bringing him at once to the city and placing him in a counting room i told her her son would never put himself in such a situation however much she desired it and when she became satisfied of this she abandoned the idea mrs is not a woman but has that unaccountable folly of many generous people and thinks that all money not spent according to custom is thrown away the fact of edward s pecuniary independence made httle impression on her and any dis of his means unless devoted to some formal business in a city she considered a misfortune you express some fear that edward instead of being a poet will be a and after he has written some musical verses enter manhood to become an elegant literary man or a it is true he has one great disadvantage to contend with he has not the grand teacher poverty his means are sufficient and his days will not be spent in toil to conquer enough from the world to feed his body with on the morrow i do not regret this i have long wished to see a poet nursed by nature not obliged to struggle with and whose only cares and toils should be a sacrifice to the muse his present melancholy has in it the elements of salvation this struggle between sorrow and a desire to be cheerful this question which must be asked every day whether his faith is not strong enough to find in life sovereign bliss this into the depths of existence to grasp the glittering charm which lies hidden under the cold granite of his present fortune will stand him instead of poverty contest with men cultivation and experience a great sorrow shows the deepest vein of life and no man has been a who has bravely in youth with a giant youth of the poet and the painter despair if edward sat weakly down as he would if this sorrow had any and yielded his career to the hand of chance and envious we might resign him to the poor lead | 37 |
of every trifling circumstance but when you mark what vigorous faith under every expression of sadness how healthy his life is when it breaks the chains of his prison house and finds a vent in song you must conclude that he is fighting the great battle of knowledge against ignorance which every man who has proved any thing has first been obliged to conquer in his contest will be more than the experience of a thousand worldly people it is an unfortunate mistake which i think your constitution leads you into with many of your temperament to suppose our best and most useful experiences flow from the external let us first know ourselves which result can come only from contest with inward and never from what we catch from the passing shades which around and whose we see and then no man can be concealed because our destiny is one and the same let us omit this struggle let us go into life or into nature and be acted upon from without and though the beginning may be fair the ending will be disappointment for my part i rejoice at edward s present situation and hope he will be left to himself in nature there to battle with the of ignorance were he not so delicately constituted had he the power of off circumstances was it not necessary for him to surrender himself to many more impressions than the mass of men i should not insist so positively upon his placing himself among the woods and fields thus finely formed when every tone on the of his most delicate heart i am glad nature him and when i further consider that lie is a poet both by this education and an evident from his earliest years i rejoice yet more we need some poets truly bred in nature who have gone out not to look at trees and and put them into their note books but drawn by an inevitable necessity to their hearts and confess their before the stern beauty of the perfect our poetry is too full of conventional existence and we neglect verses often if newly written as if there could be nothing true in them because the expression of nature is youth the poet and the painter not caught while the note of social life sounds continually i am out of patience with the of late poetry it is a feeble imitation of what in its time was good and suited the age and i feel that we demand an actual feel ing of nature which poets have lost our social life does not admit us into the of human nature but us some some of feeling or thought as if the strong healthy abundant nature of man had into a pretty scholar apt at feeding the birds from the window while his tasks of courage were forgotten it is a good part in edward s history that he has courage to disappointments to sing his song to the end though assured his verses will prove unsatisfactory those poets who have halted and could not say at the end of life as michael did to use an old illustration never went into the depths of the art never used their powers except as i am glad you tell me edward cannot be satisfied with any poem he makes for i am convinced with his constitution he will never tire until he makes verse which shall be much to him and yet that he will never cease to write i think it will be long before he finds his true position and till then he cannot estimate the place of any other person how it is i cannot say but there is in people of his description a power of the exact of those by whom they are surrounded it looks impossible for them to address themselves to those with whom they imperfectly and they demand from all character and entertainment which only a very few can ever yield truly yours m g of translation of many of us must remember our introduction to the prince of poets we had formed perhaps the dim vision of a hell enveloped in smoke and flame dusky lurid indistinct out of which peered gaunt shapes of horror the told us how hard he was to ready how impossible for any but an italian to understand how obscure we heard that no one has ever yet fully and fairly explained him all to make us approach with awe this dim and tremendous shadow with how different feeling do we now look back we tell our good italian friends that the beautiful explains itself and may be found by or english alike the he hides so deeply was temporary and whether it means this or that is of little importance to us but the poetry in which it is enveloped belongs to all time and can be understood by all men to his language at first unusual we discover in a few the key his rhyme which at first soon seems to us the only medium that could itself to his varied theme the does not flow but walks does not but reasons above all describes and however difficult to us in it seems to be the natural frame of sentences among his instead of obscurity or we find an clearness rendered transparent by images that with a single word give the most forcible pictures the whole scene passes before our eyes rightly is the poem called for it is like a history seen and not read tiie is full of physical horrors and we often hear a disgust expressed at them but our experience has been that the moral always the physical and the dire pass away from our minds while la remain fixed forever who forgets not the fiery when himself for the first ten of the of newly | 37 |
translated into of gets it in his pride and grief for and his friends or when the father of forgets it to ask after his son it is only the mean men in s hell that are overcome by the the majestic speaks with unchanged voice after ages of pain when we are well acquainted with the terrible is to us but a background for pictures of such beauty and tenderness as are perhaps without parallel so many books and magazine articles have of late years been busy with the subject that now a days it is to be hoped students are better prepared what to expect than chanced in our day every body has read a few that has read italian at all many have read the but to almost all the and the remain mines still from an italian author is be coming a world author the knowledge of him is no longer confined to italian scholars and it is a fair sign of the times that here we have in boston a new and good translation we took up this book not a little prejudiced for who with the deep music of the original ringing in his ears but must view the best translation with some aversion and verily were all the world acquainted with would stand but a poor chance if indeed they could under such circumstances exist a translation is neither more nor less than a only in a language and this is the only answer to give to those who insist that if there be any meaning in a poet it can be translated that the thought cannot escape if the words are rendered by but let any one and see what work he will make of it hence is a s in one respect the most ungrateful of all literary tasks yet is it one of the most honorable and most useful for few can go to the fountain heads and none can go to them all and without the labors of conscientious not the bible only but our and would be sealed books to most of us translated and and several other works and thus much is certain that to produce good especially of poetical works requires rare talents is faithful and literal and has been a very useful so far as we can speak from imperfect translation of edge but seems to possess quite a faculty of giving a translation of a poetical passage mr is spirited often poetical not always literal enough a is bound to nothing above all in an who like has never an unnecessary word or line we take the first lines of the second book as an illustration both of the poet and his lo se n e in ed io m a la si e si la non now was the day departing and the air with shadows from their toils released all animals on earth and i alone prepared myself the conflict to sustain both of sad pity and that perilous road which my memory shall mr day was departing and the dusky light freed earthly creatures from their labor s load i only rose and myself to fight the struggle with compassion and my road paint it my memory now in truth s own hue literally day was departing and the dark air took away the animals that are upon the earth from their labors and i alone prepared myself to sustain the war both of the journey and of pity which my mind that does not shall in the original the picture of departing day is marked and so beautiful as to arrest attention and fix itself in the memory mr is faithful and does not injure the picture by adding or taking away a word and is not in mr freed earthly creatures from their labor s load does not render in this description cannot be compressed without taking away its individuality and making it commonplace and although the meaning is clear the rendering is not artistic it has missed the points of the original and does not arrest the attention nor produce the effect of the original in the celebrated lines with which the third begins per me si va c is again literal and true but with a lamentable want of the majesty of s verses which are in their solemn per me si va per me si va per me si va la ta il la la em a me non fur create se non ed io ch me you pass into the city of woe through me you pass into eternal pain through me among the people lost for aye justice the founder of my fabric to rear me was the task of power divine wisdom and love before me things create were none save things eternal and eternal i endure all hope abandon ye who enter here through ye reach the city of despair through me eternal wretchedness ye find through me among s race ye fare justice inspired my founder s mind power love and wisdom heavenly first and most high framed me ere aught created else had been save things eternal and am i leave here all hope o ye who enter in mr here has evidently the advantage he keeps sufficiently close to his original and is at the same time spirited and his lines give somewhat the feeling of the original which s though literal do not the episode of and has been so many times translated that it must be looked upon as a test passage our shows both the merits and defects we have noticed above his translation is spirited and forms a and reads well together but there are sins both of and commission for instance translation of da ch io e v fin mi oh die literally when i heard those troubled souls i bent down my head | 37 |
and held it down until the poet said to me what are you thinking when i answered i began c all this mr has compressed into two lines during their speech low down i hung my head what thou inquired my guide c now this is really cutting the too short thought it worth while to write four whole lines full of meaning in order to express the effect that the hearing of the story had upon him and these lines in the original give wonderful life and reality to the whole scene we see s deliberate grand motion as he his head nothing till his companion asks to rouse him what are you thinking nor does he even then at once recover but as he says when i answered i began c and again the language in the original is as simple as possible thy sufferings make me weep sad and pitying any man might say but my pitying soul thy martyr is hardly simple enough we wish not to be over critical but rather to represent the difficulty of the undertaking for in the whole range of literature it would be hard to select a harder book is so that not a line or a thought or even a word can be spared a writer may be compressed but s words are thoughts you cannot you can only leave out because the fear that had remained all night in the lake of my heart is hard to render into english verse the has no right to leave it out on the other hand a man of fine taste would lie awake half the night with anxiety if he found himself obliged by the rhyme to say the beasts were freed from their labor s load when only said they were freed from their labors rot it no iii we believe the is past when a distinction can be made between a free and a literal translation of a great work a translation must be literal or it is no translation and if the cannot be free and literal at once if he cannot learn to move freely and gracefully in his irons he is wanting in a prime requisite it is in vain to speak of in the spirit of an original without one s self too closely to the text you may thus produce as good a work as pope s but no translation on the whole we feel most grateful to mr for undertaking this work we think he has done well but he can do much better we counsel him never to leave a passage till he is sure that he has united a full and faithful rendering of the whole he finds in liis author with that simple and vigorous expression of the original to avoid above all general expressions where uses individuals the temptation is often great but weakness is the sure result as it is we have no little pride that our city should produce a mark of so much devotion to the highest walks of pure literature from a lecture on poetry read before the by henry d the wisest definition of poetry the poet will instantly prove false by setting aside its we therefore publish only our advertisement of it there is no doubt that the written wisdom is or measured is in form as well as substance poetry and a volume which should contain the wisdom of mankind need not have one line yet poetry though the last and finest result is a natural fruit as naturally as the oak bears an and the vine a man bears a poem either spoken or done it is the chief and most memorable success for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds what else have the the the the done that can be told it is the simplest relation of phenomena and describes the commonest sensations with more truth than science does and the latter at a distance slowly its style and methods the poet sings how the blood flows in his veins he his functions and is so well that he needs such to sing only as plants to put forth leaves and blossoms he would strive in vain to the remote and transient music which he sometimes hears since his song is a vital function like breathing and an result like weight it is not the overflowing of life but its rather and is drawn from under the feet of the poet it is enough if but say the sun sets he is as serene as nature and we can hardly detect the enthusiasm of the bard it is as if nature spoke he presents to us the simplest pictures of human life so that childhood itself can understand them and the man must not think twice to appreciate his each reader for himself that succeeding poets have done little else than copy his his more memorable passages are as naturally bright as of sunlight in misty weather nature him not only with words but with lines and sentences from her as from the clouds appears the full moon all and then again it goes behind the shadowy clouds so at one time appeared among the foremost and at another in the rear commanding and a with brass lie shone like to the lightning of bearing he the least information even the hour of the day with such magnificence and vast expense of natural as if it were a message from the gods while it was dawn and sacred day was advancing for that space the weapons of both flew fast and the people fell but when now the was preparing his morning meal in the of the mountain and had wearied his hands with cutting lofty trees and came to his mind and the desire of sweet food took possession of his thoughts then the by their broke the shouting to their companions from | 37 |
rank to rank when the army of the passed the night under arms keeping watch lest the enemy should re under cover of the dark they thinking great things upon the ground of war sat all the night and many fires burned for them as when in the heavens the stars round the bright moon appear beautiful and the air is without wind and all the heights and the extreme heart and the shady valleys appear and the shepherd in his so between the ships and the streams of appeared the fires of the before the white armed goddess sent by the father of gods and men for and went down the mountains to far as when the mind of a man who has come over much earth forth and he with rapid thoughts there was and there and remembers many things so the august hastening flew through the air and came to high there are few books which are fit to be remembered in our wisest hours but the is brightest in the days and still all the sunlight that fell on asia minor no modern joy or ecstasy of ours can lower its height or dim its lustre but there it lies in the last of literature as it were the earliest latest production of the mind the ruins of egypt and us with their dust preserved in and pitch and in linen the death of that which never lived but the rays of greek poetry struggle down to us and mingle with the of the recent day the statue of is cast down but the shaft of the still meets the sun in his rising so too no doubt had his and his in the dim antiquity which preceded them the system of the and it is still the only of the the poem of mankind so wonderfully with their and in grandeur and harmony with the architecture of the heavens themselves seems to point to a time when a genius inhabited the earth but man is the great and not nor are and our language itself and the common arts of life are bis work poetry is so universally true and independent of experience that it does not need any particular biography to illustrate it but we refer it sooner or later to some or and after ages to the genius of humanity and the gods themselves the genuine remains of though of less fame and extent are in many respects of the same stamp with the itself he the dignity of the bard no less than and in his era we hear of no other priest than he it will not avail to call him a heathen because he the sun and addresses it and what if his heroes did worship the ghosts of their fathers their thin airy and forms we but worship the ghosts of our fathers in more substantial forms we cannot but respect the vigorous faith of those heathen who sternly believed somewhat and are inclined to say to the critics who are offended by their superstitious rites don t interrupt these men s prayers as if we knew more about human life and a god than the heathen and does english contain the recent discoveries reminds us of the most refined and of and the american indian in his poetry as in s only the simplest and most enduring features of humanity are seen such essential parts of a man as of a temple we see the circles of stone and the upright shaft alone the phenomena of life acquire almost an unreal and gigantic size seen through his mists like all older and poetry it is distinguished by the few elements in the of its heroes they stand on the heath between the stars and the earth shrunk to the bones and the earth is a boundless plain for their deeds they lead such a simple dry and everlasting life as hardly needs depart with th genuine remains of literally translated with a by published under the patronage of the society of london mo london we take pleasure in this the first literal english translation of the of which were left by and published agreeably to his intention in the flesh but is entire from age to age there are but few objects to their sight and their life is as as the course of the stars they gaze at the kings on apart look forward from behind their and mark the wandering stars that brilliant westward move it does not cost much for these heroes to live they want not furniture they are such forms of men only as can be seen afar through the mist and have no costume nor dialect but for language there is the tongue itself and for costume there are always the skins of beasts and the bark of trees to be had they live out their years by the vigor of their they survive storms and the of their foes and perform a few heroic deeds and then will answer questions of them for many future years blind and they spend the remnant of their days listening to the lays of the and feeling the weapons which laid their enemies low and when at length they die by a of nature the bard allows us a short misty glance into yet as clear perchance as their lives had been when was slain his soul departed to his warlike to follow misty forms of in islands bleak the hero s is erected and the bard sings a brief significant strain which will suffice for and biography the weak will find his bow in the dwelling the feeble will attempt to bend it compared with this simple life our civilized history appears the chronicle of of fashion and the arts of luxury but the civilized man no real refinement in the poetry of the era it reminds him that civilization does but | 37 |
dress men it makes shoes but it does not the of the feet it makes cloth of finer texture but it does not touch the skin inside the civilized man stands the savage still in the place of honor we are those blue eyed yellow haired those slender dark haired the profession of the bard attracted more respect in those days from the importance attached to fame it was his province to record the deeds of heroes when hears the traditions of inferior he i straightway seize the tales and send them down in faithful verse his philosophy of life is expressed in the opening of the third of ca whence have sprung the things that are and whither roll the passing years where does time conceal its two heads in dense impenetrable loom its surface marked with heroes deeds alone i view the generations gone the past appears but dim as objects by the moon s faint beams reflected from a distant lake i see indeed the thunder of war but there the dwell all those who send not down deeds to far succeeding times the warriors die and are forgotten strangers come to build a tower and their ashes some swords appear in dust one bending forward says the arms belonged to heroes gone we never heard their praise in song the grandeur of he is another feature which great poetry seems to speak a gigantic and universal language the images and pictures occupy even much space in the landscape as if they could be seen only from the sides of mountains and plains with a wide horizon or across arms of the sea the machinery is so massive that it cannot be less than natural says to the spirit of her father grey haired of seen in the skies thou away like receding ships so when the hosts of and approach to battle with murmurs loud like rivers far the race of hither moved and when compelled to retire dragging his spear behind sank in the distant wood like a fire ere it dies nor did want a proper audience when he spoke a thousand inclined to hear the lay of the threats too would have a man vengeance and terror were real the young warrior whom he meets on a foreign strand thy mother shall find thee pale on the shore while on the waves she the sails of him who her son if s heroes weep it is from excess of strength and not from weakness a or of fertile natures like the perspiration of stone in summer s heat we hardly know that tears have been shed and it seems as if weeping were proper only for and heroes their joy and their sorrow are made of one like rain and snow the rainbow and the mist when was in fight and ashamed in the presence of he strode away forthwith and bent in grief above a stream his cheeks with tears from time to time the gray he with his lance blind and old receives son of who comes to aid him in war my eyes have failed says he is blind is thy strength like that of fathers stretch thine arm to the haired i gave my arm to the king the aged hero seized my hand he heaved a heavy sigh tears flowed incessant down his cheek strong art thou son of the mighty not so dreadful as s prince let my feast be spread in the hall let every sweet sing great is he who is within my wall sons of wave echoing even himself the hero bard pays tribute to the superior strength of his father how mighty man was thy mind why succeeded without its strength what a contrast between the stern and desolate poetry of and that of and even of and milton much more of and pope and gray our summer of english poetry like the greek and latin before it seems well advanced toward its fall and laden with the fruit and foliage of the season with bright but soon the winter will scatter its and leaves and leave only a few desolate and boughs to sustain the snow and and in the of ages we cannot escape the impression that the muse has stooped a little in her flight when we come to the literature of civilized now first we hear of various ages and of poetry but the poetry of monuments is for every age the bard has lost the dignity and of his office he has no more the rage and only the deed which he formerly stood ready to perform hosts of warriors earnest for battle could not mistake nor dispense with the ancient bard his lays were heard in the pauses of the fight there was no danger of his being overlooked by his but now the hero and the bard are of different professions when we come to the pleasant english verse it seems as if the storms had all cleared away and it would never thunder and more the poet has come within doors and exchanged the forest and for the fireside the but of the and with its circles of stones for the house of the englishman no hero stands at the door prepared to break forth into song or heroic action but we have instead a homely englishman who the art of poetry we see the pleasant fireside and hear the in all the verse the towering and misty imagination of the bard has descended into the plain and become a and keeps flocks and herds poetry is one man s trade and not all men s religion and is split into many it is pastoral and and narrative and notwithstanding the broad humanity of and the many social and domestic comforts which we meet with in his verse we have to narrow our vision somewhat to con vol iv no iii | 37 |
be a citizen of england while and lived in italy and tell and in and in asia and in scotland and and and edward the third and john of gaunt and the black prince were his own countrymen all stout and stirring names the fame of bacon came down from the preceding century and the name of still exerted the influence of a living presence on the whole us as greater than his reputation and not a little like and for he would have held up his head in their company among early english poets he is the landlord and host and has the authority of such the affectionate mention which succeeding early poets make of him him with and is to be taken into the account in his character and influence king james and of scotland speak with more love and reverence of him than any modern author of his of the last century the same relation is without parallel now we read him without criticism for the most part for he not bis own cause but speaks for his readers and has that greatness of trust and reliance which popularity he in the reader and speaks with him keeping nothing back and in return his reader has great confidence in him that he tells no lies and reads his story with indulgence as if it were the of a child but afterwards that he has spoken with more and economy of words than a sage he is never heartless for first the thing is thought within the r any word out from the mouth and so new was all his theme in those days that he had not to invent but only to tell we admire for his sturdy english wit the easy height he speaks from in his to the tales as if he were equal to any of the company there assembled is as good as any particular excellence in it but though it is full of good sense and humanity it is not poetry for picturesque description of persons it is perhaps without a parallel in english poetry yet it is essentially humorous as the genius never is humor however broad and genial takes a view than enthusiasm the whole story of and dame in the s s tale is genuine humanity i know of nothing better in its kind no more successful of birds and beasts if it is said of that he is now hamlet and then it may be said of that he with brutes well as men and their nature that he may speak i from it in this tale he puts on the very feathers and stature of the cock to his own finer vein he added all the common wit and wisdom of his time and every where in his works his remarkable knowledge of the world and nice perception of character his rare common sense and wisdom are apparent his genius does not like milton s but is genial and familiar it shows great tenderness and delicacy but not the heroic sentiment it is only a greater portion of humanity with all its weakness it is not heroic as s nor pious as s nor as s but it is the child of the english muse that child which ia the father of the man it is for the part only an exceeding perfect sincerity with the behavior of a child rather than of a man gentleness and delicacy of character is every where apparent in his verse the simplest and words come readily to his lips no one can read the tale understanding the spirit in which it was written and in which the child sings o or the account of the departure of with her child upon the sea in the man of s tale without feeling the na innocence and refinement of the author nor can we be mistaken respecting the essential purity of his character the apology of the manners of the age hia sincere sorrow in his later days for the of hia earlier works and that he cannot recall and much that he had written but alas they are now continued from man to man and i cannot do what i desire is not to be forgotten a simple pathos and feminine gentleness which occasionally approaches but does not equal are peculiar to him we are tempted to say that his genius was feminine not masculine it was such a however as is to find in woman though not the appreciation of it perhaps it is not to be found at all in woman but is only the feminine in man such pure love of nature is not easily to be i matched nor is it strange that the poetry of so rude an age should contain such sweet and polished praise of nature for her charms are not by civilization as society s are but by her own original and permanent refinement she at last and man s remarkably and affectionate character appears in his familiar yet innocent and manner of speaking of his god he comes into his thought without any false reverence and with no more parade than the to his ear if nature is our mother then god is our father there is less love and simple practical trust in and milton how rarely in our english tongue do we find expressed any affection for god there is no sentiment so rare as the love of god almost alone expresses it ah my dear god our poet uses similar words and whenever he sees a beautiful person or other object himself on the of his god he reverently to be his bride if that god that heaven and made would have a love for beauty and and and he supplies the place to his imagination of the saints of the catholic and has none of the attributes of a deity but in justification of our praise | 37 |
again out of the existence a on of such actors rose hosts of who wrote not to the spirit of life in forms shifting and in the space of a spectacle but to give room for display of the powers of such and such actors a little higher stood those who in invention of plots or brilliant point of dialogue but both degraded the drama scarcely less than and and the while they lighted up the edifice left slow fire for its destruction a partial rests as it has always rested on the profession of the actor at first flash we marvel why why do not men bow in reverence before those who hold the mirror up to nature and not to common nature but to her most exalted profound and impassioned hours some have this to an association with the and coarse illusions of the scene with swords and crowns mock thunder and but in what profession are not practised and ludicrous interposed are the big wig of the the pen behind the ear of the merchant so reverend in our eyes some say that it is because we pay the actor for amusing us but we pay other men for all kinds of service without feeling them degraded thereby and is he who has administered an draught to my mind in less pleasing association there than he who has administered a to the body again that the strong of the scene and its life dispose to low and habits but the instances where all such temptations have been resisted are so many compared with the number engaged that every one must feel that here as elsewhere the temptation is determined by the man why is it then that to the profession which numbers in its ranks and which is dignified by such figures as and respect is less willingly than applause why is not used here as elsewhere is it the same thing to act the lady in and the lady in she to conquer hamlet prince of and sir o is not the actor according to bis sphere a great artist or a poor just as a roman actor lawyer may become a of the three or a base prejudice on this score must be the remnant of a bar which saw the guests at tables and murdered beneath a sack of copper as man better understands that his positive existence is only of the ideal and that nothing is useful or honorable which does not advance the reign of beauty art and artists rank constantly higher as one with religion let artists also know their calling let the actor live and die a roman actor more than we may be permitted to copy in this the fine plea e roman actor paris if desire of honor was the base on which the building of the roman empire was raised up to this height if to the noble youth with an ambitious heat to endure the posts of danger nay of death to be thought worthy the wreath by glorious may deserve reward or favor from the actors may put in for as large a share as all the of the philosophers they with cold perhaps seldom read deliver what an honorable thing the active virtue is but does that fire the blood or swell the veins with to be both good and great equal to that which is presented on our theatres let a actor in a scene show great honored in the sweat of his twelve labors or a bold rome to be with gold from the insulting or his imposing tribute on conquered if done to the hie as if they saw dangers and their glories and did partake with them in their rewards all that have any spark of roman in them the arts laid by contend to be like those they see presented he has put the to their whisper paris but tis urged that we corrupt youth and when do we bring a vice upon the stage that does go off do we teach by the success of wicked others to tread in their forbidden vol iv no ul shall be elected and of a and it shall be ere long remembered as dream and fable that the representative of my od could not rest in consecrated ground in germany these questions have already been fairly weighed and those who read the sketches of her great actors as given by know that there at least they took with the best minds of their age and country their place and who that reads s address to mr but feels that the fate which placed his birth in another age from her has robbed him of full sense of a we show no arts of but so in the conclusion that even those spectators that were so inclined go home changed men and for that are above as to the world their secret crimes we are as innocent as such as are dumb when we an heir does against the life of his dear parent every he lives as tedious to if there be among the one whose conscience tells bim he is of the same mould wc it or bringing on the stage a loose that does maintain the expense of her yet the lawful f of a former bed to starve the while for han if a matron however in birth or titles cry out tis writ me we it or when a man s expressed whose wealth cannot number and whose a in one day cannot fly over he so sordid in his mind so as not to himself the necessaries to maintain life if a though honored with a and himself touched to the quick in this it or when we show a judge that is corrupt and will give up his sentence as he the person not the cause saving the | 37 |
guilt if of his and as ofl the innocent out of particular if any in this reverend assembly nay even yourself my lord that arc the of absent feel something in your bosom that puts ou in remembrance of things past or things intended t is ot in us to i have said my lord and now as vou find cause or censure us or free us with applause kind of whose none other supply the impassioned changes of thy face thy arms impetuous thy robe s wide flow and the dark tempest on thy what time thy flashing eye and lip of scorn down to the dust thy foes have borne sunk to deep the fixed and yearning looks of strong the turmoil of a bosom where pity love and honor are thy varied accents rapid fitful slow loud rage and fear s snatch d whisper quick and low the burst of stifled love the wail of grief and tones of high command full solemn brief the change of voice and emphasis that threw light on obscurity and brought to view distinctions nice when grave or comic mood or mingled and new common perception as earth s smallest things to size and form the frost brings m m m thy light from the mental world never fade till all who ve seen thee in the grave are laid thy graceful form still moves in nightly dreams and what thou to the seems while feverish fancy oft doth fondly trace within her thy wondrous face yea and to many a and lone in musing hours though all to thee unknown soothing his earthly course of good and ill with all thy potent charm thou still perhaps the effect produced by mrs is still shown in the character of jane de which seems from her we have no such to drink indeed seems to possess as much electric force as mrs but not the same imposing individuality the and were cast in the royal to the of genius that mrs even added somewhat of congenial glory to s own those who compare the of her in lady and of with the picture drawn in their own minds from acquaintance with these beings in the original cannot doubt the sun is reflected with new glory in the majestic river yet under all these there have risen up often in england and even in our own country actors modern who gave a reason for the continued existence of the theatre who sustained the ill educated troop which fill it and provoked both the poet and the to turn their powers in that n the plays written for them though no genuine are not without value as spectacle and the opportunity however lame gives play to the actor s powers than would the simple by which some have thought any attempt at acting whole plays should be and under the system it is certainly less painful on the whole to see a play of s than one of s for the former with its unnatural dialogue and figures affords scope for the actor to produce striking and to show a knowledge of the passions while all the various beauties of are by the who should repeat them and being closer to nature brings no one figure into such bold relief as is desirable when there is only one actor the are plays quite good enough for the stage at present and they are such as those who attend the representations of plays will be very likely to write another class of are those written by the scholars and whose tastes have been formed and whose ambition kindled by acquaintance with the genuine english these again may be divided into two sorts one those who have some idea to bring out which a form more lively than the essay more compact than the narrative and who therefore adopt if may be permitted the to very good purpose such are s remorse s miss s plays though meant for action and with studied attempts to vary them by the lighter shades of common nature which from her want of lively power have no except to break up the interest and s are of the same class they have no present life no action no slight natural touches no delicate lines as of one who his portrait from the fact their interest is poetic nature apprehended in her spirit philosophic actions traced back to their causes but not dramatic nature in actual presence this as a form for the closet is a very good one and well fitted to the genius of e spanish student our time whenever the writers of such fail it is because they have the stage in view instead of considering the merely as names for classes o f thoughts somewhere these and the mere acting plays stand such as s s ion and now before me s spanish student is a good acting play that is it gives a good opportunity to one actor and its painting though coarse is effective ion also can be acted though its principal merit is in the of design and in details it is too elaborate for the scene still it does move and melt and it is honorable to us that a piece constructed on so high a whose tragedy is so much nobler than the customary forms of passion can act on long with such religion the spanish student might also be acted though with no great effect for there is little movement in the piece or develop ment of character its chief merit is in the graceful expression of single thoughts or fancies as here all the means of action the masses the materials lie every where about us what we need is the celestial fire to change the flint into | 37 |
transparent crystal bright and clear that fire is genius the rude peasant sits at evening in his smoky cot and draws with uncouth figures on the wall the son of genius comes foot sore with travel and a shelter from the night he takes the from the peasant s hand and by the magic of his touch at once all its hidden virtues shine and in the eyes of the astonished it a diamond even thus transformed rude popular traditions and old tales shine as immortal poems at the touch of some poor wandering bard who but a s lodging for his pains but there are brighter dreams than those of fame which are the dreams of love out of the heart rises the bright ideal of these dreams as from some a spirit rises and sinks again into its silent ere the knight can touch her robe t is this ideal that the soul of man like the knight beside the fountain waits for the margin of life s stream waits to behold her rise from the dark waters clad in a mortal shape alas how many historic plays wait in vain the stream flows but from its silent no spirit rises or here i will forget her all dear recollections pressed in my heart like flowers within a book shall be torn out and scattered to the winds i will forget her but perhaps when she shall learn how heartless is the world a within her will repeat my name and she will say he was indeed my friend passages like these would give great pleasure in the and carefully shaded of or miss tree the style of the play is throughout elegant and simple neither the plot nor characters can boast any originality but the one is woven with skill and taste the others very well drawn for so slight handling we had in this place to notice some of the modern french plays which hold about the same relation to the true drama but this task must wait a more convenient season one of the plays at the head of this notice also comes in here the s daughter which though a failure as a tragedy from an in the plot and a want of power to touch the secret springs of passion yet has the merits of genteel comedy in the and flowing dialogue and dignity in the conception of character a piece like this pleases if only by the atmosphere of intellect and refinement it breathes but a third class of higher interest is the historical such as may well have been suggested to one whose youth was familiar with s and kings of who that wears in his breast an english heart and has feeling to appreciate the of the historic drama but must burn with desire to use the occasions offered in profusion by the of england and kindred nations to adorn the inherited halls with one more it is difficult to say why such an attempt should fail yet it does fail and each effort in this kind shows plainly that the historic novel not the historic drama is the form appropriate to the genius of our day yet these failures come so near success the spent arrows show so bold and strong a hand in the that we would not for much be without them first and highest in this list comes philip van of which we can say that it bears new on the twentieth reading at first it fell rather coldly on the mind coming as it did not as the flower of full flushed being but with the air of an experiment made to a theory it came with wrinkled critic s brow to a tendency of the age and we looked on it with cold critic s eye to weep or glow at its bidding but on closer acquaintance we see that this way of looking though induced by the author is quite unjust it is really a noble work that teaches us a genuine growth that makes us grow a of nature from the calm depths of a large soul the grave and comprehensive character of the man of him whom fire and light and earth have tempered to an intelligent of humanity has never been more justly felt rarely more life like painted than by this author the blood and the fiery soul are both understood philip stands among his the man mature not premature or alien he is what they should be his life the word of his age and nation the thinking head of an and easily body a true king the are all in keeping of the same wood the eating drinking quarrel ling citizens the sister the pure and lovely bride the sorrowful and stained but deep mistress the much a priest but more a man all belong to him and all require him we cannot think of any part of this piece without its centre and this fact it a great work of art it is great the conception of the swelling tide of fortune on which this figure is serenely eminent of the sinking of that tide with the same face rising from the depths veiled with the same cloud as the heavens in its sadness calmer yet too wise and rich a nature he too intelligent of the of earth and heaven to be a but too comprehensive too poetic to be swayed though he might be moved by chance or passion some one called him philip the but his greatness is that he is only as the author not passion s slave the gods would not be gods if they were ignorant or they must be able to see all that men see only from a higher point of view such pictures make us willing to live in the sense to bear all that may be borne for we see that virgin gold may be fit | 37 |
to adorn a but the good blade is made of tempered steel justice has not been done by the critics to the admirable conduct of the second part because our were at first so struck by the full length picture of the hero in the conquering days of the first part and it was painful to see its majesty veiled with its towering strength sink to ruins in the second then there are more grand and full passages in the first which can be detached and recollected as we have not time to mourn the worse for ns he that time to mourn time to mend eternity that t is an ill cure for life s worst ills to have no time to feel them where sorrow s held and turned out there wisdom will not enter nor true power nor aught that humanity that beginning to bring a cloud upon the summer day or this famous one nor do i now c or the fine scene between van and father john where she describes the death scene at s beginning much hast thou my sister dear the second part must be taken as a whole the dark cloud and as it advances while ghastly flashes of come more and more frequent as the daylight but there is far more of genius than in the first showing a mind less possessing more possessed by the subject and finer touches of nature van s dignity us more as he himself feels it less as in the acceptance of father john s reproof air father john though fallen in your esteem i humbly ask your blessing as a man that having passed for more in your than he could justify should be content not with his state but with the judgment true to the lowly level of his brings down bis reputation father john oh my son high as you stand i will not strain my eyes to see how higher still you stood before god s blessing be upon you fare you well the old man but he at once to the topic of his thought should england play me false c as he always does for a mind so great so high that it cannot fail to look over and around any one object any especial emotion returns to its habitual mood with an ease of which shallow and natures cannot conceive thus his reflection after he has is not that of but of a deep heart how little flattering is a woman s love and is in keeping with i know my course and be it armies cities people priests that quarrel with my love wise men or fools friends foes or they may swear their oaths and make their murmur and fret and fear suspect they but waste their rage their wits their words their counsel here stand upon the deep foundations of my faith to this fair outcast and the storm that princes from their palaces shakes out though it should turn and head me should not strain the seeming silken texture of this tie and not less with pain and grief are things no less than joy and though they leave us not the men we were yet they do leave us with the admirable passages that follow the delicate touches with which is made to her own character move us more than s most beautiful description of i have been much unfortunate my lord i would not love again ol iv no could not mend the of those words when he is absent i am full of thought and fruitful in expression inwardly and fresh and free and cordial is the flow of my ideal and unheard discourse calling him in my heart names familiarly fearless but alas no sooner is he present than my thoughts are breathless and and so in force and freedom that i ask myself whether i think at all or feel or live so senseless am i would that i were merry mirth have i valued not before but now what would i give to be the laughing front of gay ever bright and sparkling oh all i have which is not nothing though i prize it not my understanding soul my brooding sense my passionate fancy and the of dearest to woman which time slow from fingers my beauty would i now for such an and spirit as lives in lively women for your grave and wise and melancholy men if they have souls as commonly they have susceptible of all impressions lavish most their love upon the and and on such as yield their want and chase their sad excess with talk and bearing all herself is in the line which is not nothing though i prize it not and in her song down lay in a nook my lady s this song i have heard quoted and applied in such a way as to show that the profound meaning so simply expressed has sometimes been understood see with what a strain of reflection van the news that makes sure his overthrow it is strange yet true that doubtful knowledge travels with a speed miraculous which certain cannot match i know not why when this or that has chanced the smoke should come before the flash yet t is so the power of a soul of genius is shown by bringing out the poetic sweetness of van more and more as the scene a hue the melancholy music of his speech the heart more and more up to the close the was in a wan decline and all waa silent as a sick s chamber mixing its small with the of the pale and a few faint the cold uncomfortable daylight dawned and the white tents a low ground fog showed like a fleet at the close of the vision and in the and the whirl my own face saw i which was pale and calm | 37 |
as death could make it then the vision passed and i perceived the river and the bridge the sky and moon the distant camp and all things as they were think not that i stand in need of false encouragement i have my strength which though it lie not in the sanguine mood will answer my occasions to yourself though to none other i at times present the thoughts tliat gloomy truths inspire because i love you but i need no nor could i find it in a show of prosperous before the world i wear a cheerful aspect not so false as for lover solace you put on nor in my closet does the oil run low or the light lo now you are angry because i try to cheer you van no my love not angry that i never was with you but as i deal not with my own so would i wish the heart of her i love to be both true and brave nor self nor putting on for my sake as though i faltered i have anxious hours as who in like has not but i have something stable here within which bears their weight in the last scenes she will be better soon my lord say worse t is better for her to be thus one other kiss on that brow pale of charms unhappy girl the curse of beauty was upon thy birth nor love bestowed a blessing fare thee well how clear his sounds at the very last the ran that i was hurt to death and then they staggered lo i we re flying all mount mount old man at least let one be saved the gallant and the kind who shall your merits on your may mine tell nothing to the world but this that never did that prince or leader live who had more loyal or more loving friends let it be written that fidelity could go no farther mount old friend and fly with you my lord not else a fear throng comes rushing from mount sir cross the bridge the bridge my soul but cross it thou and take this token to my love van fly for my sake in hers and take her hence it is my last command see her conveyed to by sen or what safer road thy prudence shall this do van lo now they pour upon us like a flood thou that never me yet this last good render me fly whilst the way is free what commanding sweetness in the utterance of the name van and what a weight of tragedy in the broken sentence which speaks of the fatal bridge these are the things that actors rarely give us the very passages to which it would be their to do justice saying out those tones we divine from the order of the words yet s pas set itself to music in the mind of the and you was so spoken as to melt the whole french nation into that one moment s sob of anguish arouse yourself sweet lady fly with me i pray you hear ii was his last command that i should you hence to by i cannot go on foot van no lady no you shall not need horses are close at hand let me but take you hence i pray you come take then van the enemy is near in lu t pursuit we cannot take the body the body oh in this place miss alone would have had force of passion to represent her who flung that long note into the upper sky though her acting was not refined enough by intellect and culture for the more delicate of the character she also would have given its expression to the broken hearted i cannot go on foot the body yes that temple could be so deserted by its god that men could call it so i that form so instinct with rich gifts that and seemed mere names in its atmosphere could lie on the earth as unable to its rights as any other the exclamation of better the tragedy of this fact than any of a common observer though that of is dire rebel though he was yet with a noble nature and great if s was he endowed courage discretion wit an equal temper and an ample soul rock bound and fortified against of passion but below built on a fire that stirred and him to high attempts so prompt and capable and yet so calm he nothing lacked in but the nothing in except good fortune that was the grandeur o the character that its calmness had nothing to do with of blood but was built on a fire its is shown with a fine simplicity to blame one s self is easy to condemn one s own changes and of character and life painful but inevitable to a deep mind but to bear well the blame of a lesser nature unequal to seeing what the fault grows from is not easy to take blame as van does so quietly indifferent from whence truth so it be truth is a trait seen in the greatest only too anxious and too impatient are you grown of late you used to be so calm and even minded that nothing ruffled you i stand t is time and circumstance that tries us all and they that take their start and keep their souls indifferently through much of good and evil at the last may find the weakness of their hearts thus tried my cause appears more precious than it did in its triumphant days i have ventured to be the more lavish of that although the publication of philip van at once placed mr in the second rank of english poets a high of glory when we remember who compose the first we seldom | 37 |
now hear the poem mentioned or a line quoted from it though it is a work which might from all considerations well make a part of habitual reading and habitual thought mr has since published another dramatic poem the fair whose though considerable are not of the same commanding with those of its he was less fortunate in his subject there is no great and noble figure in the on which to the interest from which to the lights neither is the spirit of an era seized with the same power the figures are modern english under saxon names and affect us like a boston face out in the of s such a character as s should be in a drama its interest is that of intellectual analysis mere feelings it the main character of the piece should attract the feelings and we should be led to analysis to understand not to excuse its life there are however fine passages as profound refined and expressed with the same force and purity as those in philip van another of the at the head of this notice takes up some of the same characters a few years later without poetic depth or boldness of conception it yet many beauties from the free talent and noble feelings of the author is the best sketch in it and the chief interest consists in his obstinate of whose could no way the wrong her of nature did his faith this is worked up with the more art that there is justice in her plea but love shocked from its could not stop short of despair here deep feeling rises to poetry and are well drawn sketches but show not the subtle touches of a life like treatment this we should think as well as the s daughter might be a good acting play we come now to the work which affords the most interesting theme for this notice from its novelty its merits and its subject which is taken from that portion of english history with which we are most closely bound the time preceding the its author mr sterling has many admirers among us drawn to him by his productions both in prose and verse which for a time enriched the pages of some of these have been collected into a small volume which has been in this country these smaller pieces are of very unequal merit but the best among them are distinguished by vigor of conception and touch by and modesty of feeling by a depth of experience rare in these days of criticism and speculation his verse does not flow or with the highest inspiration neither does he us by a large stock of original images but for grasp and picturesque sterling of his subject for frequent bold and passages and the constantly fresh breath of character we know that could be named with him the s daughter is the longest and best known but not the best of the minor poems it has however in a high degree the merits we have mentioned the tree makes a fine centre to the whole picture the tale is told in too many words the homely verse becomes but the strong pure feeling of natural relations them all his is painted and we should have dreamed it so from all his verse the high immortal queen from heaven the calm face eyes pure from human tear or smile yet ruling all on earth and limbs whose garb of golden air was dawn s birth with tones like music of a continuous piercing low the lips began to speak spoke on in liquid flow it seemed the distant ocean s voice brought near and shaped to speech but breathing with a sense beyond what words of man may reach weak child not i the power thy wish would have be a floating with the wind upon a summer sea if such thou need st range the fields and hunt the gilded fly and when it above thy head then lay thee down and die the which rule in earth and stars each thought that lives are stronger than the kiss a child in sudden fancy gives they cannot change or fail or fade nor o er aught to sway too weak to suffer and to strive and tired while still t is day and thou with better wisdom learn the ancient lore to which tells that first in ocean s breast thy rule o er all began sterling and know that not in breathless noon upon the main the power was born that taught the world to hail her endless reign the winds were loud the waves were high in the sun was crouched within the of heaven and light had scarce begun the earth s green front lay drowned below and death and chaos fought o er all the tumult vast of things not yet to brought t was then that spoke the voice and mid the huge uproar above the dark i sprang to life a good before my waved along the sky and stars out around and earth beneath my feet arose and hid the pale profound a lamp amid the ni ht a feast that ends the strife of war to wearied a port to fainting limbs a car to men the friendly roof to mourning hearts the lay to him who long has by night the sudden dawn of day all these are mine and mine the bliss that visits breasts in woe and fills with wine the cup that once with tears was made to flow nor question thou the help that comes from s hand for madness dogs the bard who doubts er the gods command alfred the has the same strong picture and noble beat of wing one line we have heard so repeated by a voice that could give it its full meaning that we should be very grateful to the poet for that alone | 37 |
still lives the song though dies we must quote vol iv no ui iu wail for all that is fairest all that is in air or wave shapes whose beauty is truest and haunt with your and his grave statues bend your heads in sorrow ye that glance mid ruins old that know not a past nor expect a morrow on many a moonlight by cave and speaking river thee oft the recall the leaves with a sound of winter quiver murmur thy name and withering fall yet are thy visions in soul the of all that crowd on the tear eye though thou no more new stars to that ever sky ever thy arise before us our brothers but one in blood by bed and table they lord it o er us with looks of beauty and words of calmly they show us mankind victorious o er all that s blind and base their presence has made our nature glorious our night s face thy toil has won them a god like quiet hast wrought their path to a lovely sphere their eyes to peace rebuke our riot and shape us a home of refuge for breathed in them his spirit in them their his beauty sees we too a younger brood inherit the gifts and blessing bestowed on these alfred the a but ah their wise and graceful seeming the more that the sage is gone weeping we wake from dreaming and find our chamber lone thou from the twilight which thou with visions hast made so bright and when no more those shapes thou thine they lose their light en in the noblest of man s those fresh worlds round this old of ours when the is gone the nations see but the of perished powers wail for earth and stars and son lament for him ages in strange commotion all ye of li be dim la wail for voices from earth s deep centre mankind seldom ye sound and then death for be knows that then the fall the following whose measure seems borrowed from and is worthy of its source we a part of it the wooded mountains mountains in your leafy walks shadows of the past and future mid your or many a loved and friend with our oaks and nine trees ancient brood rise above tlie soil and with these i amid the wood man may dream on earth no less than toil shapes that seem my kindred meet the ken gods and heroes glimmer through the shade ages long gone by from haunts of men meet me in rocky and i wooded mountains there the touched with of light yet from yonder hill of trees and upon the huge and mist clad height fancy sage a clear sees mid yon utmost peaks the elder powers still hold their fixed abode in airy towers that with morning sunshine never glowed deep below amid a hell of rocks lies the and the heaving with the torrents weary that round the region but more near to where our thought may climb in a leaf clad three gray shapes prophetic lords of time sit and sing each in his turn his frames aloud mingling new and old in ceaseless birth while the hear amid their cloud and mould the of earth oh ye trees that wave and round oh ye waters down the throb in every sight and sound living nature s more than magic spell soon amid the vista still and dim knights whom youth s high heart not each with and shadowy grim stern they pass along the twilight green while within the tangled wood s recess some sits keen with a voice of clad in purple weed with crown and with golden hairs that waving play fairest earthly sight for king and or but in of deeper shade forms more subtle from human eye each cold the rock or fountain s maid crowned with leaves that never dry and while on and on i wander still passed the s glance and foam hearing oft the wild bird pipe at will still new me still to the wooded mountains in this hollow smooth by may tree walled white and breathing now with fragrant flower lo the fairy tribes to called start in view as the evening hour in rainbow roof of and with many a sparkling jewel bright rose leaf faces dew drop eyes are there each with gesture fine of gentle gay they and dance and feast and and laughter fill the as if every leaf around should ring with its own bell but for man t is ever sad to see joys like his that he must not partake mid a separate world a people s glee in whose hearts his heart no joy could wake ye well ye tiny race of may the moon beam ne er behold your tomb ye are happiest childhood s other selves bright to you be always evening s gloom and thou mountain realm of ancient wood where my feet and thoughts have strayed so long now thy old gigantic brotherhood with a round me throng mound and cliff and that none may scale with your trunks and boughs like one living presence ye prevail and o me with brows in your being s mighty depth of power mine is lost and melted all away in your forms involved i seem to tower and with you am spread in twilight grey in this knotted stem whereon i lean and the dome above of countless leaves and and a life unseen that my life with it yet o nature less is all of thine than thy from our human breast thou o god hast made thy child divine and for him this world thou the rose and the we much admire as a ballad and the tale is told in words and by a single picture but we have not room for it here in lady | 37 |
jane grey though this again is too the picture of the princess at the beginning is fine as she sits in the antique of the rich old room the lights through the painted glass fall with brightness o er the form of her who sits the chamber s lovely dame and her pale forehead in the light looks warm and all these colors round her whiteness flame young is she scarcely passed from childhood s years with grave sod face where thoughts and smiles may play and by guilty aims or fears serene as meadow flowers may meet the day no guilty pang she knows though many a dread hangs threatening o er her in the conscious air and mid tiie beams from that bright a twinkling crown a near despair the quaint of tliis last line pleases me he always speaks in marble words of greece but i must make no more some part of his poem on is no unfit to a few remarks on his own late work with such a a sense of greatness none could wholly fail with meaning won from him for ever each air that england feels and star it knows and from be first to earth are with rays of each new morning s birth amid the sights and tales of common things leaf flower and bird and wars and deaths of kings of shore and sea and nature s daily round of life that and that load the ground his visions mingle swell command pass by and haunt witli living presence heart and eye and tones from him by other caught awaken flush and stir of mounting thought and the long sigh and deep impassioned thrill rouse custom s trance and spur the faltering will above the goodly land his than ours he sits supreme in towers and sees the heroic brood of his creation teach larger life to his nation o brain o flashing fancy s hues o boundless heart kept fresh by pity s o wit humane and o sense sublime for each dim of time form of man in whom we read mankind s whole tale of impulse and deed sterling such is his ideal of the great dramatic poet it would cot be fair to measure him or any man by bis own ideal that affords a standard of spiritual and intellectual pro gross with which the powers may not correspond a clear eye may be associated with a feeble hand or the reverse the mode of proposed by the great of our time is not first show me what aim a man to himself next with what degree of earnestness he to attain it in both regards we can look at mr sterling s work with pleasure and admiration he to us a great crisis with noble figures to represent its moving springs his work is not merely the plea for a principle or the of a thought but an exhibition of both at work in life he opens the instrument and lets us see the machinery without stopping the music the progress of interest in the piece is imperative the principal character well brought out the style clear and energetic the tone throughout is of a manly dignity worthy great times yet its merit is of a dramatic sketch rather than a drama the forms want the the fulness of life the thousand charms of spontaneous expression in this last particular sterling is as far inferior to as to his characters like miss s or s rather than express their life not not but yet the effect is that while they speak we look on them as past and sterling s view of them interests us more than themselves in his view of relations again we must note his inferiority to who in this respect is the only contemporary on whom we can look with complacency s characters really meet really bear upon one another in contempt and hatred or esteem reverence and melting tenderness they challenge bend and one another never never is kindled by or the life of any other being never breathes the breath of the moment before us throughout the play is the view of his greatness taken by the mind of the author we are not really made to feel it by those around him it is echoed from their lips not from their lives lady is the only personage except that is brought out into much relief is only an and the sterling king queen and leaders drawn with a few strokes to give them their historical scarcely more can be said of some individual action is assigned him but not so as to his character the idea of the relation at this ominous period between and lady is noble in these stern times he has put behind him the flowers of tenderness and the toys of passion lady believe me that i loved you truly still think of you with wonder and delight own you the noblest heart of woman this age or any knows but for love and toys and kisses ocean deep and this old earth are all too sad but when the lady had a soul to understand the tion and show herself worthy his friendship there is a hardness in his action towards her a want of softness and grace how different from van s my victim that thou art the nice point indeed of giving the hero manly firmness and an even stern self without him of the beauty of gentle love was touched with rare success in van common men may not be able to show firmness and without a certain hardness and of expression but we expect of the hero that he should combine the softness with the constancy of this failure is the greater here that we need a private tie to to give his fall the deepest tragic interest lady is painted with some skill and spirit the name | 37 |
given her by st john of the handsome and the shown by her little page to die rather than see her after failing to deliver her letter joined with her own appearance mark her very well the following is a prose sketch of her as seen in common life sir s portrait of of she is of too high a mind and dignity not only to seek but almost to wish the friendship of any creature they whom she is pleased to choose are such as are of the most eminent condition both for power and employment not with any design towards her own r sterling either of or curiosity but her nature fortunate persons as virtuous she prefers uie conversation of men to that of women not but she can talk on the fashions with her female friends but she is too soon sensible that she can set them as she wills that pre eminence all equality she with those who are most distinguished for their powers of love freely will she discourse listen to all its faults and mark all its power she cannot herself love in earnest but she will play with love and will take a deep interest for persons of condition and see life of in a cabinet vol p the noblest trait given her in the play is the justice she is able to do charles after his treachery has consigned to the tower lady and ho betrayed you he i it cannot be there s not a in his court so vile holland nor would deceive a trust like that i placed in him nor would so seeming heart felt words as those he he s not entirely vile and yet he did it this seen in with her out pouring of contempt upon the king when present makes out a character as a whole that given her by the poet is not only nobler than the one assigned her in history but opposed to it in a vital point the play after has set forth for the with the from her left in the tower where she has on his last moments alone henceforth forever while history makes her transfer her attachment to who must have been in her eyes s murderer on the score of her love of intellectual power in which all other considerations were this is a character so odious and in a woman so unnatural that we are tempted rather to suppose it was hatred of the king for his base and treacherous conduct towards that induced her lo betray to the counsels of the court as the best means of revenge such a version of her motives would not be vol iv no iii u sterling inconsistent with the character assigned her in the play it would be making her the agent to execute her own curse so spoken after she finds the king willing to save himself by the sacrifice of s life the woman s mad her passion the skies l i brave them not i but their justice to rain hot curses on a tyrant s head henceforth i set myself apart for mischief to find and prompt men capable of hate until some dagger in s blood at the heart of s murderer charles his murderer o god no no not that sinks back into a seat and here i call on all the powers above us to aid the deep of my curse and make this treason to the noblest man that moves alive within our english seas fatal to him and all his race a worth it ne er could stars in your glory vital air and sun and thou dark earth our cradle nurse and grave and more than all free truth and justice with all your dreadful influence against bis blood whose crime ye now behold make him a and a name of woe a conquered warrior and a outcast to teach kings the law of evil power till by an end more and than his great victim s and with heavier pain let him off to a detested grave and now i give your majesty leave to go and may you carry from my house away that fixed of the heart which i have helped your thoughts to fasten there if these burning words had as much power to her own heart as they must that of the we only realize our when we find her sending to the five members the news of the intention of charles to arrest them thus placing him in a position equally ridiculous and miserable incurred all the of this violent transaction to no purpose that might well be a proud moment of gratified vengeance to her when he stood amid the sullen and outraged parliament baffled like a as a thief exclaiming the birds are flown and all owing to the of the honorable lady car the play opens with s return to london he is made to return in rather a temper from what he really did not only trusting the king but in his own greatness fearless of the popular hatred the opening scenes are very good compact well wrought and showing at the very beginning the probable fortunes of the scene by making the characters the agents of their own a weight of tragedy is laid upon the heart and at the same time we are inspired with deep interest as to how it shall be acted out appears before us as he does in history a grand and melancholy whose dignity lay in his energy of will and large scope of action not in his perception of principles or virtue in carrying them out for his faith in the need of absolute sway to control the herd does not merit the name of a principle in my thought the promise of grows to the self same stature as the need which is gigantic | 37 |
there s a king to guide three to save a nation to control and by to make beyond their dreams of lawless liberty this to has pledged his soul in the hands of destiny nor can we fail to believe that the man of the world might sincerely take this view of his no wonder they whose life is all deception a piety that like a sheep skin drum is loud because t is hollow thus can move belief in others by their swollen why man it is their trade they do not stick to themselves and will they stop at you the court and council scenes are good the materials are taken from history with to the record but they are uttered in masculine english worthy this great era in the life of england the king and queen and of the court are too carelessly drawn such and folly are in poetry the master his worst sterling characters with traits or at them with a human interest that prevents their being objects of disgust rather than contempt or aversion this is the poetic gift to penetrate to the truth below the fact we need to hear the excuses men make to themselves for their the council of the leaders is far better here the author speaks his natural language from the of grave enthusiastic men s advice to his daughter is finely and contains truths which although they have been so often expressed are not like to find so large reception as to dispense with new and manifold utterance the lord has power to guard his own pray mary pray to him nor fear what man can do a rule there ie above all circumstance a current deep beneath all this who knows though seeming firmly as the sun walks in blind paths where earthly strongest fall reason is god s own voice to all holy duties and all truth and he who fails not by trusting it but to the sound his ear from dread of the stern roar it speaks with o my child pray still for guidance and be sure t will come up your heart upon the knees of god losing yourself your and your darkness in his great light who fills and moves the world who hath alone the quiet of perfect motion sole quiet not mere death the speech of is nobly rendered the conversations of the are tolerably well done only the greatest succeed in these nobody except in modern times here they give not the character of the people but the spirit of the time playing in relation to the main action the part of chorus second woman there s master st john has a tongue that like a third woman and master that s a true lamb he d roast alive the bishop citizen i was close by the coach and with my nose upon the door i called out down with and then just so he fixed his eyes on mine and seemed to choke me in the throat in truth i think it must have been the devil third citizen i saw him as be out of the house and then his face was dark but very quiet it seemed like looking down the dusky mouth of a great cannon says with expressive bitterness s they shout down with ve heard this noise so that it seems as natural as the howling of the wind and again for forty years i ve studied books and men but ne er till these last days have known a of the true secret madness in mankind this the whispers from each to each like a alight which every man feared in his own hands and therefore would haste to pass it onward to his friend even in our times of peace and the island difficulties have given us specimens of the process of the more than growth of the description of the preacher by is very good the poor secretary not placed in the prominent rank to suffer yet feeling all that passes through his master finds vent to his grief not in mourning but a strong the sad preacher in whom one saw by glancing through the eyes the last grey of joy dropped sudden sparks that kindled where they fell draws the line between his own religion and that of the as it seemed to him with noble phrase in his last to his son say it has ever been his father mind that perfect reason justice government are the chief attributes of him who made and who the world in whose full being wisdom and power are one and i his creature would fain have gained authority and rule to make the imagined order in my soul o er all the proper good of man but him to love who shaped ua and whose breast is the one home of all things with a him amid all other beings as if he were them not their all this is the snug and of men who from woman what is worst and cannot see the good of such beware this is the nobler tone of s spirit that more habitual to him is heard in his joy before entering the parliament into which he went as a conqueror and came out a prisoner his confidence is not noble to us it is not that of or van who knowing what is prescribed by the law of right within the breast can take no other course but that whatever the consequences neither like the faith of caesar or in their star which though less pure is not without religion but it is the presumption of a strong character which though its head towers above those of its companions when they are on the same level yet has not taken a sufficiently high platform to see what passes around of above it s strength cannot redeem his | 37 |
while he struggles not overwhelmed he is a majestic figure whose features f are well marked in various passages compared with him whom i for eighteen years have seen familiar as my friend all men seem but as chance born flies and only he great nature s chosen and all son his late says well in to the of his later days of so much nobler a tone than his general character would lead us to expect it is a mean as well as a hast judgment which would attribute this to any unworthy compromise with his real nature it is probably a and more profound view of it to say that into a few of the later weeks of his life new knowledge bad penetrated from the midst of the breaking of his fortunes it was well and beautifully said by a then living poet the soul s dark cottage battered and decayed in new light through that time has made life of s t a poet who was present exclaimed on thy brow terror mixed with wisdom and at once and in thy countenance life of p certainly there could not be a more pointed and account given of the man than is suggested by this last line sterling van also bears testimony to the belief of the author that familiarity no contempt but the reverse in tlie service of genuine nobility a familiarity of eighteen years will not make any but a stage hero other than a hero to his de king charles says to pass the bill under his eye with that fixed quiet look of and thoughtful greatness i cannot do it himself says on the final certainty of the king s desertion dear peace for there is nothing here i have not weighed before and made my own and this no doubt was true in a sense finding that expressed surprise and even indignation that the king had complied with s own letter him from all obligation to save his life have intimated that the letter was written out of policy but this is a superficial view f it produces very different results from giving up all to another to see him take it and though must have known charles s weakness too well to expect any thing good from him yet the must have produced fresh emotion for a strong character cannot be prepared for the conduct of a weak one there is always in somewhat unexpected and incredible to one incapable of it the speeches in parliament are well translated from the page of history the poet we think has improved upon it in s mention of his children it has not the theatrical tone of the common narrative and is probably nearer truth as it is more consistent with the rest of his he has made good use of the fine anecdote of the effect produced on by meeting s eye at the close of one of his most soaring passages that with familiarity respect doth is a word of use never found it so v m d part f the is king but na he the state the state a legal and bond tying us all in sweet and that off by creeping hand or cut and torn by lawless violence there is no king because the state is gone and in the chaos that remains each man is sovereign of himself alone shall then a drunken blow be paid by of the s head and he go free who law itself all and all he who with all the radiant attributes that most save goodness can adorn a man would turn his kind to his indeed and strikes the stars yet is worse than the meanest s his eyes on who oh no my oh i no aside to his eye me he was once my friend aloud oh no my lords the very rule the eloquence of this period could not be improved upon but it is much to select from aad use its with the fine effect we admire in this play whatever view be taken of whether as as the majority of writers popular among us the descendants of the would promote or that more and brought out in this play for which abundant grounds may be discovered by those who will seek we cannot view him at this period but with the interest of tragedy as of one suffering for however noble the eloquence of the leaders in appealing to a law above the law to an eternal justice in the breast which afforded sufficient sanction to the desired measure it cannot but be seen at this distance of time that this through the whole of the speech is described to have been closely and earnestly watching when the latter suddenly turning met the fixed and faded eyes and haggard features of his early associate and a rush of feelings from other days so fearfully the youth and friendship of the past with the love poisoned hate of the present and the mortal agony impending in the future for a moment deprived the of self possession l papers he looked on says but they could not help him so he to pass them for a moment only suddenly recovering his dignity and self command he told the court of cabinet sterling reigned not purely in their own breasts that his doom though sought by them from patriotic not interested motives was in itself a measure of he was the victim because the most dreaded foe because they could not go on with confidence while the only man lived who could and would sustain charles in his absurd and wicked policy thus though he might deserve that the people on whom he trampled should rise up to crush him that the laws he had broken down should rear new and higher walls to him though the shade of called for vengeance | 37 |
on the who alone had so long saved the tyrant from a fall and the victims of his own echoed with sullen murmur to the silver trumpet call yet the greater the peculiar of this man the more need that his punishment should have been in an absolutely pure spirit and this it was not it may be respected as an act of just but not of pure justice men who had such a cause to maintain as his had should deserve the praise by to him who in a state where men are tempted still to evil for a guard against worse ill and what in quality or act is best doth seldom on a right foundation rest yet good on good alone and owes to every that he the heart against as we read the details of his policy even allowing that his native temper prejudices of birth and in mankind really inclined him to a government as the bad best practicable that his early of the popular side was only a to the court and that he was thus though a no yet he had been led from whatever motives to look on that side his great intellect was clear of sight the front presented by better principles in that time commanding we feel that he was wilful in the course he took and self his principal if not his only motive we share the hatred of his time as we see him so triumphant in his measures but we would not have had him hunted down with such a i will not repeat what heard from that silver pet one of the parliament speaking of vol iv ko iii sterling hue and cry that the tones of defence had really no chance to be heard we would not have had papers stolen and by a son from a father who had him with a key to condemn him and what a man was this thief one whose high enthusiastic hope never paused at good but ever rushed onward to the best who would the market of the world and seek a than a common prize and by the unworthy of to day the strange of a better be in io day nor end till evil sink in it due grave and if at once we may not declare the greatness of the work we plan be sure at least that ever in our eyes it stand complete before us as a dome of light beyond this gloom a house of stars these tents a thing absolute close to all though seldom seen near as our hearts and perfect as the heavens be this our aim and model and our hands shall not wax faint until the work is done he is not the first who by looking too much at the stars has lost the eye for severe fidelity to a private trust he thought himself obliged in conscience to impart the paper to master who that looks at the case by the code of common can think it was ever his to impart what monstrous measures appear the arbitrary construction put on the one word in the minutes which decided the fate of the the lords of council from the oath of secrecy under whose protection he had spoken there the conduct of the house towards lord when he declared himself not satisfied that the prisoner could with justice be declared guilty of treason the burning his speech by the common when he dared print it to make known the reasons of his course to the world when as held up as a mark for popular rage for speaking it lord was not a man of honor but they did not know that or if they did it had nothing to do with his right of private judgment what could what could charles do more high handed if they had the privileges of parliament the more reason parliament should respect their privileges above all see history vol ix j sterling the privilege of the prisoner to be supposed innocent until proved guilty the obliged to set aside rule and appeal to the very foundations of could only have such a course by the religion and pure justice of their proceedings here the interest of the made them not only demand but insist upon the condemnation the cause was by the sentiment of the people and the of the jury and the proceedings conducted beside with the most scandalous disregard to the sickness and other circumstances of he was called on to answer if he will come just at the time of a most dangerous attack from his cruel if he will not come the cause is still to be pushed forward he was denied the time and means he needed to collect his evidence the aid to be given him by counsel after being deprived of bis chief witness by a master stroke of policy was within narrow limits while he prepared his answers in full court for he was never allowed to retire to the points of accusation vital in their import requiring the examination those present talked laughed ale about none of this disturbed his patience his conduct indeed is so noble through the whole period that he and his change places in our minds at the time he seems the deer and they the savage hounds well it is all the better for the tragedy but as we read the sublime appeals of to a higher state of being we cannot but wish that all had been done in accordance with them the art and zeal with which the condemnation of was obtained have had high praise as we would have wished for them one so high as to this who can avoid a profound feeling not only of but when he reads of obliged to kneel in hall true he would if possible have brought others | 37 |
as low but there is a deep pathos in the contrast of his then and his former state best shown by the symbol of such an act just so we read of s green coat being turned at st after it had faded on the right side he who had the world to end with having his old coat turned there is something affecting like in the picture when knelt in westminster hall the chattering but pleasant miss tells as for a moment struck half shrunk from the business of him at such a sight whispers in every breast the had i been tempted bad i not fallen as low or lower sterling no doubt great temporary good was effected for england by the death of but the of good ia ever in proportion with the purity of the means used to obtain it this act would have been great for for it was altogether in accordance with his views he met the parliament ready to do battle to the death and might would have been right had he made rules for the lists but they proposed a different rule for their government and by that we must judge them admit the story of s the papers not to be true that the minutes were obtained some other way this measure on the supposition of its existence is defended by those who defend the rest would certainly have come off with imprisonment and degradation from office had the parliament deemed it safe to leave him alive when we consider this when we remember the threat of at the time of his the popular party you have left us but i will never leave you while your head is on your shoulders we see not setting aside the great results of the act and looking at it by its merits alone that it from the administration of law in some regions of our own country law with us has often punished the and the robber whom it was impossible to by the usual legal process the evil in it is tliat it cannot be upon but while with one hand it a villain with the other as s judgment on the according as the moral sentiment or prejudice may be roused in the popular breast we have spoken of the of the drama for representing what is peculiar in our own day but for such a work as this presenting a great crisis with so much clearness force and varied beauty we can only be grateful and ask for more acquaintance with the same mind whether through the drama or in any other mode copious have been given in the belief that thus better than by any interpretation or praise of ours attention would be attracted and a wider perusal to mr sterling s works in his mind there is a combination of reverence for the ideal with a patient appreciation of its slow workings in the actual world that is rare in our time he looks re he speaks nor these alone but with that other faculty which he himself so well describes you bear a brain open generally wise but missing ever that point that gives each thing and hour a special the little key hole of the door the instant on which hangs eternity and not in the dim past and empty future waste fields for abstract notions such is the of the man of the world it may rule in accordance with the law of right but where it does not the strongest man may lose the battle and so it was with to r b beloved friend they say that thou art dead nor shall our asking eyes behold thee more save in the company of the fair and dread along that radiant and immortal shore whither thy face was turned for thou a pilgrim toward the true and real never forgetful of that infinite goal thy soul to every faintest vision always even mid these made its world ideal and so thou hast a most fame though from the earth thy name should perish quite when the dear sun sinks golden whence he came the gloom else cheerless hath not lost his light so in our lives impulses born of thine like fireside stars across the night shall shine c a o autumn woods autumn woods i have had tearful days i have been taught by melancholy hours my tears have dropped like these chill autumn showers upon the rustling ways yes youth thou for these dead leaves unlike your rising are the sad of months forlorn weary and seeking rest thou a child and vainly clasped the solitary air and the gray ash renewed thy cold despair grief was thy mother mild thy days have sunlight now those autumn leaves thy tears do not there flames a on the forest s shore and thy brow o holy are the woods where nature yearly her might and a rich and delight in the deep far through the fading trees the pine s green is waving bright and free and in the withered age of man to me a warm and sweet spring breeze brook brook farm wherever we recognize the principle of progress oar sympathies and affections are engaged however small may be the however limited the towards the of pure good that effort is worthy of our best encouragement and the institution at brook farm west though sufficiently extensive in respect to number of persons perhaps is not to be considered an experiment of large intent its aims are moderate too humble indeed to satisfy the extreme demands of the age yet for that reason probably the effort is more valuable as likely to exhibit a larger share of actual success though familiarly a community it is only so in the process of eating in a practice at least as as the halls of old england where it still continues without producing as | 37 |
far as we can learn any of the virtues a residence at brook farm does not involve either a community of money of opinions or of sympathy the motives which bring individuals there maybe as various as their numbers in fact the present are into three distinct classes and if the majority in numbers were considered it is possible that a vote in favor of self sacrifice for the common good would not be very strongly carried the leading portion of the inmates they whose presence the greatest peculiarity and the tone to the household believe that an improved state of existence would be developed in association and are therefore anxious to promote it another class consists of those who join with the view of their condition by being from some portion of worldly strife the third portion those who have their own development or education for their principal object practically too the institution a improvement over the world at large corresponding to these three motives in consequence of the first the companionship the personal intercourse the social bearing are of a marked and very superior character brook farm there may possibly to some minds long accustomed to other modes appear a want of and of the private fireside but all must acknowledge a and softening condition highly to the permanent and pleasant growth of all the better human qualities if the life is not of a deeply religious cast it is at least not inferior to that which is elsewhere and there is the advantage of an entire absence of assumption and pretence the moral atmosphere so far is pure and there is found a strong desire to walk ever on the mountain tops of life though taste rather than piety is the aspect presented to the eye in the second class of motives we have there is a strong tendency to an important improvement in meeting the necessities of humanity the of the of labor and the elevation of all work to its true station are problems whose solution seems to be charged upon association for the systems have in vain sought for this portion of human condition it is impossible to introduce into separate families even one half of the which the present state of science to man in that particular it is probable that even the system is superior to the for its permit many domestic arrangements of an character which are in small in order to labor and the it is absolutely necessary that men should cease to work in the present mode and adopt that of union or association it is as false and as to call any man master in business as it is in opinions those persons therefore who for the purpose as it is called of their outward relations on principles so high and universal as we have endeavored to describe are not engaged in a petty design bounded by their own selfish or temporary improvement every one who is here found giving up the usual chances of individual may not be thus influenced but whether it be so or not the outward demonstration will probably be equally certain in education brook farm appears to present greater mental freedom than most other institutions the brook farm being more heart rendered is in effects more heart stirring the younger pupils as well as the more advanced students are held mostly if not wholly by the power love in this particular brook farm is a much model for the oft praised schools of new england it is time that the and book learned systems of t e latter should be or by some better calculated to excite originality of thought and native energies of the mind the deeper kindly sympathies of the heart too should not be forgotten but the of these must be of under a rigid system hence brook farm with its spontaneous teachers presents the unusual and cheering condition of a really free school by watchful and economy there can be no doubt that a community would attain greater pecuniary success than is within the hope of honest individuals working separately but brook farm is not a community and in the variety of motives with which persons associate there a double diligence and a perhaps too costly will be needful to preserve financial prosperity while however this security is an essential element in success riches would on the other hand be as fatal as poverty to the true progress of such an institution even in the case of those foundations which have assumed a religious all history proves the of wealth the just and happy mean between riches and poverty is indeed more likely to be attained when as in this instance all thought of acquiring great wealth in a brief time is necessarily abandoned as a condition of on the other hand the presence of many persons who merely for the of some individual end must weigh heavily and upon those whose hearts ana really expanded to universal results as a whole even the powers of brook farm have as is found almost every where the design of a life much too too much derived from objects in the exterior world the life that in which the soul finds the living source and the true communion within itself is not sufficiently to impart to the establishment the permanent and character it should enjoy many devoted individuals are there several who have as generously vol iv no iii brook farm as wisely what are considered great social and l advantages and by throwing their skill and energies into a course of the most ordinary labors at once their and lay the foundation of ii nobility an assemblage of persons not brought together by the principles of community will necessarily be subject to many of the of ordinary life as well as to burdens peculiar to such a condition now brook farm is at present such an institution it is not | 37 |
two places that man cannot worship at two it is only the determination to do what parents consider the best for themselves and their families which renders the o er world such a wilderness of as it is destroy this feeling they say and you every motive to exertion much truth there in this for to them no other motive nor indeed to any one else save that of the universal good which does not permit the building up of supposed self good and therefore all possibility of an individual family these observations of course equally apply to all the attempts now so much public attention and perhaps most especially to such as have more of s designs than are at brook farm the slight allusion in all the writers of the class to the subject of marriage is rather remarkable they are acute and eloquent in g woman s oppressed and degraded position in past and present times but are almost silent as to the future in the mean while it is gratifying to observe the which in some attend every effort and that brook farm is likely to become comparatively eminent in the highly important and attempts to render labor of the bands more dignified and noble and mental education more free and c l the said give us matter and a little motion and we will the universe it is not enough that we should have matter we must also have a single impulse one to the mass and the harmony of the and forces once heave the ball from the hand and we can show how all this mighty order grew a very unreasonable thought some of their students and a plain begging of the question could you not prevail to know the of as well as the of it nature mean time had not waited for the discussion but right or wrong bestowed the impulse and the balls rolled it was no great a mere push but the were right in making much of it for there is no end to the consequence of the act that famous push itself through all the balls of the system and through every of every ball through all the races of creatures and through the history and performances of every individual exaggeration is in the course of things nature sends no creature no man into the world without adding a small excess of his proper quality given the planet it is still necessary to add the impulse so to every creature nature added a little violence of direction in its proper path a to put it on its way in every instance a slight generosity a drop too much without the air would rot and without this violence of direction which men and women have without a of and no excitement no we aim above the mark to hit the mark every act hath some falsehood of exaggeration in it and when now and then comes along some sad sharp eyed man who sees how paltry a game is played and refuses to play but the secret how then is the bird flown o no the wary nature sends a new troop of fairer forms of youths with a little more excess of direction to hold them fast to their several aim makes them a little wrong headed in that direction in which they are and on goes the game again with new whirl for a generation or two more see the child the fool of his senses with his thousand pretty commanded by every sight and sound without any power to compare and rank his sensations abandoned to every to a whistle a painted a lead a horse every thing nothing who thus delighted with every thing new lies down at night overpowered by the fatigue which this day of continual pretty madness has incurred but nature has answered her purpose with the curly lunatic she has every faculty and has secured the growth of the bodily frame by all these attitudes and exertions an end of the first importance which could not be trusted to any care less perfect than her own this glitter this lustre plays round the top of every toy to his eye to his fidelity and he is deceived to his good we are made alive and kept alive by the same arts let the say what they please we do not eat for the good of but because the meat is and the appetite is keen nature does not content herself with casting from the flower or the tree a single seed but he fills the air and earth with a of seeds that if thousands perish thousands may plant themselves that hundreds may come up that may live to maturity that at least one may replace the parent all things betray the same calculated profusion the excess of fear with which the animal frame is round shrinking from cold starting at sight of a snake at every sudden noise or falling stone us through a multitude of from some one real danger at last the lover seeks in marriage his private felicity and perfection with no end and nature hides in his happiness her own end namely or the of the race but the craft with which the world is made runs also into the mind and character of men no man is quite sane but each has a vein of folly in his composition a slight determination of blood to the head to make sure of holding him hard to some one point which nature had taken to heart great causes are never tried on their merits but the great cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size of the and the is ever on minor matters not less remarkable is that over faith of each man in the importance of what he has to do or say the poet the prophet has a higher value | 37 |
of trees but as i said i walked far down the wood in that kind of greasy gait i have accumulated and i went s a dramatic sketch dreaming and dreaming on almost asleep if not quite half awake until i reached the lake s dim corner where one ragged tree let in a of light the moon now being high and at its full i saw upon that little point of land a shape a fair round shape like early womanhood kneeling upon the ground wept by the and then i heard such dreadful roar of sobs such pouring fountains of imagined tears i saw following those piteous prayers all under the great placid eye of night t was for an old man s eye for a young heart had spun it into sighs and answered back and now the figure came and passed by me i had withdrawn among the ghostly shrubs t was mary poor mary i have seen her smile so many years and heard her merry lips say so much malice that i am amazed she should kneel weeping by the silent lake after old midnight night caps all but me but you are young what can you make of it hen what can one make of figures i can see the fair girl weeping by the lake thou not see the woman s agony thou not feel the thick sobs in thy throat that swell and gasp till out your eyes roll tears in miserable circles down your cheeks hen i see a woman weeping by the lake i see the fair round moon look gently down and in the shady woods friend s form leaning upon his old bent stick what jest ye dare you henry gray to mock a woman s anguish and her tears does henry gray say this to his friend dares he speak thus and think that s scorn will not out such paltry t hen why how you rage why what a flame a few calm words have lighted in thy breast i mock thee not i mock no woman s tears within my breast there is no mockery cm true true it is an old man s whim a note of music played upon a broken harp i fancied you could read this woman s tears on t i am insane i will go lock me up exit hen alone ye that do possess this upper sphere it no iii jt fatal passion where s life hangs balanced in its might breathe gently o er this old fond man who seems to cherish me among his thoughts as if i was the son of his old age the son of that fine thought so prodigal o god put in his heart his thought and make him heir to that repose thou me ye sovereign powers that do control the world and inner life of man s most intricate heart be with the noble may his age yield brighter blossoms than his early years for he was torn by passion was so worn so wearied in the strife of hearts he shed his precious pearls before the swine and god of love to me render so that i may more fairly fully give to all who move within this ring of sky whatever life i draw from thy great power still let me see among the woods and streams the gentle measures of trust and through the autumn rains the peeping eyes of the spring s loveliest flowers and may no one faint thought in its cold arms so would i live so die content in all iii mary s room midnight alone i cannot sleep my brain is all on fire i cannot weep my tears have formed in ice they lie within these hollow and flame and ice are quiet side by side goes to the window yes i there the stars stand gently shining down the trees wave softly in the midnight air how still it is how sweetly smells the air stars would i could blot you out and fix where ye are fixed my aching eyes ye burn for ever and are calm as night would i were a tree a stone a worm i would i were some thing that might be crushed i a by the sea under the waves a of dust within the streaming sun a sketch or that dull remorse would fasten firm within this rim of bone this mind s come come to me ye of secret woe that hide in the hearts of the false has hell not one pang for me to feel i t is useless is pretended rage i am as calm as this vast hollow sphere in which i sit as in a woman s form i am no woman they are merry things that smile and laugh and dream away despair what am i t is a month a month has gone since i stood by the lake with henry gray a month a little month thrice ten short days and i have lived and looked who goes t is i must he shall come in she speaks from the window you keep late hours my gentle mary do not speak so there is no mary here hush holds up her finger i cannot bear your voice t is agony to me to hear a voice my own is dumb say thou art an old man thou hast lived long i mark it in thy tottering gait thy hair thy red eyes thy miserable form say in thy youthful days thou art a man i know it but still men are god s creatures say tell me old man did thine eyes ever forget to weep all closed and dry say quick here here where the heart beats feel a weight as if thy of life would snap as if the volume of | 37 |
is only in its beginning it embraces undoubtedly the true principle of a restored and which in due time will into heights and depths of knowledge and of feeling but it is now only in a state of maintaining and but feebly maintaining a war with the or natural life and being nothing more at present than the early rays and of the tn day tiiat is coming it is not so with what may conveniently be or hidden life the hidden life a form of expression which we employ to indicate a degree of christian experience greatly in advance of that which so often darkly and doubtfully at the threshold of the christian s career as the hidden life as we now employ the expression a greatly advanced state of the religious feeling in a sacred and intimate union with the the infinite mind we may perhaps regard the who had a large share of this interior experience as making an indistinct allusion to it when he says thou art my place and my shield and again he that in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the perhaps the paul makes some allusion to this more advanced and condition of the religious life when in the to the he says am with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ in me and again addressing the set your affections on things above not on things on earth for ye are dead and your life is hid with christ in god and does not the himself sometimes recognise the existence of an interior or hidden life unknown to the world and unknown to a considerable extent even to many that are christians but who are yet in the beginning of their christian career he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit unto the churches to him that will i give to eat of the hidden and i will give him a white stone and in the stone a r name written which no man save he that it p in this cautious and way does the author endeavor to introduce the reader to an understanding of that which cannot indeed be truly understood without experience but which he applies his faculties and to awaken some conception of in the public mind to the well experienced soul it must appear strange indeed that the question need be put does not the himself sometimes the interior or hidden life we would ask does he not always recognise it appeal to it endeavor to it was it not the peculiar and l revelation he opened to man that tlie kingdom of heaven is within scattered over the heathen world might more or less be hidden found of most christian doctrines but this fact had never before been declared with such emphasis clearness and as by and his intimate it is the especial fact which makes christianity the religion of this world from this ground alone could christ justly in the vehement terms familiar to us all and establish a religion utterly or formal but dwelling only in heart and life on the subject of the two degrees of religious experience which professor in the above extract to christ appears to us to have been so strikingly explicit that it is surprising the mere student should overlook it he says you must be born again of the water and of the spirit in this case one term is not to be interpreted into the other the water birth and the spirit birth are clearly two processes in the human soul which by the terms spiritual and celestial and other writers of deep religious experience have under some terms or other endeavored to make them sensible to their fellow a labor however on which little success has yet attended books sell and in the world in the of the natures and taste of the people at the time it is not just at present so easy to find readers on the subject of the inner life as of the outer life frivolous novels are rather more in demand than relations from the ever new much that is beautiful much that is valuable nay that very reality which is most needful human happiness is for the greater part lost to mankind by the overlooking of this second inward birth by the supposition that the first or the birth into intelligence is all that need succeed to the natural birth in order to human truly does our author observe the life which we are considering may properly be called a hidden life because its moving principles its interior and powerful springs of action are not known to the world the natural man can appreciate the natural man the man of the world can appreciate the man of the world and it must be admitted that he can appreciate to a considerable extent numbers of persons who profess to be christians and who are probably to be regarded as such in the ordinary sense of the term because the natural life interior or life still remains in them in part there is such a mixture of worldly and religious motives in the ordinary of the religious state such an of what is gracious with what is natural that the men of the world can undoubtedly form an if not a positive estimate of the principles which the conduct of its but of the springs of movement in the or hidden life except by dark and uncertain conjecture they know comparatively nothing p again the hidden life has a claim to the descriptive epithet which we have proposed to apply to it because in its results upon individual minds it is directly the reverse of the life of the world the natural life seeks desirous of human applause it aims to clothe itself in purple and fine linen it a position in the market | 37 |
place and at the corners of the streets it loves to be called but the hfe of god in the soul occupied with a divine companionship all unnecessary with men it a lowly and retired course it is willing to be little to be and to be cast out from among men it has no eye for worldly pomp no ear for worldly applause it is formed on the model of the who was a man unknown it has no essence but its own spiritual nature and no true locality but the soul which it p we must be permitted to use warmer language than the usual phrase that this book is a valuable addition to the literature of our country professor has a nobler and a design than that of adding merely another volume to our abundant stores or of gaining to some miserable or of building up a personal fame he his subject without needless literary display through its and personal and until he on the state of union with god in language as plain and as suitable to the present state of the public mind as could the of goodness the state of union with god when it is the subject of distinct consciousness without being necessarily by revelations or the soul s spiritual festival a season of special interior a of heaven the mind by wo idly if no iii r hidden l and the and of deeply in a state of happy submission and in accordance with the expression of the to the that those who believe enter into rest so true it is in the language of that he who all things in his will and all things in his tight hath his heart and in the peace of god how can there be otherwise than the peace of god pure beautiful sublime when is without reserve and faith is without limit and especially when self will the great evil of our fallen nature is what higher idea can we have of the most advanced christian experience than that of entire union with the divine will by a of the human will when the will of man ceasing from its and its becomes fixed to one point immovable always moment by moment with god s central and absorbing purposes then we may certainly say that the soul in the language which is sometimes applied to it and in a modified sense of the terms has become not only in faith and love but united and one with god and transformed into the divine nature he thai ia joined to the lord is one spirit and from that moment in its higher nature and so far as it is not linked to earth by sympathies which its god has and which were and even in the case of our the soul knows sorrow no more the pain of its inward anguish is changed into rejoicing it has passed into the mount of stillness the of inward the temple of tranquillity p such an unusual we might almost say as far as the american public is concerned such an appeal we trust will not be made in vain pious adventures and personal experiences have from time to time found a ready in this republic and a reception not less cordial ought to be to the expression of like principles and sentiments uttered in universal terms ir is an empty name to all but greek we have no reputation in literature to bis which is so ill supported in english translation the and believing student will not find one glance of the eagle in west and his who have attempted to clothe the bird with english perhaps he is the most of poets and though he was capable of a grand national music yet did not write sentences which alone are conveyed without loss into another tongue some of our who aid and comfort in mr s literal prose of and of have requested him to give of the and and we extract from his of such passages as contain somewhat and in an english dress equally by night always and by day having the sun the good lead a life without labor not disturbing the earth with violent hands nor the sea water for a scanty living but honored by the gods who take pleasure in fidelity to oaths they spend a existence while the others suffer pain but as many as endured keeping the mind from all injustice go the way of to tower where the ocean breezes blow around the island of the blessed and flowers of gold shine some on the land from dazzling trees and the water others with of these they crown their hands and hair according to the just of whom father the husband of having the highest throne of all has ready by himself as his assistant judge and are regarded among these and his mother brought when she had persuaded the heart of with prayers who s column and gave to death and morning son t always around virtues labor and expense strive toward a work covered with danger but those succeeding seem to be wise even to the citizens vi virtues neither among men nor in hollow ships are honorable but many remember if a fair deed is done vii origin of ancient sayings of men relate that when and the divided earth was not yet apparent in the deep sea but in salt depths the island was hid and being absent no one claimed for him his lot so they him without any region for his share the pure god and was about to make a second drawing of lots for him warned but he did not permit him for he said that within the white sea he had seen a certain land springing up from the bottom capable of feeding many men and suitable for flocks and straightway he | 37 |
commanded golden to stretch forth her hands and not contradict the great oath of the gods but with the son of assent that to the bright air being sent by his nod it should hereafter be his prize and his words were fully performed meeting with truth the island sprang from the watery sea and the genial father of penetrating beams ruler of fire breathing horses has it a man doing fit things forgets the im x names the hill of he named the hill of for before while ruled it was with and at this first the stood by and time who alone truth x ai evening with the struck the mark and cast the stone afar whirling his hand above them all and with applause it rushed through a great tumult and the lovely evening light of the fair faced moon shone on the scene x fame when having done fair things o without the reward of song a man may come to rest vainly he with toil some short delight but the sweet and the sweet bestow some favor for daughters have wide fame the to of on his victory in the course o ye who for your lot the seat of the streams yielding fair renowned graces ruling bright of the ancient race of hear when i pray for with you are all pleasant and sweet thin to mortals if wise if fair if noble any man for neither do the gods without the august graces rule the dance nor but of all works in heaven having placed their seats by golden bowed they reverence the eternal power of the father august and son loving children of the god hear now and loving song beholding this band in favorable fortune lightly dancing for in manner meditating i come since by thy means is victor at the games now to s black walled house go echo bearing to his father the famous news that seeing thou say that in renowned s his son crowned his young hair with of illustrious first to the thou even the spear like bolt of everlasting fire and the eagle sleeps on the of drooping his wings on either side the of birds whatever things has not loved are terrified hearing the voice of the on earth and the sea ii a plain spoken man brings advantage to every i the of the hero wm dead to a and when the impetuous crowd and when the wise rule a aa a whole the third to on hia victory in the horse race is one of the most memorable we extract first the account of as many therefore as came suffering from spontaneous or wounded in their limbs with glittering steel or with the far cast stone or by the summer s heat overcome in body or by winter he saved from various ills some with soothing strains others having drunk refreshing draughts or applying to the limbs others by cutting off he made erect but even wisdom is bound by gain and gold appearing in the hand persuaded even him with its bright reward to bring a man from death already overtaken but the with both hands quickly took away the breath from his breasts and the rushing hurled him to death it is necessary for mortal minds to seek what is reasonable from the knowing what is before the feet of what destiny we are do not my soul to the life of the but the practicable means in the conclusion of the the poet reminds the victor that with prosperity in the life of man aa in the instance of and the to men with one good two evils the foolish therefore are not able to bear these with grace but the wise turning the fair outside but thee the lot of good fortune follows for surely great looks down upon a king ruling the people if on any man but a life was not to son of nor to who yet are said to have had the greatest happiness of mortals and who heard the song of the golden fill on the mountain and in seven when the one married fair eyed and the other the illustrious daughter of and the gods with both and they saw the royal children of on golden seats and received marriage and having exchanged former toils for the favor of they made erect the heart but in course of time his three daughters robbed the one of some of his serenity by acute sufferings when father came to the lovely couch of white armed thy one and the other s child whom only the immortal bore in losing his life in war by arrows being consumed by fire excited the of the but if any mortal has in his mind the way of truth it is necessary to make the best of what from the blessed for various are the of high flying winds the happiness of men stays not a long time though fast it follows rushing on humble in humble estate lofty in lofty i will be and the attending i will always reverence in my mind serving according to my means but if heaven extend to me kind wealth i have hope to find lofty fame hereafter and they are the fame of men from words which skilful artists sung we know m for virtue renowned song is lasting but for few is it easy to obtain iv origin of whence in after times was settled by in the form of presents a to one of tlie as they are about to return home he knew of our haste and immediately a with his right hand strove to give it as a chance stranger s gift nor did the hero disregard him but leaping upon the shore stretching hand to hand received the mystic but i hear | 37 |
it sinking from the deck go with the sea at evening accompanying the watery sea often indeed i urged the careless to guard it but their minds and now in this the seed of spacious is its hour p th v he bestowed the and he gives the muse to whom he wishes bringing peaceful serenity to the breast s the of a era men it no ix daughter he reared the white armed child who loved neither the motion of the loom nor the of with the pleasures of companions but with of steel and the sword to wild beasts affording surely much and tranquil peace to her father s herds spending little sleep upon her eye as her sweet bed fellow creeping on at dawn x the height of glory fortunate and celebrated by the wise is that man who conquering by his hands or virtue of his feet takes the highest through daring and strength and living still sees his youthful son obtaining crowns the brazen heaven is not yet accessible to him but whatever glory we of mortal race may reach he goes beyond even to the boundaries of but neither in ships nor going on foot thou find the wonderful way to the of the third to victor ai the if being beautiful and doing things like to his form the child of went to the height of no further is it easy to go over the sea the pillars of tke of one with native greatly but he who possesses acquired talents an obscure man to various things never with fearless foot advances but tries a virtues with mind haired meanwhile remaining in the home being a boy played great deeds often iron pointed in his hands swift as the winds in fight he wrought death to lions and he and brought their bodies to as soon as six years old and all the while and bold admired him without dogs or treacherous for he conquered them on foot iv whatever virtues sovereign destiny has given me i well know that time creeping on will fulfil what was fated v the kindred of a victor in the had wished to procure an from for less than three asserting that they could purchase a statue for that sum in the following lines he nobly their meanness and the value of his labors which unlike those of the will bear the fame of the hero to the ends of earth no image maker am i who being still make statues standing on the same base but on every merchant ship and in every boat sweet song go from to announce that s son mighty has conquered the crown at the tn man one the race of and of and from one mother we all breathe but quite power us so that the one is y but the brazen heaven a secure abode yet in some respect we are related either ii mighty mind or form to the although not knowing to what resting place by day or night fate has written that we shall ma viii the treatment in secret the aided and deprived of golden arms struggled surely wounds of another kind they wrought in the warm flesh of their foes war with the man defending spear t e of virtue being sustained by wise men and just as when a tree shoots up with gentle into the liquid air there are various uses of friendly men but in labors and even pleasure requires to place some pledge before the eyes ix death of once they led to seven an army of men not according to the lucky flight of birds nor did tb v vm lu t from home insane but to but to apparent destruction the host made haste to go with brazen arms and horse and on the banks of defending sweet return their white bodies fire for seven devoured young j men but to rent the deep earth with his thunder bolt and buried him with his horses ere being struck in the back by the spear of his warlike spirit was disgraced for in fears flee even the sons of gods z i a and son of shared his immortality with brother son of and while one was in heaven the other remained in the infernal regions and they alternately lived and died every or aa say every six months while lies wounded by to either to restore his brother to life or permit him to die with him to which the god answers nevertheless i give thee thy choice of these if indeed death and odious age you wish to dwell on with and black thou hast this lot but if thou to fight for thy brother and share all things with half the time thou breathe being beneath the earth and half in the golden halls of heaven the god thus having spoken he did not entertain a double vn h ia his and he released first the eye and then the r ne of toil one reward of labors is sweet to one man one to another to the shepherd and the and the bird and whom the sea but every one is to ward off grievous famine from the stomach ii the of the muse then the muse was not fond of gain nor a laboring woman nor were the sweet sounding soothing strains of sold with front but now she to observe the of the coming very near the truth who cried money money man being of property and friends vi m prayer concerning son of if ever o father thou hast heard my with willing mind now i thee with prophetic prayer grant a bold son from to this man my fated guest rugged in body as the hide of this wild beast which now me which first of all | 37 |
my i once in and let his mind agree to him thus having spoken heaven sent a great eagle king of birds am sweet joy him inwardly t the preaching of the following are from one of the religious book of the of r entitled the white op the good law the original work which in written in part of the numerous of discovered hy m the english resident at the court of nt by to the society of m examined this collection which a great part of the books of the and of which are found in all the nations which are the people of china and the the book from which the following are taken is one of the most by all the nations which worship and shows very clearly the method followed by the sage who bears this name the work is in prose and verse the part is only the in a rather than a poetical form of the part written in prose we an extract from the article of m on the gin of the privileged caste of the reserved to itself the exclusive of science and of religion their morals were relaxed ignorance and the crimes which it had already deeply changed the ancient society described in the laws of in the midst of these about six centuries before christ in the north of a young prince born into the military te the throne became a and took the name of his doctrine which was more moral than at least in its principle on an opinion admitted as a fact and upon a hope as a certainty this opinion is that the visible world is in a perpetual change that death proceeds to life and life to death that man like all the living beings who surround him in the moving circle of that he passes through all the forms of life from the most up to the most perfect that the place which he in the vast scale of living beings depends on the merit of the actions which he in this world and that thus the virtuous man ought after this life to be born again with a divine body and the with a body accursed that the rewards of heaven and the pains or hell like all which this world contains have only a limited duration that time the merit of virtuous actions and the evil of bad ones and that the fatal law of change brings back to the earth both the god and the devil to put both again on trial and cause them to run a new course of the hope which the dame to bring to men was the possibility of escaping from the law of by entering that which he calls that is to say according to one of the oldest schools the of the thinking principle as well as of the material principle that was not entire until death but he who was destined to attain to it possessed during his life an unlimited science which gave him the pure view of the world as it is that is the knowledge of the physical and intellectual laws and the practice of the six of of morality of science of energy of patience and of charity the authority on which the hu waa wholly personal it was of two ix p sm element one real the other ideal the one waa fr and of conduct of which and patience formed the principal traits the second was the that he had to be that is illuminated and as such to possess a power and science with his power he resisted the attacks of vice with his science he represented to himself under a clear and complete form the past and the future hence he all which he had done in his former and he affirmed thus that an of beings bad attained like himself by the practice of the same virtues to the dignity of he offered himself in short to men as their and he promised m that bis death should not destroy his doctrine but that this should endure him for ages and that when its action should have there would appear to the a new whom he would by his own name and the li say that before on he had been in heaven in the quality of the future the philosophic opinion by which he his mission was i by all warriors farmers all believed equally in the of in the f rewards and pains in the necessity of escaping in a decisive manner the perpetually changing condition of a merely relative lie believed in the truths admitted by the his lived like them and like them stern be under ancient sentence of against the body by oriental it not appear that laid any himself to miraculous power in in one of his occur these words a king urged him to confound his hy the exhibition of that force which is made to reduce incredulity to silence o king replied the i do not teach the law to my by saying to go work miracles before the and the of houses whom you meet but i teach them in this wise live o holy one by concealing your m d works and by exposing your sins this profound humility this entire is the characteristic of primitive and was one of the most powerful of iu with the people the is equal and not unequal beings it is the question to convert them he is o f as the rays of the sun and moon which shine alike upon the virtuous and the wicked the high and the low on those who have a good and those who have a bad on all these the rays fall equally and not at one and the time so o the rays of intelligence endowed with the knowledge of make the venerable complete instruction | 37 |
in the good law is equally necessary for all beings for those who have means he who hat come like and is with f was of the one of of of entered into the five roads of existence for those who according to their inclination have taken the great vehicle or the vehicle of or that of the and there is neither or of absolute wisdom in such or such a on the all equally exist and are equally born to unite science and virtue there are not o three there are only beings who act differently from each other it is on account of that we three this said the respectable spoke thus to t if there are not o three different why in the present world the distinct of and i this said s k ke thus to the respectable it is as when a different pots of the same some become to contain others are for butter others for milk others for others inferior and the variety does not belong to the clay it is only the difference of the substance that we put in them ice comes the of tlie so there is really only one vehicle which is the vehicle of there is no second no third vehicle this said the respectable spoke thus to if beings arising from this of three worlds have different inclinations is there for them a single or two or three said o results from ttie of the equality of all laws there is only one and not two or three therefore o i will propose to thee a for penetrating men know through the sense of what is said m a kind who without to it for the sake of saving others the great is a expression the state of which ia the of the three means that the doctrine to whereby to escape the conditions of actual existence t means he who ia perfect in virtue and happiness and ia the most title applied to is a a not yet developed but of being so when he shall have his t it no ui preaching of it is ai if o a man born blind should say there are no forms of which some have beautiful and some ugly colors no spectators of these different forms there is no sun nor moon nor nor stars and no spectators who see stars and when other men reply to the man born blind there are of color and spectators of these colors there is a sun and a moon and and stars and spectators who see the stars the man born blind believes them not and wishes to have no relations with them then there comes a physician who knows all he looks on this man born blind and this reflection comes into his mind it is for the guilty conduct of this man in an life that lie is born all the which appear in this world whatever they are are in four classes those produced by wind those produced by those produced by and those which come by the morbid state of the principles united this physician reflected much upon the means of this malady and this reflection came into his mind the which are in use here are not capable of destroying this evil but there exist in king of mountains four plants and what are they the first is named that which all and all the second that which rom all the third that whit all the fourth thai which well being in u may be these are the four plants then the physician feeling touched with compassion for the man born blind thought on the means of going to king of mountains and having gone thither he mounted to the summit he descended into the valley he traversed the mountain in his search and having sought he discovered these four plants and having discovered them he gave them to the blind man to take one after having it with the teeth another after having it this after having cooked it with other that after mingling it with other raw another by introducing it into a given part of the body with a needle another after having consumed it in the fire the last after having employed it mingled with other as food or as drink then the man born blind in consequence of having these means his sight and having recovered it he looked above below far and near he saw the rays of tlie sun and moon the the stars and all forms and thus he spoke certainly i was a fool in that i never would believe those who saw and reported to me these things now i see every thing i am delivered from my blindness i have recovered sight and there is no one in the world who is in any thing above me but at this moment the endowed with the five kinds of supernatural knowledge present themselves these who have divine sight divine hearing knowledge of the thoughts of others the memory of their and of a supernatural power speak thus to this man thou hast only recovered sight o man and still thou nothing comes then this pride thou hast not wisdom and thou are not instructed then they speak to him thus when thou art seated in the in of thy house o man thou not thou not other forms which are without thou not in beings whether their thoughts are benevolent or hostile to thee thou not thou not at the distance of five the sound of the of the tan b and of the human voice thou not transport even to the distance of a without making use of thy feet thou bust been and ed in the body of thy mother and thou not even remember that how then art thou learned and how thou everything and how thou say i see everything | 37 |
know o man that that which is clearness is obscurity know also that that which is obscurity is clearness this man speaks thus to the what means must i employ or what good work must i do to acquire an equal wisdom i can by your favor obtain these qualities then these say thus to the man if thou wisdom contemplate the law seated in the desert or in the forest or in the of the mountains and free from the corruption of evil then endowed with qualities thou shalt obtain supernatural knowledge then this man following this counsel entering into the religious life living in the desert his thought fixed upon a single object was freed from that of the world and s of b acquired these five kinds of knowledge end having acquired them he reflected the conduct which i pursued before put me in possession of no and of no now on tlie contrary i go wherever my thought goes before i had only uttle wisdom little judgment i was blind hold o the that i would propose to thee to make thee comprehend the sense of my dis course see now what is in it the man blind from his birth o those beings who are shut up in the revolution of the world into which is entrance by five roads they are those who know not the and who upon themselves the obscurity and the thick darkness of the corruption of evil they are blinded by ignorance and in this state of blindness they collect the under the name and the form which are the effect of the until at last there takes place the production or what is a great mass of miseries thus are blind beings shut up by ignorance in the revolution of the world but the who is placed beyond the of the three worlds compassion for them moved with pity as is a father for his only beloved son having descended into the union of the three worlds beings revolving in the circle of and beings who know not the true means of escaping from the world then looked on them with the eyes of wisdom and having seen them he knew them these beings said he having accomplished in the first place the principle of virtue have feeble and vivid or feeble and vivid and errors some have little intelligence others are wise these have come to maturity and are pure those follow false doctrines by the means he has at his disposal teaches these beings three then the like the endowed with the five kinds of natural knowledge and who have perfectly clear sight the say having conceived the thought of the the french from the says in an explanation of this passage see l du par m of of having acquired a in the law era to the stale of per developed in this the must be regarded at a great physician and all beings must be regarded as blinded by error like the born blind affection hatred error and the sixty two false doctrines are wind the four are these four truths namely the state of void the absence of a cause the absence of an and the entrance into according to the different that we employ we cure different so according as beings represent the state of void the absence of a the absence of an object and the entrance into ex they arrest the action of ignorance from the of ignorance comes that of the until at last comes the of that which is only a great mass of evils then the thought of man is neither in virtue nor in sin tiie man who makes use of the vehicle of the or the must be regarded as the blind man who sight he breaks the chain of the miseries of from chains of miseries he is delivered from the union of the three worlds which are entered by five ways l his is why he who makes use of the vehicle of the knows what follows and these words there are no more laws henceforth to be known by a perfectly de i have attained but shows to him the law how said he shall not he who has obtained all the laws attain then him into th state of having conceived the thought of this state the is no longer in the revolution of the world and he has not yet attained forming to himself an exact idea of the of the three worlds he sees the world void in the ten points of space like a apparition an illusion like a dream a an echo he sees all laws those of uie of birth as well as those which are contrary to those of as well as those contrary to those which do not belong to darkness and obscurity as well as those which are contrary to he who thus sees into laws he g of sees like the blind man the thoughts and of all the beings who make up the of die three worlds i who am the king of law i who am born in the world and who govern i the law to creatures after having recognized their inclinations great heroes whose intelligence is firm preserve for a long time my word they guard also my secret and do not reveal it to creatures indeed from the moment that the ignorant hear this science so difficult to comprehend immediately doubts in their madness they will fall from it and fall into error i my language to the subject and the strength of each and correct a doctrine by a contrary it is o as if a cloud raising itself above the universe covered it entirely hiding all the earth full of water surrounded with a of lightning this great cloud which with the noise of thunder joy over all the rays of the sun | 37 |
refreshing the sphere of the world descending so near the earth as to be touched with the hand it out water on every side spreading in an uniform manner an immense s of water and with the which e from its sides it makes the rejoice and the plants which have burst from the surface of this earth the the bu lies the kings of the forest little and great trees the different seeds and every thing which makes the s which are found in the mountains in the and in the groves the s the bushes the trees tliis cloud fills them with joy it joy upon the e and it the plants and this water of the cloud the and the bushes pump up every one according to its force and its object and the different kinds of trees the great as well as the small and the middle sized trees all drink this water each one according to its age and its strength they drink it and grow each one to its need absorbing the water of the by their trunks their twigs their their branches their boughs their leaves the great plants put forth flowers and fruits each one according to its strength according to its destination and to the nature of the it m springs produces a distinct fruit and nevertheless there is one water hke that which fell from i he cloud so o the comes into the world like a cloud which covers the universe and hardly is the chief of the world born than he speaks and teaches the true doctrine to creatures and thus says the great sage honored in the world in union with gods am the conqueror the best of men i have in ihe world like a ch ud will with joy all whose limbs are dry and who are to the triple condition of existence i will in happiness those who are consumed with pain and ive to them and listen to me oh ye troops of gods and men approach and look upon me i am the blessed the being without a superior who is born the world to save it and i preach to thousands of millions of living beings the pure and very beautiful law its nature is one and it is and with one and the same voice the law taking incessantly for my subject the state of for this is uniform has no lace in it no more than or hatred you may be converted there is never in me any prefer ence or aversion for any he may be it is the same law that i explain to all beings the same for one as for another exclusively occupied with this work i explain the law whether i rest or remain standing whether i lie upon my bed or am seated upon my seat i never experience fatigue i fill the whole universe with joy like a cloud which everywhere a water always equally well disposed towards respectable men as towards the lowest towards virtuous men as towards the wicked towards abandoned men as towards those who have conducted most regularly towards those who follow doctrines and false opinions as towards those whose doctrines are sound and perfect finally i explain to little as well as to great minds and to those whose organs have a supernatural power inaccessible to fatigue i spread everywhere in a suitable manner the rain of the law after beard my voice according to the measure of their strength beings are established in situations among tlie gods men in beautiful bodies among the the and the listen am going to explain to what the humble and small plants are which are found in the world what the plants of middle size are and what the trees of a great height those men who live with a knowledge of the law from o who have the six kinds of supernatural and the three these men are named the small plants the men who live in the of the mountains and who to the state of men whose minds are half are the plants of middle size those who the rank of heroes saying i will be a i will be the chief of gods and men and who cultivate energy and contemplation are the most elevated plants and the sons of who quietly and full of reserve cultivate charity and conceive no doubt the rank of heroes among men these are named trees those who turn the wheel and look not backward the strong men who possess the power of supernatural and who deliver millions of living beings these are named great trees it is however one and tlie same law is preached by the conqueror even as it is one water which is poured out by the cloud those men who possess as i have just said the different faculties are as the plants which burst tlie surface of the earth know by this and this explanation the means of which makes use thou how he a single law whose different resemble drops of rain as to me i will pour out the rain o the law and the whole world be filled with satisfaction and men shall each one according to his strength upon this law which i explain so that while the rain falls the and the bushes as well as the plants of middle size the trees of all shall shine in the ten points of space this instruction which exists always for the of the world gives joy by different laws to the whole universe the whole world is with joy as plants are covered with flowers the of middle size which grow the earth and the venerable who are firm in the destruction of faults and running over immense forests show the well taught law to the the numerous endowed with memory and fortitude who having an idea of | 37 |
the king said what strength can a man derive from so small a quantity the physician replied so much can support you but in whatever you exceed that you must support it if of roses be frequently eaten it will cause a whereas a crust of bread eaten after a long will relish like of roses was troubled when his feet were bare and he bad not ta buy shoes but soon after a man without feet was thankful for the g providence to me and submitted cheerfully tp the want of shoes found in a at an old l of an hundred and fifty years who waa dying and was saying to himself i said i will enjoy myself for a few moments alas that my soul took the path of departure alas at the table of life i partook a few and the cried enough i heard of a who was ing in the flame of want patch after patch u his ragged garment and his mind with verses of poetry somebody observed to him why do you sit quiet certain gentleman of city has up hia in the service of the and seated himself by the door of their hearts he would esteem obliged by an of your distress he said be for i l f k were he of hell to enter into paradise through the interest of a neighbor the times me truths for i of the and die of if i only the and of the wood and and and quaint pipes and and virtuous roots which in these woods draw tha common earth and i could surely spell fragrance md their apply by to human flesh driving the foe and the o that were much a d i could be a part of the round day related to the sun and planted world and full of their imperfect but these young who ow bold as the engineer who the wood and often in the cut he makes love not the flower they pluck and know im not and all their is names the old men studied magic in the and human fortunes in and an ia preferring things to names for these w re men were of the united and their clear eye beams fell they caught the footsteps of the our eyes are armed but we are strangers to the stars and strangers to the mystic beast and and strangers to the plant and to the mine the injured elements say not in as ne and and day ocean and continent fire plant and not in us and us stare for stare for we them for gain we them and coldly ask their not their love therefore they us from them yield to us only what to our toil is due but the sweet of love and song the rich results of the divine of man and earth of world beloved and lover the and are withheld and in the midst of spoils and slaves we thieves and of the universe shut out daily to a more thin and outward turn pale and starve therefore to our sick eyes the trees look sick the summer short clouds shade the sun which will not tan our hay and nothing to reach its natural term and life of its venerable length even at its greatest space is a defeat and dies in anger that it was a and in its highest noon and is early like a beggar s child with most calculation taught even in the hot pursuit of the best aims and of ambition its hand like frozen as they leaped chilled with a comparison of the toy s purchase with the length of life t critical notices letters from new york by l m child we should have expressed our thanks for this volume in the last number of the dial had the few days which between its reception and the first of october permitted leisure even to read it now the press and the public have both been beforehand with us in the due of praise and favor we will not however refrain though late from expressing a pleasure in its merits it is really a contribution to american literature in a generous spirit and with lively truth the in one great centre of the national existence it is equally valuable to us and to those on the other side of the world there is a fine humanity in the sketches of character among which we would mention with especial pleasure those of and the writer never loses sight of the hopes and needs of all men while she faithfully grain for herself from the of every day and grows in love and trust in proportion with her growth in knowledge t e present by w h mr s present is a and journal and has no superior in the purity and elevation of its tone and in the courage of its criticism it has not yet expressed itself with much distinctness as to the methods by which is to heal the old wounds of the public and private heart but it breathes the air of heaven and we wish it a million readers president s address before the society of of e august b we have read with great pleasure this earnest and manly discourse which has more heart in it than any literary we remember no person will begin the address without reading it through and none will read it without an affectionate interest in college this paper published in the german language twice a week in new york we have read for months with advantage and can warmly recommend it to our readers it contains li its j a good correspondence from paris and mainly very well selected from all the german newspapers communicating important news not found in any other american paper from the interior of the continent of europe it is with great | 37 |
judgment by and and k p west street is their agent ta the dial vol iv april no iv it is a common remark that the most characteristic feature of modern thought is its in the natural reaction which followed the and the of the preceding period the confidence of the mind in all authorities and all was severely shaken and a contest ensued between on the one hand and the abiding instinct of existence in the human mind on the other which turned the attention of all philosophers to the foundation and principles of our knowledge modern speculation therefore has returned to the problem of human science and asks first of all can we know anything to this question the common man readily answers in the affirmative and if asked how he knows it is so to the actual knowledge which we have of the outward world he has a head on his shoulders the sun is shining or the like to which he expects your ready assent in this as in those systems of which like the common sense philosophy c consist of careful statements of the convictions of the vulgar consciousness we see the original prejudice of the human mind that something exists the and fact including all other facts of the consciousness sometimes lost sight of for a moment but never permanently shaken off the of this prejudice us that it a vital and demands i use the word vulgar in its strict sense as tiie natural ua opposed to the vol iv it april explanation at the hands of the philosopher reduced to its strict terms the assertion of the vulgar consciousness to nothing more than this i am aware of phenomena in this sense we see the from this point of view of s principle that we derive all our ideas from sensation and reflection for he is evidently speaking only of our of phenomena of which we can be aware only in consequence of two actions in one of which we are passive and of impressions sensation in the other active and reflection the grasping of the object by the mind neither the blind man nor the insane behold the blue sky the former because he cannot ee the latter because he cannot comprehend it but we cannot rest long contented with the popular solution of the problem but admitting all it we ask farther whether this after all touches the point in question whether our being aware of phenomena proves that we have any actual knowledge plainly it does not necessarily for a phenomenon is not any fact itself but the appearance of a fact under certain relations and these relations being accidental and varying the same fact may very well appear in and even phenomena as the same degree of may appear warm to one man and cold to another here we may easily see the origin of for starting with the assumption that we can know nothing but phenomena and soon finding out the superficial and accidental nature of phenomena in themselves we naturally transfer this character to our knowledge the same idea is in the doctrine of the goddess of phenomena and even if we were willing to receive phenomena as facts still this would not bring us much farther for they would still be mere detached except by accidental position and consequently we could not reason from one to the other nor even them without at the same time acknowledging the accidental nature of our this is the of the natural consequence of s philosophy the general dismay and resistance with which s e was received by his is to its peculiar excellence as an expression of the thought of his age so keen was the feeling of the of the results at which he had arrived from the general and so violent the resistance against these results of the inmost nature of man that a was produced which opened new depths in the human consciousness in the national mind of great britain may be said to have uttered itself for once though it silenced its own rational voice forthwith by of but the question which had put in a manner so direct and manly had to be answered somewhere and it was answered in the critical philosophy it was the hint given by david says which many years ago me from my and gave quite another direction to my in the field of philosophy had clearly shown that in the instance of the idea of cause and effect the phenomenon which we call the cause does not of itself involve the conception of the subsequent phenomenon which we call the effect and he concluded from this that their connection is and imaginary which from s point of view is evidently the case is contained the of the idea developed by which we are about to examine namely that of anything essentially foreign to our mind an absolute object we could have no knowledge a feeling of the imperious necessity with which the two of cause and effect are seen in every case to be united led to perceive that their union must depend upon some law of our mind for their necessary connection could not be from experience which gives only probability never the universal and invariable feeling of necessity which is the evidence of certain knowledge and beyond experience we have no source of knowledge except the mind itself this led him to make a critical review of the consciousness a or as he calls it a of the pure reason in this review he nothing more than the universally admitted proposition above mentioned the common perception of phenomena which he calls experience and seeks according to the principle above hinted at to p discover amid the ever varying shadow dance of something constant and necessary for this | 37 |
evidently must be the character of all the elements of true knowledge but phenomena as we have already seen do not claim to be things themselves but only appearances that is impressions on our minds hence we cannot pretend to say whether phenomena have any existence at all out of our perception or not without leaving the ground to which we are by our leaving untouched therefore the question as to the existence of outward things finds that every phenomenon is presented to the mind as occupying a portion of time or space all our of material objects have extension either as duration or as size i the and necessity of these attributes that they depend upon certain laws laws however not of the object since in phenomena we have no object but only impressions laws therefore of the subject of the mind in its relation to phenomena or as it the understanding having thus discovered the two original and necessary forms under which the mind material objects en to complete a natural history of the understanding by drawing up a table of its other laws or forms which he calls the and to several classes but he does not confine himself to the legitimate province of the philosopher the of obscure facts of consciousness but casts about among and to them a thus introducing an element into his his table of is consequently both and it must be kept in mind that the necessity of the laws of time and space does not depend upon invariable experience which can never give certainty but only strong probability but upon our distinct con that independent of these with which alone is our present concern could not exist thus supposing that all bodies appeared to us of a red color all our experience might bear witness that this was the constant attribute of extended but though this might induce us to some necessity in the case still there would be no essential difficulty in separating the notion of red from our conception of body but a body which does not occupy a portion of space it to us a from this survey of the understanding it is evident that our experience of material objects is subject in form to certain laws the subject matter of phenomena is of course being out of the reach of the understanding and must be supplied by experience of material objects therefore we can know a only the laws of possible experience thus far our attention has been occupied exclusively with the examination of the mind in its relations to of course our only concern has been with the forms of phenomena as being all that we can know with certainty about the question as to whether we can know anything in its or essential existence our inquiry has been into the how not into the what of our knowledge of material objects the latter question however is vastly the more interesting since it is this in fact to which the original instinctive belief in existence points this therefore is the all important inquiry in seeking to go behind phenomena we quit the sphere of the understanding and come into the region of the pure reason which has to do only with fact and essence entirely phenomena and accident the of the pure reason calls the ideas since they the understanding and its and he them into three classes according as they af the existence of the i or soul of the not i or nature of the supreme being this division however is and all the ideas may be reduced to one the that something is proceeds to examine the results arrived at by the pure reason and finds that in every instance in which we attempt to derive knowledge from them a contradiction is produced between them and the laws of the understanding this he calls the of the pure reason now all objects according to him can be perceived only according to the laws of the understanding therefore the results of the pure reason as far as they claim or application must be their only value accordingly is practical here it at first sight as if had into the error of the of the pure reason with those of the understanding or of our knowledge to mere knowledge and it appears as if he might have pursued in spiritual phenomena a course parallel to that adopted in the examination of indeed s instinctive his system in many particulars as for instance in his allowing to the pure reason a use even in matters of theory and in fact in his whole practical philosophy which leaves the practical authority of the pure reason entirely but the errors of a man like do not lie so near the surface an examination of the nature of the reason will show us what he was unconsciously at in his separation of and practical philosophy if we consider the reason as considered it and as the most still consider it as a faculty of perception of outward facts an for acquiring knowledge of the not j it is evident that we can know as in the case of the understanding only its forms and we cannot depend on its results since it can give us no certainty for having in this case no control over its object the subject matter of its will of course be entirely accidental as far as the reason is concerned and we shall again find ourselves cheated of the reality of our knowledge and presented with the empty shells instead in this event it is of little consequence whether these merely forms be those of the understanding or not they must at all events be to all and purposes perceived however that the ideas contrary to the of the understanding claim to include both form and subject matter which subject matter he could not | 37 |
place out of the reason since this would be destroying it but placing it in the reason he thought the destruction of its the necessary consequence the contest between this result of his iron logic and the of his instinct produced a puzzle which he thought not his to his system of course his practical philosophy of its principle and rendered it necessary for him in all cases to precisely that life in the woods which it is the duty of philosophy to explain thus in his law c his main principle however which he so and throughout that we can know nothing out of ourselves contains the leading idea of modern philosophy and to him belongs the praise of having been the first to bring it into distinct consciousness life in the woods here shall he see no enemy but winter and rough weather that must be a very pleasant life indeed wherein no enemy shall appear who cannot be easily subdued by a strong arm and an axe yet it seems to have been an enemy no more potent which drove men from free life in the woods to the of a closer congregation it is the fashion to speak of the life as savage barbarous and brutal and of the life either in castle or trading city as refined polished and elevated it might not be altogether wasted time to inquire whether this conclusion stands upon a true foundation or not so many errors pass current as truths that one may be not induced to investigate such a question though it be one that the student will deem of minor morality of such small questions much that is of mighty import is not constructed that which for man the highest origin represents him in his creation as his creator s will and in the very first generation the very first vital act as quarrelling with and his brother if this be literally true of the external man as it is now undoubtedly a true signature of operations in the human soul the first was probably erected more as a defence from the of man against his life in the woods than from the of weather when peace in every human bosom the free man may wander for food and for repose to whatever latitude the season shall render to his and bis wants the thought of a house grew not out of human necessity so much as out of human the love of power in some rather than the love of art in some pacific being forced on man the utility of a house for his protection while in a state of repose it at least defended him from too sudden a surprise if it did not wholly protect him the of a stronger brother more than the of the weather the thought of a passing over this consideration let us contemplate the man in his native state let us compare him with the and see to which the superiority must be both as respects nature and conditions behold what it is difficult for us to imagine an individual wholly free from the diseases consequent upon luxury and and subject only to the little ills of the chase conceive of one to whom hereditary or disease is unknown to whom and cough and apprehension of a cold never are he walks erect with elastic almost bounding step expanded and uncovered chest and limbs by the of fashion health strength and combined with an reliance on their continuance are a living fund of joy wonderfully with tho disease weakness and of modern refinement every sense in the primitive s frame is preserved he holds an immediate intercourse with nature herself or at least by his senses and the objects in nature he is enabled to read off the living volume as it lies open and before him by mere sight and smell he is at once into a knowledge of the essential properties of plants and can without experience their operations on the human system as as the native sheep can select its suitable food or the wood dove can without essay a winged journey if after long labor and close study the student knows something concerning nature from his books aod life in the woods the student knows much of her and her laws before the record of book or graver was constructed he is as a mother who knows of and a mother s feelings in a living and soul manner to all external observation while the college student is to the physician who a book from external observation only and writes of feelings he never felt and of experiences be never did or can experience the is present at the very fountain head living in and with the works productions and operations which will by and by be recorded the is acquainted only with the record the one is witness to the vital spring and birth of nature s offspring the other s studies are only to a over the parish register it is the boast of modern philosophy that it has abandoned or the method of study by words that of studying things but it its objects by means of and as vague and unsatisfactory as the studies they have for these after all stood a near the moral source as modern science whereas the pure human body is a retort a test far surpassing all the instruments which the highest science can boast by the man all nature is affectionately felt by the civilized it is only the warmth of life is characteristic of one the coldness of death the mark of the other the great boast and wonder of our enlightened age cannot even discern those delicate differences and in nature which can reveal and it can do nothing in any department of nature until the object is reduced to its state in the grand and noble field | 37 |
of life it is powerless vegetables and animals as such in their living beauty are presented to the s skill he has and measures but cannot living motion any more than he can moral emotion he has apparatus but no taste but our natural only sees and knows such objects in life and motion with his eye he varieties which the never and by an he in the living volume of nature the vol iv no iv in the woods april essential qualities of plants which the last analysis in the rarely or never can reveal the forms of plants as they simply stand before him are types in the boundless volume of which the student seems ever destined to merely the title page the eye the nose the the touch and every sense is an direct from the book of nature a first impression which to the civilized student rarely comes otherwise than at second hand he must refer to his printed authority and his human his his constructed circle of science while our nature student has in himself the authority knows truly the real author and feels himself to be at the centre of science of which the lies about him the unity of the the last ing thought of labored skill the key stone with which industry has at length crowned its self arch is no novelty to the free soul he never felt know ledge otherwise than as a unity nature or natural objects never were thus presented to him he sees objects without doubt as well as but always perhaps under both aspects at once always ia their individual existence as well as united to an unity the parent of them all for all the purposes of life for all the of his life the science of the forest man is complete all the wants which in such a life are in the immediate world about him find their supplies the pressure of hunger the needful clothing even the ornaments which he desires with their forms and tints he without difficulty or danger to himself or fellow man not so is it with the wants and wishes in life these know no bounds but with every gratification their victims at once over their and groaning over their denial no sea or land is to create new wants or to supply excited and and carrying with him to the innocent and pure disease and vice of the kind civilized man the extension of his domain the of his likeness a darker age upon its false illumination to call ages dark a busy wandering restless s life in the woods civilization from the point of its own worthless activity to pronounce the contented child of nature savage and barbarous literally perhaps these are justly applied if savage means a in the wood and one who does not his chin of hair if the terms be taken to mean no more than these there would be clearly no greater injustice or condemnation in them than in calling one a who dwells in a city but the design in using these words is to affirm that the heights of mind elevation of thought purity in sentiment are denied to man in one condition of life and granted in the other that those who are most ready to use these allusions ever think about the matter or are capable of thinking very profoundly may until they feel more ben ery be doubted but there is sufficient evidence on record to prove that the have not been withheld from the mind of the north american native any more than from the highly taught sons of a narrative not unworthy of or even of is reported in david s kept while he was a missionary among the natives of new about one hundred years ago of its there is very little room to doubt since the over it in every aspect and that the could have acquired it from any other person there is no ground whatever to suspect it is given in these words what the aversion of the indians to christianity is the influence their have upon them these are supposed to have a power of future events of recovering the sick and of charming persons to death and their spirit in its various operations seems to be a imitation of the spirit of prophecy that the church in early ages was favored with i have labored to gain some acquaintance with this and have for that end consulted the man mentioned in my journal of the th of may who since his to christianity has endeavored to give me the best intelligence he could of this matter but it seems to be such a mystery of that i cannot well understand it and so far as i can learn he himself has not any clear notions of the thing now his spirit of is gone from him however the manner in which he says he this spirit was he was admitted into in the woods april the presence of a great man who informed him that he loved pitied and desired to do him good it was not in this world that he saw the great man but in a world above at a vast distance from this the great man he says was clothed with the day yea with the brightest day he ever saw a day of many years yea of everlasting continuance this whole world he says was drawn upon him so that in him the earth and all things in it might be seen i asked him if rocks mountains and seas were drawn upon or appeared in him he replied that every thing that was beautiful and lovely in the earth was upon him and might be seen by looking on him as well as if one was on the earth to take a view of them there by the side of the | 37 |
great man he said stood his shadow or spirit this shadow he says was as lovely as the man himself and filled all places and was most agreeable as well as wonderful to him here he says he some time and was entertained and delighted with a view of the great man of his shadow or spirit and of all things in him and what is most of all astonishing he imagined all this to have passed before he was born he never had been he says in this world at that time and what him in the belief of this is that the great man told him he must come down to earth be bom of such a woman meet with such and such things and in particular that he should once in his life be guilty of murder at this be was displeased and told the great man he would never murder but the great man replied i have said it and it shall be so which has accordingly happened at this time he says the great man asked him what he would choose in life he replied first to be a hunter and afterwards to be a or whereupon the great man told him he should have what he desired and that his shadow should go along with him down to earth and be with him forever there were he says all this time no words spoken between them the conference was not carried on by any human language but they had a kind of mental intelligence of each other s thoughts this he says he saw the great man no more but he came down to earth to be born but the spirit or shadow of the great man still attended him and ever after continued to appear to him in dreams and other ways until he felt the power of god s word upon his heart since which it has entirely left him there were some times when this spirit came upon him in a special manner and he was full of what he saw in the man and then he says he was all light and not only light himself but it was light all around him so that he could see life in me woods through men and know the thoughts of their hearts these depths of satan i leave to others to and do not know what ideas to to such terms nor can guess what of things these creatures have at the times when they call themselves all light p so similar are some of these sentiments and so are some of these words to those of and that in the obscurity of time they might be attributed to these sources but as our record is dated three of a century before one and many years before the other authority such is but the converse is rather to be maintained in a previous passage the zealous remarks i find that in times before the coming of the white people some supposed there were four invisible powers who presided over the four comers of the earth others imagined the sun to be the only deity and that all things were made by him others at the same time having a confused notion of a certain body or fountain of deity somewhat like the so frequently mentioned by the more learned itself to various animals and even to things making them the immediate authors of good to certain persons when we find so unwilling a witness bearing satisfactory testimony to the spontaneous generation of the most profound and thoughts which have ever entered the human soul filling in so vivid a manner that of the savage how can we deny the presence of that mental life and quickness which as polished and civilized beings we delight to boast to these red men and to all the white who came into with them the names and works and thoughts of the profound or of the elegant were alike unknown to these their renown had not then travelled and even now they are and obscure authors had it indeed been otherwise and could it be proved that such sentiments were the results of outward lessons it would prove no less satisfactorily to what of thought the native mind could ascend even beyond that of the missionary teacher having st john s mystic gospel in his hand for i must not suppose that those whom i now address like cannot even guess what these creatures have life in th woods at the time they call themselves all light seeing that we know there is a true lights which every man who com th into the world no wonder need be then excited in our minds when we occasionally hear of the young spirit to whom the education has been afforded and before whom the whole world lies as a beautiful garden every path free to his foot turning after a little experience his course from the city towards the woods the experiment of a true wilderness life by a white person must however be very rare he is not born it be is not natured for it he the essential qualities as well as the physical substance for such a life and the notion of entering on it be considered merely an interesting dream some may however be possible and to unite the advantages of the two modes has doubtless been the aim of many even now we hear of some individuals on whom the world might rely to become eminent even amongst the worthy themselves from the busy haunts of men to a more select and secluded life but will they succeed in against their increased natural needs and their remaining wants diminished as these may be on trial as on due it will be found that this is not a very promising course th time the hut is built the furniture constructed the | 37 |
wood the fire burning the bread grown and prepared the whole time will be exhausted and no interval remain for comfortably clothing the body for in art or for by the book or pen this but faintly promises to be the mode by which the simple and pure in heart shall escape the and burdens prevent the full and happy development of the of those who have sought a life on a basis it has been remarked that solitude is a state suitable only to the best or the worst the average cast of humanity cannot be much by it it is not a condition in which human beings can be brought into the world and it is rarely a condition in which they attempt to remain in it the to silence and solitude may improve the very bad they may leave the very good but such as are in the life in the woods of improvement an of some kind seems more suitable as it is evidently more natural it is natural not only in the sense of harmony with the humane tions which out of social intimacy must painfully but also it is natural to the interior or spirit life the highest virtue can be promoted by friendship and fellow ship if even god himself may have a favorite upon whose bosom he can the minded surely cannot commit a very great error in the aid of co support when they are so fortunate as to find it or still more fortunate to be able to bestow it no mistake could be more evident than that of assuming that the child of nature lives an life on the contrary be moves in a circle much more social than modern cities can boast the tribe is a better type of the family than the city where the inhabitants of the same street are frequently unknown to each other after dwelling many years side by side again so little of the love p ing notion of property enters into this free man s scheme that the universal idea is not he is not an isolated but a being he lives not alone he merely a large space he does not estimate his strength his value or his happiness by the of the population but rather by its in the spare of forty persons to the square mile he is oppressed by the crowd he requires abundant supplies of vital air and the atmosphere is for him long before the white man s neighborhood arrives at a comfortable point the pure which the creator is suitable to the red man while the white is only happy in steam or some other self atmosphere by union of numbers by into a the white man the red whom singly he could never subdue by a new and superior constructed altogether on a different basis it is probably destined that the present institutions shall be and the new and superior nature in man receive a new and superior development this is in fact the point to which all our must poetic wanderings will not more us than trading conversations and on calm consideration by those which ingenious men have from time to time constructed concerning the life in the woods april ful liberty of the life and to which we have on this occasion perhaps too strongly tended have we not to confess that one is as distant from true life as the other they both lie on the same they are but of one circle struck by the of human selfishness at too great a distance from the true centre there does not appear to have been any true inward progress by the change from the woods to the town if indeed men ever were so changed and it be not the fact that these two lives belong to two distinct races each fitted by organization for its respective mode of life which seems the truer civilization to be some improvement in social arrangements while we assert that it no vital pro to the soul we have to conclude that it is our business and our duty to look in some other some new direction it is evidently not by a new disposition of humanity that it will be brought into new vital relations the outward conditions may be more or less favorable to the placing of each individual soul in a position to receive the higher influences and to live the higher life but such conditions are scarcely within the scope of any scientific they seem to be in all cases as immediately within the hands of the highest source of good as the good itself of which the human soul is by such conditions brought to be the or if there be any required it is not to be sought in persons events or things without and about man so much as in himself the critical event in the career of any human soul which shall open it to the highest consciousness and subject it to the highest and tenderest and loveliest graces can never be foretold the spectator can scarcely believe the importance of the occasion when it is affirmed actions of the most ordinary kind but performed by some particular person events of apparently the character yet administered by providence through some delicate relationship often suffice to produce that sacred which results from the feeling that every door of human sympathy is closed against us it is in this sad hour it is in such sacred mood of mind that the holy flame upon the altar of the human bosom after which tlie outward conditions of life t b in very deed become a matter of light importance riches or poverty cities or woods association or or nay even health and sickness into and shadows scarcely noticeable by the soul to view all things as male and female is a favorite habit of many acute minds and to such | 37 |
it may appear that the forest and civilized lives are the male and female from whose marriage an offspring shall result more to human bliss but it is difficult to conceive how corrupt parents shall have pure until their own corruption be they are rather to be estimated both as and as in the history the of the ground is again destined to destroy the keeper of sheep the hunter of deer c l the the ob han of bt t i cannot take my eyes away from ye busy bustling band your little all to see you lay each in the waiting seaman s hand ye men that from your necks let down your heavy baskets to the earth of bread from german corn baked brown by german wives on german hearth and you with neat black forest maidens and brown how careful on the stoop s green seat you set your and down ah oft have home s cool shaded these and filled for you on far s silent banks shall these the scenes of home renew vol iv na iv m the april the stone in street where oft ye stooped to chat and draw the hearth and each familiar seat the pictured your childhood saw soon in the distant wooded west shall walls be soon many a tired guest shall sweet refreshment from them taste from them shall drink the worn from the hot and dusty chase nor more from german ye shall bear them home in leaf crowned grace oh say why seek ye other lands the s hath wine and corn full of dark the stands in rings the s horn ah in strange forests ye shall for the green mountains of your home to s yellow turn in spirit o er her how will the forms of days grown pale in golden dreams float softly by like some wild tale before fond memory s eye the calls go hence in peace god bless you man and wife and bless all your fields with rich increase and crown each faithful heart s desire an tke the youth op the poet and the painter b of letter xiv to a ht son now you have left college let u think no more about it i doubt not that you did right if the place was so very disagreeable to you i never as you know have meant to force you and if you had not left so suddenly without consulting me on the subject it is very likely t should not have felt so much about it it was the uncertainty connected with your movements that troubled me and led me to write you i dare say letters that my sober moments might not sanction however let us say nothing more about college i hope you will pursue your studies especially the modern languages these are indispensable as your father used to say to a merchant or professional man if you now return aad says every time a stage drives by there comes you can easily carry out your studies by the aid of good masters here even if you entered a store at once as i trust you will though i had once supposed you might be a lawyer i should still object to your becoming a merchant aa in some i had with mr penny the other day he said he thought he could find you a place i should not expect that if you entered the counting room your return you would find it to devote your whole time to occupations but only a part of ay the remainder you could devote to exercise on foot or in the saddle i have just purchased a who ft very easy gait and as you remember there are many fine drives about your old room has been the coal grate taken out and a large convenient wood fire place made of it i have put in a red carpet and made a red sofa spread and put in some curtains of the same color i think it will have a pleasant effect in winter we have bad a new book case s the poet and the painter april made and put in the place of the old one with drawers for papers and underneath the shelves your books preserve their old order i feel confident we pass a pleasant winter it is getting late now and cold and it will be necessary for you to provide yourself with some thicker stockings perhaps i send with this a bundle also containing the rest of your flannel you must pay particular attention to guarding your throat when you are abroad as you may bring on another attack of the which troubled you so much two ago the season so far has been healthy with us and your sister is in good condition i shall be glad to know when you are coming and always delighted to get a line from you when you feel like writing sends her best love your affectionate mother letter xv to edward in a conversation i had the pleasure to have with mrs some days since she mentioned accidentally i think the fact that you had left college and were about to pursue some branch of occupation with the liberal professions i therefore took the liberty of mentioning to mrs that if your inclination tended to entering upon the duties of a merchant i should be much gratified to exert myself personally in your behalf i have made several inquiries and discovered a situation in the messrs concern this it occurs to me would generally be considered an eligible situation it is within my power to speak the more confidently upon this subject because i formerly carried on a business of this description myself at first a person who had not been used to business confinement would perhaps find his time a too much taken up with the | 37 |
of the concern but i think from a little statement which i will make of what would be required the first two years you will not deem it too severe a when it is how great gain will result from these two years it is my opinion that the benefits would more than the sacrifice even if it was heavier you would during the first year be required to sweep the store before breakfast make the fires and at noon secure an early meal by which means you would be present while the clerks and partners were at their dinners and in the evening remain till a little after dark and close the store during the morning you would either be engaged in the clerk s room letters or employed in the store room or at some vessel checking the cargo yet this latter duty would subject you to no confinement as on the contrary it is universally performed in the open air letters might frequently occupy you for six hours during the day but as it would be the means of education this brief time would pass agreeably esq the head of the firm is the of the friends i think of your family and to my knowledge very cheerful young people by forming an acquaintance with mr you would secure an introduction to the best houses in mr s principal partner is george esq and the two other partners messrs and they are all of them cultivated agreeable fine spirited persons in whose society you would find great knowledge of business and those true which adorn and polish human existence i have written without mrs s knowledge for which pardon me your most obliged servant p letter xvi hope to edward i have been glad to receive some verses from you in your late letters continue sending them for i discover a youth poet and tke new melody and a finish in each new poem and the last i seems always the best i notice what you have said of gray in one of your letters but i think you would like him more than you suspect on a personal acquaintance he has the power of others through the medium of his no less than his heart and i believe he has never made a friendship by which his friend has not been i notice you have the general impression of his character like others you have set him down for a critic but he only to assist himself and others in getting a better knowledge of the person never for the mere purpose of delivering an opinion gray takes more in all those he hears of or meets with than any one i know and has a real pleasure in living in another which faculty him fully to sustain no one can pass a few days in his society without becoming impressed with the extent and variety of his learning and tke depth of his inquiries he is with this from either in book studies or affection he never presses himself into the service of another but with enthusiasm opens his heart and mind when the sympathy is demanded i have at length concluded that will go abroad and pass a year or two not that i have exhausted the wells of thought in my own country but because i an in a condition to go and must take the time as i find it my health has not been as good as usual this autumn and i am to spend the next winter on the of europe i shall regret leaving you yet must trust to the medium of letters to keep our knowledge of one another fresh and will do my part in sending you whatever i find of any importance as far as i can speak of it with any satisfaction to myself in the mean if it would be agreeable to you i will desire gray to send a word occasionally from his retreat foreign travel has become so much a matter of course with our american youth that it seems now no more than spending a month at the falls or a winter at the south i regard it however of more importance to the artist than the general man of letters if we learn whatever our own can teach before we cross the ocean there n a certain period to which we each of us reach when we of the poet and the have satisfied our desires on one side and ask for a new life to give our thoughts a new direction and i seem to have arrived there i am now in need of better pictures than i can see about me here and after so of this new country i long to fly and compare it with the antique i aim to raise my present standard of beauty by higher models and to myself in the of better artists i feel that if my taste merits some regard for its delicacy it to scale the lofty of purer art i am fearful of into a half formed amateur if i do not seek after the absolutely best productions which remain my opportunities may have been as good as i could secure in america but i know that or rome contains ten times more than i can find here if i spent a lifetime in the search how can i learn anything of or any of the masters in this country and yet i fear to go perhaps when i look upon the really sublime works i shall turn away in despair and resolve never again to to be an artist i have seen with wonder our second rate artists to italy and after a few pictures return still carrying out their petty i had thought they would have been into silence by with what was so far above them i know their excuse that they had a | 37 |
certain department in which they could labor and could content themselves if they did a little well if they only limited themselves and bound their within the circle of least i feel it will be a crisis in my life when i sit before those magnificent works which have held the worship of the world captive for centuries i shall enter the gallery with trembling limbs yet i long for the trial it is what i have looked forward to so many years that of late i think it has worn so much on my spirits as to my health it might have been a happiness if i could have rushed forward as the mass of painters and upon finishing some tiny considered myself the best of artists yet if a happiness it is a low pleasure and i feel it would be more noble to sacrifice every lesser work and not to call myself anything before folly proving my powers what a in the breast it is to to yet youth the poet and the painter april and how many must have died of the desire to create yet we are ready to accept the pangs of disappointment sooner than the of those who never wish to become masters i can conceive of no position so admirable as that of the truly successful painter his glory comes in his lifetime and follows upon the tion of his works the first painter of an age stands among his fellows a monument so lofty that the crown never but an eternal sun the i shall not hurry from city to city but pass half a year at rome and as much time at with me travelling abroad never shines under the light of a pleasure excursion there are minor reasons why i am desirous to go the change the society the civilization will have their relative importance it is in the main a stern trial of my right to be an artist a period of study and starvation i feel i must go alone and work out the problem by myself i must face the beauty alone and seek no aid to enable me to gain a footing it is my intention to copy for some time from the best pictures and after i am thoroughly with the best thoughts of others try my own hand i know this subjects me to the danger of becoming an i may adopt too much of the style which pleases me best and when i paint my own picture not recognise the it is necessary i should be strong enough to my productions with the critic s eye and however much others may differ from me i can only satisfy myself as a critic of my own works i have so many years between being an artist and no artist that i must cast the die myself perhaps i have not taken the wisest path it is that only which can satisfy me ever yours hope letter xvii gray to james hope i have written of late on the character and pursuits of edward your announcement that you are resolved to do po and the what yoa have long meditated aad to spend a year europe leads me to you i hear the decision on some with regret and especially as it is your purpose to tread alone the fertile fields of you resemble edward more than you think and your solitary pilgrimage will not differ essentially from his retreat to it is what i might expect from the differ in your characters that you should seek the broad land of art while he lies beneath the oaks of the forest while i think edward has chosen the right spot to make the foundation of his education for a poet it is my duty to say that i would not have you leave america just yet you feel as keenly sensitive to disappointment as a painter as he does as a poet but he to nature alone ing the verses of his brother while you enter the of art and not only warm but perchance yourself in the sun as a painter you are liable to more in succeeding than he with and there is this difference in your positions that ed ward with himself more than with others while owe your to an ambition not to others it is true but to stand as high your character as a man is more formed than his while your as an artist remains much less certain the total beauty of a picture strikes us with far greater force than the of a poem and it occurs to me you are more alive to your in your art than e is in his added to this you will excuse me if i say i believe you have too a view of what you are bound to effect as an artist at present and are unwilling to take the benefits you should of right as student you demand an absolute perfection now not indeed in whole works but in tendencies whereby you may elect for yourself to be an artist neither will you allow us to give our opinion of your merit but accept only your own and yet in the case of another you are ready to admit that he cannot really judge how good are his works i no more doubt that you were bom a painter than that edward was a poet it me to find how you to your notions of going abroad and making a trial to decide for life in the choice of your pursuit the pursuit was chosen for you by nature before your vol iv no iv april like e ery other man i i would have yoa believe for i am in the true position to see tliat your power as an artist cannot be justly questioned therefore resolve having nearly completed the preliminary studies for the | 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world in general and no one regrets to devote yourself exclusively to your own affairs take your and and station yourself among the fields and groves and draw the spirit direct from the springs of life this is what did what did what every artist will do if allow yours do allow it you are to no other pursuit your worldly means are ample your health i doubt not the moment you settle this question with yourself fancy yourself a merchant sitting at your desk dealing in bills of exchange and up learned accounts from an elegant red lined check book fancy yourself in the old round of gain and opinion with dry and dusty money you who have given ten years of life each moment a diamond to for the artist s think how tedious after the first novelty had wore off think of those long years of repetition in the same round what the of ten years spent in such an would produce what anguish what horror what of remorse a life without creation an existence without action then i say take your and pencil and retreat to the woods and there paint ten years for yourself forgetting there ever lived another painter with what joy you would trace a landscape on your glowing how would your eyes live in the rich of the foliage the golden of the clouds and the soft tints of the distance some shepherd driving home his flock in this peaceful sunset would be the poetical figure of your repose neither would the heavy beating storm coming wild and ominous across the blue floor of the sea upon you the less between the points of the two islands yonder the waves would leap along the horizon s a herd of wild animals while these stately rocks in your with one pine keenly hanging over them stand like simple wisdom between your distance and your feet the shadows would shift and play as every wind sent a cloud over and the of the sea spring r into life the and a of and like flies on the mirror w t a new day every morning handed you to it in magic colors and the cottage hearth would scatter its finish on the sketches and make you taste the sweets of your to morrow after ten such years you would enter italy and not your bat to or m letter xviii to it will grieve me not to see you before you leave for europe and yet i fear i could be of little service to you if you remained in america i feel my of thought and feeling more sensibly every day i am convinced more than ever these are my trial years when i must go forth alone into the wilderness and see if i have any strength yet i am sure of some things and have nearly swept some corners of my heart and trimmed the lamps in my cave at last they have consented to leave me in peace i am to be no more troubled by my uncle richard and even my mother has said she will never more mention college i will send you some further leaves of my journal as a parting gift come to me cold wind of the late autumn and rest thy vexed spirit in my breast i am cold as thou yet love the sun and the deep warmth of rosy summer i am not like thee for i cannot wander over mountain and nor rattle the cottage blinds nor sing merrily in the locks of the dry grass i am still and motionless o give me thy hurrying and we will sweep like the grey over the blue sea and rock the little vessels as they ride at anchor near the of the shore as we fly from country to country then perhaps we shall come to some little where the roses bloom and the is so i s t tie poet april mad the golden and there we will sink into a sleep io that can ner more awake us merrily en merrily on a song to the golden light we wander the arms of the air upon and mock the dull earth in our hurrying flight over the hill where rises the moon over the as it a tune over the cottage with ivy around where the flowers spring soft from the warm deep ground under the shower of the sunny day under the twilight s grey through star and through cloud through rain and through snow through desert and crowd through gladness and we pass with the dance of the lightning s beam we vanish like figures in memory s dream to day perhaps was the last warm day of autumn and the sky was clear as a note of music i lay upon a spot of grass under the polished screen of oak which the frost has left to over the dark mirror of the stream a sunny golden rod moved stately in the whisper of a little wind and the violet and complete softly swung in the southern breath in thia cottage built by the trees and flowers i summoned a creature with dark hair and gentle smiles willing to abide through all the long years of time all through the spring and summer we should need no fire except the sun and in autumn and winter we could shelter ourselves in a those long winter evenings i felt i should write many poems and sing them to the maiden the around could not chill the hospitable flame that burnt within for it would be lit on the altar of no fear no fatigue should enter this little dwelling which these sweet thoughts built on the edge of the river the maiden with her pencil would write the music of my verse into graceful figures life would pass so sweet and tranquil never upon by a passion | 37 |
or a care and all poet and the we be time and even then be satisfied la leave this pleasant fireside when the soft voice of death called us away together i have seen many such pictures yet how impossible to believe i shall realize one of them they are truly pictures if i were only a painter and could give them color and form how happy a child i should be those maiden s deep eyes if i could only paint them her clear forehead and sweet trembling mouth i see her sitting in my gazing into the sky wrapped in a shawl filled with bright colors her long hair streaming like moss about her temples and cheeks how much repose in her calm and as i look at her she catches my eye fixed on her trance and smiles like the taste of sweet wine that wandering dreamy smile that the shadow from fa countenance like the afternoon sunlight of a partly clouded day how much better than full broad laughter she sits now on a little point yonder where the wind blows and still the of the bright circle about her brows though she looks to me chill and ing the and the grass wave above as she and rests her head upon the rock while far across the river crosses the sunlight yet in the cool breeze she again looks up and her mouth curls in a strange sunny mirth which makes the place for this maiden of my dreams the landscape warm whether the day is or not she has such deep joy in her heart sometimes we wander over the and sit on a fair hill where and oaks wave their branches and a little brook runs in silver murmurs at our feet and echoes the softly sighing wind there we read the poems of the of song or hear the bees sing their late busy songs the light is bright and free and cheering and all the sight in an elastic sea of pleasure we our way back to our cottage at nightfall it is to sit by the hearth and hear the legends written by on the brain of an old witch who lives near and w come down to warm her hands at the fire m harmless witch in a white cap and a gown i see long of the maiden s eyes and there is a little youth of the p the child who has come to sit by the fire for a few moments the of the old witch the fragrant in the flame and sends its thick smoke high into the air doubtless the people will think there are in the wood to there comes one of those dull rains which makes me press my hands upon my heart and say i am a weary i dart swiftly through the forest but my limbs are cold the air is chill laden with mist through which i can see nothing distinct and i fall over the old decayed branches lying around and the stain my hands with blood everything seems but it is the dream of despair not of hope i feel when i go back i shall wish to write some verses try them and why shall i try why shall i fail is it not like my life always always a trial and a failure and to be disappointed in such radiant forms when they have ever worn the same character with myself outwardly and to find them indeed only flesh and blood it is reason i should wander alone for many years i look into the windows of the little cottages where people stand around bright fires even more earnestly to day than i did on that other day for when the rain fast and in long drops on my hair when my hands and feet ache with com and i seem to have lived centuries in a sudden hour ah i long io sit by you cheerful fire and smile with you who smile there i cannot come yet perhaps i shall sometime i have too many of these grey waves rolling over the bed of my existence and dashing their blinding spray over the tall bare rocks which hem it in i wish the wind would cease blowing for an hour and leave me to the silence of utter repose even if i have no fire on the hearth i wish the waters of this deep lake could be drawn up by the sun and then fall back in tears or dry forever and let me see the shells and weeds at the bottom for more than mother of pearl may be there life is like a room surrounded with in each of which i am reflected back alas always in my own figure many persons obscure their images by throwing dust around but i think it is better we be reflected in fair proportions i the and the painter walked far to day in the forest solitary in heart and heard the yellow leaves sing death songs and sink heavy with the weeping day on the moist ground how many years swept through me in that walk and i found a poor dove bleeding with broken wing where i should have thought no would have ventured until i remembered that no is sacred from the tread of the murderer i took the wounded sailor of the air home and warmed it and its wound was healed the broken wing as i thought was not so badly hurt it could fly it looked up at me after i fed it and then flew through the window that i had opened i saw to day the sun bid far behind the mist why should he struggle so pale when he shines so like a king on other days yet it is to him for he has no care to take but has his | 37 |
course set nature says sometimes to i will set your course if you will let me o i am too proud and careless of my course i reply and of everything s course i must first respect and feel for others then i can safely tread my own way yet i generally feel as if others had little to expect from me they are all so much happier than i am i seem as happy to them perhaps as they to me i am a hollow trunk with some ivy trailing over it but full of worms yet i look green and fresh they tell me they are happy they smile as i do but i look in my sister s eyes and see such a still deep grief lying there so sweet and mild yet the crystal which the years of concealed sorrow has formed because it is so sweet and mild they call her a happy woman the world seems always to mistake this dress they wear for themselves i suppose the people take a coarse kind of enjoyment in existence which would be so far less to me than the wild pangs of hell the contented seem like cows and oxen grass though ihey believe it is fine they drain the muddy water of the and call it the frost last night the vines and the have thrown their scarlet about them they sparkle in such joyful colors because they are to sleep long weeks and wake in a new dress the dust had formed its on them and the insects pierced their thin folds now they can be tossed off as the snake sheds its skin i wish of oe poet and the april i could have my autumn come now with them i should be content to sleep as many thousand centuries as they do seconds and wake in a fresh robe i must stand still to see them change but remain as i am our season is so long so many years we live it all in a moment and the rest is dreary expectation i hardly know whether to quit my sweet and pass my winter in the city to be by the dull people or not i am nearly to go for i feel anxious to be with mother if i can do anything besides weary her there are some books to read end some pictures to see i can do some work like the earth under the of winter when she for the spring at least i think i can although i may fall into one of those terrible as i did last year when my bead burnt as if it was on fire and my eyes refused to read and every sound in the street upon my ear as it would burst it in i sometimes fear in the fury of that bitter wind i may lose all knowledge of myself suddenly and never again recall the or be led to end the struggle by some glittering point letter xix hope to edward address you dear friend on the eve of my departure to thank you for the many beautiful additions you have made to my life within the last few months and to regret my in other thoughts which has scarcely allowed me to turn to you but my heart like the star of the north never changes its place and i trust may guide your every sorrow there i have never offered you consolation that stuff was made for other men have offered you only myself with what i have of life or i feel our and had we not been forced apart but have dwelt together i think we should have been more aid to each other but do not regard this early separation as any place where two roads part our path runs in the same direction even if we travel by different i am glad to be gone for myself but lament for you i know not bow i shall bear the long absence but the poet and he i trust you will write me often all you know and do i rejoice to you will spend the winter at home in meeting gray which i contemplate as certain you will i trust find satisfaction so noble so deep so hearty a man cannot fail to be set in your life as a rare jewel which if you do not wear you can upon with abundant delight i leave my books and pictures at your disposal i not say much for my present collection of pictures in my large you will find the sketches i made in journey that you mention in one of your letters and my later drawings your friend letter xx edward to james hope the i have now been a month in the city your absence is a lots which i find difficult to bear i walk alone through the crowded streets while life around me colder than the winter s the men that pass they are the only of my memory it seems as if last autumn i had strayed for a time in heaven for that sweet river was an compared with this noisy monotony what clay cold figures tragic always but never sunny formed in leaden the of each other i dream n dreams here but sit in patience longing for spring s green robe to wrap around me will it come will the gay foliage burst on the bare branches of my existence with flowers at my feet the floor i seek picturesque when the winds drive the snow the roofs of the houses but all is too bard and my imagination sinks under the definite so do the persons i meet in society impress me statues with out one soft and graceful line to delight yet i think i hall find presently among these polished persons some vision of my inward heart to render | 37 |
its lonely into vol iv wo it of the poet and the april reality i pray to to come and let me judge them they approach the one is not here my letters i fear from the city will be less to you than those i sent from yet they contained the least part of what i would have said is it not so always with letters and do they not mock you as they do me my journal i keep but almost fear to send any part it is so trifling and shallow yet i know how deeply ou value the city and the life here and will like to know what i do under these heaps of snow i look forward eagerly for the letters you will send laden with sweets from every r on of art and sometimes wish for my own sake though not for yours i were wandering with you i am too dull and cold to wander over the world with any companion edward letter xxi to the common places of travel i shall leave to the guide books and write of what is nearest my own heart my progress as a painter i saw good pictures in london and more at the in paris but still hastened on for my goal lay afar in the field of sunny italy i have boon io a week yet seen the labors of centuries and italy is to me the bright land of art i fancied but i have not taken the brush in my hand i enter the silent afraid to express my admiration how much more to copy i am too weak to imitate such master pieces they confound me by their excellence as if they who produced them were the inhabitants of another world spirits from above descended to us who toil on these low plains i gray would send a strong manly and wake me out of this trance into which i expected to fall i would you felt like writing but know dear friend how sorely life upon you at think each time the post comes to open a letter from the other side of the water which may push me into action the the poet and the painter packet arrives it contains some excellent letters from mother about body and clothes a few plain words of common sense from my father as to expenses on tlie road and a page of nonsense from that arch my sister who every season breaks a new score of hearts how much letters become when we really are separated from those who write them they each contain a fate your only letter i received at paris it was so short and hurried that i still think i must have missed part or the packet with which it came may have been opened and the sheet containing from your journal perhaps a poem abstracted it merely informed me you were in the city but gave no notion of what you do what people you see or how you pass your time in the cold breezes i pray that i may not lose sight of your motions and that my next packet will contain an abundance of good news write fully if you have discovered anything in literature or art this winter for am in great need of discoveries i want the spectacle of another s courage to set me forward on my journey my present experiences shed a brighter l ht on the past than i had expected and what seemed to me of little when it was acted by my new knowledge has become i find that all the masters had their practical days of failure when performance seemed impossibility and life was hung with dark clouds i gaze on the first stiff sketches of painters whose fame has since stretched the length of art too saluted them in the same manner that it does me to day i cling to their failures and feel cheered i admire their steady gross and hope for myself i almost at what i deemed defeat yet have not thus far dared to take the next step very true is it that they failed in the b n but when they were fairly on the road they strode forward with the magnificent steps of in the proud assurance of victory they were willing to pine and for a day while the long years were reserved for noble achievements they sat patient through their school days and then rushed like over the wide bleak sands of existence grace over the road as unconscious as the ever radiant the banner no more in the low dust of and t f the ike april mt true shook his glittering spear aloft or planted it in its lofty might over the bodies of a host of slain the of the great masters used to interest ns greatly many years ago and i cannot add of interest to your present acquaintance with them the facts can be had everywhere i observe in all their histories the same struggle with themselves and with their circumstances genius has never any of his sons from the com mon trials of humanity and has generally added some heavier sorrow to the possession of the power we read their struggles as if they came of right to them we are not willing to with them they not that which renders life they the monuments which the of them for whom they were erected if these great works my past life how much more do they serve as of my future they almost say leave off for how can you pretend to a seat among princes at the same time they lead me on when they declare they were the productions of men like myself and prone to ill success these things have been by the energies of my race and shall i a son of the | 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same jove not dare to mount as h and scale the clouds with them i shall dare shall i not i shall succeed must i not o italy thou land of light and love glowing in the sun s warm rays will thy blue skies hang over me like a funeral pall or shall thy sweet winds joyfully sing my triumph descend upon me beautiful spirit that these green pines and through the descend and tip my pencil with thy sacred fire burn in the veins of a wanderer from a northern land in and snow and melt the ice which years of disappointed hope have in him and ye masters whose glory has become the splendid of an else poverty stricken land be merciful to a pilgrim to your rosy send me too your prayer my edward farewell a letter to mt i breathe more free i have left the city and am in the mountains the other part of my life i on the plain except our walks in the summer i am among the mountains and feel almost as i once thought i should i needed new forms i looked upward there were those vast clouds glowing in the red of morning or the of sunset but they fled fled away and i could not detain them but the mountains remain i see the sun linger then calmly behind them they fold the valleys in shadow they veil the placid bosom of the deep lakes i my room satisfied for the morning will present them to my view and yet old and permanent is it not fine a strong reality not in distance but at our side they the landscape a band of guardian friends firm self stern yet affectionate i have put a verse or two about them in my note book stand forever stand heights with the green clothing your simple forms how are ye permanent alone while we who above you like the clouds by and have no firm horizon no fixed stars me penetrate with your repose for i would build as ye do not on sand from the central heat whence all things spring i among yoa as a traveller and am received within year arms nor do ye vanish as the morning mists but stand and in majesty i drink from the clear springs that in you rise upon your tops i see the landscape grow shall i be lofty and breathe the upper air my lines will be cold on warm s plains i find some pleasant persons for the people borrow the color of the hills they are robust and sweet hearted and i think sometimes here could i pass my life ever thine the poet and the painter april letter james to edward a rd yes i am in italy from every roof that shines la the from every shepherd s figure that rises ia the distance i feel i rejoice i am in an old a mellow an artistic land it is a land that has been subdued peopled illustrated by the genius of man its language flows in copious majesty i see free and graceful gestures dark and passionate eyes i am in a land where man has learned to live for here he has learned to love never before did i know what it is for a country to have a past and you my dear why were you with your rich and heart in a cold tion where the first of art and letters painfully taught only set off the stern figures in stronger relief come to me by this bay of o come to and see the sunset where the luxury of man s genius has built monuments for the warm light to i think that all painting all art must be put aside for antiquity is the land of wonder and all things modern into distance do not think i have become the prey of moods for i pursue with firm purpose a certain study and as a dare not name the art in which i am taking lessons for why should i name it so early i will rather speak of the monuments of genius than of my uncertain beginning but i cannot and by the piece all this is done in every guide book and new volume of travels i will rather speak of art of life of myself of what i see of where i go and you will imagine the rest ever yours hope letter xxiv edward to james rope i cannot come i am fastened to the mountains it is life for me here it would be death to go the burning the and the hope of years finds here a spirit to fan it into stronger flame she is yes it is a woman as i gaze i ask does not such beauty stand to mock all other facts for how wan how are the people at her side a woman why hope when i think of it i had nearly sold myself to the evil one by suspecting was such a meagre affair that could afford me nothing to admire an ocean of life seems hemmed in within the little band that her luxuriant waist so free spirited so wild and so harmonious a creature who never had a care a heavy thought a weary hour was born to like a to feel only the to clasp only the purest breeze where she stands the place rises into luxury at the old gate of her home she like a rosy statue it is natural to her to be innocent to be happy i have forgotten that i alive as i used to be i look as i walk through the woods and she meets me in the clouds i see her soft smile her deep eye the evening grey and my last thought is the joy that one so beautiful | 37 |
so innocent can live i shall not weary you with writing how black and glossy is her hair how smooth her cheek how ample her queen like stature if i admire her for any thing it is for being good something i hated in others this is because goodness is the element of her being not and worn as a covering o my dear hope i am so happy in this provision which life has made to ease me of the dull burden not of care but of self interest that i feared was fastened on my shoulder before it seemed so and uncertain it was this shadow of self which lowered on my letter xxv from the same to the same i am glad i have a friend i rejoice that i can pour the sparkling waters of delight freely forth for another to taste do not expect from me the philosophy of love tf ike poet and the april and rest content in knowing that my heart is no longer a this will give you satisfaction for i know the happiness of your friend is more to yon than your own i ask when i meet this lovely person if i mistake not ia claiming so much for her so much beauty and sweetness and greatness are these lover s errors does my in sport with my understanding and do i no longer perceive and compare accurately even if a self should i not rest content in such deceit it is this i have longed for so many years to have be fore me a beauty that the brilliant colors of imagination and adds a secret force to my she is the only daughter of a worthy lawyer in the mountain village and her power of a sheltered home is into perfect security i will not say i made rapidly her acquaintance but i feel that a mysterious sympathy has drawn us together has united os from the first i am now familiar with the lesser traits of her singular beauty her excellent feeling for the aspects of life her generous vivacity her deep modesty and that love of existence which upon the every day without becoming gross in meeting with this person i naturally perceive that this is a crisis in my hitherto silent organization be cause the supply of a wish indulged in with but little hope of satisfaction shows me i must not delay but open at once this gate leading out of darkness i must rush forward not stand knocking long at this first entrance into day youth yes it is for me to be if bom in the north i am in pulse the native of the south the blood with speed through my veins if nature has hitherto stood so cold and vast a firm an beauty yet desired may i not resolve to accept the first flower that for me to cherish i read in her eloquent eye the steadfast faith that serenely rests in my heart and know it is impossible that she is not wholly mine i cannot explain to you how surprising an influence this event must exert on all my plans and how i have considered and seen it to be possible to adopt the system the views of my race before i did not know that truly i was a man nor was i k er u connected with the dream of i been a a vague if an independent person i have owed out great designs impossible to fulfil i have stimulated by motives which had their origin in poverty and the frozen centre of self how has the ring of necessity been sown with flowers fragrant and the voyage of existence shall not end in uncertainty without touching at fortunate am strong i am encouraged too long followed a solitary path leading anywhere rather than to happiness i now perceive the relation of many sayings of friends and to reality that i vainly imagined before were with truth i am not afraid in opening the deepest chambers of my beings th you can not comprehend what i mean even if my need i see her pass in the street from the window that glance on the ground that open brow that proud and elegant figure must go i must her dear letter xxv james hope to gray ht d j i should have addressed you many times had i able to the result of impressions that much with art must have stamped in my mind many months of study must before i see clearly and in the mean time i would offer a comment upon your letter which advised me to remain at home and draw from the springs of nature in this advice if i may call the devotion of your heart and mind to my welfare by such a common place term i see the tendency that you possess to base every upon nature it may be true that situated as the artist is in america the child of a new period so in the history of the present age be should apply himself to the development of a new side of art and this view of the matter will apply to poetry vol iv no iv m of the poet and the april american poet must not direct hia verse by any model if he would seek to be the prophet of his age bat must create his public his style his success england or italy cannot furnish him with material if i allow the possibility of the original to the poet why not equally to the painter is not painting a kindred art and does it not maintain itself by the power of the painter free from independent and self sustained i confess i cannot see how the comparison holds good between the poet and the painter when we carry it to this length i think painting more the | 37 |
property of art than poetry painting in many respects ranks with the best prose and when it rises into the region of poetry never loses its connection with earth it is not so nearly related to what we call the infinite or what we better speak of as the un named poetry is the religion painting is the religion carried out in fact of art and both are equally important and beautiful the great almost stands alone for what do the mass of his bear away except a vague if pleasing recollection they know nothing intimately they do not possess even a part of his design as a property music seems to me a very exclusive art and painting a more open and finished existence i cannot help feeling how happy is the choice of the painter he is not allowed to fail he must be admirable or nothing verses by dint of good print fair paper and ingenious may attract considerable praise the expensive frame only leads us to condemn the picture more if it be not good i am led to these remarks by the sight of celebrated pictures and feel the immense superiority of the great artist to his host of unknown no artist me more than in his works you will not find daring not even splendor but bow has be enchanted nature by the violet of his his soft and warm his skill repeating if you will in such attractive it is like the face of the old world as we call it the morning never rises with the same cloud and the faintest dawn has a certain force unlike all others this the and the architecture of s is the best architecture pure but not coldly classical without romantic without the of landscape his his driving a few the only figure of a simple twilight scene where the few lines of the landscape are edged with a few soft outlines of foliage these over the waters these easy yet possibly active ships seem as if any day one could copy at least so plain a style so quiet a yet who has ever copied and how does art bud and bloom in our dear land so dear to the wanderer when i see the stars and since i left my heart beats as if they were the face of a friend ever hope letter gray to james hope mt i shall not resign the idea that it is the best time now to lay the broad foundation for a school of american art the dawn of this republic whose career promises to be as long as it is already brilliant should excite new tions in the breasts of the artists sacred is sacred are the lines written by men but let us love the day that is and believe in an ever present spirit i shall be told that our history is too recent for song its figures too active for outline but surely should our be before it has i walk through the forest or glide upon the river i enjoy the day where neither greece nor rome passed theirs let us picture for the next age what actually is and not leave the of that day to dispute about our history we are not too busy we are not too idle to devote a few years of time to the early annals of a nation of a people you will all present your tickets received from the elder schools of art and maintain that by following near to nature and attempting to set forth facts just at hand we must end in nothing it might not be of the poet und ike april well to call them historical the broad wilderness the indian council fire the between the old and the new between the regular and the liberty and independence the craving for novelty and the like but did not with fidelity the faith and fancy of his day and was less true to his art must come you will say in good time and woe to him who to drag it forth at the moment i think what is called art has only a tions existence i sometimes fancy i have the true american spirit there are not a few those who the laws abound and we possess social by the million i am a lover of my country in itself i desire to see the grand moments of so a youth sung pictured the old the the past not too closely o learned student us so young with these let england let the world say what bad things it will of america let americans the national tastes i see no country where merit sooner finds its true reward we do not neglect poets painters scholars we are proud to excess if so be any man has a gift from god whereby he can well discern this beauty that is in the world no people will so little suffer that any of their reputation shall be lost it is an old and a tough story that we are a nation only allied to money making some poet does hot receive his expected patronage for writing useless and therefore writes some more to abuse his customers for their neglect the americans seem cold to art it is their trick ud i love them for it in appearance they to matter in truth they do esteem beauty and virtue they have not time to say that they would say about a matters which presently we shall hear of the wood must be built corn planted crops and then perhaps a few words about life and its completion and how does it all concern you i must have you feel like an american among the ruins of those and see american forms and model american for after all my dear hope it is at home that you must build the palace of your good | 37 |
fame and in your native granite from foreign lands come many s things which adorn and existence bat only firom the soil of our country spring the fair trees under whose wide boughs the people are sheltered excuse me for writing of this so much to but so often am called to speak of anything rather than of patriotism that i must write often to your friend m g as ford to james like the soft steps of a girl graceful and tender se the spring into the summer and the blossoms on tree deck gaily the landscape and make the woods to rejoice in their caresses it was a pleasant thing for me that i came to see you wedded seasons of and flowers while far on their the dark elders of your race sternly career ye have smiled blessed days ye have smiled tenderly for i needed your genial caresses ye hare said to the child of the south o child among the mountains we will your path with roses with and the of the many forest thy days were full of tears many and sad but the sun has and the world is fair i have looked in dark eyes not to be disappointed ah well did my know that my heart would have been rent asunder as the of frost the iron if but a cold word had fallen in the early summer of my love this is a fearful world says the but love out fear my dear hope forget those years of suffering in which you suffered with me for in some winter spring even now i feel i needed one thing more to complete my happiness for at my marriage you were not there my mother came and my sister and my uncle all looking as bright as possible and contented and i quite took to the good people we were married in where i am living is it not remarkable i am actually keeping house as they call it it is a kind of cottage with low sloping roof deep far from the s ike the april road and an avenue of elms leads to it around you see ample fields and a garden in the rear i grasp the and imagine myself throwing up the earth over the cottage a mighty elm its green and there the build sometimes i see their fiery breasts glowing through the leaves i have called my cottage by your name i know it sounds a little english perhaps hope cottage but where i live is it not also where you do i think you will like this nest it is an place rural enough yet by no means rustic yet not sub it is true that the inside of my little dwelling pleases me most from the parlor where i now sit with by my side i see the lofty range of mountains that the valley the lakes the distant river and many a roof of the light in the beams of the sun i see the calm beautiful of day it is like him you will say not a word of his my wife should we not make a very low bow to the for permitting us to have wives and yet one hears of it is beautifully quiet here far off the road and sings in the evenings when no other sound can be heard i am sure you will like her singing free and sweet like herself are you not coming back to pass a day at my house mr lord your friend the twin the twin loves from out the sphere where ages i had moved with silent joy among the stars divine with sudden bound i started for i loved no longer their dim silent silvery shine burning within me was a grief more dear than all the pleasures of that sphere that sprang from earth yet ever looked toward heaven and that i loved more dearly that i knew that all its fire and its course were born from other worlds away from view where wail and yet where love is truer and than the quiet light that shines eternal in our heavenly dome and if it spring from earth and care and with its dark fire the sweetness of its home points yet toward highest heaven whither else can come forth sprang i from my cloudy seat above and towards the earth i bent my winged way and as i passed did from my brow remove the of time that ages gray spent in that life upon my head did lay then from me passed remembrance and its grief from me went all the lore that i had learned so away that a faint dim belief of what had been before within me burned but vague and shadowy all my strength was turned to weakness and i wept as who would not cast on this world s cold shore before him sad lot t then when i raised my eyes behold there two shadowy forms beside me they did seem brothers in age and beauty if their state were not beyond all age t was not a dream for these twin forms still on my pathway gleam still light the dark sad path that i must go still dry the tears that thou alone know like yet their figures were one like the gazed on me so statue ike so earnest so severe and his deep eyes seemed fixed tenderly not on the weeping child but anxiously to watch the swelling of the within round the body s fall light and thin the other upon my form bis warm fingers in my waving hair and said oh come with me into the storm of this world s sadness thee i ll shield from care bid the winds they shall forbear and only sunny dare to breathe within the magic circle that i he sang | 37 |
lo of earthly love and bright the colors on his then he sang to me of hopes and dear delight most fondly cherished by the sons of men he sang of home ah child thou too gain a portion in this paradise with me wilt thou but sail over this summer sea aye while he spoke dreamy enchantment fell from his sweet lips and i away lent myself to the mastery of his spell as many another had before that day tu but while i watched the play of joy upon his features smooth and clear behold his brother s in accent calm i hear high and imperial was its tone it sounded first like the trumpet in its thrilling cheer and as its clear stern note the sweetness wounded that but then filled the air it seemed severe but as it followed on its high career my soul was strengthened so that the proud tone answered to power within me like its own his earnest eye was fixed upon the ground yet sometimes did it read for into mine no story of earth s love his tale did bound high and exalted was his front divine yet round his feet sweet flowers of earth did not ever for he turned his steps away and in a rocky path be went his way ask you if i him followed aye we i and his brother on that pathway wild and when its the boy s feet offend in my strong arms i bear the child and soothe him till comes back serene and mild love s early joy so with him may i go still and not stay even with love below vol iv no iv april dialogue scene is in a chamber in the upper story of a city boarding the room is small but neat and furnished with some taste there are books a few flowers even a chamber organ on the wall hangs a fine from one of s pictures the is drawn up and shows the moonlight falling on the roofs and of the city and the distant water on whose bridges threads of light bum to enter a kindly greeting having been it is a late hour i confess for a visit but coming home i happened to see the light from your window and the remembrance of our pleasant evenings here in other days came bo strongly over me that i could not help trying the door i do not now see you here bo often that i could afford to reject your visits at any hour l himself looks round for a moment with an expression of some sadness all here looks the same your fire burns bright the moonlight i see you hke to have come in as formerly and we we are not changed a i am not li not towards me a you have elected other associates as better pleasing or more useful to you than i our intercourse no longer ministers to my thoughts to my hopes to think of you with that habitual affection with that lively interest i once did would be as if the soldier should fix his eyes constantly on the empty sleeve of his coat my right hand being taken from me i use my left l you speak coldly you cannot doubt that my friendship for you is the same as ever a you should not reproach me for speaking coldly you have driven me to subdue my feelings by reason and the tone of reason seems cold because it is calm you say your friendship is the same your thoughts of your friend are the same your feelings towards him are not your feelings flow now in other channels l am i to blame for that a surely not no one is to blame if either were so it would be i for not possessing more varied powers to satisfy the variations and of your nature l but liave i not seemed heartless to you at times a in the moment perhaps but quiet thought always showed me the difference between and the want of a deep heart nor do i think this will eventually be denied you you are generous you love truth time will make you less restless because less bent upon yourself will give depth and to that glowing heart tenderness will then come of itself you will take upon you the bonds of friendship less easily and knit them firmer l and you will then receive me a i or some other it matters not l ah you have become indifferent to me a what would you have that gentle trust which seems to itself immortal cannot be given twice what is sweet and flower like in the mind is very timid and can only be tempted out by the breeze and promise of spring those flowers once touched by a cold wind will not revive again l but their lie in the earth a yes to await a new spring but this conversation is words can neither conceal nor make up for the want of flowing love i do not blame you but i cannot afford to love you as i have done any more nor would it avail either of us if i could seek elsewhere what you can no longer duly prize from me let us not seek to raise the dead from their but cherish rather the innocent children of to day l but i cannot be happy unless there is a perfectly good understanding between us a that indeed we ought to have i feel the power of understanding your course whether it bend my way or not i need not communication from you or personal relation to do that have i the human first examined then i know too the will and action i have known you too deeply to you in the long run l yet | 37 |
of his mind no personal relation could have availed it except in the way of suggestion he could not have been absorbed in the present moment still it would have been heaven and earth must i remember vol iv no iv dialogue april l have you been reading the play of late a yes hearing one or two points struck me that have not before and i was inclined to try for my harvest from a new study of it gave its just emphasis to the climax i ll call thee hamlet king father royal so unlike in its order to what would hi ve been in any other mind as also to the two expressions in the speech so delicately characteristic the glimpses of the moon and with thoughts beyond the reaches of oar souls i think i have in myself improved that i feel more than ever what does not the deep calmness always apparent beneath the delicate variations of this soul s atmosphere the readiness is all this religion from the very first all these thrilling notes and the sweet bells even when most out of tune suggest all their silenced melody from hamlet i turned to and the was natural yet surprising from the indifference and sadness of the heaven craving soul to the of the disappointed affections and wounded hamlet would well have understood them both yet what a of lies between his pangs of despised love and the anguish of o your old kind father whose frank heart gave you that way madness lies let me that no more of that i tax you not you with never gave you kingdom called you children it the heart only no grief would be possible from a hamlet which would not at the same time the soul the outraged heart of takes refuge at once in action in curses and bitter deeds it needs to be relieved by the native of s of a soul that never knew bow to trust to make it dignified in our eyes from men could only die yet the least shade of wrong in this heaven ruled world would have occasioned hamlet a deeper pain than was capable of yet hamlet could not for a moment have been so deceived as to fancy man worthless because many men were he knew himself too well to feel the surprise of when his steward proved true let me behold thy surely this was bom of women forgive my general and you perpetual sober gods i do proclaim one man he does not deserve a friend that could draw higher from his story than the steward does poor honest lord brought low by his own heart undone by goodness strange unusual blood when man s worst sin is he does too good who then dares to be half so kind again for that makes gods doth still mar men tastes the of the cup he him self that he does not believe even in himself his even himself who dares who dares in purity of manhood to stand up and say hia man if one be so are they all l you seem to have fixed your mind of late on the subject of a i own that my thoughts have turned of late on that low form which despair sometimes even with the well disposed yet see how would it be in any of these beings hamlet is no but he has those gifts least likely to find due response from those around him yet he is felt almost in his due sense by two or three april has not only one faithful daughter whom he knew not how to value but a friend beside is by the only persons to whom he was good purely from of nature rather than the joy he expected from their gratitude and sympathy hb tragedy is always a mistake and the loneliness of the deepest the lover ceases to be pathetic to us so soon as the sun is high enough above the mountains were i despite the bright points so numerous in their history and the of my own conscience inclined to despise my fellow men i should have found abundant argument against it during this late study of hamlet in the streets and lecture rooms we continually hear comments so stupid insolent and shallow on great and beautiful works that we are tempted to think that there is no public for anything that is good that a work of genius can appeal only to the minds in any one age and that the reputation now to those of former times is never felt but only of so a name little wise or worthy has been written perhaps nothing so adequate as s comparison of him to the pine apple yet on reading hamlet his greatest work we find there is not a sentence scarce a word that men have not appreciated have not used in ways had we never read the play we should find the whole of it from quotation and illustration familiar to us as air that exquisite so heavy with meaning wrought out with such admirable has become a part of literary the stock of the literary bank and what set criticism can tell like this fact how great was the work and that men were worthy it should be addressed to them l the moon looks in to tell her assent see she has just got above that chimney just as this happy certainty has with you risen above the of the day a she looks surprised as well as complacent l she looks surprised to find me still here i most say good night my friend good night a good night and farewell x you look as if it were for some time lu a that rests with you you will generally | 37 |
mc n to repose under its beautiful but branches we still have a certain question about vol iv mo iv i considered as a for evil bat oar absurd horrors were dissipated and a feeling of respect for the friends of the as we heard the of the doctrine of association by mr and others that name already consecrated to humanity seemed to ue to have with the mantle of the spirit upon this eloquent of in whose voice and countenance as well as in his for humanity the spirit of his great still seemed to speak we cannot sufficiently lament that there was no of the speech in which mr set forth the argument derived from the of nature against the doctrine of community of goods to the of individual property it was the general scope of the o show that life was forever tending to individuality of expression and could not be refused material order also as a field for the of this tendency and that individual property as the of this universal law the lowest expression certainly but still an it would not be fair to give a report of his and delicate sketch of the ultimate result of denying this principle he divided the truth on this subject to right and left with the sword of pure spirit let it be sufficient to say that only the ecstasy of self love could understand it casting reflections and that it could not be expected to find an understanding with the ecstasy of which has seized many modern but in he absence of reports of give a of as we t iron the of the and its friends j and then the of stating some and seem to escaped ike attention of enthusiastic view upon which proceeds is that there is in ihe divine mind a certain social order te which is destined and which is by man his truth in thought to the two poles of christian love of god and love of man he the fact which will hardly chat the present re not this der f w i but they and external evils which ao the temptations of man as to make innocence impossible and virtue only the of nor even by that except in in of endowed with proof of this fact he appeals to all history and all as he himself also to be by this disorder yet had the courage to attempt to di the divine labored forty y at the work life and keeping this position which enabled him to know personally the customs and laws of trade aa it is and with a calculation which in the service of justice and followed out tb these and laws and the of upon the social aod moral of the various men directly and indirectly affected by them he yet to use his own word labored in for seven years before he obtained the at having seen that labor stands in the world fact of motion in the physical be to his mind the of men as once before that same to matter the c then became what i ie ment so broad and so that every man shall find at every hour of the day and every of his life labor which is to him attractive and not as among the passions of men every social charity and even a for self we he could maintain that there is nothing done and nothing to be done in the world which might not find a willing agent were circumstances properly arranged but to induce a desire after this arrangement and the ability to make it mankind must have its scientific foundations or harmony with the nature of things made manifest to their reason man therefore must be into his powers and then the tendencies f each of these powers be studied out and corresponding circumstances imagined which should yield to each power for such must m april be the divine order of society to which man is destined thus man according to is constituted of twelve passions consisting of the five senses secondly of the four social passions friendship ambition love and the parental sentiment and of three intellectual powers whose strange names according to our best recollection are and the training of these twelve powers into their appropriate that each may contribute its share both to the harmony of the universe and the unity of the individual is what calls the social development of the passions this view of the of man and the necessity of his training may be made perhaps by his language into that of another remarkable who seems to have had the same view says that man s soul is made up of loves and every love must find its wisdom the marriage of love and wisdom being made manifest in uses the of love must find the angel of wisdom to whom it is i on penalty of becoming a devil says if the passions do not find their by the law of groups and series says they become principles of disorder and produce what we see now all around us a lying in wickedness and dead in sin there is one of man s passions which has found its social development so far as to become an illustration of the meaning of this theory with regard to all the rest and this is the passion of hearing music is the wisdom of this passion and the progress of this science has involved the large variety of musical instruments and created the song the chorus the opera the and the so according to each of the senses each of the social passions each of the intellectual powers in finding its legitimate scope must create a music in its sphere with instruments corresponding and men into groups corresponding with the chorus the opera the and th and there are of this the | 37 |
passion of sight has created painting architecture and even what seem to be the powers of m t taste smell have not failed to bring the tribute of their to the comforts and of life and the science of vitality one obvious and function of the senses is to build up bodies and contribute to physical well being but this is not all there is another function which the senses have to perform beside this obvious one and also beside the one of creating in five different modes even though we may admit that all these may rise to the spiritual elevation of that divine art which has carried to the of the highest intellectual moral and even religious exercises of the soul this function is to perfect the earth on which we live and make it not only yield its treasures for physical well being to every creature but perform its part in the universe at this point of s system there opens upon us a quite poetical extent of view and have intimated to us heretofore that the earth needs to be dressed and kept by men in order not to become in several ways desert and that the which depend much more upon the state of the surface of the earth than upon its relations with the sun should be would that the cursing of the ground for man s sake sung of by the old hebrew prophet is no but that literally man s falling below his destiny has as its natural consequence the return of the earth to a state of chaos he that following out the su of the senses of taste and smell the human race must cultivate the whole vegetable creation if not the animal to a perfection which would involve an agricultural science absolutely sublime in its extent while the and easy railroad car and every contribution the mechanical arts have made to the of man would fall among the meanest and class of the innumerable results of seeking for the wisdom of the sense of touch but is the earth to be restored to the state of paradise through the labors of man merely to upon his physical nature and contribute to his personal by no means but the earth thus cultivated and shall shine as a brighter star in the of other world shall hold by ite a perfect relation with the sun and through that star the whole heavens it is hardly fair to to touch into bis upon a part of ms system which is so and which requires in order to be appreciated t all that he has said upon it if the and of the of and art have these wide upon tke universe we may not and of the social passions another and vista of thought the ward friendship in this for the sentiment of ia and in delicate relations attempts to show this passion its scope the social system which j to tl divine order will ia and more than ril that of the rights of ever suggested that his hopes ter and expressed under the s of the sad and to this the social pas sion must have its scope this passion he as the love of order in ta their comparative worth with la each he r casting ous o this word its bad i meaning for its object is no die o s of it gives to every man and woman place in the social and the idea at government the of the two of ship and ambition liberty and law as they should do the poles of a living the of love and the parental sentiment will when through a general ease of ave left free to find their legitimate exercises universally and by consequence the institution oi marriage and the family to their highest ends of and and human beings into the richest forms of life the christian world as it is can fail to that although has sam ed the of yet the whole deep of m yet to be widely appreciated to from but tbe one of nest be a before will e from tiiat of tbe heart of which christ warned his the three intellectual passions into which the reason have for their office to estimate the and ends of the nine passions and one web of life according to their and ds and then they will take the stiu higher range of enjoying the divine order and tracing ui the happiness the image of god we see bom the above rude outline that thinks be has discovered the divine order which is the true of society by studying each of the twelve passions ef man with he same respect that the passion of hearing has been studied in to derive from thence the present of he thinks that by folk out tbe at this study in practice tbe earth be cultivated and restored to the state of with the of a world of art in harmony with the beauty of nature also that political institutions would combine all desirable liberty with all that can come from the of law by all men according o the of their natures and that individual families would be established in tbe purest and most powerful form lastly that the functions of reason would be to their objects of perpetually and keeping in order this great estate of man internal and external if had done nothing but suggest to his race that the divine order of society was a possible discovery and thus have given a noble object to human and presented a worthy prize for human energy in this direction he would have done much it is claimed however by those who have studied his works that he has done a great deal more that be has himself successfully worked at the practical problems and the which he has discovered in | 37 |
detail is as it were a house already into which men may go and at once live freed from a multitude of the evils that upon the modern state a word or two in explanation of this not a of goods it is a state of april which a public as all societies do and i a better security for its return in just proportions to those who produce it but which admits of individual property as much as any in trade it is indeed a great in which the members throw in capital of three species namely labor skill and money which last is the representative of past labor and skill all these species of capital will draw a large interest when the is in operation but in order to prevent any great of the third species of capital money it is a law of the that small sums shall draw interest in a than large ones the common property accumulated by the in its capacity shall be subject to the will of the members expressed by and otherwise its general destination being to provide for all children without distinction of rank or birth an appropriate education according to their genius and capacity also to provide public and comforts and amusements and means of expressing their genius to all the members the labor in the will be organized upon scientific principles i e by the law of groups and series and individual genius and disposition will be the guide as to the distribution of the members into the several groups and series the well being and good training of the will never be sacrificed to the external object of the labor for to that in the divine order the necessity of such a sacrifice never can occur even though all ends are answered the first objection that strikes a spiritual or intellectual person at the of is its material aspect a system which the social passions and even the senses of man in full and puts them on the same ground with the functions of reason seems to be a dead undoubtedly at first sight it is especially to the but on a little investigation it will be found lo present no bed of roses for the nor paradise j for the mere the discharge of the external tions of the senses the keenest and most health giving labor though a labor that must have all the characteristics of the chase and other chosen amusements of men and women nor can the labor fall upon any one to the degree of making a also the abundance which this discharge of the external functions of the senses will bring forth from the earth to the physical well being of man will leave him leisure to follow out the of his social passions which now are cramped and from their objects by the necessity j that rests upon every man to in order to get bis out of the present of provisions on the i globe for undoubtedly it is because poverty is in then world and because all the accumulated riches if divided not leave even a to each that even the rich cannot get rid of this all devouring instinct of ing or getting more were every man assured of the and comforts of life where would be the to this morbid passion for gain which the civilized man and makes him sacrifice the purity and warmth of his friendship love and parental sentiment but then the passions thus set free to act carry within them their own rule nor the pledge of confer ring happiness they can only get this from the free action upon them of the intellectual passions which human reason but these functions of reason do they carry within i themselves the pledge of their own continued health and harmonious action j here stops short and in so doing proves itself to be not a life a soul but only a body it may be a magnificent body for humanity to dwell in for a season and one for which it may be wise to quit old which now go by the proud name of civilization but if its friends pretend for what has been now described any higher character than that of a body thus turning men from seeking for principles of life essentially above it will prove but another perhaps a greater curse in being a body however it is as much entitled to consideration as any other body which has been created it has the advantage of being a creation of the christian life the question is whether the ac its own of nature in being an organization or opens up any avenue into the source of life that shall keep it sweet it to to itself contrary elements and its own waste so thai it no iv april it may renew itself forever in great and finer forms this question the in the from whom alone we have learnt anything of did not seem to have considered but this is a vital point did our time and space permit we should be tempted to follow out some curious suggested to us by reading s history of the in looking over s analysis of human nature as given above we notice that every one of bis passions whether social or intellectual was recognised as a god by some separate tribe in antiquity the oriental with the exception of the hebrew and the european also consisted in of the forces and and the functions of being the alone in their fidelity to the beautiful individuality of their gave to culture that which is essential to a life and made greece what it is in the history of humanity but it is not our purpose to recommend the worship of to the the word of god the doctrine of the which even divinity must make if it would act upon earth | 37 |
all that beautifully intimated in his human form of beauty in his destruction of the or in his pilgrimage to where jove made for blood or in his from the land of perpetual summer with wheat for men all is and realized in christ and this is now the only name under heaven by which men may be saved from spiritual death christian churches in the midst of a might be the cities of another greece let each member be at once subject and like a pupil and master like a like fighting and conquering for self preservation only and the liberty of the conquered in a former article we suggested the idea that the christ churches planted by the were only institutions to be lost like the morning star in the deeper glory of a kingdom of heaven on earth which we then fancied would bring about since then by the study of ancient and also of s history of the churches of christ up to the time of with observations on the attempt at west we have come to see that churches will have an office as long as men are born children and that a tremendous tyranny is necessarily involved by society itself the visible church of christ those who have ideas and who and free from human have pledged themselves to live by them alone or die most be a select body in the midst of the instinctive life that is perpetually arriving on the shores of being and which it is not fair or wise to catch up and before it can understand its position and give its consent we must be men before we are christians else we shall never be either christians or men the life of the world is now the christian life for eighteen centuries art literature philosophy poetry have followed the fortunes of the christian idea ancient history is the history of the of nature or natural religion modern history is the history of an idea or revealed religion in vain will any thing try to be which is not supported thereby does homage to christianity with many words but this may be cant though it thinks itself sincere besides there are many things which go by the name of christianity that are not it let the see to it that there be freedom in their for churches by its material tion and it no support on its material side existing within them but not of them feeding on ideas foi that which is behind into performance and pressing on to the stature of the perfect man they will finally spread themselves in spirit over the whole body in fine it is our belief that unless the bodies are made alive by christ their constitution will not march and the force of reaction by which they move for a season will not preserve them from corruption as the corruption of the best is the worst the warmer their friends are the more awake should they be to this danger and the more energetic to it we understand that brook farm has become a establishment we rejoice in this because such persons as form that association will give it a fair experiment we wish it god speed may it become a university where the young american shall learn bis duties and become worthy of this broad land of his inheritance e p p the american april the young american a lecture read before the library in boston at the wednesday it is remarkable that our people have their intellectual from one country and their duties from another our books are european we were born within the fame and sphere of and milton of bacon and pope our college text books are the writings of butler and and our domestic reading has been and and johnson young and and scott and and the and we are sent to a school to learn a gulf for the young american between his education and his work we are like the all banker s daughter who when her education was finished and her father had become a and she was asked what she could do for him in his sickness and misfortunes could she make a shirt mil bread milk no but she could and cat rice paper and paint velvet and transfer drawings and make satin and play on the and sing german songs and act and arrange and a great many other equally useful and indispensable performances it has seemed verily so with the education of our young men the system of thought was the growth of institutions whilst those that were flourishing around them were not consecrated to their imagination nor interpreted to their understanding this false state of things is newly in a way to be corrected america is beginning to assert itself to the and to the imagination of her children and europe is receding in the same degree this their reaction on education gives a new importance to the internal improvements and to the politics of the country there is no american citizen who has not been stimulated to reflection by the now in progress of con for travel and the of goods in the id the young american united states the alleged effect to the size of cities is in a rapid coarse of fulfilment in this metropolis of new england the growth of boston never slow has been so since the have been opened which join it to providence to and to that the extreme depression of general trade has not concealed it from the most careless eye the narrow which a few years ago easily held its thirty or forty thousand people with many pastures and waste lands not to mention the large private gardens in the midst of the town has been found too strait when forty are swelled to a hundred the waste lands have been in and over the private gardens | 37 |
one after the other have become streets boston proper consisted of seven hundred and twenty acres of land acre after acre has been since won from the sea and in a short time the will find it to trace the within the last year ihe newspapers tell us from twelve to fifteen hundred buildings of all sorts have been erected many of them of a rich and character and because each of the new avenues of iron road like the bough of a tree the growth of the city proceeds at a rate already a new road is shooting towards the and and every great line of road that is completed makes cross sections from road to road more practicable so that the land will presently be in a of iron this rage for road building is beneficent for america where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics and trade inasmuch as the great political promise of the invention is to hold the union whose days seemed already numbered by the mere inconvenience of representatives judges and officers across such tedious distances of land and water not only is distance but when as now the and the like enormous shoot every day across the thousand various threads of national descent and employment and bind them fast in one web an goes forward and there is no danger that local peculiarities and should be preserved the new power is hardly less noticeable in its relation the young april to the population chiefly to the people of ireland as having given employment to hundreds of thousands of the natives of that country who are continually arriving in every vessel from great britain in an country the railroad is a fine object in the making it has introduced a multitude of picturesque traits into our pastoral scenery the of mountains the of streams the bold carried out into a broad silent meadow silent and by any but its own neighbors since the planting of the region the encounter at short distances along the track of of the energy with which they strain at their tasks the cries of the or the character of the work itself which so and the and forms of nature the village of at the edge of beautiful lakes until now the undisturbed haunt of the wild duck and in the most of the forest around which the wives and children of the irish are seen the number of foreigners men and women whom now the singly in the forest paths the blowing of rocks all day with the occasional alarm of frightful accident and the indefinite promise of what the new channel of trade may do and undo for the rural towns keep the senses and imagination active and the varied aspects of the enterprise make it the topic of all companies in cars and boats and by fire sides this picture is a little when too nearly seen by the wrongs that are done in the that are made with the our hospitality to the poor has not much merit in it we pay the poor fellow very ill to work from dark to dark for sixty or even fifty cents a day is but pitiful wages for a married man it is a when paid in cash but when as generally happens through the extreme wants of the one party met by the of the other he draws his pay in clothes and food and in other articles of necessity his case is still worse he everything at disadvantage and has no adviser or protector besides the labor done is excessive and the sight of it reminds one of negro driving good and sturdy say that they have never seen so much work got out of a man in a day poor fellows hear their tu of their from the old country and their landing in the new and their fortunes appear as little under their own control as the leaves of the forest around them as soon as the ship that brought them is one is whirled off to one to one at the at new and one beside the at some fetch and carry on the of new york and boston some in the woods of they have too little money and too little knowledge to allow them the exercise of much more election of whither to go or what to do than the leaf that is blown into this or that brook to perish and yet their plight is not so grievous as it seems the escape from the despair of their condition at home into the unlimited opportunities of their existence here must be reckoned a gain the irish father and mother are very ill paid and are victims of fraud and private sion but their children are instantly received into the schools of the country they grow up in perfect communication and equality with the native children and owe to their parents a vigor of constitution which promises them at least an even chance in the of the new generation whether it is this confidence that puts a drop of sweetness in their cup or whether the spirits natural to the race it is certain that they seem to have almost a of the vivacity and good nature in our towns and contrast in that particular with the native people in the village where i reside through which a railroad is being built the charitable ladies who moved by the report of the wrongs and of the newly arrived the with offers of relief were surprised to find the most civil reception and the most bounding from the oldest to the youngest perhaps they may thank these dull as safe for and this grim day s work of fifteen or sixteen hours though by all the humanity of the neighborhood is a better police than the and his but i have too long from speaking of that | 37 |
a hole or on a god almighty first planted a garden says lord bacon and it is the purest of human pleasures it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man without which buildings and palaces are but gross handy works and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely as if were the greater perfection bacon has followed up this sentiment in his two essays on buildings and on gardens with many pleasing details on the of lands and has given us an engaging account of the manner in which bacon finished his own at in america we have hitherto little to boast in this kind the cities continually drain the country of the best part of its population the flower of the youth of both sexes goes into the towns and the country is cultivated by a so much inferior class the land travel a whole day together looks poverty stricken and the buildings plain and poor in europe where society has an aristocratic structure the land is full of men of the best stock and the best culture whose interest and pride it is to remain half the american the year on their estates and to fill them with every convenience and ornament of course these make model farms and model architecture and are a constant education to the eye of the surrounding population whatever events in progress shall go to disgust men with cities and into them the passion for country life and will render a prodigious service to the whole face of this continent and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life the bringing out by art the native but hidden graces of the landscape i look on such improvements also as directly tending to the land to the and give him whatever is valuable in local attachment any relation to the land the habit of it or it or even hunting on it the feeling of patriotism he who keeps shop on it or he who merely uses it as a support to his desk and or to his it very little the vast majority of the people of this country live by the land and carry its quality in their manners and opinions we in the atlantic states by position have been commercial and have as i said easily an european culture luckily for us now that steam has the atlantic to a strait the nervous rocky west is a new and continental element into the national mind and we shall yet have an american genius how much better when the whole land is a garden and the people have grown up in the of a paradise without looking then to those extraordinary social influences which are now acting in precisely this direction but only at what is inevitably doing around us i think we must regard the land as a commanding and increasing power on the american citizen the and influence which promises to disclose new powers for ages to come in the second place the and of the new and anti power of commerce is the political fact of most significance to the american at this hour we cannot look on the freedom of this country in with its youth without a that here shall laws and institutions exist on some scale of proportion to the majesty of nature to men for the vast area the two the and the somewhat of the gravity and grandeur of nature the american april win itself into the code a population crowding on all ships from all corners of the world to the great gates of north america namely boston new york and new and thence proceeding inward to the and the mountains and quickly their private thought to the public opinion their toll to the treasury and their vote to the election it cannot be doubted that the of this country should become more catholic and than that of any other it seems so easy for america to inspire and express the most and humane spirit new born free strong the land of the of the of the of the of the saint she should speak for the human race america is the country of the future from washington its capital city the city of magnificent distances through all its cities states and it is a country of of projects of vast designs and expectations it has no past all has an onward and look and is it fitted to receive more readily every generous feature which the wisdom or the fortune of man has yet to impress gentlemen there is a sublime and friendly destiny by which the human race is guided the race never dying the individual never spared to results affecting masses and ages men are narrow and selfish but the genius or destiny is not narrow but beneficent it is not discovered in their calculated and voluntary activity but in what with or without their design only what is inevitable interests us and it turns out that love and good are inevitable and in the course of things that genius has itself into nature it itself by a small excess of good a small balance in brute facts always favorable to the side of reason ah the facts in any part of nature shall be and the results shall indicate the same security and benefit so slight as to be hardly and yet it is there the sphere is found at the poles and swelled at the a form flowing necessarily from the state yet the form the us required to prevent the great of the continent or even of lesser mountains east up at any time by from continually the of the earth the of the population is the young american found to keep an invariable equality in the sexes with a trifling in | 37 |
favor of the male as if to counter balance the necessarily increased exposure of male life in war and other accidents remark the effort throughout nature at somewhat better than the actual creatures in nature which alone and in mankind the population of the world is a population these are not the best but the best that could live in the existing state of of animals and morals the best that could yet live there shall be a better please god this genius or des tiny is of the administration though exist of its secret tenderness it may be a cruel kindness serving the whole even to the ruin of the member a terrible all profits to the community without to individuals its law is you shall have every thing as a member nothing to yourself for nature is the noblest en yet uses a grinding economy working up all that is wasted today into tomorrow s creation not a superfluous grain of sand for all the she makes of expense and public works it is because nature thus and uses laboring for the general that we poor particulars are so crushed and and find it so hard to live she flung us out in her plenty but we cannot shed a hair or a of a nail but instantly she at the and it to the general stock our condition is like that of the poor wolves if one of the flock wound himself or so much as limp the rest eat him up that serene power an irresistible check upon the and of our wills his charity is not our charity one of his agents is our will but that which expresses itself in our will is stronger than our will we are very forward to help it but it will not be it our we devise laws and relief laws but the principle of population is always wages to the lowest on which human life can be sustained we against and we would have a common for the poor but the selfishness which stores and the corn for high prices is the of and the law of self preservation is policy t e young american april than any can be we systems and it turns out that our charity we our paper we repair commerce with unlimited credit and are presently visited with unlimited it is easy to see that we of the existing generation are with a which in its working for coming generations sacrifices the passing one which the most selfish men to act against their private interest for the public welfare we build we know not for what or for whom but one thing is very certain that we who build will receive the very smallest share of benefit immense benefit will they are essential to the country but that will be felt not until we are no longer countrymen we do the uke in all matters man s heart the almighty to the set by secret and we plant trees we build stone houses we redeem the waste we make long laws we found but for many and remote generations we should be very much to learn that the little benefit we chanced in our own persons to receive was the utmost they would yield the history of commerce which of course the history of the world is the record of this beneficent tendency the form of government readily becomes as each person may see in his own family fathers wish to be the fathers of the minds of their children as well as of their bodies and behold with great impatience a new character and way of thinking to show itself in their own son or daughter this feeling which all their love and pride in the powers of their children cannot subdue becomes and tyranny when the head of the the emperor of an empire with the same difference of opinion in his subjects difference of opinion is the one crime which kings never forgive an empire is an immense i am the state said the french louis when a french mentioned to paul of russia that a man of consequence in st was interesting the young american himself in some matter the vehemently interrupted him with these words there is no man of consequence in this empire but he with whom i am actually speaking and so long only as i am speaking to him is he of any consequence and the present emperor is reported to have said to his council gentlemen the age is embarrassed with new opinions rely on me gentlemen i shall oppose an iron will to the progress of liberal opinions it is very easy to see that this or family management gets to be rather troublesome to all but the papa the comes to be a and this very unpleasant or the power of and finally the king is compelled to call in the aid of his brothers and cousins and remote relations to help him keep his overgrown house in order and this club of always come at last to have a will of their own they combine to brave the sovereign and call in the aid of the people each chief as many followers by kindness and maintenance and gifts as he can and as long as war lasts the who must be soldiers rule very well but when peace comes the prove very and uncomfortable masters their turn out to be very insulting and degrading to the grew to be a and meantime trade or the merchant and had begun to appear trade a plant which always grows wherever there is peace as soon as there is peace and as long as there is peace the luxury and necessity of the noble it and as quickly as men go to foreign parts in ships or a new order of things springs up new ideas awake in | 37 |
their minds new command takes place new servants and new masters their information their wealth their correspondence have made them quite other men than left their native shore t ey are now and by another patent than the king s had been good had broken the power of the kings and had some very good traits of its own but it had grown mischievous it was time for it to die and as they say of dying people all its faults came out trade was the strong man that broke it down and raised a tht young american april new and unknown power in its place it is a new agent in the world and one of great function it is a very intellectual force this physical strength and combination information science in its room it calls out all force of a certain kind that in the former it is now in the midst of its career is not ended yet our still partake largely of that element trade goes to make the insignificant and to bring every kind of faculty of every individual that can in any manner serve any person on sale instead of a huge army and navy and it to convert government into a of intelligence an intelligence where every man may find what he wishes to buy and expose what he has to sell not only produce and but art skill and and moral this is the good and this the evil of trade that it goes to put everything into market talent beauty virtue and man himself by this means however it has done its work it has its faults and will come to an end as the others do we rail at trade and the philosopher and lover of man have much harm to say of it but the historian of the world will see that trade was the principle of liberty that trade planted america and destroyed that it makes peace and keeps peace and it will slavery we complain of the grievous oppression of the poor and of its building up a new aristocracy on the ruins of the aristocracy it destroyed but there is this immense difference that the aristocracy of trade has no is not was the result of toil and talent the result of merit of some kind and is continually falling like the waves of the sea before new claims of the same sort trade is an instrument in the hands of that friendly power which works for us in our own despite we design it thus and thus but it turns out otherwise and better this beneficent tendency without violence exists and works every observation of history a confidence that we shall not go far wrong that things mend that is it that is the moral of all we learn that it hope hope the mother of our part is plainly not to throw ourselves the young american across the track not to block improvement and sit till are stone but to watch the of successive and to with the new works of new days government has been a it should be a plant i conceive that the office of law should be to express and not to the mind of mankind new thoughts new things trade was one instrument but trade is also but for a time and must give way to somewhat broader and better whose signs are already dawn ing in the sky i pass in the third place to speak of the signs of that which is the of trade it is in consequence of the revolution in the state of society wrought by trade that government in our times is beginning to wear so clumsy and an appearance we have already seen our way to shorter methods the time is full of good signs some of them shall to fruit all this beneficent is a friendly omen and the swelling cry of voices for the education of the people that government has other offices than those of banker and witness the new movements in the civilized world the of france germany and the trades the english league against the corn laws and the whole so called in paris the the of the has begun to make its appearance in the witness too the spectacle of three which have within a very short time sprung up within this beside several others undertaken by citizens of within the territory of other states these proceeded from a variety of motives from an impatience of many in common life from a wish for greater freedom than the manners and opinions of society permitted but in great part from a feeling that the true offices of the state the state had let fall to the ground that in the scramble of parties for the public purse the main duties of government were omitted the duty to instruct the to supply the poor with work and with good guidance these preferred the agricultural life as the most favorable condition for human culture but they thought that the farm as we manage it did not satisfy vol iv no iv the american the right ambition of man the farmer after sacrificing pleasure taste freedom thought love to bis work turns out often a like the merchant this result might well seem all this from to for all these years to end in and the s flag and removing from bad to worse it is time to have the thing looked into and with a criticism ascertained who is the fool it seemed a great deal v because the farmer is living in the same town with men who pretend to know exactly what he wants or one side is agricultural coolly exposing the nonsense of our and expense of and o by means of a of artificial to turn a into corn and on the other the farmer not only eager for the information but with | 37 |
bad crops and in debt and for want of it here are and countless mechanical who with the affirm that the smallest union would make every man rich and on the other side is this multitude of poor men and women seeking work and who cannot find enough to pay their board the science is confident and surely the poverty is real if any means could be found to bring these two together this was one design of the of the associations which are now making their first feeble experiments they were founded in love and in labor they proposed as you know that all men should take t in the manual toil and proposed to the condition of men by harmonious for hostile industry it was a noble thought of which gives a favorable idea of his system to distinguish in his a class as the sacred band by whom whatever duties were disagreeable and likely to be omitted were to be assumed at least an economical e s seemed certain for the enterprise and that agricultural association must sooner or later fix the price of bread and drive single farmers into association in self defence as the great commercial and companies had already done the is only the of the same movement which made the joint stock companies for the young and so forth it has turned out cheaper to make by companies and it is proposed to plant corn and to bread by and knowing men affirm it will be tried until it is done undoubtedly abundant mistakes will be made by these first which will draw ridicule on their schemes i think for example that they the importance of a favorite project of theirs that of paying talent and labor at one rate paying all sorts of service at one rate say ten cents the hour they have paid it so but not an instant would a remain a in one hand it became an eagle as it fell and in another hand a copper cent for obviously the whole value of the is in knowing what to do with it one man with it a land title of an indian and makes his posterity princes or corn enough to feed the world or pen ink and paper or a painter s brush by which he can communicate himself to the human race as if he were fire and the other and money is of no value it cannot spend itself all depends on the skill of the whether too the objection almost universally felt by such women in the community as were mothers to an associate life to a common table and a common nursery c setting a higher value on the private family with poverty than on an association with wealth not prove remains to be determined but the aimed at a much greater success in securing to all their members an equal and very thorough education and the great aims of the move ment will not be even if these attempts il but will be by like minded men in all society until they succeed this is the value of the not what they have done but the revolution which they indicate as on the way yes t must the poor man look across the country from any side around ns and the landscape seems to government the actual differences of men must be acknowledged and met with love and wisdom these rising grounds which the below seem to ask for lords true lords lords who understand the land and its ng p i uses and the of men and whose government would be what it should namely b want and supply how gladly would each citizen pay a commission for the support and of such good guidance said no man should be rich but those who understand it and certainly the poor are prone to think that very few of the rich understand use their advantage to any good purpose they have not originality nor even grace in their expenditure but if this is true of wealth it is much more true of power none should be a governor who has not a talent for governing now many people have a native skill for carving out business for many bands a genius for the disposition of affairs and are never happier than difficult practical questions which other men are to be solved all lies in light before them they are in their element any means be contrived to only these there really seems a progress towards such a state of things in which this work shall be done by these natural workmen and this not certainly through any increased discretion shown by the citizens at but by the gradual contempt into which official government falls and the increasing disposition of private to assume its fallen functions thus the post office is likely to go into before the private shop of and his the to fall entirely into private hands justice is continually administered more and more by private reference and not by we have in a commercial age it would be but an easy extension of our commercial system to pay a private emperor a fee for services as we pay an or engineer or a lawyer for advice if any man has a talent for wrong for difficult affairs for poor farmers how to turn their estates to good for a hj private to a general benefit let him in the county town or in street put up hb sign board mr smith mr johnson working king how can our young men complain of the poverty of things in new england aad not feel that poverty as a demand on their charity to make new england rich th american where is he who seeing a thousand men useless and happy and making the whole region look forlorn hy their and conscious himself of possessing the faculty they want does not | 37 |
hear his call to go and be their king we must have kings and we must have na ture is always providing such in every society only let us have the real instead of the let us have our leading and our inspiration from the best the actual differences in personal power are not to be disputed in every society some men are born to rule and some to advise let the powers be well directed directed by love and they would everywhere be greeted with joy and honor the chief is the chief all the world over only not his cap and his it is only their dislike of tha which makes men sometimes unjust to the true and finished man if society were transparent the noble would everywhere be gladly received and and would not be asked for his day s work but would be felt as benefit inasmuch as he was noble that were his duty and to keep himself pure and the of his nation i think i see place and duties for a nobleman in every society but it is not to drink wine and ride in a fine coach but to guide and adorn life for the multitude by by elegant studies by perseverance self devotion and the remembrance of the humble old friend by making his life secretly beautiful i call upon you young men to obey your heart and be the nobility of this land in every age of the world there has been a leading nation one of a more generous sentiment whose eminent citizens were to stand for the interests of general justice and humanity at the risk of being called by the men of the moment and fantastic which be that nation but these states which should lead that movement if not new england who should lead the leaders but the young american the people and the world is now suffering from the want of religion and honor in its public mind in america out of doors all seems a market in doors an air tight stove of every body who comes into our houses of these precious habits the men of the market the women of the young american april the custom i find no expression in our state papers or debate in onr or churches specially in our newspapers of a high national feeling no that stir the blood i speak of those organs which can be presumed to speak a popular sense they recommend only conventional virtues whatever will earn and preserve property always the the college the church the hospital the theatre the hotel the road the ship of the whatever goes to secure adorn these is good what any of these is the opposition papers are on the same side they attack the great but with the aim to make a of the poor man the opposition is between the ins and the between those who have money and those who wish to have money but who to us in journal or in pulpit or in the street man alone can perform the impossible i take pleasure in adding the succeeding lines from the of the german poet chooses and judges he can impart to the moment duration noble be man and good since that alone him from all the beings which we know hail to the unknown higher powers whom we divine his pattern teach us faith in them i shall not need to go into an of our national defects and vices which require this order of in the state i might not set down our most proclaimed as the worst it is not often the worst trait that occasions the men com t e american plain of their suffering and not of the crime i fear little from the bad effect of i do not fear that it will spread stealing is a business you cannot but once but the bold face and repentance permitted to this local mischief reveal a public mind so with the love of gain that the common sentiment of indignation at fraud does not act with its natural force the more need of a from the crowd and a resort to the fountain of right by the brave the timidity of our public opinion is our disease or shall i say the of opinion the absence of opinion good nature is plentiful but we want justice with heart of steel to fight down the proud the private mind has the access to the of good ness and truth that it may be a balance to a corrupt society and to stand for the private verdict against lar is the office of the noble if a humane measure is in behalf of the slave or of the or the catholic or for the of the poor that sentiment that project will have the homage of the hero that is his nobility his oath of to the helpless and oppressed always to throw himself on the side of weakness of youth of hope on the on the side never on the the the the lock and bolt system more than our good will we may not be able to give we have our own affairs our own genius which chains us to our proper work we cannot give our life to the cause of the of the slave or the as another is doing but one thing we are bound to not to the sentiment and the work of that man not to throw stumbling blocks in the way of the the as the organs of influence and opinion are swift to do it is for us to confide in the supreme power and not to rely on our money and on the state because it is the guard of money at this moment the terror of old people and of vicious people is lest the union of these states be destroyed as if | 37 |
a ceremony your s self is but a ceremony in the east where the religious sentiment comes in to the support of the aristocracy and in the church also there is a grain of sweetness in the tyranny but in england the fact seems to me intolerable what is commonly affirmed that such is the honor accorded to wealth and birth that no man of letters be his eminence what it may is received into the best society except as a lion and a show it seems to me that with the lights which are now gleaming in the eyes of all men residence in that country becomes degradation to any man not employed to it the english have many virtues many advantages and the history of the world but they need all and more than all the resources of the past to a heroic gentleman in that country for the prepared for him by the system of society and which seem to impose the alternative to resist or to avoid it that there are and practical to this is freedom not an excuse for the rule worth and personal power must sit crowned in all companies nor will extraordinary persons be or in any company of civilized men but the system is an invasion of the sentiment of justice and the native rights of men which however decorated must lessen the value of english it is for englishmen to consider not for us we only say let us live in america too thankful for our want of institutions our houses and towns are like and so slight and new but youth is a fault of which we shall daily mend and really at last all lands are alike ours too is as old as the flood and wants no ornament or privilege which nature could bestow here stars here woods here hills here animals here men abound and the vast tendencies of a new order if only the men are well employed in with the designs of the spirit who led us hither and is leading us still we shall quickly enough advance out of all hearing of other s out of all regrets of our own into a new and more excellent social state than history has recorded herald of freedom have occasionally for several years met with a number of this spirited journal as need not be informed by p once a at law in still further up the but now in his years come down the hills thus far to be the herald of freedom to those parts we have been refreshed not a little by the cheap cordial of his flowing like his own mountain torrents now clear and sparkling now foaming and and always with the essence of the fir and the pine but never dark nor muddy nor threatening with smothered murmurs herald of freedom published weekly by the new anti society n h vol x no herald t freedom april like the of the plain the effect of one of bis reminds us of what the say about the in fresh spring water compared with that which has stood over night to suit weak nerves we do not know of another notable and public instance of such pure youthful and hearty indignation at all wrong the church itself must love it if it have any heart though he is said to have dealt rudely with its his clean attachment to the right however the rebuke we have read we have neither room nor inclination to this paper or its cause at length but would speak of it in the free and spirit of its author mr seems to us to occupy an honorable and manly position in these days and in this country making the press a living and breathing organ to reach the hearts of men and not merely fine paper and good type with its civil pilot sitting aft and waiting for the news to arrive the vehicle of the earliest news but the latest the and last results the marriages and deaths alone the present editor is wide awake and standing on the of his ship not as a scientific under government but a yankee rather who makes those his in which to for more adventurous he is a fund of news and freshness in himself has the gift of speech and the of writing and if anything important takes place in the granite state we may be sure that we shall hear of it in good season no other paper that we know keeps pace so well with one forward wave of the restless public thought and sentiment of new england and so faithfully and the largest liberty in all things there is beside more poetry in his prose than in the verses of many an accepted and we are occasionally advertised by a mellow hunter s note from his trumpet that unlike most his feet are where they should be on the turf and that he looks out from a natural life into the of politics nor is slavery always a sombre theme with him but invested with the colors of his wit and fancy and an evil to be by other means than sorrow and bitterness of complaint he will fight this fight with what cheer may of freedom be but to speak of his composition it is a yankee style without fiction real and calculating to some purpose and reminds us occasionally as does all free brave and original writing of its great master in these days thomas it has a life above grammar and a meaning which need not be lo be understood but like those same mountain torrents there is rather too much slope to his channel and the rainbow and go double quick time to heaven while the body of his water falls headlong to the plain we would have more pause and occasionally if only to bring | 37 |
his tide to a head more frequent of the stream still mountain perchance inland seas and at length the deep ocean itself we cannot do better than our pages with a few from such articles as we have at hand who can help with his righteous impatience when invited to hold his peace or endeavor to convince the of the people by well ordered arguments and arguments with the on table rock when all the waters of lake superior are thundering in the horse and the very war of the elements would you shout to him with a clap of thunder through a speaking trumpet if you could command it if possible to reach his senses in extremity did with the city of yet forty cried the vagabond prophet and shall be that was his salutation and did the property and standing turn up their noses at him and set the mob on to him did the clergy him and call him extravagant a of churches a of what would have become of that city if they had done tliis did they approve his but dislike his and his slavery must be cried down down down and pro slavery with it or rather before it slavery will go when starts the sheep will follow when the bell leads down then with the bloody system out of the land with it and out of the world with it into the red sea with it men sha ni be in this country any longer women and children be here any longer if you undertake to hinder us the worst is your own but this is all and see he thus raises the anti slavery war in new when an important is to be held sending tho summons to none but the whole hearted fully committed cross the from rich old from with her herald of freedom april down away to tho salt sea from where the ana behind even to where he over s own town of and from to ragged upper home of the out tour bold of human wherever they lay scattered by lonely lake or indian or grant or from the of the and where the takes up its mountain for the st and men wherever the light of and liberty has beamed in upon your come down to ua like your and clouds and oar own all about your dear hills and your mountain valleys whether you along the am the or the ox bowed we ore brethren in a cause like ours our feet should be as feet liberty lies bleeding the leaden colored wing of slavery the land with its shadow let ua come together and inquire at the hand of the lord what ia to be done and again on occasion of the new england in the second ad vent in boston he desires to try one more blast as it were on s white mountain horn ho then people of the bay state men women and children children women and men scattered friends of ye if ye have as such friends have not along the sea beat border of old and the landing and up beyond eight of the cloud among the inland hills where the sun rises and sets upon the dry land in that of the too fair for human content and too fertile for industry where that of earth a on its way proud with the pride of old are there any of the negro haunting such a valley as thia in god a name i fear there are none or few for the very scene looks and oblivion to the genius of humanity i blow you the summons though come if any of you are there and gallant little island of the tiny i need not call you you are called the year round and of sleeping in your tents stand and with trumpets in your hands every one i yonder the home of the the and the and the native land of old george are yoa ready r all ready here off looking from my mountain post like an where ia your sam who stood storm proof organization in has he too much name as a and an orator to be found at a new england in god forbid come one and all of you from down east to boston on the th and let the of your all the road alas there are scarce enough of you to man a fishing boat come up mighty in your herald of freedom fill and what has become of anti thick aa your mountain your very not by balance of power but by sturdy majority where are you now win you be at the meet in or on the th of may has anti slavery too trying for your off how are ye humanity have you heard the voice of freedom of late next week will answer poor cold winter ridden new winter killed i like to have said she will be there bare foot and bare legged making tracks like her old bloody footed at she will be there if she can work her i guess her will for birds can go of car or stage coach let them come as says they did to the of rome when they did not leave old men and women enough to begin the oh how few we should be if every soul of ua were there how few and yet it is the entire muster roll of freedom for all the land we should have to beat op for to complete the army of or the at the straits the foe are like the for as for moral power thick the easier as the said of the millions of falling they | 37 |
can t stand too thick nor too tall for the anti only be there at the in noticing the doings of another he thus himself on the liberty of speech which to all even to the and denied a chance to speak elsewhere because they are not mad the fashion they all flock to the anti slavery boards aa a kind of asylum and so the poor old enterprise has to father all the of the times it is a glory to anti slavery that she can allow the poor friends the right of speech she will always keep herself able to afford it let the wait on the state house and jail and the meeting houses let the at the anti slavery hall be that tall celestial faced woman that carries the flag on the national standard and says without as well as without com promise let every body in who has enough to see the of kindness and let them say their and bear with them seeing unkind pro slavery drives them in upon us we shall have and meetings then than all others in the land put together more recently speaking of the use which some of the clergy have made of s plea in the case as a aid to tlie church he proceeds is a great man and the run under his wing they had better employ as counsel against the he would nt trust the defence on the will plea though if they did he would not risk his fame on it as a religious argument he would go the herald april and consult william of on the principles of the to learn their strength and ho would get him a testament and go into it as he does into the constitution and af er a study of it he would hardly come off in the argument as he did from the conflict with on looking into the case he would advise the clergy not to go to trial to settle or if they could to it out to a reference of we will quote from the same sheet his indignant and touching satire on the funeral of those public officers who were killed by the explosion on board the together with the president s slave an accident which reminds us how closely slavery is linked with the government of this nation the president coming to over a nation o free men and the man who stands next to him a slave i saw account says he of the burial of those the passed along of and but the dead slave who fell in company with them on the deck of the was not there he was held their equal by the impartial gun burst but not allowed by the nation a share in the funeral out upon their funeral and upon the paltry procession that went in its train why did nt they for the body of the other man who fell on that deck and why has nt the nation inquired and its press i saw account of the scene in a print called the boston a ties and it was dumb on the absence of that body as if no such man had fallen why i demand in the name of human nature was that sixth man of the me brought down by that great shot and above ground for there is no account yet that his body has been allowed the right of they did nt bury him even as a slave they did nt him a jim crow place in that solemn procession tliat he might follow to wait upon his in the land of spirit they have gone there without slaves or the poor black man they and him all his life and now he is dead they have for aught appears him to decay and waste above ground let the civilized world take note of the circumstance we deem such pure and expressions of a public sentiment such of genuine indignation and humanity as abound every where in this journal the most generous gifts a man can make and should be glad to see the scraps from which we have quoted and the others which we have not seen collected into a volume it might perchance penetrate into some quarters which the cause of freedom has not long may we hear the voice of this herald h d t fragments of fragments of the following fragments of found in ancient authors should have been inserted at the end of the contained in our last number thb freedom of greece first at the children of the laid the shining foundation of freedom and at and and in making it firm as from having risen he went over land and sea and stood over the vast of mountains and the recesses penetrating to the of the groves from heaven being willing even on an thou sail thus by the old of were it the will of heaven an bough were vessel safe enough the seas to plough from honors and crowns of the tempest footed horses delight one others life in golden chambers and some even are pleased securely the swelling of the sea in a swift ship vol iv no iv of april from this i will say to thee the lot of fair and pleasant things it to show in public to ail the people but if any adverse calamity sent from heaven befall men this it becomes to bury in darkness from op to heaven it is possible from black night to make arise light and with cloud darkness to obscure the pure splendor of day from the same first indeed the brought the wise with golden horses by the fountains of ocean to the awful ascent of along the shining way to be the first of the and she bore the golden fair hours | 37 |
that all others see who most from these causes in those persons who move the pity tragedy seems to consist in temperament not in events there are people who have an appetite for grief pleasure is not strong enough and they pain which must be fed on poisoned bread natures so doomed that no prosperity can soothe their ragged and desolation they mis hear and mis behold they suspect and dread they handle every and ivy in the hedge and tread on every snake in the meadow come bad chance and we add to it our strength f and we teach it art and length itself o er us to advance frankly then it is necessary to say that all sorrow dwells in a low region it is superficial for the most part fantastic or in the appearance and not in things tragedy is in the eye of the observer and not in the heart of the it looks like an load under which tragic april earth aloud but it it is not t it is not you it is always another person who is tormented if a says lo i it is apparent that he suffers not for grief is dumb it is so distributed as not to destroy that which would you falls on that which seems intolerable reproach or does not take from the accused or man or woman appetite or sleep some men are above grief and some below it few are capable of love in natures calamity is in shallow natures it is tragedy must be somewhat which i can respect a habit is not tragedy a panic such as frequently in ancient or savage nations put a troop or an army to flight without an enemy a fear of ghosts a terror of to death that a man in a winter midnight on the a fright at uncertain sounds heard by a family at night in the cellar or on the stairs are terrors that make the knees knock and the teeth chatter but are no tragedy any more than sea sickness which may also destroy life it is full of illusion as it comes it has its support the most exposed classes soldiers sailors are destitute of animal spirits the spirit is true to itself and finds its own support in any condition to live in what is called calamity as easily as in what is called felicity as the glass bell will support a weight of a thousand pounds of water at the bottom of a river or sea if filled with the same a man should not commit his tranquillity to things but should keep as much as possible the reins in his own hands rarely giving way to extreme emotion of joy or grief it is observed that the earliest works of the art of are countenances of sublime tranquillity the egyptian which sit they sat when the greek came and saw them aid departed and when the roman came and saw them and departed and as they will still sit when the the frenchman and the englishman who visit them now shall have passed by with their stony eyes fixed on the east and on the have countenances expressive of complacency and repose an expression of health deserving their and the sentence of history on the of that people their strength is to sit still to this of the tragic the form the greek genius added an ideal beauty without disturbing the of serenity permitting no violence of mirth or wrath or suffering this was true to human nature for in life actions are few opinions even few prayers few loves or any of the soul all that life demands of us through the greater part of the day is an a readiness open eyes and ears and free hands society asks this and truth and love and the genius of our life there is a fire in some men which demands an outlet in some rude action they betray their impatience of quiet by an irregular gait by irregular faltering disturbed speech too emphatic for the occasion they treat trifles with a tragic air this is not beautiful could they not lay a rod or two of stone wall and work off this when two strangers meet in the highway what each demands of the other is that the aspect should show a firm mind ready for any event of good or ill prepared alike to give death or to give life as the emergency of the next moment may require we must walk as guests in nature not impassioned but cool and disengaged a man should try time and his face should wear the expression of a just judge who has made up his opinion who fears nothing and even hopes nothing but who puts nature and fortune on their merits he will hear the case out and then decide for all melancholy as all passion belongs to the exterior life whilst a man is not in the divine life by his proper roots he by some of affection to society to what is best and greatest in it and in calm times it will not appear that he is adrift and not but let any shock take place in society any revolution of custom of law of opinion and at once his type of is shaken the disorder of his neighbors appears to him universal disorder chaos is come again but in truth he was already a driving wreck before the wind arose which only revealed to him his vagabond state if a man is men and events appear to him a fair image or reflection of that which he beforehand in himself if any or break out in society he will join with others to the mischief but it will not arouse resentment or fear because he its limits he sees already in the of sin the the tragic april particular also | 37 |
in concert the little asking the questions the story of the good sa n they all bowing as they pronounced the name of christ few among these colored children had any of that heavy and stupid expression of countenance so often to seen in the negro but believe experience goes to prove that the negro intellect in most cases to its limits at an early age and seldom its early promise seldom have dull lean much less often i think than those of th arid st sh but the age say from ten to fourteen years ttie bright tints morally and speaking seem to fade out of feature to vanish mr was from top to a school master and his son robert a man grown a right school master s he was perfectly broken in seemed to feel a profound reverence for his father and to live n y the humble hope that he should be enabled to do his will he was sallow pale eyed and with a face which i had r known how t called la an sharp tone of voice from the opposite of the room and without saying a word t pencil with which he was assisting k boy in his the t m with a noiseless trot came dose up his s desk and then ih an tone and with a bend answered g me a book tes sir aiid then with hie broke again into his trot hurrying to obey and this two or three times the hour i was in the he the most slave like being i saw ih the island he should be by a si hot the twenty million id has h i reached his it has not restored tb life and his nor has it even ds it is beginning to e some of the that he has d which is his own there was tyranny the case at least none which was ed either j ty his father to have regard m mm me with much pride his writing was the writing master and spoke he out of hearing with some feeling of his s h ith had been born a school master s h he had early been shaped his father s purposes arid it had n doubt been settled between them that as be all and the other ov s a hardy plant these two r me of ivy root on a dry ah at the church where the most wealthy and influential of both races appeared to attend there were very few and but little if of the and colored the body of the church the latter chiefly near the entrance and appeared to be quite as well and and sunday the april a r the i attended there on the sunday morning after my arrival and not knowing the hour of service went late when i discovered this on approaching the door i lingered for a moment or so doubting to enter but directly the arrayed in robes of black with a stick in his hand came forward invited me in and immediately led me up near the pulpit and me into what is called the magistrate s in which certain officers may and some of them do sit and where are also placed respectable strangers a young man was reading the service and be read it beautifully too especially the giving the seventh precisely in accordance with dr johnson s instructions to thou shalt not bear a se witness against thy neighbor this fine reading led me to hope for a fine sermon but in this i was disappointed it was a mere of religious common places and so arranged as to form and the young man had an voice the high and low tones both good sir william temple says in substance in his observations on the united provinces that national habits and peculiarities however some may suppose them a mere matter of whim will generally be found on examination to have their origin in some necessity of circumstance or situation and he the cleanliness of the of which he gives many amusing instances in his own experience to the of their climate they must or grow perhaps the same remark may apply to persons whenever you see any one with a in his gait or who wears out one shoe faster than the other you will nearly always find on a close tiny that one shoulder is a little higher one leg a little longer or one side in some way a little more developed than the other now this young man s voice had for aught i know given him style however this may be his sermon consisted in nothing but a continual off together of opposite common places this moment man is so and so the next he is so and so today c c high key tomorrow c low key in short it was between that and this now dow low dow master now miss and one vile tu h s the thi of br c t his host the wound the shawl on his locks he bound he on his shoulders the lion skin sounded the s din like a sea of that black wild swarm swept onward he flung his dark arm encircled with gold round his one s neck for the feast of maiden deck i lo i glittering pearls i ve brought thee there to with thy dark and hair and the all snake like in s green sea the hate for me see of the thy beauty to grace i let them nod snowy white o er thy dusky face deck the tent make ready the least for me fill the of i and forth from his snowy and tent the in his went bo looks the dark moon when through the gate of the edged clouds she rides forth in her state a shout his proud host | 37 |
and welcome the stamping s rings for him rolls faithful the negro s and s old mysterious flood now lead us to lead us to fight they from morning far into the night the hollow tooth of the elephant blew a blast that pierced through how scatter the lions the fly from the rattling the flags on high all hung with proclaim the dead and the yellow desert is in red so rings in the the desperate fight but she is preparing tb feast for the night she fills the with rich palm and the shafts of the poles ihe with pearls that s green flood bare she winds her dark and hair feathers are floating her brow to deck and gay shells gleam on her arms she sits by the door of her lover s she lists the far war morning it the day the son hot the it the sun goes down in the the night dew the glow worm and the looks from the pool as if he too would the cool the lion he him and prey the elephant the w i to the and shut and eyelids close her anxious heart beats fast and high when a draws farewell to all hope now i the b ttie is t thy lover is captured he lo die e they cell him to white men he s carried o spare the maiden falls headlong she her hair all quivering she the pearls io her hand she hides her hot cheek in the burning hot sand is how sweeps the throng to and ground with shout and with song there s a blast of trumpets the rings the deep drum springs come on come on i how the roar they fly as on wings o er the hard flat floor the british the s black from beauty seek honor s and there by the s stands silent and a the drum he beats ful loud on the drum is hanging a lion sun he sees not the knights and their graceful he sees not the and their daring the s dry eye with its stiff wild stare sees but the shaggy lion skin there he thinks of the for far distant and how he once chased there the lion and tiger and how ke once his sword in the fight and came not back to his couch at night and he thinks of who in other hours her hair with his pearls and plucked him her flowers his eye grew moist with a scornful stroke he smote the drum head it rattled and broke j the the visit how long shall stay t of the day know each and relation in all nature s operation hath its bound and and every new compound is some product and some product of the early found but the of the visit the encounter of the say what other is it than the meeting of the eyes nature into nature through the channels of that feature riding on the ray of sight more fleet than waves or go or for service or delight hearts to hearts their meaning show sum their long experience and import intelligence single look has drained the breast single moment years confessed the duration of a glance is the term of and though thy be church or state of that cannot halt linger thou shalt the fault if love his moment hatred s swift play owe to that benefactor of scholars aod philosophers the late thomas who we hope will not long want a the collection of the of and the from which we extract all the sentences ascribed to and a part of the remainder we a portion of mr s preface i these remains of are not only venerable for their antiquity but valuable for the of the doctrines they contain they will doubtless too be held in the highest estimation by every liberal mind when it is considered that some of them are the sources whence the sublime of flowed and that others are perfectly to his most i add for the sake of those readers that are with the scientific of the that as the highest principle of things is a nature truly and unknown it is impossible that this visible world could have been produced by him without and this not through any but on the contrary through of power for if he had produced all things without the agency of beings all things must have been like himself and unknown it is necessary therefore that there should be certain mighty powers between the supreme principle of things and us for we in reality are nothing more than the of the universe these mighty powers from their surpassing to the first god were very properly called by the gods and were considered by them as perpetually in tlie most admirable and profound union with each other and the first cause yet so as amidst this union to preserve their own energy distinct from that of the highest god for it would be absurd in the extreme to allow that man has a peculiar energy of his own and to deny that this is the case with the most exalted beings hence as beautifully the gods may be vol iv no iv compared to trees rooted in the earth for ai these bj their roots are united with the earth and become earthly in an eminent degree without being earth itself so the gods by their are profoundly united to the first cause and by this means are similar to without being the first cause lines too from the centre of a circle us a conspicuous image of the manner in which these mighty powers proceed from and in the principle of things for here the lines are evidently things from the centre to which at the same time by their they are exquisitely | 37 |
men b the paternal c in souls d those souls that leave the body with violence ate the most pure the soul being a splendid fire through the power of the remains immortal is the mistress e of life and possesses many of the of the world the father did not forth fear but sion the father has hastily withdrawn himself but has shut up his proper fire in his own intellectual power there is a certain intelligible which it becomes you to understand with the flower of the powers i of the soul which cause her to are of an nature it becomes you to hasten to the light and the rays of the father whence a soul was imparted to you invested with an abundance of intellect all things are the of one fire j k that which intellect says it undoubtedly says by ds ft h that it the powers guilty bind them to their and in these as it were them such punishment being finally the means of nor do these powers only the vicious but even such as convert themselves to an essence for these through their connection with matter require n of this kind e that is of all the divine natures d this praises a violent death because the soul in this is induced to the body and rejoice in a from it the soul is the mistress of life because it extends vital to the body which is of itself destitute of life that is as divinity is not of a nature he draws every thing himself by persuasion and not by fear that is the summit of the intellectual order is perfectly separated from all connection with matter but at the same time his divinity to inferior natures k meaning the intelligible which immediately after the highest god u that is those powers of the soul which separate it from the body that is of one divine nature k that is the voice of intellect is intellectual or in other words aa and energy c scripture april a ha the earth from beneath at at far as to their children you should not your fate nothing imperfect proceeds according to a energy from a paternal principle c but the paternal intellect will not receive the will of the soul till she has departed from oblivion d and has spoken the assuming the memory of her paternal sacred when you behold the e demon and sacrifice the stone learn the intelligible for it beyond the intelligible possess themselves from the father so far as they moved by counsels he who knows himself knows all things in himself first asserted and afterwards in the first op torn p since the soul perpetually runs in a certain space of time it passes through all things which circulation being accomplished it is compelled to run back again through i a the meaning of the ia that even the very children of the are destined to and this with the propriety for those who in a former life have crimes become the wise administration of providence the members of one family b is the full perfection of those divine which are received by bat is the immediate of deity hence when we we are under the dominion of providence but when under that of fate the to withdraw ourselves from energy e for divinity is self perfect and the imperfect cannot proceed the perfect d that is till she has recovered her knowledge of the divine and reasons from which she is composed the former of which she receives from the divine and the latter from sacred ideas e are full of deceit as being remote from divine knowledge and with dark matter he therefore who desires to receive any true information from one of these prepare an altar and sacrifice the stone which has the power of causing greater demon to appear who approaching invisible to the material will give a true answer to the proposed question and this to the himself the intelligible is one kind being with intellect bat the other being of a characteristic m things and the web of generation in the world according to who is of opinion that the same causes on a time returning the same effects will in a similar manner return f de immortal p bt the our voluntary sorrows in us as the growth of the particular life we lead on beholding yourself fear believe yourself to be above body and you are those robust souls perceive truth through themselves and are of a more nature such a soul being saved through its own strength we should fly from the multitude ol men going along in a herd the powers build up the body of a holy man not knowing that every god is good ye are fiery hope should you in the region ascending souls sing to the mortal the blessed are swift all things are governed and in faith truth and love the says divinity is never so much turned away from man and never so much sends him in novel paths as when we make an ascent to the most divine of speculations or works in a confused and disordered manner and as it adds with lips or feet for of those who are thus the are imperfect the impulses are vain and the paths are blind the orders prior to heaven possess mystic silence every intellect deity the intelligible is food to that which understands you will not apprehend it by an intellectual energy as when understanding some particular thing it is not proper to understand that intelligible with vehemence but with the extended flame of an extended intellect a flame which measures all things except that intelligible but it is requisite to understand this for if you incline your mind you will understand it though not april it becomes yon bringing with the pure | 37 |
eye of your soul to extend the void to the intelligible that yon may learn its nature f it has a above intellect sayings or and of the follow god all things are possible to the gods choose the most excellent life and custom make it pleasant this is the law of god that virtue is the only thing that is strong from such things as are an to prophecy or to the purity and of the soul or to the habit of or of virtue it is necessary to children for it is necessary to leave those that may worship the gods after us other are engraved in tables and pillars bat those with wives are inserted in children it is holy for a woman after having been connected with her husband to perform sacred rites on the same day but this is never holy after she has been connected with any other man it is requisite to be silent or to say something better than silence the possessions of friends are common the animal which is not naturally to the human race should neither be injured nor slain is the meditation of insanity the beginning is the half of the whole an oath should be taken since that which is behind is long be sober and remember to be disposed to believe for these are the nerves of wisdom all the parts of human life in the same manner as those of a statue ought to be beautiful when the wise man opens his mouth the beauties of his soul present themselves to the view like the statues in a temple church church ir we had space we should quote from the roll and book the largest part of the sixteenth chapter to which we especially refer the candid and curious each reader will of course interpret the sentences his own light the student will probably pronounce them rank the scientific nonsense the poetic dull the but upon the of association we might urge them as a development of that law of union under which the church from which the book proceeds has flourished for so many years while numerous efforts on other principles have struggled for a season and failed it is interesting to observe that while in france was on the of many advantages by union these people have at home actually attained them has the merit of beautiful words and theories and their from a foreign land is made subject for exultation by a large and excellent portion of our public but the have the superior merit of excellent actions and perhaps because they are not attractive industry and moral harmony on which dwells so have long the whose plans have always in view the passing of each individual into his or her right position and of providing suitable pleasant and profitable employment for every one a pretty close parallel could be drawn between these two parties were this the occasion to it friendly commonly conclude with a strong recommendation to read the book on this occasion we urge no such course but rather that a perusal of the work should be delayed until the reader is in a state to appreciate it with and a condition a holy sacred and divine roll and book from the lord god of heaven to the inhabitants of the earth revealed in the united at new county of state of new york united states of america in two parts part i received by the church of this communion and published in with the same printed in the united society n u vo s vol iv no iv church april which looking at the book and its pretensions from ground demands much even from the friendly mind considerable prejudice is occasionally against the church on the ground of the unnatural doctrine and practice it is said to maintain on the important subject of marriage in the ordinary course of the natural feelings the idea of a or virgin life must present itself as so cold cheerless and even a state of existence that the man or woman living under the influence of natural instincts is by the law of nature bound to condemn any one who whispers a doubt of the propriety of continually abiding subject to that law now upon this point the doctrine of the church is made plain in the work before us if not for the first time it is at least brought out in bolder relief than in their previous it is simply this that those who live and design to remain in the order of nature shall with the law of nature while those who are called to the order of grace shall be permitted to with its law i do r the lord who is descended to the earth in and in heavy judgment that all such as desire to live in nature their own species keep the law of as i ave commanded from the beginning and all such as desire to come into the gospel of grace must keep the law of as i did command in the first appearing of my blessed your lord and christ who stands as the first true one p here we think the discussion may be very allowed to remain as to the by many in the natural order of marriage we are not disposed to stain our page whether they be confessed or by the world but we can join in the appeal made to such as determine to live in the natural to to the natural law in respect to time state season and indulgence the argument might indeed be respectfully carried a little further a has no right to urge upon another any practice in with his the s doctrine but he has a right to insist that his opponent shall his own theories when we a multitude of people ye after year day r church day repeating the | 37 |
no doctrine of forms in our philosophy we were put into our bodies as fire is put into a pan to be carried about but there is no accurate between the spirit and the organ much less is the latter the of the former so in regard to other forms the intellectual men do not believe in any essential dependence of the material world on thought and think it a pretty air castle to talk of the spiritual moaning of a ship or a cloud of a city or a contract but they prefer to come again to the solid ground of historical evidence and even the poets are contented with a civil and manner of living and to write poems from the fancy at a safe distance from their own experience but the highest minds of the world have never ceased to explore the double meaning or shall i say the or the or much more manifold meaning of every fact and the masters of picture and poetry for we are not and nor even of the fire and but children of the fire made of it the poet and only the same divinity and at two or three when we know least about it and this hidden truth that the fountains when all this river of time and its creatures are ideal and beautiful draws us to the consideration of the nature and functions of the poet or the man of beauty to the means and materials he uses and to the general aspect of the art in the present time the breadth of the problem is great for the poet is representative he stands among partial men for the complete man and us not of his wealth but of the the young man men of genius because to speak truly they are more himself than he is they receive of the soul as he also receives but they more nature her beauty to the eye of loving men from their belief that the poet is beholding her shows at the same time he is isolated among his by truth and by his art but with this consolation in his pursuits that they will draw all men sooner or later for all men live by truth and stand in need of expression in love in art in essay i rice in politics in labor in games we study to our painful secret the man is only half himself the other half is his expression notwithstanding this necessity to be published adequate expression is rare i know not it is that we need an but the great majority of men seem to be who have not yet come into possession of their own or who cannot report the conversation they have had with nature there is no man who does not anticipate a utility in the sim and stars earth and water these stand and wait to render him a peculiar service but there is some or some excess of in our constitution which does not suffer them to yield the due effect too feeble fall the impressions of nature on us to make us artists every touch should thrill every man should be so much an artist that he could report in conversation what had befallen him yet in our experience the rays or have sufficient force to arrive at the senses but not enough to reach the quick and compel the of themselves in speech the poet is the person in whom these powers are the poet in balance the man without who sees and handles that which others dream of the whole scale of experience and its representative of man in virtue of being the largest power to receive and to impart for the universe has three children bom at one time which under different names in every system of thought whether they be called cause operation and effect or more jove or the father the spirit and the son but which we will call here the the and the these stand for the love of truth for the love of good and for the love of beauty these three are equal each is that which he is essentially so that he cannot be surmounted or and each of these three has the power of the others latent in him and his own patent f the poet is the the and represents beauty he is a sovereign and stands on the centre for the world is not painted or adorned but is from the beginning beautiful and god has not made some beautiful things but beauty is the creator of the i universe therefore the poet is not any but is emperor in his own right criticism is with a cant of which that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men and such as say and do not overlooking the fact that some men namely poets are natural sent into the world to the end of expression and them with those whose province is action but who quit it to imitate the but s words are as costly and admirable to as s are to the poet does not wait for the hero or the sage but as they act and think so he writes what will and must be spoken reckoning the others though also yet in respect to him and servants as or models in the of a painter or as who bring building materials to an for poetry was all written before time was and whenever we are so finely organized that we can penetrate into that region where the air is music we hear those and attempt to write them down but we lose v the poet e er and anon a word or a verse and substitute something of our own and thus the poem the men of more delicate ear write down these more faithfully and these though imperfect become the songs of the nations | 37 |
for nature is as truly beautiful as it is good or as it is reasonable and must as much appear as it must be done or be known words and deeds are quite indifferent modes of the divine energy words are also actions and actions are a kind of words the sign and of the poet are that he that which no man foretold he is the true and only doctor he knows and tells he is the only of news for he was present and to the appearance which he describes he is a of ideas and an of the necessary and for we do not speak now of men of poetical talents or of industry and skill in but of the true poet i took part in a conversation the other day concerning a recent writer of a man of subtle mind whose head appeared to be a music box of delicate tunes and and whose skill and command of language i we could not sufficiently praise but when the question arose whether he was not only a but a poet we were obliged to confess that he is plainly a contemporary not an eternal man he does not stand out of our low like a under the line running up from the base through all the of the globe with of the of every latitude on its high and sides but this genius is the of a modem house adorned with fountains and statues with well bred men and women standing and sitting in the walks and we hear through all the varied music the ground tone of conventional life our poets are men of talents who sing and not the children of music the argument is secondary the finish of the verses is for it is not but a making argument that makes a poem a thought passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an am it has an architecture of its own and nature with a new thing the thought and the form are equal in the order of time but in the order of the thought is prior to the form the poet has a the poet dew thought he has a whole new experience to he will tell us how it was with him and all men will be the richer in his fortune for the experience of each new age requires a new confession and the world seems always waiting for its poet i remember when i was young how much i was moved one morning by tidings that genius had appeared in a youth who sat near me at table he had left his work and gone rambling none knew whither and had written hundreds of lines but could not tell whether that which was in him was therein told he could tell nothing but that all was changed man beast heaven earth and sea how gladly we listened how society seemed to be we sat in the of a sunrise which was to put out all the stars boston seemed to be at twice the distance it had the night before or was much farther than that rome what was rome and were in the yellow leaf and no more should be heard of it is much to know that poetry has been written this very day under this very roof by your side what that wonderful spirit has not i expired these stony are still sparkling and animated i had fancied that the were all silent and nature had spent her fires and behold all night from every pore these fine have been streaming every one has some interest in the advent of the poet and no one knows how much it may concern him we know that the secret of the world is profound but who or what shall be our we know not a mountain a new style of face a new person may put the key into our hands of course the value of genius to us is in the of its report talent may and genius and adds mankind in good earnest have availed so far in understanding themselves and their work that the foremost on the peak his news it is the word ever spoken and the phrase will be the most musical and the voice of the world for that time all that we call sacred history that the birth of a poet is the principal event in man never so often deceived still watches for the arrival of a brother who can hold him steady to a truth until he has the poet made it his own with what joy i begin to read a poem which i confide in as an inspiration and now my chains are to be broken i shall mount above these clouds and airs in which i live though they seem transparent and from the heaven of truth i shall see and comprehend my relations that will reconcile me to life and nature to see trifles animated by a tendency and to know what i am doing life will no more be a noise now i shall see men and women and know the signs by which they may be discerned from fools and this day shall be better than my birth day then i became an animal now i am invited into the science of the real such is the hope but the is postponed oftener it falls that this winged man who will carry me into the heaven me into the clouds then leaps and about with me from cloud to cloud still that he is and i being myself a am slow in perceiving that he does not know the way into the heavens and is merely bent that i should admire his skill to rise like a fowl or a flying fish a little way from the ground or the water but the all | 37 |
piercing all feeding and air of heaven that man shall never i tumble down again soon into my old and lead the life of as before and have lost my faith in the possibility of any guide who can lead me thither where i would be but leaving these victims of vanity let us with new hope observe how nature by impulses has the poet s fidelity to his office of announcement and namely by the beauty of things which becomes a new and higher beauty when expressed nature offers all her creatures to him as a picture language being used as a type a second wonderful value appears in the object far better than its old value as the carpenter s stretched cord if you hold your ear close enough is musical in the breeze things more excellent than every image says are expressed through images things admit of being used as because nature is a symbol in the whole and in every part every line we can draw in the sand has expression and there is no body without its spirit or genius all form is the poet an effect of character all condition of the of the life all harmony of health and for this reason a perception of beauty should be sympathetic or proper only to the good the beautiful rests on the foundations of the necessary the soul makes the body as the wise teaches so every spirit as it is pure and hath in it the more of heavenly light so it the fairer body doth procure to habit in and it more fairly with cheerful grace and amiable sight for of the soul the body form doth take for soul is form and doth the body make here we find ourselves suddenly not in a critical speculation but in a holy place and should go very and reverently we stand before the secret of the world there where being passes into appearance and unity into variety the universe is the of the soul wherever the life is that bursts into appearance around it our science is and therefore superficial the earth and the heavenly bodies and we treat as if they were self k at i but these are the of that being we have the mighty heaven said in its clear images of the splendor of intellectual being moved in with the periods of intellectual natures therefore science always goes abreast with the just elevation of the man keeping step with religion and or the state of science is an index of our self knowledge since everything in nature answers to a moral if any phenomenon remains brute and dark it is that the corresponding faculty in the observer is not yet active no wonder then if these waters be so deep that we over them with a religious regard the beauty of the proves the importance of the sense to the poet and to all others or if you every man is so far a poet as to be susceptible of these of nature for all men have the thoughts whereof the universe is the i find that the fascination in the symbol who loves nature who does not is it only poets and men of leisure and cultivation who live with her no but also the poet hunters farmers and though they express their affection in their choice of life and not in their choice of words the writer wonders what the coachman or the hunter in riding in horses and dogs it is not superficial qualities when you talk with him he holds these at as a rate as you his worship is sympathetic he has no but he is commanded in nature by the living power which he feels to be there present no imitation or playing of these things would content him he loves the earnest of the of rain of stone and wood and iron a beauty not is dearer than a beauty which we can see to the end of it is nature the symbol nature the supernatural body by life which he with coarse but sincere rites the and mystery of this attachment drives men of every class to the use of the schools of poets and philosophers are not more with their than the with theirs in our political parties the power of and see the great ball essay i which they roll from to hill in the political goes in a loom and in a shoe and in a ship witness the barrel the the stick the and all the of party see the power of national some stars lilies a a lion an eagle or other figure which came into credit god knows how on an old rag of blowing in the wind on a fort at the ends of the earth shall make the blood under the or the most conventional exterior the people fancy they hate poetry and they are all poets and beyond this of the language we are of the of this superior use of things whereby the world is a temple whose walls are covered with pictures and of the deity in this that there is no fact in nature which does not carry the whole sense of nature and the distinctions which we make in events and in affairs of low and high honest and base disappear when nature is used as a symbol thought makes every thing fit for use the of an man the poet would embrace words and images excluded from polite conversation what would be base or even to the becomes illustrious spoken in a new of thought the piety of the hebrew their the is an example of the power of poetry to raise the low and offensive small and mean things serve as well as great the the type by which a law is expressed the more it is and the more lasting in the memories of | 37 |
men just as we choose the smallest box or case in which any needful can be carried bare lists of words are found suggestive to an and excited mind as it is related of lord that he was accustomed to read in s dictionary when he was to speak in parliament the poorest e q is rich enough for all the purposes of expressing thought why a knowledge of new facts day and night house and garden a few books a few actions serve us as well as would all trades and all spectacles we are far from having exhausted the significance of the few we use we can come to use them yet with essay a terrible simplicity it does not need that a poem should be long every word was once a poem every new relation is a new word also we use defects and to a sacred purpose so expressing our sense that the evils of the world are such only to the evil eye in the old observe defects are ascribed to divine natures as to blindness to and the like to signify for as it is and from the life of god that things ugly the poet who re things to nature and the whole re even artificial things and of to nature by a deeper insight very easily of the most disagreeable facts readers of poetry see the factory village and the railway and fancy that the poetry of the landscape is broken up by these for these works of art are not yet consecrated in their reading but the poet sees them fall within the great order not less than the bee hive or the spider s web nature them very fast into her vital circles and the gliding train of cars she loves like her own besides in a mind it the poet nothing how many mechanical inventions you exhibit though you add millions and never so surprising the fact of has not gained a grain s weight the spiritual fact remains by many or by few particulars as no mountain is of any height to break the curve of the sphere a shrewd country boy goes to the city for the first time and the complacent citizen is not satisfied with his little wonder it is not that he does not see all the fine houses and know that he never saw such before but he of them as easily as the poet finds place for the railway the chief value of the new fact is to the great and constant fact of life which can dwarf any and every circumstance and to which the belt of and the commerce of america are alike the world being thus put under the mind for and the poet is he who can articulate it for though life is great and and and though all men are intelligent of the through which it is named yet they cannot originally use them we are and e sat i workman work and tools words and things birth and death all are but we with the and being ith the economical uses of things we do not know that they are thoughts the poet by an intellectual perception gives them a power which makes their old use forgotten and puts eyes and a tongue into every dumb and object he the independence of the thought on the symbol the of the thought the and of the symbol as the eyes of were said to see through the earth so the poet turns the world to glass and shows us all things in their right series and procession for through that better perception he stands one step nearer to things and sees the flowing or that thought is that within the form of every creature is a force it to ascend into a higher form and following with his eyes the life uses the forms which express that life and so his speech flows with the flowing of nature all the facts of the animal economy sex birth growth are of the passage of the poet the world into the soul of man to there a change and a new and higher fact he uses forms according to the life and not according to the form this is true science the poet alone knows vegetation and animation for he does not stop at these facts but them as signs he knows why the plain or meadow of space was with these flowers we call and and stars why the great deep is adorned with animals with men and gods for in every word he speaks he rides on them as the horses of thought by virtue of this science the poet is the or language maker things sometimes after their appearance sometimes after their essence and giving to every one its own name and not another s thereby rejoicing the intellect which delights in or boundary the poets made all the words and therefore language is the of history and if we must say it a sort of tomb of the for though the origin of most of our words is forgotten each word was at first a stroke of genius and obtained because for the moment it i the world to the first speaker and to the the finds the word to have been once a brilliant picture language is poetry as the of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of so language is made up of images or which now in their secondary use have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin but the poet names the thing because he sees it or comes one step nearer to it than any other this expression or is not art but a second nature grown out of the first as a leaf out of a tree what we call nature is a certain self regulated motion or change and | 37 |
nature does all things by her own hands and does not leave another to her but herself and this through the again i remember that a certain poet described it to me thus genius is the activity which the of things whether wholly or partly of a material and kind nature through all her herself nobody cares for planting the poor so she shakes poet down from the of one any one of which being preserved new of to morrow or next day the new of this hour has a chance which the old one had not this of seed is thrown into a new place not subject to the accidents which destroyed its parent two rods off she makes a man and having brought him to ripe age she will no longer run the risk of losing this wonder at a blow but she from him a new self that the kind may be safe from accidents to which the individual is exposed so when the soul of the poet has come to of thought she and sends away from it its poems or songs a fearless sleepless which is not exposed to the accidents of the weary kingdom of time a fearless offspring clad with wings such was the virtue of the soul out of wliich they came which carry them fast and far and them into the hearts of men these wings are the beauty of the poet s soul the songs thus flying immortal from their mortal parent are pursued by flights of which swarm in far i greater numbers and threaten to but these last are not winged at the end of a very short leap they fall plump down and rot having received from the souls out of which they came no beautiful wings but the of the poet ascend and leap and pierce into the of infinite time so far the bard taught me using his speech but nature has a higher end in the production of new individuals than security namely or the passage of the soul into higher forms i knew in my younger days the who made the statue of the youth which stands in the public garden he was as i remember unable to tell directly what made him happy or unhappy but by wonderful he could tell he rose one day according to his habit before the dawn the morning break grand as the eternity out of which it came and for many days after he strove to express this tranquillity and lo his had fashioned out of marble the form of a beautiful youth whose aspect is such that it is said all persons who look on it become silent the poet the poet himself to his mood and that thought which agitated him is expressed but in a manner totally new the expression is or the new type which things themselves take when as in the sun objects paint their images on the of the eye so they sharing the of the whole universe tend to paint a far more delicate copy of their essence in his mind like the of things into higher forms is their change into over everything stands its or sold and as the form of the thing is reflected by the eye so the soul of the thing is reflected by a melody the sea the mountain ridge and every flower bed or exist in pre which sail like in the air and when any man goes by with an ear fine he them and to write down ib notes without or them and is the of criticism in the mind s faith that the poems are a corrupt version of some text in nature with which they ought to be made to a rhyme in one of our should not be less essay i than the of a sea shell or the resembling of a group of flowers the of the birds is an not tedious as our are a tempest is a rough without falsehood or a summer with its harvest sown and stored is an song how many admirably executed parts why should not the and truth that these glide into spirits and we the invention oi nature this insight which expresses itself by what is called imagination is a very high sort oi seeing which does not come by study but by the intellect being where and what it sees by sharing the path or circuit of things through forms and so making them to others the path of things is silent will they suffer a speaker to go with them a spy they will not suffer a lover a poet is the of their own nature him they will suffer the condition of true on the poet s part is his himself to the divine which breathes through forms and accompanying that it is a secret which every intellectual man the poet quickly that beyond the energy of his possessed and conscious intellect he is capable of a new energy as of an intellect doubled on itself by to the nature of things that beside his privacy of power as an individual man there is a great public power on which he can draw by at all risks his human doors and suffering the ethereal tides to roll and through him then he is caught up into the life of the universe his speech is thunder his thought is law and his words are universally intelligible as the plants and animals the poet knows that he speaks then only when he speaks somewhat wildly or with the flower of the mind not with the intellect used as an organ but with the intellect from all service and to take its direction from its celestial life or as the were wont to express themselves not with intellect alone but with the intellect by as the traveller who has lost his way throws his reins on | 37 |
his horse s neck and to the instinct of the animal to find his road so must we do with the divine animal who carries us through this world for if in any essay i manner we can this instinct ne passages are opened for us into nature mind flows into and through things hardest and highest and the is j this is the reason why love wine coffee tea the of wood and tobacco or whatever other species of animal all men avail themselves of such means as they can to add this extraordinary power to their normal powers and to this end they prize conversation music pictures dancing theatres travelling war fires politics or love or science or animal which are several or finer for the true which is the of the intellect by coming nearer to the fact these are to the tendency of a man tc his passage out into free space and they him to escape the of that body ir which he is pent up and of that jail yard o individual relations in which he is enclosed hence a great number of such as were of beauty as painters the poet poets and actors have been more than others wont to lead a life of pleasure and i indulgence all but the few who received i the true and as it was a i mode of freedom as it was an p not into the heavens but into the freedom of places they were punished for that advantage they won by a and but never can any advantage be taken of nature by a trick the spirit of the world the great calm presence of the creator comes not forth to the of or of wine the sublime vision comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and body that is not an inspiration which we owe to but some excitement and fury milton says that the poet may drink wine and live generously but the poet he who shall sing of the gods and their descent unto men must drink water out of a wooden bowl for poetry is not devil s wine but god s wine it is with this as it is with toys we fill the hands and of our children with all manner of drums and horses withdrawing their eyes from the plain face and objects essay i of nature the sun and moon the animals the water and stones which should be their toys so the poet s habit of living should be set on a key so low and plain that the common influences should delight him his cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight the air should for his inspiration and he should be with water that spirit which quiet hearts which seems to come forth to such from every dry of grass from every pine and half stone on which the dull march sun shines comes forth to the poor and hungry and such as are of simple taste if thou fill thy brain with boston and new york with fashion and and wilt thy senses with wine and french thou shalt find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the if the imagination the poet it is not in other men the in the an emotion of joy the use of has a certain power of and for all men we seem to be touched by a which makes us dance and run about happily like the poet children we are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open air this is the effect on us of and all poetic forms poets are thus gods men have really got a new sense and found within their world another world or nest of worlds for the once seen we divine that it does not stop i will not now consider how much this makes the charm of and the which also have their but it is felt in every definition as when space to be an immovable vessel in which things are contained or when a line to be a flowing point or figure to be a bound of solid and many the like what a joyful sense of we have when the old opinion of artists that no can build any house well who does not know something of in tells us that the soul is cured of its by certain and that these are beautiful reasons from which is in souls when calls the world an animal and that the plants also essay i are animals or a man to be a heavenly tree growing with his root which is his head upward and as george following him writes so in oar tree of mad whose root springs in his top when speaks of as that white flower which marks extreme old age when calls the universe the statue oi the intellect when in his praise of good blood in mean condition to fire which though carried to the darkest house this and the mount oi will yet hold its natural office and burn as bright as if twenty thousand men did it behold when john saw in the the ruin of the world through evil and the start fall from heaven as the her fruit when reports the whole catalogue of common daily relations through the of birds and beasts we take the cheerful hint of the oi our essence and its habit and escapes as when the say it is in to hang them they cannot die the poet the poets are thus gods the ancient british had for the title of their order those who are free throughout the world they are free and they make free an imaginative book renders us much more service at first by us through its than afterward when we arrive at the precise sense of the author i think nothing | 37 |
sufficient or sufficient address ourselves to life nor dare we our own times and social circumstance if we filled the day with bravery we should not shrink from it time and nature yield us many gifts but not yet the man the new religion the whom all things await s praise is that he dared to write his in colossal or into we have yet had no genius in america ai the poet with eye which knew the value of our materials and saw in the and of the times another of the same gods whose picture he so much in then in the middle age then in banks and the newspaper and and are flat and dull to dull people but rest on the same foundations of wonder as the town of and the temple of and are as swiftly passing away our our and their politics our our and indians our boats and our the wrath of and the of honest men the northern trade the southern planting the western clearing and are yet america is a poem in our eyes its ample geography the imagination and it will not wait long for if i have not found that excellent combination of gifts in my countrymen which i seek neither could i aid myself to fix the idea of the poet by reading now and then in s collection of five centuries of english poets these are wits more than poets though there have i been poets among them but when we to the ideal of the poet we have our difficulties with milton and milton is too literary and too literal and historical but i am not wise enough for a national criticism and must use the old lai a little longer to discharge my errand from the muse to the poet concerning his art art is the path of the creator to his work the paths or methods are ideal and eternal though few men ever see them not the artist himself for years or for a lifetime he come into the conditions the painter the the the the orator all partake one desire namely to express themselves and abundantly not and they found or put themselves in certain as the painter and before some impressive human figures the orator into the assembly of the people and the others in such scenes as each has foimd exciting to his intellect and each presently feels the new desire he hears a voice he sees a then he is with won the poet der what herds of hem him in he can no more rest he says with the old painter by god it is in me and must go forth of me he a beauty half seen which flies before him the poet out verses in every solitude most of the things he says are conventional no doubt but by and by he says something which is original and beautiful that charms him he would say nothing else but such things in our way of talking we say that is yours this is mine but the poet knows well that it is not his that it is as strange and beautiful to him as to you he would fain hear the like eloquence at length once having tasted this immortal he cannot have enough of it and as an admirable power exists in these it is of the last importance that these things get spoken what a little of all we know is said what drops of all the sea of our science are up and by what accident it is that these are exposed when so many secrets sleep in nature hence the necessity of speech and song hence these and heart in the orator at the door of the assembly to the end namely that thought may be ejaculated as or word essay i doubt not o poet but persist say it is in me and shall out stand there and dumb and and stand and strive until at last rage draw out of thee that which every night shows thee is thine own a power all limit and privacy and by vi of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of nothing walks or or grows or exists which must not in turn arise and walk before him as of his meaning comes he to that power his genius is no longer all the creatures by pairs and by tribes pour into his mind as into a s ark to come forth again to people a new world this is like the stock of air for our or for the of our fireplace not a measure of but the entire atmosphere if wanted and therefore the rich poets as and have obviously no limits to their works except the limits of their lifetime and resemble a mirror carried through the street ready to render an image of every created thing o poet a new nobility is conferred in the poet groves and pastures and not in castles or by the sword blade any longer the conditions are hard but equal thou shalt leave the world and know the muse only thou shalt not know any longer the times customs graces politics or opinions of men bat shalt take all from the muse for the time of towns is from the world by but in nature the universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of animals and and by growth of joy on joy god wills also that thou a manifold and life and that thou be content that others speak for thee others shall be thy gentlemen and shall represent all courtesy and worldly life for thee others shall do the great and actions also thou shalt lie close hid with nature and not be afforded to the or the exchange the world is full of and and this is thine thou must pass for a fool and a for a | 37 |
long season this is the screen and in which pan has protected his well beloved flower and thou shalt be known only to thine own and they shall console thee with tenderest love and thou f i shalt not be able to the names of thy friends in thy verse for an old shame before the holy ideal and this is the reward thai the ideal shall be real to thee and the impressions the actual world shall fall like rain copious but not troublesome to thy essence thou shalt have the whole land for thy park and the for thy bath and without tax without envy the woods and the rivers shalt own and thou shalt possess that where in others are only tenants and true land lord sea lord air lord where ve snow falls or water flows or birds fly ever day and night meet in twilight the blue heaven is hung by clouds or with stars wherever are forms with rent boundaries wherever are into ce space wherever is danger and awe an love there is beauty as rain she for thee and though thou walk th world over thou shalt not be able to find i condition or experience the lords of life the lords of life i saw them pass in their own guise like and unlike and grim use and surprise surface and dream succession swift and wrong temperament without a tongue and the of the game without name some to see some to be guessed they marched firom east to west little man least of all among the legs of his tall walked about with puzzled look him by the hand dear nature took dearest nature strong and kind whispered darling never mind tomorrow they will wear another face the founder thou these are thy race essay ii experience where do we find ourselves in a series of which we do not know the extremes and believe that it has none we wake and find ourselves on a stair there are stairs below us which we seem to have ascended there are stairs above us many a one which go upward and out of sight but the genius which according to the old belief stands at the door by which we enter and gives us the to drink that we may tell no tales mixed the cup too strongly and we cannot shake off the now at sleep all our lifetime about our eyes as night all day in the boughs of the fir tree all things swim and glitter our life is not so much threatened as our perception ghost uke we glide through nature and should not know our place again did our birth fall in es at il experience some fit of and in that she was so of her fire and so li of her earth that it appears to us that lack the affirmative principle and though have health and reason yet we have no sup of spirit for new creation we ha enough to live and bring the year about b not an to impart or to invest ah tt our genius were a little more of a we are like on the lower of stream when the above them ha exhausted the water we too fancy that t upper people must have raised their if any of us knew what we were doing where we are going then when we think i best know we do not know today we are busy or idle in times when thought ourselves indolent we have discovered that much was accomplished ai much was begun in us all our days are while they pass that tis ful where or when we ever got anything this which we call wisdom poetry we never got it on any dated da some heavenly days must have been somewhere like those that m illusion on with of the moon that might be born it is said all looked mean when they were suffered every ship is a romantic object except that we sail in and the romance our vessel and hangs on every other sail in the horizon our life looks trivial and we to record it men seem to have learned of the horizon the art of perpetual retreating and reference yonder are rich and my neighbor has fertile meadow but my field says the farmer only holds the world together i quote another man s saying that other himself in the same way and me tis the trick of nature thus to today a good deal of and somewhere a result slipped in every roof is agreeable to the eye until it is lifted then we find tragedy and moaning women and hard eyed husbands and of and the men ask what s the news as if the old were so bad how many individuals can we count in society how many actions how many opinions so much of our time is preparation so much is routine and so much that the w essay ii experience of each man s genius itself to a very few hours the history of literature take the net result of or is a sum of very few ideas and of very few original tales all the rest being of these so in this great society wide lying around us a critical analysis would find very few spontaneous actions it is almost all custom and gross sense there are even few opinions and these seem in the and do not disturb the universal necessity what is into all disaster it shows formidable as we approach it but there is at last no rough but the most slippery sliding we fall soft on a thought ate is gentle over men s heads walking aloft with tender feet treading so soft people give and themselves but it is not half so bad with them as they say there are moods | 37 |
in which we court in the hope that here at least we shall find reality sharp peaks and edges of truth but it turns out to be scene painting and counter s i i l ir illusion the only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is that like all the rest plays about the surface and never me into the reality for contact with which we would even pay the costly price of sons and lovers was it who found out that bodies never come in contact well souls never touch their objects an sea with silent waves between us and the things we aim at and converse with grief too will make us in the death of my son now more than two years ago i seem to have lost a beautiful estate no more i cannot get it nearer to me if tomorrow i should be informed of the of my principal the loss of my property would be a great inconvenience to me perhaps for many years but it would leave me as it found me neither better nor worse so is it with this calamity it does not touch me some thing which i fancied was a part of me which could not be torn away without tearing me nor enlarged without me falls off from me and leaves no it was i grieve that grief can teach me nothing nor carry me one step essay ii experience into real nature the indian who was la under a curse that the wind should not on him nor water flow to him nor fire bu him is a type of us all the dearest are summer rain and we the coats tl shed every drop nothing is left us now t death we look to that with a grim tion saying there at least is reality that vi not us i take this and of objects which lets them slip through c fingers then when we clutch hardest to be t most part of our condition ture does not like to be observed and that we should be her fools and we may have the sphere for our bj but not a for our philosophy strokes she never gave us power to make our blows glance all our are our relations to each other are a casual dream us to dream and there is end to illusion life is a train of moods a string of beads and as we pass them they prove to be many colored temperament ff paint the world their own hue and li shows only what lies in its from mountain you see the mountain we what we can and we see only what we nature and books belong to the eyes see them it depends on the mood of the i whether he shall see the sunset or the poem there are always and e is always genius but only a few hours that we can relish nature or criticism more or less depends on structure or temperament is the iron wire on ch the beads are strung of what use me or talent to a cold and nature cares what sensibility or a l has at some time shown if he falls asleep is chair or if he laugh and or if or is affected with or of his dollar or cannot go by food as gotten a child in his boyhood of what is genius if the organ is too or too ave and cannot find a distance actual horizon of human life of what if the brain is too cold or too hot and the does not care enough for results to to experiment and hold him up in it ii or if the web is too finely woven too irritable by and pain so that life from too much reception without due outlet of what use to make heroic vows of if the same old law is to keep them what cheer can the religious sentiment yield when that is suspected to be secretly dependent on the seasons of the year and the state of the blood i knew a witty physician who found in the and used to affirm that if there was disease in the liver the man became a and if that organ was sound he became a very is the reluctant experience that some excess or the promise of genius we see young men who owe us a new world so readily and they promise but they never the debt they die young and the account or if they live they lose themselves in the crowd temperament also enters fully into the system of illusions and us in a on of glass which we cannot see there is an op illusion about every person we meet in truth they are all creatures of given temperament ment which will appear in a given character whose boundaries they will never pass but we look at them they seem alive and we presume there is impulse in them in the moment it seems impulse in the year in the lifetime it turns out to be a certain uniform tune which the revolving barrel of the must play men resist the conclusion in the morning but adopt it as the evening wears on that temper over everything of time place and condition and is in the flames of religion some the moral sentiment to impose but the individual texture holds its dominion if not to bias the moral judgments yet to fix the measure of activity and of enjoyment i thus express the law as it is read from the platform of ordinary life must not leave it without noticing the capital exception for temperament is a power which no man willingly hears any one praise but himself on the platform of we cannot resist the influences of so called science temperament puts all divinity to | 37 |
by conversing with folly and in fine whoever loses we are always of the gaining party is behind our failures and follies also the plays of children are nonsense but very ed nonsense so it is with the largest and things with commerce government marriage and so with the history of every man s bread and the ways by which he is to come by it like a bird which nowhere but perpetually from bough to bough is the power which in no man and in no woman but for a moment speaks from this one and for another moment from that one but what help from these or what help from thought life is not we i think in these times have had lessons enough of the of criticism our young people have thought and written much on labor and reform and for all that they have written neither the world nor themselves have got on a step intellectual of life will not muscular activity if a man should consider the of the passage of a piece of bread down his il ii experience throat he would starve at education farm the noblest theory of life sat on the noblest figures of young men and maidens quite powerless and melancholy it would not or pitch a ton of hay it would not rub down a horse and the men and maidens it left pale and hungry a political orator compared our party promises to western roads which opened stately enough with planted trees on either side to tempt the traveller but soon became narrow and and ended in a track and ran up a tree so does culture with us it ends in head ache sad and barren does life look to those who a few months ago were dazzled with the splendor of the promise of the times there is now no longer any right course of action nor any self devotion left among the objections and criticism we have had our fill of there are objections to every course of life and action and the practical wisdom an from the of objection the whole frame of things do not with thinking but go about your business anywhere life is not intellectual surface or critical but sturdy its chief good is for well mixed people who can enjoy what they find without question nature hates peeping and our mothers speak her very sense when they say children eat your and say no more of it to fill the hour that is happiness to fill the hour and leave no for a repentance or an approval we live amid and the true art of life is to well on them under the oldest a man of native force just as well as in the world and that by skill of handling and treatment he can take hold anywhere life itself is a mixture of power and form and will not bear the least excess of either to finish the moment to find the journey s end in every step of the road to live the greatest number of good hours is wisdom it is not the part of men but of or of if you will to say that the of life considered it is not worth caring whether for so short a duration we were in want or sitting h h since our office is with moments let us husband them five minutes of today are worth as much to me as five minutes in the a r e sat il next let be poised and wise and our own today let us treat the men and women well treat them as if they were real perhaps they are men live in their fancy like whose hands are too soft and tremulous for successful labor it is a tempest of fancies and the only i know is a respect to the present hour without any shadow of doubt amidst this of shows and politics i settle myself ever the firmer in the creed that we should not and refer and wish but do broad justice where we are by we deal with accepting our actual companions and circumstances however humble or odious as the mystic officials to whom the universe has its whole pleasure for us if these are mean and malignant their contentment which is the last victory of justice is a more satisfying echo to the heart than the voice of poets and the casual sympathy of admirable persons i think that however a thoughtful may suffer from the defects and of his company he without affectation deny to any set of men and women a sensibility to extraordinary merit the coarse and have an instinct of superiority if they have not a sympathy and honor it in their blind capricious way with sincere homage the fine yoimg people despise life but in me and in such as with me are free from and to whom a day is a sound and solid good it is a great excess of politeness to look scornful and to cry for company i am grown by sympathy a little eager and sentimental but leave me alone and i should relish every hour and what it brought me the of the day as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar room i am thankful for small i compared notes with one of my friends who expects everything of the universe and is disappointed when anything is less than the best and i found that i begin at the other extreme expecting nothing and am always full of thanks for moderate goods i accept the and of contrary tendencies i find my account in and also they give a reality to the picture which such a vanishing appearance can ill spare in the morning i awake and find the old world wife and mother and boston essay ii experience the dear old spiritual world and even the dear | 37 |
old devil not far off if we will take the good we find asking no questions we shall have measures the great gifts are not got by analysis everything good is on the highway the middle region of our being is the temperate we may climb into the thin and cold realm of pure and lifeless or sink into that of sensation between these extremes is the of life of thought of spirit of poetry a narrow belt moreover in popular experience everything good is on the highway a into all the picture shops of europe for a landscape of a sketch of but the the last judgment the communion of st and what are as as these are on the walls of the the or the where every footman may see them to say nothing of nature s pictures in every street of and every day and the of the human body never absent a recently bought at public in london for one hundred and fifty seven guineas an of but for surface nothing a school boy can read hamlet and can detect secrets of highest yet therein i think i will never read any but the commonest books the bible and milton then we are impatient of so public a life and planet and run hither and thither for and secrets the imagination delights in the of indians and bee we fancy that we are strangers and not so intimately in the planet as the wild man and the wild beast and bird but the reaches them also reaches the climbing flying gliding and man fox and hawk and and when nearly seen have no more root in the deep world than man and are just such superficial tenants of the globe then the new philosophy shows and shows that the world is all outside it has no inside the mid world is best nature as we know her is no saint the lights of the church the and she does not distinguish by any favor she comes essay ii experience ting and drinking and her the great the strong the beautiful are not children of our law do not come out of the sunday school nor weigh their food nor keep the if we will be strong with her we must not harbor such borrowed om the of other tions wa most set up the strong present t tense against all the of wrath past or r to come so things are unsettled which it is of the first to settle and f their settlement we will do as we do whilst the debate goes forward on the of commerce and will not be closed for a century or two new and old england may keep shop law of and is to be discussed and in the we will sell our books for the most we can w literature reason of literature of writing down a thought is questioned much is to say on both sides and while the fight hot thou dearest scholar stick to thy foolish task add a line every hour and between add a to hold land right of property is disputed and the v and before the is taken dig away in your garden and spend your as a or to all serene and beautiful purposes life itself is a and a and a sleep within a sleep grant it and as much more as they will but thou god s darling i heed thy private dream thou wilt not be missed in the and there are enough of them stay there in thy closet and toil until the rest are agreed what to do about it thy sickness they say thy habit require that thou do this or avoid that but that thy life is a flitting state a tent for a night and do thou sick or well finish that thou sick but shalt not be worse and the universe which holds thee dear shall be the better life is made up of the two elements power and form and the proportion must be invariably kept if we would have it sweet and sound each of these elements in excess makes a mischief as as its defect everything runs excess every good quality is if i and to carry the danger to the edge of ruin nature causes each man s essay ii experience ity to here among the we the scholars as examples of this treachery they are nature s victims of expression you who see the artist the orator the poet too near and find their life no more excellent than that of or and themselves victims of partiality i hollow and haggard and pronounce them not heroes but conclude that these arts are not foi bat are disease yet nature will bear you out irresistible nature made such and makes more of such ever day you love the boy reading in a book gazing at a drawing or a cast yet what an these millions who read and behold but writers and add a little more of that quality which now reads and sees they will seize the pen and and if one how innocently he began to be ai artist he that nature joined with enemy a man is a golden impossibility the line he must walk is a hair s breadth the wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool how easily if fate tf suffer it we might keep forever these beautiful and ourselves once for all to the perfect calculation of the kingdom of known cause and in the street and in the newspapers life appears so plain a business that manly and to the through all will success ut ah presently comes a day or is it only a i half hour with its angel the conclusions of nations and of ears tomorrow ain looks and the habitual standards common sense is as | 37 |
rare as genius i the basis of genius and experience is hands od feet to every enterprise and yet he who do his business on this understanding ould be quickly i keeps another road than the of choice nd will namely the nd and channels of life it is us that we are and doctors and people there are no like life is of surprises and ot be worth taking or keeping if it were not delights to us every day and hide essay ii experience from us the past and the future we would look about us but with grand politeness he draws down before us an impenetrable screen of purest sky and another behind us of purest sky you will not remember he seems to say and you will not expect all good conversation manners and action come from a which forgets and makes the great nature hates her methods are and impulsive man lives by our movements are such and the and ethereal agents are and alternate and the mind goes on and never but by fits we by our chief experiences have been casual the most attractive class of people are those who are powerful and not by the direct stroke men of genius but not yet one gets the cheer of their light without paying too great a tax theirs is the beauty of the bird or the morning light and not of art in the thought of genius there is always a surprise and the moral sentiment is well called the for it is never other as new to the oldest intelligence as to the young surprise child the kingdom that without hj observation in like manner for practical there must not be too much design a s l man will not be observed in doing that which he can do best there is a certain magic his action w hich your powers of observation so that though it is done before i v yoa you not of it the art of life has a and will not be exposed every man is an impossibility until he is bom every thing impossible until we see a c s the of piety agree at last with the that nothing is of us or our works that all is of god nature will not spare us the smallest leaf of laurel all writing comes by the grace of god and all doing and having i would gladly be moral and keep due and bounds which l dearly love and allow the most to the will of man but i have set my li art on honesty in this chapter and i can see nothing at last in success or failure than more or less of vital force supplied from the eternal tl e results of life are and the years teach much which the days never know the persons who compose our company con essay ii experience verse and come and go and design and e many things and somewhat comes o all but an for result the is always mistaken he designed things and drew in other persons as quarrelled with some or all mu and something is done all are a little but the individual is always mistaken it tu out somewhat new and very unlike what promised himself the struck with this ness of the elements of human life to tion exalted chance into a divinity but t is to stay too long at the spark which truly at one point but the with the of the same fire t miracle of life which will not be but will remain a miracle a r element in the growth of the home i think noticed that the was not from one central point but active from or more points life has memory that which proceeds in success might be remembered but that which is or ejaculated from a deeper cause reality far firom being conscious knows not its j own tendency so is it with us now y j or without unity because in and effects all seeming to be of equal yet hostile value and now religious whilst in the reception of spiritual law bear with these with this growth of the parts they will one day be members and obey one will on that one will on that secret cause they nail our attention and hope life is melted into an expectation or a religion underneath the and trivial particulars is a musical tion the ideal always with us the heaven without rent or do but observe the mode of our illumination when i converse with a profound mind or if at any time being alone i have good thoughts i do not at once arrive at as when being thirsty i drink water or go to the fire being cold no but i am at first of my vicinity to a new and excellent region of life by to read or to think this region gives further sign of itself as it were in flashes of light in sudden discoveries of its profound beauty and repose as if the clouds that essay ii experience it parted at intervals and showed th approaching traveller the inland mountains with the tranquil eternal meadows spread a their base whereon flocks and shepherd pipe and dance but every insight from realm of thought if felt as and i a i do not make it i arrive there and behold what was there i no i clap my hands in joy an amazement before the opening to me this august magnificence old with the lore and homage of innumerable ages young with the life of life the of the desert and what a future it opens i feel a heart beating with the love of the new beauty i am ready to die out of nature and be again into this new | 37 |
yet america i have found in the west since neither now nor yesterday began these thoughts which have been r nor yet a man be found who their first entrance knew if i have described life as a of moods must now add that there is that in us which changes not and which ranks all sensations and states of mind the consciousness to each man is a sliding scale which reality him now with the first cause and now with the flesh of his body life above life in degrees the sentiment from which it the dignity of any deed and the question ever is not what you have done or but at command you i have d k or it muse holy ghost are quaint too narrow to cover hu sub the baffled intellect still kneel before cause which refuses to be named cause which every fine genius has to represent by emphatic symbol as by water by air by thought by fire and the by love and the of each has become a national religion the chinese has not been the least successful in his i fully understand language he said and well my vast flowing vigor i beg to ask what you call vigor said his companion the explanation replied is difficult r vigor is great and in the highest degree it correctly and essay ii experience it no injury and it will fill up the between heaven and earth this vigor ac with and justice and reason leaves no hunger in our more writing we give to this th name of being a i thereby confess that we have arrived as as we can go suffice it for the joy of the that we have not arrived at a wall but at our life seems pr so much o not for the affairs on is wasted but as a hint of this vast flowing vigor most of life seems to be mere of faculty information is given not to sell ourselves cheap that we are v great so in particulars our greatness is always in a tendency or direction not in an action it is for us to believe in the rule not in the exception the noble are thus known from the so in a he leading of the sentiments it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul or the like but the universal impulse to believe that is the material circumstance and is the principal fact in the history of the globe si we describe this cause as that which x directly the spirit is not helpless or of organs it has plentiful powers direct effects i am explained without am felt without acting and i am not therefore all just persons e satisfied with their praise they re si to explain themselves and are content j that new actions do them that office believe that communicate without and above and that no right action of ours is quite to our friends at whatever distance for the influence of action is not to be measured by miles thy should i fret myself because a has occurred which my presence here i was expected if i am not at the meeting my presence where i am should be as useful to the of friendship d wisdom as would be my presence in that j e i the same quality of power in ill places thus journeys the mighty ideal before us it never was known to fall into the rear no man ever came to an experience which was but his good is tidings of ii onward and onward in we know that a picture of life e at ii experience and duty is already possible the elements already exist in many minds around you of a doctrine of life which shall any written record we have the new statement will the as well as the of society out of a creed shall be formed for are not or lawless but are of th affirmative statement the new philosophy must take them in and make outside of them just as much as it must include the oldest it is very unhappy but too late to be helped the discovery we have made that exist that discovery is called the fall of man ever afterwards we suspect our instruments we have learned that we do not see directly but and that we have no means of these colored and which we are or of the amount of their errors these subject have a power perhaps there are no objects once we lived in what we saw now the of this new power which to all things or thb nature art persons letters objects tumble in and god is bat one of its ideas nature and literature are phenomena every evil and every good thing is a shadow we cast the street is full of to the proud as the contrived to dress his in his livery and make wait on his guests at table so the which the bad heart gives off as at once take form as ladies and gentlemen in the street or in hotels and threaten or insult what l ever is and in us tis same with our people forget that it is the eye which makes the horizon and the mind s eye which makes this or that man a type or representative of humanity with the name of hero or saint the l man is a good man on whom many people are agreed that these laws shall take effect by love on one part and by forbearance to press objection on the other part it is for a time settled that we will look at him in the centre of the horizon and as he to him the properties that will attach to man so seen but the longest love or | 37 |
k at ii sion has a speedy the great and self rooted in absolute nature all relative existence and ruins the mortal friendship and love marriage in i is called the spiritual world is impossible cause of the between every and every object the subject is the of and at every comparison must his being by that m though not in energy yet by presence magazine of substance cannot be other than felt nor can any force of intellect tribute to the object the proper deity w sleeps or wakes forever in every sub never can love make consciousness and as tion equal in force there will be the s gulf between every me and thee as the original and the picture the the bride of the soul all private partial two human beings are like which can touch only in a point and w they remain in contact all other points of of the are their turn must come and the longer a particular union the more energy of the parts m union acquire subject ob thb life will be but cannot be divided nor doubled any invasion of its unity would be chaos the soul is not twin bom but the only and though revealing itself as child in time child in appearance is of a fatal and universal power no co life every day every act the ill concealed deity we believe in ourselves as ve do not believe in others we permit all things to ourselves and that which we call sin in others is experiment for us it is an instance of our faith in ourselves that men never speak of crime as lightly as they think or every man thinks a latitude safe for himself which is to be indulged to another the act looks very differently on the inside and on the outside in its quality and in its consequences murder in the murderer is no such thought as poets and will have it it does not bim or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles it is an act quite easy to be contemplated but in its it turns out to be a horrible and of all relations especially the crimes that spring from love seem right and fair from the actor s i k at ii point of view but when acted are found i of society no man at last that he can be lost nor that the crime in hi is as black as in the because the i in our own case the mo judgments for there is no crime to t intellect that is or and judges law as well as fact it is than a crime it is a blunder said speaking the language of the intellect to the world is a problem in or t science of quantity and it leaves out and blame and all weak emotions all ing is comparative if you come to absolute pray who does not steal saints are ss because they behold sin even when th from the point of view of the co science and not of the intellect a of thought sin seen from the thought is t r less seen from the or will it is or had the names it shade absence of light and essence the conscience must feel it essence essential evil this it is not it h an existence but no thus inevitably does the universe wear o sub or th color and every object fall into the subject itself the subject exists the subject all things sooner or later fall into place as i am so i see use what i we will we can never say anything but what we are are the mind s ministers instead of feeling a poverty when we encounter a great man let us treat the new comer like a travelling who passes through our estate and shows us good slate or or in our brush pasture the partial action of each strong mind in one direction is a for the objects on which it is pointed but every other part of knowledge is to be pushed to the same extravagance ere the soul her due do you see that chasing so prettily her own tail if you could look with her eyes you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex with tragic and comic issues long conversations many characters many and downs of fate and meantime it is only and her tail how long before our will end its noise of laughter and shouting and we shall find it was a performance a subject and an object il takes so much to make the complete but magnitude adds nothing r it whether it is and the sphere and america a reader and hu book or with her tail it is true that all the and love and religion hate these and will find a way to punish the who in the parlor the secrets of the and we cannot say too little of our constitutional necessity of seeing things under private aspects or with our and yet is the god the native of these bleak rocks that need makes in morals the capital virtue of self trust we must hold hard to this poverty however scandalous and by more vigorous self after the ol action possess our more firmly the lift of truth is cold and so far mournful but it is not the slave of tears and it does not attempt another s work nor adopt another s facts it is a main lesson of wisdom to know your own from another s k have learned that t cannot dispose of other subject oil people s facts but i possess such a key to my own as me all their that they also have a key to theirs a sympathetic person is placed in the of a among drowning men who all catch | 37 |
measure of the feat j v r z work of his band he nor nor grieve for itself the fact as nature a every jf ji essay iii character i have read that those who listened to lord felt that there was something finer in the man than anything which he said it has been complained of our brilliant english historian of the french revolution that when he has told all h s facts about they do not justify of his genius the and others of s do not in the record of facts equal their own fame sir philip the earl of sir walter are men of great figure and of few deeds we cannot find the smallest part of the personal weight of washington in the narrative of his exploits the authority of the name of is too great for his books this of the reputation to the works or the anecdotes is not accounted for by saying iii that the is longer than th thunder clap but somewhat resided in the men which an expectation that all their performance the largest part of their power was latent this is that which we call character a reserved force which acts directly by presence and without means it is conceived of as a certain force a familiar or genius by whose impulses the man is guided but whose counsels he cannot impart which is company for him so that such men are often solitary or if they chance to be social do not need society but can entertain themselves very well alone the purest literary talent appears at one time great at another time small but character is of a and greatness what others effect by talent or by eloquence this man by some half his strength he put not forth his are by demonstration of superiority and not by crossing of he because his arrival the face of affairs o how did you know that was a god because answered i was content the moment my eyes fell on him character j i l hen i beheld i desired that i might i see him offer battle or at least guide his horses f in the chariot race but did not wait f for a contest he conquered whether he stood or walked or sat or whatever thing he did man ordinarily a to events only half attached and that awkwardly to the world he lives in in these examples appears to share the life of things and to be an expression of the same laws which control the tides and the sun numbers and quantities but to use a more modest illustration and nearer home i observe that in our political where this element if it appears at all can only occur in its form we sufficiently understand its rate the people know that they need in their representative much more than talent namely the power to make his talent trusted they cannot come at their ends by sending to a learned acute and t speaker if he be not one who before he was appointed by the people to represent them was appointed by almighty god to stand for a fact persuaded of that fact in himself so that the most confident and the most violent ess i hi persons learn that here is resistance on which both impudence and terror are wasted namely faith in a fact the men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their what they should say but are themselves the country which they represent nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and true as in them nowhere so pure from a selfish the at home to their words watches the color of their cheek and therein as in a glass dresses its own our public are pretty good of manly force our frank countrymen of the west and south have a taste for character and like to know whether the new is a substantial man or whether the hand can pass through him the same motive force appears in trade there are in trade as well as in war or the state or letters and the reason why this or that man is fortunate is not to be told it lies in the man that is all anybody can tell you about it see him and you will know as easily why he as if you see napoleon you would comprehend his fortune in the new objects we recognize the old game the character habit of the fact and not dealing it at second hand through the of somebody else nature seems to trade as soon as you see the natural merchant who appears not so much a private agent as her and minister of commerce his natural with his insight into the fabric of society to put him above tricks and he to all his own faith that are of no private interpretation the habit of his mind is a reference to standards of natural and public advantage and he respect and the wish to deal with him both for the quiet spirit of honor which him and for the intellectual which the spectacle of so much ability affords this immensely stretched trade which makes the of the southern ocean his and the atlantic sea his familiar port in his brain only and nobody in the universe can make his place good in his parlor i see very well that he has been at hard work this morning with that brow and that settled humor which all his desire to be courteous cannot shake off i see plainly how many firm acts have been done i essay iii how many have this day been spoken when others would have i see with the pride of art and skill of and power of remote combination the consciousness of | 37 |
being an agent and of the original laws of the world he too believes that none can supply him and that a man must be born to trade or he cannot learn it this virtue draws the mind more when it appears in action to ends not so mixed it works with most energy in the smallest companies and in private relations in all cases it is an extraordinary and agent the excess of physical strength is by it higher natures lower ones by affecting them with a certain sleep the faculties are locked up and offer no resistance perhaps that is the universal law when the high cannot bring up the low to itself it it as man charms down the resistance of the lower animals men exert on each other a similar power how often has the influence of a true master realized all the tales of magic a river of command seemed to run down from his eyes into all those who character beheld him a torrent of strong sad light like an or which pervaded them with his thoughts and colored all events with the hue of his mind what means did you employ was the question asked of the wife of in regard to her treatment of mary of and the answer was only that influence which every strong mind has over a one cannot caesar in irons off he irons and transfer them to the person of or the is an iron so a bond suppose a on the coast of guinea should take on a gang of which should contain of the stamp of l r let us fancy under these he a gang of in chains when hey arrive at will the relative order of he ship s company be the same is there but rope and iron is there no love reverence is there never a glimpse of right in a poor slave captain s mind and cannot these be supposed available to break or or in any manner the of an inch or two of iron ring this is a natural power like light and heat essay iii and all nature with it the reason why we feel one man s presence and do not feel another s is as simple as gravity truth is the summit of being justice is the application of it to affairs all individual natures stand in a scale according to the purity of this element in them the will of the pure runs down from them into other natures as water runs down from a higher into a lower vessel this natural force is no more to than any other natural force we can drive a stone upward for a moment into the air but it is yet true that all stones will forever fall and whatever instances can be quoted of or of a lie which somebody justice must prevail and it is the privilege of truth to make itself believed character is this moral order seen through the medium of an individual nature an is an time and space liberty and necessity truth and thought are left at large no longer now the universe is a close or pound all things exist in the man tinged with the manners of his soul with what quality is in him he all nature that he can reach nor does he tend to lose himself in character but at how long a curve all his regards return into his own good at last he all he can and he sees only what he he the world as the does his country as a material basis for his character and a theatre for action a healthy soul stands united with the just and the true as the itself with the pole so that he stands to all like a transparent object them and the sun and journeys towards the sun journeys towards that person he is thus the medium of the highest influence to all who are not on the same level thus men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong the natural measure of this power is the resistance of circumstances men consider life as it is reflected in opinions events and persons they cannot see the action until it is done yet its moral element pre existed in the actor and its quality as right or wrong it was easy to everything in nature is or has a positive and negative pole there is a male and a female a spirit and a fact a north and a south spirit essay iii is the positive the event is the negative will is the north action the south pole character may be as having its natural place in the north it shares the currents of the system the feeble souls are drawn to the south or negative pole they look at the profit or hurt of the action they never behold a principle until it is lodged in a person they do not wish to be lovely but to be loved the class of character like to hear of their faults the other class do not like to hear of faults they worship events secure to them a fact a a certain chain of circumstances and they will ask no more the hero sees that the event is it must follow him a given order of events has no power to secure to him the satisfaction which the imagination to it the soul of goodness escapes from any set of circumstances whilst prosperity belongs to a certain mind and will introduce that power and victory which is its natural fruit into any order of events no change of circumstances can repair a defect of character we boast our from many but if we have broken any it is through a character of the what have i gained that i no longer a bull to jove or to or a 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to that i do not tremble before the or the catholic ot the judgment day if i at opinion the public opinion as we call it or at the threat of assault or or bad neighbors or poverty or or at the of revolution or of if i what matters it what i at our proper vice takes form in one or another shape according to the sex age or temperament of the person and if we are capable of fear will readily find terrors the or the which me when i it to society is my own i am always by myself on the other part is a perpetual victory celebrated not by cries of joy but by serenity which is joy fixed or it is disgraceful to fly to events for confirmation of our truth and worth the does not run every hour to the to coin his advantages into current money of the realm he is satisfied to read in the of the market that his stocks have risen essay iii the same transport which the occurrence of the best events in the best order would occasion me i must learn to taste purer in the perception that my position is every hour and does already command those events i desire that exultation is only to be checked by the foresight of an order of things so excellent as to throw all our into the deepest shade the face which character wears to me is self i the person who is riches so that i cannot think of him as alone or poor or or unhappy or a but as perpetual patron benefactor and man character is the impossibility of being or a man should give us a sense of mass society is frivolous and its day into scraps its conversation into ceremonies and escapes but if i go to see an ingenious man i shall think myself poorly entertained if he give me pieces of benevolence and etiquette rather he shall stand stoutly in his place and let me apprehend if it were only his resistance know that i have encountered a new and positive quality great refreshment for both character of us it is much that he does not accept the conventional opinions and that will remain a and and every will have to dispose of him in the first place there is nothing real or useful that is not a seat of war our houses ring with laughter and personal and critical gossip but it helps little but the man who is a problem and a threat to society whom it cannot let pass in silence but must either worship or hate and to whom all parties feel related both the leaders of opinion and the obscure and eccentric he helps he puts america and europe in the wrong and the which says man is a doll let us eat and drink tis the best we can do by the and unknown acquiescence in the establishment and appeal to the public indicate faith heads which are not clear and which must see a house built before they can comprehend the plan of it the wise man not only leaves out of his thought the many but leaves out the few fountains fountains the self moved the absorbed the commander because he is the assured v essay iii the they are good for these announce the instant presence of supreme power our action should rest on our substance in nature there are no false a pound of water in the h is no more gravity than in a mid summer pond all things work exactly according to their quality and according to their quantity attempt nothing they cannot do except man only he has he wishes and attempts things beyond his force i read in a book of english mr fox afterwards lord holland said he must have the treasury he had served up to it and would have it and his ten thousand were quite equal to what they attempted and did it so equal that it was not d to be a grand and yet there stands that fact a high water mark in military his many have attempted it since and not been equal to it it is only on reality that any power of action can be based no institution will be better than the i knew an amiable and accomplished person who undertook a practical reform yet i was character able to find in him the enterprise of love he took in hand he adopted it by ear and by the understanding from the books he had been reading all his action was l a piece of the city carried out into the fields and was the city still and no new fact and could not inspire enthusiasm had there been something latent in the man a terrible genius and embarrassing his we had watched for its advent it is not enough that the intellect should see the evils and their remedy we shall still our existence nor take the ground to which we are entitled whilst it is only a thought and not a spirit that us we have not yet served up to it these are properties of life and another trait is the notice of incessant growth men should be intelligent and earnest they must also make us feel that they have a happy future opening before them which sheds a splendor on the passing hour the hero is and he cannot therefore wait to any man s he is again on his road adding new essay iii powers and honors to his domain and new claims on your heart which will you if you have about the old things and have not kept your relation to him by adding to your wealth new actions are the only apologies and explanations of old ones which the noble | 37 |
can bear to offer or to receive if your friend has displeased you you shall not sit down to consider it for he has already lost all memory of the passage and has doubled his power to serve you and ere you can rise up again will burden you with blessings we have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence that is only measured by its works love is inexhaustible and if its estate is wasted its emptied still cheers and and the man though he sleep seems to the air and his house to adorn the landscape and strengthen the laws people always recognize this difference we know who is benevolent by quite other the amount of to soup societies it is only low merits that can be fear when your friends say to you what you have done well and say it through but when they stand with uncertain timid looks of re character ct and half dislike and must their for years to come you may begin to e those who live to the future must appear selfish to those who live to the ent therefore it was droll in the good ner who has written of lake out a list of his and good is as so many hundred given to ing to to a b found for professor a post under grand duke for a for er two professors recommended to foreign c c the longest list of of benefit would look very short is a poor creature if he is to be so for all these of course are and the rule and life of od man is the true charity is to be inferred from the account gave dr of the way in ch he had spent his fortune each mine has cost a purse of gold half a ion of my own money the fortune i my salary and the large income from my writings for fifty years back essay iii have been expended to instruct me in what i now know i have besides seen c i own it is but poor chat and gossip to go to traits of this simple and rapid power and we are painting the with but in these long nights and i like to console myself so nothing but itself can copy it a word warm from the heart me i surrender at discretion how death cold is literary genius before this fire of life these are the touches that my heavy soul and give it eyes to pierce the dark of nature i find where i thought myself poor there was i most rich thence comes a new intellectual exaltation to be again by some new exhibition of character strange of attraction and character intellect yet it and character passes into thought is published so and then is ashamed before new flashes of moral worth character is nature in the highest form it is of no use to it or to contend with it somewhat is possible of resistance and of and of creation to this power which will foil all character this is best where no hands but nature s have been laid on it care is taken that the greatly destined shall slip up into life in the shade with no thousand eyed to watch and every new thought every blushing emotion of young genius two persons lately very young children of the most high god have given me occasion for thought when i the source of their and charm for the imagination it seemed as if each answered from my i never listened to your people s law or to what they call their gospel and wasted my time i was content with the simple rural poverty of my own hence this sweetness my work never reminds you of that is pure of that and nature me in such persons that in america she will not be how and from the market and from scandal it was only this morning that i sent away some wild flowers of these wood gods they are a relief from literature these fresh draughts from the sources of thought and sentiment as we read in an age of polish and criticism the first lines their favorite ve a stake in a e sat iii of written prose and verse of a nation how is their devotion to their favorite books whether or scott as feeling that they have that book who touches that touches them and especially the total solitude of the critic the of thought from which he writes in of any eyes that shall ever read this writing they dream on still as angels and not wake to and to be flattered yet some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise and wherever the vein of thought reaches down into the profound there is no danger from vanity solemn friends will warn them of the danger of the head s being turned by the flourish trumpets but they can to smile i remember the indignation of an eloquent at the kind of a doctor of divinity my friend a man can neither be praised nor insulted but forgive the counsels they are very natural i remember the thought which occurred to me when some ingenious and spiritual foreigners came to america was have you been in being brought hither or prior ot that answer me this are you t as i have said nature keeps these in her own hands and however our sermons and would divide some share of credit and teach that the laws fashion the citizen she goes her own gait and puts the wisest in the wrong she makes very light of and as one who has a great many more to produce and no excess of time to spare on any one there is a class of men individuals of which appear bit long intervals so eminently | 37 |
endowed with insight and virtue that they have been saluted as and who seem to be an of that power we consider divine persons are character bom or to borrow a phrase from napoleon they tory organized they are usually with ill will because they are new and because they set a bound to the exaggeration that has been made of the personality of the last divine person nature never her children nor makes two men alike when we see a great man we fancy a resemblance to some historical person and the of his character and fortune a result which he is sure to disappoint none will ever solve ess at iii the problem of his character according to ou prejudice but only in his own high way character wants room must not be crowded on by persons nor be judged from glimpses got in the press of or on few occasions it needs perspective at a great building it may not probably not form relations rapidly and we should no require rash explanation either on the or on our own of its action i look on as history i do think the and the jove impossible ii flesh and blood every trait which the recorded in stone he had seen in life and better than his copy we have seen man but we are born in how easily we read in old books men were few of the smallest action of th we require that a man should b so large and in the landscape that i should deserve to be recorded that he arose and up his and departed to a place the most pictures are of majestic men who prevailed at their en trance and convinced the senses as to the eastern ms who was sent to tes character the merits of or when the sage arrived at the tell us appointed a day on which the of every country should and a golden chair was placed for the sage then the beloved of i dam the prophet advanced into the midst of the assembly the sage on seeing that chief said this form and this gait cannot lie and nothing but truth can proceed from them said it was impossible not to believe in the children of the gods though they should speak without probable or necessary arguments i should think myself very unhappy in my associates if i could not credit the best things in history john says milton appears like a whom the are not to depart with the year so that not on the only but throughout his life you would regard him as sitting in judgment upon kings i find it more since it is information that one man should know heaven as the chinese say than that so many men should know the world the virtuous prince the gods without any he waits a iii hundred ages till a sage comes and does not doubt he who the gods without any knows heaven he who waits a hundred ages until a sage comes without doubting knows men hence the virtuous prince moves and for ages shows empire the way but there is no need to seek remote examples he is a dull observer whose experience has not taught him the reality and force of magic as well as of the cannot go abroad without inexplicable influences one man an eye on him and the graves of the memory render up their dead the secrets that make him wretched either to keep or to betray must be yielded another and he speak and the bones of his body seem to lose their the entrance of a friend adds grace boldness and eloquence to him and there are persons he cannot choose but remember who gave a to his thought and kindled another life in his bosom what is so excellent as strict relations of when they spring from this deep root the sufficient reply to the who doubts character power and the furniture of man is in that of joyful intercourse with persons h makes the faith and practice of all men i know nothing which life has so satisfying as the profound good which can after much of good between two virtuous i each of whom is sure of himself and sure is friend it is a happiness which posts all other and makes commerce and churches cheap when men shall meet as they ought each a shower of stars clothed with with deeds with accomplishments be the festival of nature which all s announce of such friendship love in is the first symbol as all other s are of love those relations to est men which at one time we reckoned of youth become in the progress b character the most solid enjoyment it were possible to live in right men if we could from g anything of them from asking their or help or pity and content us with them through the virtue of the e at iii eldest laws could we not deal with a fi persons with one person after the written and make an experiment their could we not pay our the compliment of truth of silence of i bearing need we be so eager to seek hi if we are related we shall meet it w tradition of the ancient world that no m could hide a god from a god i there is a greek verse which runs the gods are to each other not unknown friends also follow the laws of divine ty they to each other and can otherwise when each the other shall avoid shall each by each be most enjoyed their relation is not made but allowed t gods must seat themselves without in our and as they can th selves by divine society is spoil if pains are taken if the associates are a mile to meet and if it | 37 |
be not society i a mischievous low degrading made up of the best all the greatness of e is kept back and every in painful ac character ity as if the should meet to exchange snuff boxes life goes headlong we chase some flying scheme or we are hunted by some fear or command behind us but if suddenly we encounter a friend we pause our heat and hurry look foolish enough now pause now possession is required and the power to swell the moment from the resources of the heart the moment is all in all noble relations a divine person is the prophecy of the mind a friend is the hope of the heart our waits for the fulfilment of these two in one the ages are opening this moral force all force is the shadow or symbol of that poetry is joyful and strong as it draws its inspiration thence men write their names on the world as they are filled with this has been mean our nations have been we have never seen a man that form we do not yet know but only the and prophecy of such we do not know the majestic manners which belong to him tv hich and the we shall one day see that the most private is the host public energy that quality for iii quantity and grandeur of character acts is the dark and them who never saw it what greatness has yet appeared is and to us in this direction the history of those gods and saints which the world has written and then wo are documents of character ages have in the manners of a youth who owed nothing to fortune and who was hanged at the of his nation who by the pure quality of his nature shed an splendor around the facts of his death which has every particular into an universal symbol for the eyes of mankind j this great defeat is hitherto our highest fret but the mind requires a victory to the i a force of character which will convert judge jury soldier and king which will rule animal and virtues and with the courses of sap of rivers of winds of stars and of moral agents if we cannot attain at a bound to these at least let us do them homage in society high advantages are set down to the possessor as it requires the more in our character i do not forgive in my friends the failure to know a fine character and to entertain it with thankful hospitality when at last that which ve have always longed for is arrived and on us with glad rays out of that far land then to be coarse then to be and treat such a with the and suspicion of the streets a that seems to shut the doors of this is confusion this the right when the soul no longer knows its nor where its its religion are je is there any religion but this to know wherever in the wide desert of being the sentiment we cherish has opened into a it for me if none sees it i see i am aware if i alone of the greatness of fact whilst it i will keep or holy time and my gloom and y folly and jokes nature is indulged by the of this guest there are many eyes at can detect and honor the prudent and virtues there are many that can genius on his track though the ob is incapable but when that love which all all all c essay ui which has vowed to itself that it will wretch and also a fool in this world s than soil its white hands by any comes into our streets and houses pure and can know its face only compliment they can pay it is to it i manners r how near to good is what is fair which we no sooner see but with the lines and outward air our senses taken he again yourselves compose and now put all the on of figure that proportion or color can disclose that if those silent arts were lost design and they might from you a ground instructed the sense of dignity and reverence in their true motions found essay iv manners half the world it is said knows not how s other half live our exploring u saw the getting their off human bones and they are said eat their own wives and children the of the modern inhabitants of west of old is philosophical to to set up their housekeeping nothing but two or three pots a to grind meal and a mat which is the the house namely a tomb is ready rent or taxes no rain can pass through roof and there is no door for there is no t of one as there is nothing to lose if house do not please them they walk out enter another as there ate several hundreds their command it is somewhat adds to whom we owe this ac if count to talk of happiness among who live in among the an rags of an ancient nation which they nothing of in the deserts of th rock still dwell in like and the language of these compared by their neighbors to the shrieking of and to the whistling of birds again the have no proper names individuals are called after their height thickness or other accidental quality and have merely but the salt the dates the ivory and the gold for which these horrible regions are visited find their way into countries where the and can hardly be in one race with these and countries man serves himself with wood stone glass cotton silk and wool honors himself with architecture writes laws and to execute his will through the hands of many nations and especially a select society running through all | 37 |
the countries of intelligent men a self constituted aristocracy or of the best which without written law or exact usage of any kind itself manners every planted island and nd makes its own whatever personal beauty or extraordinary native anywhere appears what fact more conspicuous in modern history than the creation of the gentleman chivalry is that and loyalty is that and in english literature half the drama and all the novels from sir philip to sir walter scott paint this figure the word gentleman w hich like the word christian must hereafter the present and the few preceding centuries by the importance attached to it is a homage to personal and properties frivolous and fantastic additions have got associated with the name but the steady interest of mankind in it must be attributed to the valuable properties which it an element which all the most forcible persons of every country makes them intelligible and agreeable to each other and is somewhat so precise that it is at once felt if an individual lack the sign cannot be any casual product but must be an average result of the character and faculties universally found in men it seems a certain essay iv average as the atmosphere is a composition whilst so many ar combined only to be is the frenchman s description of good society as we must he it is a spontaneous fruit of talents and feelings of precisely that class who have most vigor who take the lead in the world of this hour though far from pure far from the and highest tone of human feeling is as good as the whole society it to be it is made of the spirit more than of the talent of men and is a compound result into which every great force enters as an namely virtue wit beauty wealth and power there is something in all the words in use to express the excellence of manners and social cultivation because the quantities are and the last effect is assumed by the senses as the cause the word gentleman has not any abstract to express the quality is mean and is but we must keep alive in the the distinction between fashion a word of narrow and often sinister meaning and the heroic manners ter which the gentleman the usual however must be respected they will j e found to contain the root of the matter the point of distinction in all this class of names as courtesy chivalry fashion and the like is that the flower and fruit not the grain of the tree contemplated it is beauty hich is the aim this time and not worth the result is now in question although our words intimate well enough the popular feeling that the appearance a substance the gentleman is a man of truth lord of his own actions and expressing that in his behavior not in any manner dependent and either on persons or opinions or possessions beyond this fact of truth and real force the word good nature or benevolence manhood first and then gentleness the popular notion certainly adds a condition of ease and fortune but that is a natural result of personal force and love that they should possess and dispense the goods of the world in times of violence every eminent person must fall in with many opportunities to approve his and worth therefore every man s name that it emerged at all from the mass in the f ages in our ear like a flourish of but personal force never goes c fashion that is still today in the moving crowd of good society th of and reality are known and r their natural place the competition is from war to politics and trade bi personal force appears readily enough in new power first or no leading class in p and in trade and are of promise than and clerks god i that all sorts of gentlemen knock at the but whenever used in and wit emphasis the name will be found to po original energy it describes a man in his own right and working after methods in a good lord there must a good animal at least to the extent of the advantage of animal s the ruling class must have more but must have these giving in every con the sense of power which makes things to be done which the wise tl of the energetic class in their manners meetings is full of courage and of which the pale scholar courage which girls exhibit is like a of s lane or a sea fight the act on memory to make some face these is a base with basket in the presence of these sudden the rulers of society must be up to of the world and equal to their tile office men of the right n who have great range of i ax from believing the timid of that for ceremony there go two to it since a bold fellow will go the forms and am of on that the gentleman is the bold fellow e forms are not to be broken through only that nature is r which is the of whatever n it with my gentleman gives where he is he will saints in i in the field and line all courtesy in the hall he is good for and good with so that it is useless to yourself e sat iv i against him he has the private entrance to all minds and i could as easily myself as him the famous gentlemen of asia and europe have been of this strong type the caesar alexander and tlie personages they sat very carelessly in their chairs and were too excellent themselves to value any condition at a high rate a plentiful fortune is reckoned necessary in the popular judgment to the completion of this man of the world and it is a material | 37 |
which walks through the dance which the first has led money is not essential but this wide is which the habits of and caste and makes itself felt by men of all classes if the is only in fashionable circles and not with he will never be a leader in fashion and if the man of the people cannot speak on equal terms with the gentleman so that the gentleman shall perceive that he is already really of his own order he is not to be feared and are gentlemen of the best blood who have chosen the condition of poverty when that of wealth manners was equally open to them i use these old names but the men i speak of are my will not supply to every generation one of these well appointed knights but every collection of men some example of the class and the politics of this country and the trade of every town are controlled by these hardy and who have invention to take the lead and a broad sympathy which puts them in fellowship with crowds and makes their action popular the manners of this class are observed and caught with devotion by men of taste the association of these masters with each other and with men intelligent of their merits is agreeable and the good forms the happiest expressions of each are repeated and adopted by swift consent everything superfluous is dropped everything graceful is renewed fine manners show themselves formidable to the man they are a science of defence to and but once matched by the skill of the other party they drop the point of the sword points and fences dis it appear and the youth finds himself in a more transparent atmosphere wherein life is a less troublesome game and not a ing rises between the players manners aim to life to get rid of and bring the man pure to they aid our dealing and conversation as a railway travelling by getting rid of all of the road and leaving nothing to be conquered but space these forms very soon become fixed and a fine sense of propriety is cultivated with the more heed that it becomes a of social and civil distinctions thus grows up fashion an semblance the most the most fantastic and frivolous the most feared and followed and which morals and violence assault in vain there exists a strict relation between the class of power and the exclusive and polished circles the last are always filled or filling from the first the strong men usually give some allowance even to the of fashion for that they find in it napoleon child of the revolution of the old never ceased to court the manners st doubtless with the feeling that fashion is a homage to men of his stamp fashion though in a strange way represents all manly virtue it is virtue gone to seed it is a kind of honor it does not often caress the great but the children of the great it is a hall of the past it usually sets its face against the great of this hour great men are not commonly in its halls they are absent in the field they are working not fashion is made up of their children of those who through the value and virtue of somebody have acquired lustre to their name marks of distinction means of cultivation and generosity and in their physical organization a certain health and excellence which to them if not the highest power to work yet high power to enjoy the class of power the working heroes the the the napoleon see that this is the and permanent of such as they that fashion is talent is and beaten out thin that the brilliant names of fashion run back to just such busy names as their own fifty or sixty years ago they essay iv are the their sons shall be the and their sons in the ordinary course of things must yield the of the ha to new with eyes and stronger frames the city is from the country in the year it is said every legitimate monarch in europe was the city would have died out and exploded long ago but that it was from the fields it is only country which came to town day before yesterday that is city and court today aristocracy and fashion are certain inevitable results these mutual are if they provoke anger in the least favored class and the excluded majority revenge themselves on the by the strong hand and kill them at once a new class finds itself at the top as certainly as cream rises in a bowl of milk and if the people should destroy class after class until two men only were left one of these would be the leader and would be involuntarily served and copied by the other you may keep this out of sight and out of mind but it is of life and is one of the estates of manners e realm i am the more struck with this when i see its work it respects the of such unimportant matters that we should not look for any in its rule we sometimes meet men under some strong moral influence as a patriotic a literary a religious movement and feel that the moral sentiment rules man and nature we think all other distinctions and ties will be slight and fugitive this of caste or fashion for example yet come from year to year and see how permanent that is in this boston or new york life of man where too it has not the least countenance from the law of the land not in egypt or in india a firmer or more line here are associations whose ties go over and under and through it a meeting of merchants a military corps a a fire club a professional association a political a | 37 |
eminent convenience whether the guest is too great or too little we call together many friends who keep each other in play or by luxuries and ornaments we amuse the young people and guard our retirement or if perchance a searching comes to our gate before whose eye we have no care to stand then again we run to our curtain and hide ourselves as adam at the voice of the lord god in the garden cardinal the pope s at paris defended himself from the glances of napoleon by an immense pair of green spectacles napoleon remarked them and speedily managed to rally them off and yet napoleon in his turn was not great enough with eight hundred thousand troops at his back to face a pair of eyes but himself with etiquette and within triple of reserve and as all the world knows from madame de was wont when he found himself observed to discharge his face of all expression but and rich men iv are by no means the most skilful masters of good manners no nor army list and and the first point of courtesy must always be truth as really all the forms of good breeding point that way i have just been reading in mr s translation s account of his journey into italy and am struck with nothing more agreeably than the self respecting fashions of the time his arrival in each place the arrival of a gentleman of france is an event of some consequence wherever he goes he pays a visit to whatever prince or gentleman of note upon his road as a duty to himself and to civilization when he leaves any house in which he has lodged for a few weeks he causes his arms to be painted and hung up as a perpetual sign to the house as was the custom of gentlemen the of this graceful and that of all the points of good breeding i most require and insist upon is deference i like that every chair should be a throne and hold a king i prefer a tendency to to an excess of fellowship let the v manners objects of nature and the of man teach us let us not be too much ac i would have a man enter his le through a hall filled with heroic and id that he might not want the of tranquillity and self we should t each morning as from foreign countries spending the day together should night as into foreign countries in i would have the island of a man late let us sit apart as the gods peak to peak all round of affection need this this is and to keep the r sweet lovers should guard their if they forgive too much all s into confusion and meanness it is to push this deference to a chinese but coolness and of heat and indicate fine qualities a gentleman es no noise a lady is serene ite is our disgust at those who l house with blast and running to re some paltry convenience not less i ke a low sympathy of each with his it neighbor s needs must we have a good understanding with one another s as foolish people who have lived long together know when each wants salt or sugar i pray my companion if he wishes for bread to ask me for bread and if he wishes for or to ask me for them and not to hold out his plate as if i knew already every natural function can be dignified by deliberation and privacy let us leave hurry to slaves the compliments and ceremonies of our breeding should signify however the recollection of the grandeur of our destiny the flower of courtesy does not very well bide handling but if we dare to open another leaf and explore what parts go to its we shall find also an intellectual quality to the leaders of men the brain as well as the flesh and the heart must a proportion defect in manners is usually the defect of fine men axe too made for the delicacy of beautiful carriage and customs it is not quite sufficient to a union of kindness and independence we require a perception manners of and a homage to beauty in our companions other virtues are in request in the field and but a certain degree of taste is not to be spared in those we sit with i could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws than with a and person moral qualities rule the world but at short distances the senses are the same of fit and fair runs out if with less into all parts of life the average spirit of the energetic class is good sense acting under certain and to certain ends it every natural gift social in its nature it respects everything which to unite men it delights in measure the love of beauty ig mainly the love of measure or proportion the person who screams or uses the degree or with heat puts whole drawing rooms to flight if you wish to be loved love measure you must have genius or a prodigious usefulness if you will hide the want of measure this perception comes in to polish and perfect the parts of the social instrument society will pardon much to genius and special gifts but being in its essay it nature a it loves what is conventional or what belongs to coming together that makes the good and bad of manners namely what helps or fellowship for fashion is not good sense absolute but relative not good sense private but good sense entertaining company it hates corners and sharp points of character hates solitary and gloomy people hates whatever can interfere with total of parties whilst it all peculiarities as in the highest degree refreshing which can consist with | 37 |
and talk of that which i do not well understand it is easy to see that what is called by distinction society and fashion has good laws as well as bad has much that is necessary and much that is absurd too good for and too bad for blessing it reminds us of a tradition of the pagan in any attempt to settle its character i overheard jove one day said manners talking of the earth he said it had failed they were all and who went from bad to worse as fast as the days succeeded each other said she hoped not they were only ridiculous little creatures with this odd circumstance that they had a or aspect seen far or seen near if you called them bad they would appear so if you called them good they would appear so and there was no one person or action among them which would not puzzle her owl much more all to know whether it was bad or good k k i essay v gifts it is said that the world is in a state of that the world owes the world more than the world can pay and ought to go into and be sold i do not think this general which in some sort all the population to be the reason of the difficulty experienced at christmas and n year and other times in since it is always so pleasant to be gen though very to pay debts but he lies in the choosing if at my time it comes into my head that a nt is due from me to somebody i am puzzled to give until the opportunity is gone and fi its are always fit presents because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty all the f the world these gay natures contrast r with the somewhat stem countenance of nature they are like music heard out of a work house nature does not us we are children not she is not fond everything is dealt to us without fear or favor after severe universal laws yet these delicate flowers look like the and ence of love and beauty men use to tell us that we love flattery even though we are not deceived by it because it shows that we are of importance enough to be something like that pleasure the flowers give us what am i to whom these sweet hints are addressed fruits are acceptable gifts because they are the flower of and admit of fantastic being attached to them if a man should send to me to come a hundred miles to visit him and should set before me a basket of fine fruit i should think there was some proportion between the labor and the reward for common gifts necessity makes and beauty every day and one is glad when an imperative leaves him no since if the man at the door have no shoes you have not to consider whether you could procure him a paint gifts ih x and as it is always pleasing to see a an eat bread or drink water in the house or of doors so it is always a great satisfaction to supply these first wants necessity does everything well in our condition of universal it seems heroic to let the be the judge of his necessity and to give all that is asked though at great inconvenience if it be a fantastic desire it is better to leave to others the office of him i can think of many parts i should prefer playing to that of the next to things of necessity the rule for a gift which one of my friends prescribed is that we might convey to some person that which properly belonged to his character and was easily associated with him in thought but our tokens of compliment and love are for the most part barbarous rings and other jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts the only gift is a portion of thou must for me therefore the poet brings his poem j e shepherd his lamb the farmer com the a the sailor coral and shells the painter his picture the girl a handkerchief of her own sewing this is right and pleasing for e at t it society in so fat to its when a man s is conveyed in fe gift and every man s wealth is an index of his merit but it is a cold lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something which does not represent your life and talent but a s this is fit for kings and rich men who represent kings and a false state of property to make presents of gold and silver as a kind of sin offering or payment of black mail the law of benefits is a difficult channel which requires careful sailing or rude boats it is not the office of a man to receive gifts how dare you give them we wish to be self sustained we do not quite forgive a the hand that us is in some danger of being bitten we can receive anything from love for that is a way of receiving it from ourselves but not from any one who to bestow we sometimes hate the meat which we eat because there seems something of degrading dependence in living by it brother if jove to thee a present make take heed that from his hands thou nothing take gifts we ask the whole nothing less will content us we society if it do not give us besides earth and fire and water opportunity love reverence and objects of veneration he is a good man who can receive a gift well we are either glad or sorry at a gift and both emotions are some violence i think is done some degradation borne | 37 |
clouds i forests that skirt the road a certain favor as if from to kind of aristocracy in nature a prince of power of the air the moral sensibility which makes ed and so easily may not be found but the material landscape is never off we can find these with visiting the lake or the mad islands we the praises of ic nature scenery in every landscape the point of is the meeting of the sky and the earth and that is seen from the first as well as from the top of the the stars at night stoop down over the common with all the spiritual magnificence which they shed on the or on the marble deserts of egypt the clouds and the colors of morning and evening will and the between landscape and landscape is small but there is great difference in the there is nothing so wonderful in any particular landscape as the necessity of being beautiful under which every landscape lies nature cannot be surprised in beauty breaks in everywhere but it is very easy to the sympathy of readers on this topic which called or nature passive one can hardly speak directly of it without excess it is as easy to in mixed companies what is called the subject of religion a susceptible person does not like to indulge his tastes in this kind without the apology of some trivial necessity he goes to see a wood es at ti i lot or to look at the crops or to fetch a or a from a remote locality or he ca l i a piece or a fishing rod i sup r pose this shame must have a good reason a in nature is barren and unworthy t the of fields is no better than his brother p of men are naturally hunters and inquisitive of wood craft and i suppose that p such a as wood and should furnish facts for would take place in the most of all the p wreaths and s of the w yet ordinarily whether we are too p clumsy for so subtle a topic or from whatever i cause as soon as men begin to write on nature i they fall into is a most i unfit tribute to pan who ought to be represent ed in the as the most continent of gods i would not be frivolous before the admirable reserve and prudence of time yet i cannot the right of returning often to this old topic the multitude of false churches the true religion ture poetry science are the homage of man to this secret concerning which no sane man can affect an indifference or nature ty nature is loved by what is best in us it is loved as the city of god although or rather because there is no citizen the sunset is unlike anything that is underneath it it wants men and the beauty of nature must always seem unreal and mocking until the landscape has human figures that are as good as itself if there were good men there would never be this rapture in nature if the king is in the palace nobody looks at the walls it is when he is gone and the house is filled with and that we turn from the people to find relief in the majestic that are suggested by the pictures and the architecture the critics who complain of the sickly separation of the beauty of nature from the thing to be done must consider that our hunting of the picturesque is inseparable from our protest against false society man is fallen nature is erect and serves as a the presence or absence of the divine sentiment in man by fault of our and selfishness we are looking up to nature but when we are nature will look up to us we see the foaming brook with if our own k at life flowed with the right energy we should shame the brook the stream of zeal with real fire and not with rays of sun and moon nature may be as studied as trade to the selfish becomes with intent to show where our are gone and and become and but taking warning and leaving many things on this topic let us not longer omit our homage to the efficient nature the quick cause before which all forms flee as the driven itself secret its works driven before it in flocks and multitudes as the ancient represented nature by a shepherd and in variety it itself in creatures reaching from and through on to the highest arriving at results without a shock or a leap a little heat that is a little motion is au that differences the bald dazzling white and deadly cold poles of the earth from the all changes pass without nature by reason of the two cardinal conditions of boundless space and boundless time has us into the of nature and taught us to our measures and exchange our and schemes for her large style we knew nothing rightly for want of per now we learn what patient periods must round themselves before the rock is formed then before the rock is broken and the first race has the external plate into soil and opened the door for the remote and to come in how far off yet is the how far the how remote is man all duly arrive and then race after race of men it is a long way from granite to the farther yet to and the preaching of the immortality of the soul yet all must come as surely as the first has two sides motion or change and identity or rest are the first and second secrets of nature motion and rest the whole code of her laws may be written on the or the of a ring the whirling on the surface of k at ti a brook admits | 37 |
wary nature sends a new troop of fairer forms of youths with a little more excess of direction to hold them fast to their several aim makes them a little in that direction in which they are and on goes the game again with new whirl for a generation or two more the child with his sweet the fool of his senses by every sight and sound without any power to compare and rank his sensations abandoned to a whistle or a painted to a lead or a dog everything nothing delighted with every new thing lies down at night overpowered by the fatigue which this day of continual pretty madness has incurred but nature has answered her purpose with the curly lunatic she has every faculty and e at vi has secured the growth of the bodily frame by all these attitudes and tions an end of the first importance which could not be trusted to any care less perfect than her own this glitter this lustre plays round the top of every toy to his eye to his fidelity and he is deceived to his good we are made alive and kept alive by the same arts let the say what they please we do not eat for the good of living but because the meat is and the appetite is keen the vegetable life does not content itself with casting from the flower or the tree a single seed but it fills the air and earth with a of seeds that if thousands thousands may plant themselves that hundreds may come up that may live to maturity that at least one may replace the parent all things betray the same calculated profusion the excess of fear with which the animal frame is round shrinking from cold starting at sight of a snake or at a sudden noise us through a multitude of from some one real danger at last the lover seeks in marriage his private felicity and perfection with no nature end and nature hides in his happiness her own end namely or the of the race but the craft with which the world is made runs also into the mind and character of men no man is quite sane each has a vein of folly in his composition a slight determination of blood to the head to make sure of holding him hard to some one point which nature had taken to heart great causes are tried on their merits but the cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size of the and the is ever on minor matters not less remarkable is the of each man in the importance of what he has to do or say the poet the prophet has a higher value for what he than any and therefore it gets spoken the strong self complacent declares with an emphasis not to be mistaken that god himself cannot do without wise men jacob and george fox betray their in the of their tracts and james once suffered himself to be worshipped as the christ each prophet comes presently to identify himself with his vi thought and to esteem his hat and shoes sacred however this may such persons with the judicious it helps them with the people as it gives heat and to their words a similar experience is not in private life each young and ardent person writes a in which when the hours of prayer and arrive he his soul the pages thus written are to him burning and fragrant he reads them on his knees by midnight and by the morning star he them with his tears they are sacred too good for the world and hardly yet to be shown to the dearest friend this is the man child that is bom to the soul and her life still in the babe the cord has not yet been cut after some time has elapsed he begins to wish to admit his friend to this experience and with hesitation yet with firmness the pages to his eye will they not burn his eyes the friend coldly turns them over and passes from the writing to conversation with easy transition which strikes the other party with astonishment and vexation he cannot suspect the writing itself days and nature ts of life of communion with is of darkness and of light have engraved shadowy characters on that tear stained he the intelligence or the of his friend is there then no friend yet credit that one may have and yet may not know how t his private fact into literature and discovery that wisdom has other les and ministers than we that though hold our peace the truth would not ess be spoken might check of our zeal a man can only speak as he does not feel his speech to be il and inadequate it is partial but he not see it to be so whilst he it on as he is released from the instinctive particular and sees its partiality he in disgust for no man can write ling who does not think that what he s is for the time the history of the world anything well who does not esteem his to be of importance my work may be but i must not think it of none or i not do it with like manner there is throughout nature something mocking something that leads us on and on but arrives nowhere keeps no with us ail promise the performance we live in a system of every end is of some other end which is also temporary a round and final success nowhere we are in na ture not and lead us on to eat and to drink but bread and wine mix and cook them how you will us hungry and thirsty after the stomach ii full it is the same with all our arts and pe our music our poetry | 37 |
embodied a present to expose and cure the insanity essay vi of men our to particulars into a hundred foolish expectations we anticipate a new era from the invention of a i motive or a the new engine brings j with it the old they say that by j your shall be grown from the seed whilst your fowl is for dinner it is a symbol of our modem aims and of our and of objects but nothing is gained nature be cheated man s life is but seventy long grow they swift or grow they slow in these and however we find our advantage not less than in the impulses let the victory fall where it will we are on that side and the knowledge that we the whole scale of being from the centre to the poles of nature and have some stake in every possibility that sublime lustre to death which philosophy and religion have too outwardly and literally to express in the popular doctrine of the immortality of the soul the reality is more excellent than the report here is no ruin no no spent ball the divine never rest nor linger na nature r ture is the of a thought and turns to f a thought again as ice becomes water and gas the world is mind and the essence is forever escaping again into the state of free thought hence the virtue and of the influence on the mind of natural objects whether or organized man imprisoned man man speaks to man that power which does not respect quantity which makes the whole and the its equal channel its smile to the morning and its essence into every drop of rain every moment and every object for wisdom is into every form it has been poured into us as blood it us as pain it slid into us as pleasure it enveloped us in dull melancholy days or in days of cheerful labor we did not guess its essence until after a long time f i i f i j il f politics gold and iron are good to buy iron and gold all earth s and food for their like are sold wise napoleon great nor kind nor aught its rate fear craft and cannot rear a state out of dust to build what is more than dust walls piled must when the nine with the virtues meet find to their design an atlantic seat by green orchard boughs from the heat where the for the wheat when the church is social worth when the state house is the hearth then the perfect state is come the republican at home t f i r essay vii politics dealing with the state we ought to that its institutions are not they existed before we were bom that are not superior to the citizen that every f them was once the act of a single man f law and usage was a man s expedient to a particular case that they all are all we may make as good nay make better society is an le young citizen it lies before him in repose with certain names men and in rooted like oak trees to the i which all arrange themselves the best can but the old knows that ty is there are no such roots and es but any may suddenly be i the centre of the movement and compel essay vii the system to round it as every man of strong will like or does for a time and every man of truth like or paul does forever but politics rest on necessary foundations and cannot be treated with levity abound in young who believe that the laws make the city that grave of the policy and modes of living and of the population that commerce education and religion may be in or out and that any measure though it were absurd may be imposed on a people if only you can get sufficient voices to make it a law but the wise know that foolish is a rope of sand which in the twisting that the state must follow and not lead the character and progress of the citizen the strongest is quickly got rid of and they only who build on ideas build for eternity and that the form of government which is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which it the law is only a we are superstitious and esteem the somewhat so much life as it has in the character of living is politics force the stands there to say yesterday we agreed so and so but how feel ye this article today our is a which we stamp with our own portrait it soon becomes and in process of time will return to the nature is not nor limited but and will not be or of any of her authority by the of her sons and as fast as the public mind is opened to more intelligence the code is seen to be brute and it speaks not and must be made to meantime the education of the general mind never stops the of the true and simple are prophetic what the tender poetic youth dreams and and today but the ridicule of saying aloud shall presently be the resolutions of public bodies then shall be carried as grievance and bill of rights through conflict and war and then shall be triumphant law and establishment for a hundred years until it gives place in turn to new prayers and pictures the history of the state sketches in coarse outline the progress of thought and follows at a distance the delicacy of culture and of essay the theory of politics which has possessed the mind of men and which they have the best they could in their laws and in their considers and property as the two objects | 37 |
t t whose protection government exists of persons all have equal rights in virtue of identical in nature this interest of course with its whole power demands a whilst the rights of all as persons are in virtue of their access to reason their rights in property are very unequal one man owns his clothes and another owns a county this accident depending on the skill and virtue of the parties of which there is every degree and on falls and its rights of course are unequal personal rights universally the same demand a government framed on the of the property demands a government framed on the of owners and of who has flocks and herds wishes them looked after by an officer on the lest the shall drive them off and pays a tax to that end jacob has no flocks or herds and no politics fear of the and pays no tax to the officer it seemed fit that and jacob should have equal rights to elect the officer who is to defend their persons but that and not jacob should elect the officer who is to guard the sheep and cattle and if question arise whether additional officers or watch towers should be provided must not and and those who must sell part of their herds to buy protection for the rest judge better of this and with more right than jacob who because he is a youth and a traveller eats their bread and not his own in the earliest society the made their own wealth and so long as it comes to the owners in the direct way no other opinion would arise in any community than that property should make the law for property and persons the law for persons but property passes through or inheritance to those who do not create it gift in one case makes it as really the new owner s as labor made it the first owner s in the other case of the law makes an which will be in each man s view according to the estimate which he sets on the public vii it was not however found easy to till d principle that property lor j and persons for p j and i mixed in every transaction at last it cl sc that the distinction was that j should have more than non on the principle of calling that which is just not that which is equal just that ij le no longer looks so self evident as it aj in former times partly doubts have arisen whether too much weight had not been allowed in the laws to j ro and such a structure given to our as allowed the rich to on the poor and to keep them poor but mainly because there is an instinctive sense obscure and yet inarticulate that the whole constitution of property on its present is injurious and its influence on persons and degrading that truly the only interest for the consideration of the state is persons that property will always follow persons that the highest end of government is the culture of men and if men can be politics ted the institutions will share their improvement and the moral sentiment will write the law of the land if it be not easy to settle the of this question the peril is less when we take note of our natural we are kept by better guards than the vigilance of such as we commonly elect society always consists in greatest part of young and foolish persons the old who have seen through the of courts and die and leave no wisdom to their sons they believe their own newspaper as their fathers did at their age with such an ignorant and majority states would soon run to ruin but that there are beyond which the folly and ambition of go things have their laws as well as men and things refuse to be with property will be protected corn will not grow unless it is planted and but the farmer will not plant or it unless the chances are a hundred to one that he will cut and harvest it under any forms persons and property must and will have their just sway they exert their power as steadily as matter essay vii its attraction cover up a pound of earth never so divide and it melt it to li convert it to gas it will always li a pound it will always attract and resist other matter by the full virtue of one pound weight and the attributes of a person his wit and his moral energy will exercise under any law or tyranny their proper force if not then if not for the law then against it with right or by might the boundaries of personal influence it is impossible to fix as persons are organs of moral or supernatural force under the dominion of an idea which possesses the multitudes as civil freedom or the religious sentiment the powers of persons are no longer subjects of calculation a nation of men bent on freedom or conquest can easily confound the of and achieve extravagant actions out of all proportion to their means as the the the the americans and the french have done in like manner to every of property belongs its own attraction a cent is the m politics representative of a certain quantity of corn or other its value is in the necessities of the animal man it is so much warmth so much bread so much water so much land the law may do what it will with the owner of property its just power will still attach to the cent the law may in a mad say that all shall have power except the owners of property they shall have no vote nevertheless by a higher law the property will year after year write every that respects property | 37 |
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